ITHACA, N.Y. — The conclusion of the fifth-annual Wizarding Weekend marks the beginning of a new era for magic lovers in Tompkins County. And as organizers close these early chapters of the hit festival’s story, they are asking for help from the public in writing the next.

FanUnity, organizers of Wizarding Weekend, are seeking help design a new logo for Gorgekeep Festival, as the Wizarding Weekend festival will be known going forward.

From Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, artists, designers and fans can submit a new logo to be used in all branding for the festival and a chance at a $300 grand prize. The winner will be chosen by the FanUnity Board of Directors and announced on Dec. 20 at GorgeKeep.org and through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.

“The Gorgekeep Festival is a community-driven event focusing on the themes of magic, science and fantasy. This unique event is made possible by FanUnity with an emphasis on collaboration and attendee engagement,” said FanUnity in a press release Friday. “With these goals in mind, FanUnity has created this contest so that festival fans may contribute directly by designing the Gorgekeep School of Magic logo.”

As a non-profit organization, FanUnity has grown to meet the need of a run-away hit festival like Wizarding Weekend, which is only just finishing its fifth year, but enjoying some of the highest attendance of all of Ithaca’s many festivals.

The runaway success of the festival caught the attention of Warner Bros., who own the trademarks for Harry Potter, causing FanUnity to rebrand.

The full guidelines for contest submissions can be found below:

Prospective artists should look to include at least two of the following components:

  • keys: one to five of any shape
  • animals: preference for owl, hawk, squirrel, chipmunk, river otter, mink, dragon, unicorn, gnome, fairy
  • plants: preference for sugar maple, trillium, hawthorn, lilac.

In addition, square and/or round logos are preferred.

Artists should note that the logo will be used on all materials related to Gorgekeep School of Magic and Gorgekeep Festival, including but not limited to social media posts, websites, apparel, stickers and stationery. The selected winner will also need to provide a vector file eligible for trademark use. This means the submitted work must be made entirely of the original artist’s work, containing no clip art or stock images.

The winner agrees to give the artwork rights to FanUnity Inc. by accepting the cash prize at the end of the contest.

Final artwork submissions should include two files (one black and white and one full color) each at 300 dpi resolution in either a .png or .jpeg format and can be sent to contests@gorgekeep.org