Submit Your Own

Submit Your Own!

The Zen Garden will continue to remain open for submissions after this book has gone to press. After studying the lessons within, there's no reason why you can't submit a design of your own. (Make sure to mention the book when you submit!)

Each new submission is subjected to a rigorous screening process that grades a handful of factors on a scale of 1 to 37, and is then judged by a jury of trained monkeys... Well, maybe not. It's actually a thumbs-up or thumbs-down decisionnothing more complicated than that.

Please understand that not every submission becomes a part of the gallery, though; it's about quality over quantity. Good submissions are designs that feature creative and refined visuals, interesting or humorous themes, great use of layout and typography principles, or a number of other indescribable factors. The best advice we can give is to compare your design with those in the official list, and if it fits in comfortably with the high-quality designs already on there, it's time to submit.

Judging and additions to the site happen whenever Dave Shea feels like it, so updates sometimes take a while. Please be patient, and sooner or later you will receive notice if your work has been accepted.