Artists wanted: Deadline nears for OKC Zoo license plate design contest
Ready to see your art hit the road? Time is running out.
The Oklahoma Zoological Society has launched a design contest for a new specialty license plate in honor of the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden. The deadline for submissions is Friday, Feb. 21.
They're asking for talented Oklahoma-based artists to submit their original design for a license plate representing the OKC Zoo. The contest's winning design will become an official Oklahoma license plate that will help raise awareness, funds, and support for the OKC Zoo's mission.
More: Oklahoma's top 10 specialty plates, from 'In God We Trust' to 'Don't Tread on Me'
'We're excited about this campaign and engaging our state's talented artists to help inspire action for the OKC Zoo,' said Mandy Heaps, OZS executive director.
The OKC Zoo cares for more than 1,000 individual animals and nearly 330 species from around the world. Contest entries should be original illustrations that artistically showcase the OKC Zoo's current animal family, including anticipated additions such as African penguins coming in spring 2027 as part of the Shore to Sea exhibit that will also house California sea lions and harbor seals.
Artists are encouraged to highlight Zoo wildlife that aren't currently represented in existing Oklahoma license plates. License plates designed to support other organizations already feature bison (Oklahoma Conservation Commission), monarch butterflies (Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma) and giraffes (Tulsa Zoo).
"(Specialty) license plates are extremely popular and we know that people take pride in acknowledging a favorite cause or organization, and soon, they will have the opportunity to support our beloved zoo," Heaps said. "We hope this effort provides ongoing support for the zoo while creating a fun cause that generations of fans can get behind."
The Oklahoma Zoological Society will form a selection committee to review all art submissions and select designs ahead of the semi-finalist round. Later this spring, the public will have an opportunity to vote on the final list of selected designs and choose their favorite to become an official Oklahoma license plate for the OKC Zoo.
The winning license plate design will be revealed by May 1 and which will be available to the public for purchase at a later date.
For contest guidelines and rules and to upload official art submissions, visit www.ozsgiving.org/platecontest. Contest entries will be accepted through Friday, Feb. 21.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Zoo license plate design contest deadline is Feb. 21
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hypebeast
8 hours ago
- Hypebeast
H.Lorenzo Taps Kapital for 40th-Anniversary Baseball Tee
celebrating 40 years of business with a new collaboration with long-time collaboratorKapital. The Los Angeles-based retailer has teamed up with the Japanese apparel label to create a baseball shirt that reimagines Americana. The athletic top features embroidered Kapital Kountry and branding, contrast piping, and a large number '40' stitched across the back. With a relaxed fit, the design is intended to be worn oversized. 'From the early days of stocking Kapital in our stores to co-hosting landmark moments like the 'Kapital Sings Bob Marley Talkin' Blues' launch in 2019, our bond has always been personal — one of loyalty, creativity, and kinship,' said. Kapital baseball tee is now available to shoponlineand at Los Angeles store, located at 8700 Sunset Blvd. The design is priced at $594 USD. Take a look at the piece in the gallery above.
Engadget
9 hours ago
- Engadget
Rescue African artifacts from colonizers' museums in the heist game Relooted
Relooted is a heist game about reclaiming African artifacts from the Western countries that stole them, developed by independent South African studio Nyamakop. Relooted is set in a future timeline where Western nations have signed a treaty to return plundered items to their African regions of origin, but things aren't going to plan. Western leaders are instead hiding the artifacts away in private collections, so it's up to a ragtag crew based in Johannesburg, South Africa, to strategize and steal them back. Relooted is broken into missions, and each one includes a briefing about the artifact, an infiltration planning stage, and the heist. Gameplay is a mix of puzzle and action as you case each building, set up your run, and then execute the plan. Once you grab your target artifact, the security alarms go off and you have a limited amount of time to escape, so thorough preparation is key. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. In the Day of the Devs reveal video for Relooted , producer Sithe Ncube cites a wild statistic from a pivotal 2018 report on African cultural heritage, saying, "90 percent of sub-Saharan African culture heritage is in the possession of Western collections. That is millions upon millions of deeply important cultural, spiritual and personal artifacts, including human remains, that aren't in their rightful place." The locations in Relooted are fictional, but the 70 artifacts you have to steal back are real, and they're all currently in Western and private collections, far from their original homes and owners. Nyamakop is one of the largest independent games studios in sub-Saharan Africa, with about 30 developers working on Relooted right now. Its previous game, the globular platformer Semblance , was the first African-developed IP to ever come to a Nintendo console, hitting the Switch in 2018. In order to get Semblance on the Switch, Nyamakop co-founder Ben Myres had to bootstrap his way around the world, buying one-way tickets and finding new partners on the fly in a daisy chain of game festival appearances. Here's how Myres explained it to Engadget at E3 2018: "The entry curve into being an indie game developer in South Africa is like a cliff face. Because you don't have the contacts, the platform holders like Xbox, Sony. You don't have reps that live in your country. The press that matter are all here. There isn't a big enough market locally to sell to, so you have to make works to sell to the West, which means you have to go to Western shows and you have to meet Western press. So basically, if you're not traveling a ton, you're not going to be able to make it." Nyamakop has grown significantly since 2018, and Relooted is an unabashedly African game built by a majority-POC team, Myres and Ncube said in 2024. "There is the thing about making games for Africans — we say that a lot," Ncube told . "We say that should be a thing, we should make games for Africans because we're playing games that were made in the West. But will people even play those games, if you make them? And then if you make games targeting people ... even if you were to make one that's really good, there's no guarantee that you'll have a lot of people playing it. So I think there's some level of confusion, I can say, in terms of unexplored aspects of the African games market." Relooted is in development for Steam, the Epic Games Store and Xbox Series X/S, and while it doesn't yet have a firm release date, it's available to wishlist.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gets Real: LGBTQ+ owned business in spotlight during Pride Month
A Seattle restaurant is cooking up delicious meals, all while breaking down barriers. During June, celebrating Gay Pride, KIRO 7 is highlighting local businesses owned by members of the LGBTQ-plus community. 'Fat's Chicken and Waffles' has been serving up chicken and waffles and a whole lot more in Seattle's Central District for a decade. The owner and main server happen to be a married couple, a couple of Erikas! They are a couple in business, a couple in life, too. And don't you dare misspell the first name they both share. 'It's E-R-I-K-A,' said Erika Kidd, laughing. 'And we are the Erikas!' chimed in Erika White. Erika White and her wife, Erika Kidd, delicately navigate the space at White's restaurant 'Fat's Chicken and Waffles' in Seattle's Central District. Why did you want to open a restaurant? White was asked. 'Ah, well, when I was growing up my father was a chef,' White said. 'So, you know, our house was like the host house and it was always like great parties and good food. And, you know, I love to cook as well.' But White had other loves, too. She was on the 1987 Garfield High School Girls' State Championship Basketball Team. And she was big in Seattle's hip-hop scene until the 2010s. That's when she reconnected with Erika Kidd and opened Fat's Chicken. 'It's been 10 years, all the way across the board,' Kidd said. 'Yeah, it's been a great journey, yeah.' 'You're both gay,' they were asked. 'Has that ever been a factor at all in your work, in your, in the way the community has treated you?' 'I mean, it's different for everybody, I guess, you know,' Kidd said. 'Family and friends and community, you know.' 'I feel like our friends, even our straight friends, you know everyone just, there's just love,' White said. 'At our wedding it was just love.' Fat's Chicken and Waffles is one of several LGBTQ-plus businesses featured by The Intentionalist, a Seattle-based social enterprise focused on giving incentives to the rest of us to spend our money here. 'Folks will be able to explore and hopefully discover LGBTQ-owned small businesses. Laura Clise is The Intentionalist's founder and CEO. 'Folks can enjoy a free treat thanks to the BECU equity in action pre-pay tab,' said Clise. 'And our hope is folks get a little taste and then come back for more.' A little taste of Pride, too. Eight LGBTQ-plus restaurants in the greater Seattle area are featured on the Intentionalist's website.
