Quark VS InDesign .com (www.quarkvsindesign.com), The Authority for News and Opinion on the War Between Desktop Publishing Giants QuarkXPress® and Adobe® InDesign®, today announced twin design contests to create promotional postcards celebrating and honoring InDesign and QuarkXPress.
Following a 29 March exclusive report on postcards distributed by Quark, Inc., which marketed QuarkXPress 6.5 (Quark for short) at the expense of unfriendly comments about Quark competitor Adobe InDesign, Quark VS InDesign .com received tremendous and impassioned response from creative professionals who use Quark and/or InDesign. The level of response gave editor-in-chief Pariah S. Burke an idea.
“There are millions of QuarkXPress and InDesign users out there, and, like Ford and Chevy, Pepsi and Coke, people get fired up about their favorite design tools,” he said. “A Mustang or Camaro is just what you drive; people’s jobs depend on how well they use InDesign or Quark. They depend on one or the other-or both-anywhere between four and sixteen hours every day-how can that kind of involvement not breed passion?
“I said to myself,” Burke continued. “I bet our readers could turn their passions into postcard designs that successfully promote either QuarkXPress or InDesign without resorting to attacking or even mentioning the other. I got excited. With a few calls, I had infected everyone I talked to-half the companies that support InDesign and Quark users-with that excitement. With the assistance of some wonderful and generous people, I lined up roughly $10,000 in incredible prizes and got the two contests launched in a week.”
Among the prizes to be divided between six winners (three for each contest) are plug-ins and xtensions from a dozen top developers, InDesign CS and new Photoshop CS2 training videos, stock photography and design templates, autographed copies of the leading InDesign and Quark reference books, subscriptions to X-Ray Magazine and InDesign Magazine, the official publications for QuarkXPress and InDesign, high-end pre-press software, and even three full copies of QuarkXPress 6.5.
“This is unique-almost historic,” said Michael Taylor, a freelance graphic designer in Central Florida. “I don’t recall any other party doing something like this for two such bitter enemies at once-and I don’t mean Quark and Adobe. I mean the bitter enemies that use InDesign or Quark. Everyone is taking sides, but seeing someone like Quark VS InDesign .com, whose whole reason for being is keeping both sides informed, give every designer and production person on both sides a voice in the war is absolutely amazing. Not to mention the huge prize chest! Bravo, Quark VS InDesign .com!”
Burke added: “We’re ecstatic to launch these contests! This is a chance for every Quark and InDesign user to have fun shouting about her favorite tool in the way she communicates best: graphic design.”
Competition Dates and Eligibility
Both the “Celebrate InDesign Postcard Competition” and “Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Competition” begin today, and accept entries for three weeks from students, professionals, and serious hobbyists, working individually or in teams. Entrants must be residents of the United States (except Puerto Rico) 18 years of age or older. Entries must be received by Quark VS InDesign .com by 11:59 PM Pacific Time, Monday, 2 May 2005. Judging will take up to two weeks following the deadline, after which winning entries will prominently display on the Quark VS InDesign .com website.
For more information, and to enter either or both competitions, visit the official website at https://quarkvsindesign.com/contests/ .
About Quark VS InDesign .com
Everyday millions of design and production personnel the world over produce tens of millions of pages of newspapers, magazines, books, advertisements, and other printed material in page layout software; that work is done almost exclusively in InDesign or QuarkXPress (Quark for short). Historically, the graphics communications industries have not long tolerated two equal applications for the same tasks, opting instead to standardize across the industries on one. With billion dollar empires standing on either Quark or InDesign, a rivalry as bitter and legendary as the Hatfields and the McCoys, the world’s unblinking eye scrutinizes their every clash.
Quark VS InDesign .com (www.quarkvsindesign.com) is the authoritative correspondent in this bloody war, chronicling every salvo of each battle between entrenched publishing workhorse QuarkXPress, which ruled unchallenged for over a decade, and InDesign, the nimble newcomer built by the company that pioneered desktop publishing and developed every other standard application in the print designer’s tool belt, Adobe Systems, Inc.
This article was last modified on January 10, 2022
This article was first published on April 12, 2005
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
