Hey All
Dropping in with my entry into the 
Breakdown
For the design, I started by making some vector art to serve as a clean base for the cover in Illustrator. Vectors have the ability to infinitely scale and retain their image quality, which I'm always a stickler for. The resultant art was the snakey-kinda thing [or more technically, a blend between shapes along a spine] in the background, which originally had a gradient and some other color properties that I ended up ditching in favor of a monochromatic final image.
I then ported it over to Photoshop to add in the logos, typesetting, and get the colors right. After looking through the provided logos, I decided I wanted to emphasize the steemit logo. Balancing the size and placement of the elements within the piece always takes a few tries and a bit of experimentation.
The last step of the process for me can be the one where the design undergoes the most drastic changes, as I tend to work with color last. When I was laying everything out, I had several strongly contrasting colors going on, a very busy gradient within the vector art, and the Steemit signature color all competing for attention. I do it this way for inspiration, as it allows me to see several avenues to pursue once I reach the end. Discarding the majority of the color information and going with a flat and simple design emphasizing the steemit colors [which I nudged darker to be easier on the eyes] won out.
Here's an alternate take
Be sure to submit a track or cover over at the contest page.
Thanks for reading.