Update markdown files with deprecation notice (#4681)

Signed-off-by: Simon Stone <[email protected]>

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -1,5 +1,15 @@
 # Contributing to Hyperledger Composer
 
+:warning: :warning: :warning:
+
+**As of the 29th August 2019, the Hyperledger Composer project is in deprecated status. None of the maintainers are actively developing new features. None of the maintainers are actively providing support via GitHub issues. However, if you wish to submit code changes via pull requests, these will be merged.**
+
+**It is highly recommended that you use Hyperledger Fabric v1.4+ instead, which features significant improvements to the developer experience, including a new programming model.**
+
+**More information available here: [What's new in Hyperledger Fabric v1.4](https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-1.4/whatsnew.html#improved-programming-model-for-developing-applications)**
+
+:warning: :warning: :warning:
+
 We welcome contributions to the code base. There is a contributors [RocketChat channel](https://chat.hyperledger.org/channel/composer-dev) that we would encourage you to join and introduce yourself on.
 
 There are multiple components within Composer, which can be conceptually viewed using the mindmap.

MAINTAINERS.md

@@ -1,10 +1,20 @@
 # Maintainers for Hyperledger Composer
 
+:warning: :warning: :warning:
+
+**As of the 29th August 2019, the Hyperledger Composer project is in deprecated status. None of the maintainers are actively developing new features. None of the maintainers are actively providing support via GitHub issues. However, if you wish to submit code changes via pull requests, these will be merged.**
+
+**It is highly recommended that you use Hyperledger Fabric v1.4+ instead, which features significant improvements to the developer experience, including a new programming model.**
+
+**More information available here: [What's new in Hyperledger Fabric v1.4](https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-1.4/whatsnew.html#improved-programming-model-for-developing-applications)**
+
+:warning: :warning: :warning:
+
 This file is the official list of maintainers for the Hyperledger Composer project.
 Changes to this list should be submitted by submitting a pull request that changes this file, and requesting reviews on that pull request from all of the current maintainers.
 The maintainers are listed in alphabetical order.
 
-- Caroline Church ([caroline-church](https://github.com/caroline-church))
+- Caroline Fletcher ([cazfletch](https://github.com/cazfletch))
 - Daniel Selman ([dselman](https://github.com/dselman))
 - Simon Stone ([sstone1](https://github.com/sstone1))
 

README.md

@@ -1,7 +1,15 @@
-![Hyperledger Composer](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperledger/composer/master/packages/composer-website/jekylldocs/assets/img/Homepage_Illustration_2.png)
-
 # Hyperledger Composer
 
+:warning: :warning: :warning:
+
+**As of the 29th August 2019, the Hyperledger Composer project is in deprecated status. None of the maintainers are actively developing new features. None of the maintainers are actively providing support via GitHub issues. However, if you wish to submit code changes via pull requests, these will be merged.**
+
+**It is highly recommended that you use Hyperledger Fabric v1.4+ instead, which features significant improvements to the developer experience, including a new programming model.**
+
+**More information available here: [What's new in Hyperledger Fabric v1.4](https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-1.4/whatsnew.html#improved-programming-model-for-developing-applications)**
+
+:warning: :warning: :warning:
+
 Hyperledger Composer is an application development framework which simplifies and expedites the creation of [Hyperledger fabric](https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) blockchain applications. If you're new to Blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric or Hyperledger Composer, we recommend that you start at the Hyperledger Composer website:
 
 - [Stable release website](https://hyperledger.github.io/composer/)