All year long, designers pit their skills against each other in the iStock Steel Cage. If you don’t know the drill, it’s simple: a contender creates an original design. Their opponent takes the Photoshop® file and changes it, combining the existing elements with new images to create something new. Whoever creates the most impressive, original, eye-popping artwork wins.

Every year, we bring together our seasoned Cage veterans, along with some hungry newcomers, for a marathon tournament: the Battle Royale. It’s a gruelling schedule, full of late nights and countless hours tweaking layer masks and lighting effects. It isn’t for the faint of heart.

Last year, 117 iStockers entered the Steel Cage and endured an 85 Day ordeal. In the end, it came down to 2 designers, and nbodine walked away with the prize: Five grand.

This year it can be you. Enter Battle Royale IV on May 28th and you could win $5000 on Punctum Day.  

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To improve iStockphoto’s performance we’re getting a few hardware upgrades. The site will be down from Thursday, June 18 from 7 p.m. to midnight MST.

To reward your patience, get 10% off your next purchase of 120 credits or more next time you visit by using promo code HCKYE510. But, use it fast — it’s only good for a week (offer expires Friday June 26, 2009).

On Wednesday, 5/20, the forums will be offline for about an hour starting at 1 pm MST for maintenance.

Nothing exciting, no new features or functionality. Just some routine stuff that needs to be done. I’ll keep iStockScoop updated when we are back online. You can also follow on twitter:

http://twitter.com/istock