Scheduled Update #6: We have our message! Calling all artists!

Konnichiwa, minna! Genki de?

Before we get down to business, let's greet our beloved Nino a very happy 24th birthday!
O tanjoubi omedetou, Nino!!
Seems like he's got a busy year ahead, ne!! Gambatte, Kazu! We're here to support you!

Okay... now on to the serious stuff... In this week's update we have:

1. Our unified message
2. The start of our postcard design creation
3. Postcard design criteria and deadline
4. Project timeline

1. Our unified message
Thanks to your suggestions and to the lovely Nyanchan who translated for us, we have put together our unified message. This will be the message that will be revealed once all the pieces of the puzzle have been put together. Everyone had very good suggestions and we really tried to incorporate them all. We're really excited about it and hope you all will be too!

Without further ado, here it is:

嵐のみんなさんへ、

「A.Ra.Shi」の”dream"はアメリカにでも栄えります。＾＿＾
私たちの愛や感謝や友情を感じてください：３
ここに遊びに来て、自分で確かめてくださいね？：D

嵐の北米ファンのみんなさんから。

Translated:
To all of Arashi,
The 'dream' of 'A.Ra.Shi' is flourishing even in America^^
Please feel/sense/experience our love and gratitude and friendship:3
Please come and visit, and confirm it for yourselves ne :D
From all of your Noth American fans.

Well, minna, what do you think?

2. The start of our postcard design creation
Now that we have our message, we'd like to call on all our artists in the group. We know we have quite a few and are hoping to tap your artistic talents! Today, our postcard design creation begins! If you recall, the design will be on the side of the postcard where our unified message will reside and will also be revealed once all the pieces are put together. Here are some illustrations to help you visualize how the finished postcard puzzle will look like. The front side will have the design and the message, the back side will have our individual messages. This puzzle is just divided into squares for demo purposes, but the actual one will have real interlocking puzzle pieces, knobs and all.

Again, we welcome all ideas and we encourage everyone (even those who don't think they are not so artistic) to send in their submissions.

Once all the entries are in by the deadline we'll hold a poll and the design that gets the most votes will be the one we'll use! Anxious to start designing? This brings us to our next topic...

3. Postcard design criteria and deadline
Alright, to assist you all in creating a design, we've put together a set of criteria and listed them below. This will also be the criteria we'll use in the poll to judge all the entries. Here ya go:

Basics
- Must contain the message (in Japanese Kana - not in English)
- High resolution file (ideally 5400 x 7200 pixels would be best; at the least 1800 x 2400 pixels) This is the requirement from the vendor who we're looking to use to create the puzzle. If you experience or foresee any difficulty with it, do let us know and we'll see what can be done**.
- File format must either be: pdf, jpeg, tiff, psd, ai, eps, bmp
- Please try to scale: 18" x 24" will be the final size of the finished postcard
**Note: You are most welcome to scan your image and we'll try our best to blow it up to the desired resolution. The minimum requirement for this process is that the image fits within a regular sized copy paper (8 1/2" x 11").

Artistic content
- Encapsulates unity of fans
- Showcases North American flavor ( yes, both US and Canada, please!! )
- Creative
- Maximizes space
- NO COPYRIGHTED WORKS PLEASE!! Must be completely original (sorry, folks, no arashi pics unless you have explicit permission to use them)

Medium
- Prefer already digital/electronic entries
- If not digital, it must be easily scannable/digitized
- You are free to use any medium as long as it will translate well blown up to an 18x24 size

We'll be glad to answer any questions on the above.

The deadline for submissions is: Wednesday, 6/29. Due to the high resolution of the file, we figured the most suitable way to send your work would be to upload your entry to megaupload or sendspace and email us the link. If you are new to uploading on either megaupload or sendspace OR if you would like to use another method, feel free to email us.
Poll/voting will commence on 6/30.

Looking forward to seeing your submissions!!!!

4. Project timeline
We have hashed out our project timeline and will be emailing them to you. With that in hand, it should provide an idea of where we're at with the project.

We think that's already a lot to take in for this go around! Our project is in full swing!!! We just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for staying with us up to now and we hope you'll continue to support the project!

If you have any suggestions for the project, please do not hesitate to send them to us via email, arashiaroundamerica@gmail.com, or commenting on the blog!

'Til the next update, enjoy the rest of your week, everyone!