MiniMAX XYes, it’s that time of year again. As LAdobe prepares to turn five, we’re ready to deliver our annual Photoshop Idol competition to find the next great design superstar in Los Angeles and Southern California! Once again, we’re offering an amazing prize package to the winner including a copy of one of the bundles of Creative Suite 5, 6 O’Reilly e-books, an Alien Skin Plugin and many more prizes worth at least $2,500.

But as usual, you have to earn it.

And this year, we’re raising the stakes even higher.

That’s because we need your help in coming up with the new name for MiniMAX, our annual free event for the locals surrounding the annual Adobe MAX conference. We can’t use the MiniMAX name anymore, so we’re looking for a new and exciting image that will get people interested and excited about the annual event. So you’ll come up with a new identity including a new name as well as a new logo like last year when Olia Vradly who won for her design of the MiniMAX X logo.

The rules are simple. You can come up with any name you want, provided it doesn’t use the words ‘MAX’, ‘Adobe’ or any of the Adobe product identities. So no Flash or Photoshop for example. Also, this event has been held in many cities including Las Vegas, New Orleans, Toronto and we plan to do this in more cities in the future. So we don’t recommend using Los Angeles or Southern California in the identity either. You could use something LA-related in the logo though since we will be holding what would’ve been MiniMAX XI in Los Angeles on October 2 right before the Adobe MAX conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The logo can be anything from a pencil sketch to a final comp in Illustrator or Photoshop. You don’t have to use any Adobe products if you don’t want to.

We’ll be accepting entries between now and May 1. At which point a panel of judges will determine the final three competitors and they will shoot it out in the live finals on Thursday, May 26 at the offices of Border Stylo in Hollywood. All entrants must be living in Los Angeles, Orange or San Bernardino counties to participate in this year’s Idol. Winner also must be able to present their identity package live to our audience on Thursday, May 26 in Hollywood.

Entering is simple. Just send your logos in an email to admin@laadug.org between now and May 1. You can enter as many logos as you want so please come up with as many intriguing and exciting ideas and concepts as possible. We look forward to seeing them all! Good luck to all and we look forward to your excellent creations.