Announcing: Vox Banner Contest
We were so impressed by the entries in the Vox Coloring Contest that we decided to hold another event, the Vox Banner Contest. Design or illustrate a Vox blog banner using the graphic below and we'll pick five of our favorites and turn them into Vox themes that everyone can use!
Be creative: you can design or illustrate the banner in any way that you'd like, just follow the rules below and you'll be set.
Five winners will see their Vox banner turned into a Vox theme in an upcoming release. Your theme will include a credit line ("Design by") with a link to your online design portfolio. This "Design by" link will appear on every Vox blog that uses your theme. In addition, your credit line will appear on the Design page underneath your theme thumbnail. This is a great way to gain exposure as a designer and to have your design used by thousands of Vox users worldwide.
In addition, each winner will receive 20 Vox invites deposited into their accounts. Everyone who enters (and correctly tags their entry) will receive 5 invites as well.
To get started:
- Download this banner graphic. You must have graphics software that will allow you to open a layered Photoshop file. A 30-day free trial of Adobe Photoshop is available here.
- After creating your design, save your layered file. Create another copy and save it as a flattened .jpg, .gif, or .png.
- Upload the flattened image and tag the image "Vox Banner Contest" and we'll find your entries. (You must tag the image. If you write a post as well, please also tag the post.)
Rules
- All entries must be submitted by 11:59 P.M. (PDT) on Monday, September 4, 2006. Unfortunately, we cannot review late submissions.
- You may submit as many entries as you would like.
- Any Vox user is welcome to submit an entry.
- Because we only use HTML text on Vox published blogs, we do not allow graphical text in our banners.
- Please select a system font that is available on a wide variety of computers. We have found that Helvetica, Arial, Trebuchet MS, Lucida Grande, Century Gothic, Franklin Gothic, Georgia, and Verdana work best.
- You must own the copyright on any images or graphics used in your entry. Entries must not include images that infringe upon someone else's copyright, trademark, or license.
- Entries must not include images that are unlawful, harmful, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, the determination of which is up to the sole discretion of the contest organizers.
- We reserve the right to use your banner and graphics in other Six Apart blogging services and platforms such as TypePad, LiveJournal, and Movable Type. Stay tuned to the Team Vox blog where we will announce the winners on Thursday, September 7 at 5:00 P.M. (PDT).
Judging
The Vox Design Team will judge all entries. Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Originality and uniqueness
- Creativity
- Appeal to a broad audience
- Appropriateness to the Vox design aesthetic
So get started! Based on our last design contest, we're anticipating some really great entries!
Not a designer? Not comfortable entering? You should still have a chance to influence the submissions. Suggestions for content, color, types, etc. of banners and designs can be left in the comments of this post.
- Lilia
Comments
Suggestion: Illustration of a coffee bar with a cup of coffee next to an open laptop on a table. Colorful plush sofas and chairs in the background.
I agree with Raf's suggestion, It sounds lovely. :)
And I think you should allow HTML in regular posts. The AJAX work is lovely (as a programmer myself, I know how much time it takes to create this kind of thing), but It'd be nice to be able to use my own HTML without all the automatic formatting.
1. A shopping theme (shopping bags and boxes, I'm seeing something in Tiffany blue)
2. Cows, penguins, sheep, pigs, birds, etc.
3. Scrapbooking
4. Knitting
5. Photography
6. Older kids (pre-school through college)
7. Baseball, hockey, football, soccer, golf, etc.
8. Video games
9. An iPod-esque theme, for the music lover on the go
10. Cooking, baking
11. Mod, hippie, beatnik, etc.
12. Decades - 50s, 60s, 70s, etc.
I could go on like this for days... just wish I had the talent to execute the ideas!
I'm looking forward to seeing the entries!
I would love a red a white theme that just declares VOX on it :D
I would like to see a plain black theme with maybe red and white wording.
Maybe a lazy eating popcorn in front of a t.v. theme.
Shopping themes for women.
Car themes for men.
I've marked this item as a favourite, but it doesn't appear on my favourite list, rendering the concept of favourites rather meaningless!
If I had any clue how to use Photoshop like a competent individual, I would participate. Instead, I shall sit back and wait to see the creative goodness that comes from this.
Personally, I'd love to have a constellation theme.. or like, options with the stars at dusk and then at night.. something with the night sky. I'm a geek. :)
The coffee shop theme mentioned above sounds really sweet, too.
Is there a reason all of the current VOX banners are not photographic? I mean, can we use an actual photo as the basis of our banner or do the banners have to be graphics such as the ones used for VOX themes already? I'm not sure I'm wording this well, but I hope you can tell what I mean.
I want to say serious, but maybe not serious. Dark? No.
Um, something that doesn't look like a kid's coloring book?
Yeah, that would be it. I'm not trying to be harsh. I love the work so far and I think VOX is really coming along. I shouldn't be so critical. I like VOX a lot. Just wishing we could beef it up a bit.
I included my After Hours theme to this contest, following a bit more of a stylistic approach rather than the vector-pastel type designs so far. I'd love to put some things together with some ideas from you if there is something in specific you'd like to see.
Does this zip file work with Fireworks MX?
The zip contains a .psd file.
Yes you can open it in Fireworks. I did as I had to go reinstall Photoshop and in the meantime I wanted to see the 'bare essentials' of the banner
To view currently existing themes from the contest, search either post or photo tags of "Vox Banner Contest". Searching post tags may not pull up every entry, so if you'd like to see all of them be sure to check both posts and photo tags. I have a few entries on my blog if you'd care to look. Do you plan on creating some yourself?
Yeah, I agree with tagger.
You know how livejournal had overrides and you could make changes using stylesheets/css--that would be really nice. <3
I've been dying to enter a contest. ;)
BTW, my post should have read "an UNusual spot" ... LOL
I think an Old Time Radio theme would be cool. Also a fireplace one, a snowy one, or a knitting one.
Now I want to make a snowy fireplace one. LOL Wish I had the know-how, but meantime, I shall enjoy all the submissions. There are some really fantastic ones so far!
NOTICE REGARDING ISTOCKPHOTO:
Any one using any file obtained from iStockphoto would be in violation of the Content License Agreement if they used our files for Vox's banner contest. The exclusivity agreement would also prevent you from entering this contest with your files.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=38873&page=1
The decision regarding exclusive contributors has been reversed. They have granted an exception for this specific contest and exclusive contributors may use their own work to submit designs for the contest. However, NOONE is allowed to download an image from istock and use it in your banner design. You are ONLY allowed to use images which you yourself have created.
Here's a link to the latest official statement from istock.