What are the different stages in contest?

There are many different stages in a contest:

1. Draft Stage - These are drafts or unfinished briefs created by contest holders before making payments to post the contest. Contest holders can always login to find their previously saved drafts under "My contests" page.

2. Open Stage - This stage status signifies that the Contest is in the Design Submission Stage, it specifies the time left for designers to submit their design entries. In this stage, designers are allowed to submit design entries and the contest holder is allowed to view, evaluate, rate and select winning designs. The duration of this stage is set while launching the contest. It can be anything from 24 hrs to 10 days. 

3. Selecting Winner Stage - A contest status becomes Selecting Winner when the design submission period of a contest ends. In this stage, the contest holder can rate, view, evaluate and select winning designs for their contest. Further, since the design submission period is over, the designers can no longer submit any design entries to the contest. The duration of this stage is 14 days. The Contest Holder can always get in touch with the customer support team to extend the duration of this stage. If the contest holder fails to select a winner during this stage, the contest is moved to "Contest Held" stage. 

4. Contest Awarded & Handover Stage - The contest status becomes ‘Contest Awarded’ stage since all available winning designs have been selected by the Contest Holder. During this stage, the designer and the contest holder, after signing the Design Transfer Agreement are moved to an exclusive handover page where they get 14-days to complete the handover process. The handover stage automatically starts as soon as the designer uploads all the required file formats. In this stage, the contest holder can also ask for any minor revisions and changes to the winning design and the designer can upload the final source files for the contest holder to download. In case a customer doesn’t review the design within 14-days, the contest will be closed automatically and the payment will be released to the winning designer.

​5. Held Stage - A contest status becomes Contest Held when the Selecting Winner Stage of a contest finishes without the Contest Holder selecting any winning designs. In this stage, designers can no longer submit any new design entries in the contest.

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6. Closed Stage - In the Contest Closed status, the contest is closed for all participating designers and no more entries are allowed to be submitted. The contest enters the Contest Closed stage in two situations: (1) When all winning designs have been selected by the Contest Holder and all handovers are complete, (2) when no winning design is selected by the Contest Holder.

7. Locked Stage - A contest status is changed to Contest Locked by Designhill, if some discrepancies or misgivings are found by the Designhill Team with regard to the identity of the contest holder, or the method of payment by the contest holder or any misconduct has been found on behalf of the contest holder, all/one of which are/is in breach of the Terms of Agreement of the site. In such an event, no new submissions can be made and the contest holder must contact the Designhill team immediately.