The $420 Design Contest
Designer’s block is setting in, and it feels like we have been staring at this screen for hours trying to come up with some banners for our new affiliate program, Crucial Cash. Then we thought, "Why don’t we hold a contest and see what other people come up with? We can give the winner $420 too!" So that’s what we’re doing!
Update
This contest is closed. Thanks to everyone who participated.
Banner Submissions
Just in case you have already read this and only need the link to where you submit your entry, then please click here to visit the official contest at SitePoint.
Ok, so here is a quick overview of how this is going to work:
- We will list the requirements and details for the contest.
- You create a banner, or as many as you would like.
- Crucial employees will vote privately to narrow down the results.
- Then we will have a public vote on the top 5 entries.
- The winner will walk away with $420 in cash.
Banner Dimensions
You can create a banner in any of the below IAB ad unit sizes. Ad unit sizes that are in bold are recommended over other sizes.
Rectangles
- 180 x 150
- 250 x 250
- 300 x 250
Banners
- 234 x 60
- 468 x 60
- 728 x 90
- 125 x 125
Skyscrapers
- 160 x 600
- 120 x 600
- 300 x 600
Banner Format
We ultimately prefer to have the images saved in either a PNG 32 or PNG 24, and brownie points for storing it as a Fireworks PNG file.
Why? Because we use Adobe Fireworks for all of the graphical elements you see on our site, and find it to be a fantastic, and often underrated, graphics program for the web. Oh, and there is no need to optimize the images, let’s see your work in all of its unoptimized glory!
The follow are also are acceptable formats:
- PNG
- JPG
- PSD
- AI
- GIF
- SWF
Animated GIFs are fine too, but nothing seizure-inducing if you know what I mean. If you have a question though, post here or at the SitePoint contest entry.
Banner Style
The style of the banner should reflect the style of Crucial. If you need to get a feel for this, just browse around the website. We like the modern design aspect of the site, and like to keep things simple, going straight for the point.
Ultimately though, you can create a banner however you want. Go crazy, even go geek on us if you want, we’ll understand—because who doesn’t love LAMP?
What To Talk About
Since we’re a hosting company, we want to talk about our hosting plans.
Please see this review for some other things that are worth incorporating in the banner and to get a feel of what we’re looking for in that regards.
Trademarks, Taglines & Colors
These are the trademarks, taglines, and colors we use:
Trademarks
- Crucial Web Hosting
- Crucial Web Hosting, Ltd.
- Crucial
* Only if Crucial Web Hosting is used somewhere
Taglines
- Is Your Host Crucial?
- Is Your Host Crucial? It Should Be!
- Is your host Crucial?
- Is your host Crucial? It should be!
- Is your host crucial?
- Is your host crucial? It should be!
Colors
- #9C0 (153, 204, 0)
- #F90 (255, 153, 0)
- #09F (0, 153, 255)
Images
Just in case you want to use any of our images, here they are, with a black and white background. We can’t release the master image, so just use these instead. We will replace it with the master if your entry is chosen.
Please Note
The second set of images, the squares with different colors that look like a C, is only one image. We only use one C, not both of them. The one on the left (for both the black and white version) is slightly different from the one on the right.
Submission Process
Once you have a banner, please visit our design contest entry over at the SitePoint Marketplace. The reason we are running it over there, and not here, is because they offer a great service for those running a contest, and those participating…not to mention, we do love SitePoint!
If you are not a member of SitePoint, that’s not a problem. Signup takes just a minute and it is free.
Submission Deadline
All entries are due by February 20 at 4:20 pm, Arizona time (GMT -07:00). Private voting will take place shortly after, and then on to public voting, where the winner will be announced in a new blog post, and over at SitePoint.
Depending on how many entries we receive, payment will be made on February 28 at the latest. Also, we are considering giving prizes to runner-ups, such as free domain names and web hosting.
Questions & Comments
If you have a question, you can leave a comment here, or ask us over at SitePoint. Either way, we’ll see it. We would also love to hear your comments about our new website design! Thanks everyone.
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Nice idea.
If I have some time I might submit something myself.