Retro 51 Design Your Own Tornado Art Contest – Goldspot Pens

by Tom Oddo
Sep 30, 2021

Zombies! Spaceships! Airplanes! Avocados! Coffee, and more!
Throughout its 30-year history, the Retro 1951 pen company explored a wide range of themes, making pens for all types of interests.

Now, it’s your turn.

In collaboration with Retro 51, Goldspot Pens is hosting a “Make your own Retro 51” art contest throughout October 2021. All you need is your imagination and the Retro 51 pen design template you see on this page (Download PDF file here). Dream up the perfect Retro 51 pen and make it become a reality. You may use any type of medium (paint, ink, watercolor, pencils, etc) as long as you can digitally upload and e-mail the finished design to us at tom@goldspot.com

Attach the finished art file to your e-mail and use the subject line "Entry for Retro 51 Art Contest."

A couple of guidelines about the artwork:

Suggest not using any gradients
Use only solid colors
Crosshatching is ok, but too much and it could lose the quality in printing

We will accept submissions throughout the month of October. On November 1st, 2021, Goldspot Pens and Retro 51 will select the top three submissions. Richard at Retro 51 will convert the artwork into a virtual mock-up to show what the design would look like on a Retro 51 Tornado rollerball pen. Then, we will post all three virtual designs on the Goldspot Pens blog and put them to a vote.

Pen fans will vote on their favorite design they would like to see made into a real Retro 51 limited edition pen. After a week of voting, we will tally the results and announce the winner.

Now, here’s the fun part - the winner will receive the artist’s proof (AP) model as well as the final product in the specific edition number of their choosing. Plus, a $300 Goldspot Pens gift card. The winning pen will become a limited edition available for purchase exclusively through Goldspot Pens in early 2022.

If you need inspiration, please feel free to browse our current Retro 51 limited editions and exclusives for ideas. You may also want to look at Retro 51's Popper back catalog to see which themes have already been explored in the past.

Most importantly - have fun creating!

No purchase is necessary to enter the contest. Each person may enter more than one design. The submission deadline is October 31st at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time. No late submissions will be considered. The submitted artwork must be an original creation and cannot contain any copyrighted or trademarked properties. The winners are selected at the discretion of Goldspot Pens and Retro 51.

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lisa warden

Oct 13, 2021

Mountains Fountain Pen-
examples: K2, Aconcagua, Lhotse (27,940 feet / 8516 m)
etc.. with picture of mountain in glow in dark out line..altitude.
with signature of first person to climb it..
(notable people who climbed it)

alternatively
mountaineer pens
ex: Edward FitzGerald
Hillary
(etc with their dates born and died and
an outline of a significant mountain they climbed.
examples:
Alison Hargreaves
alex Lowe
José Antonio Delgado Sucre (13 May 1965 – 22 July 2006)

Scott Eugene Fischer (December 24, 1955 – May 11, 1996)
Edmund Hillary
Tenzing Norgay
Donald Aidala

Oct 05, 2021

I have some design ideas and appreciate the opportunity to input them. My hope is that they be considered not only for rollerball, but for ballpoint pen and hopefully for mechanical pencil applications.
Robert Fink

Oct 04, 2021

I have an idea for a Retro 51 pen but no way to print the template.
Consequently I will tell you my idea and It believe it / they would sell extremely well.
The Eoody Guthrie , Pete Seeger , Arlo Guthrie Folk Singer Trio pens.
All three are iconic heros of American Folk Music. They all wrote songs and most were hand written.
So now you know my idea. I’m an old folkie and would love a set of pens in a guitar or Banjo shaped case.
Hope to hear from you and I can’t wait to get my Coffee Retro 51 pen tomorrow.
Rob Fink
Tracy Marsaioli

Oct 01, 2021

This is such a fun idea! I’m excited to see everyone’s creativity and to submit some designs of my own!!