Graphic Design Contests

**CouponGuy** · 07-08-2010, 12:25 PM

What's the contest?
I am looking for a website layout for a real estate company located in Florida.

How will the user navigate?
The site can either have "tabs" or links for site navigation across the top, or on the left hand side (or both?)

The site will have the following navigation links: Property Search, Map Search, Featured Listings, Rental, Residential, Commercial, Mortgage Calculator, Tenant application, Virtual Tours, Contact Us, About Us, and maybe a few more as time goes by.

What does it need to look like, and who will be looking at it?
The site's look and feel will be clean and professional (as opposed to crazy and whimsical). The audience will most likely be people looking to buy or rent a home or property in the Gulf area.

What does the logo look like?
The logo is made up of text that is white with a little red (when placed on a dark background) or dark blue with a little red (when placed on a light background).

What kind of images will be on the site?
Images can be of the ocean (or gulf), beach, yacht, oceanfront property, palm trees etc. If it makes more sense, I can purchase stock photography on bigstockphoto or somewhere similar, in which case you can have a "placeholder" image where applicable.

What colors need to be on the site?
The colors of the rest of the site, including backgrounds, navigation menu, fonts, etc are completely up to you.

Did I leave anything out? Please let me know if you have any questions, or comments about this contest. The talent displayed in these contests has never failed to impress me. Thanks for your participation!

**DarkLordSith** · 07-08-2010, 02:06 PM

100 bucks is hardly enough for a website layout.

**CouponGuy** · 07-08-2010, 02:38 PM

DarkLord- Thanks for the input. I've heard varying opinions on that before. Some people say they can whip up a layout in a half hour, and others say they charge a full day's worth of wages. I wasn't sure what to believe, but now I believe it's closer to a full day.

I wasn't trying to get everything for nothing, I was thinking that a few people would be able to slap together an image, especially if they enjoyed it and had the software to make it easy.

I appreciate you telling me rather than just letting me sit and wait quietly for 10 days with no entries. Do you think a better idea is to cancel the contest and ask a designer to do the work, or is there a contest prize amount that would make it worthwhile to participate in?

**Trim** · 07-08-2010, 07:50 PM

Would be nice if you put logo in here so it can be used in design

.

**Madman340** · 07-09-2010, 01:53 AM

edit: nevermind reread it

**DarkLordSith** · 07-09-2010, 07:12 AM

Contests are a problem. People put effort into creating a full layout without knowing if they'll ever get paid for their effort.

Worthwhile price would be a minimum of $500.

**Madman340** · 07-09-2010, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkLordSith

Contests are a problem. People put effort into creating a full layout without knowing if they'll ever get paid for their effort.

Worthwhile price would be a minimum of $500.

I'm really interested in how you've moved on from contests... I can't seem to get any type of steady workflow from clients. I remember seeing somebody say they use oDesk or something similar, I believe it may have been you... I've tried them but I honestly don't see how that is a very good way either considering the people willing to work for pennies on the dollar.

**CouponGuy** · 07-09-2010, 10:04 AM

Here's my first attempt. I slapped it together this morning. I don't have the best tools or knowledge in the world, but I guess I can see how it could take time to make a "great" layout.

What I'm most interested in is the layout idea, where things are, and what color, more than having somebody put it all together real pretty like.

Thanks.

**CouponGuy** · 11:22 AM

More rambling:

I can be wowed by a black and white sketch-up made in mspaint. I guess what I'm trying to do is pass along any work that requires even the slightest bit of creativity, so that I can focus on staying in my comfort zone. Ideally I'd like to have a go-to person that I could ask to whip up a design so I can put the content inside of it. As I'm sure we all know, getting steady work is never a sure thing, but it seems that every 6 months or so I encounter a job that I spend way too long trying to come up with something halfway artistic, and it seems to come so naturally for designers like you guys.

All of us who post contests probably think that you guys magically create designs in 10 minutes flat, when in reality it probably follows the statement: "Perfection takes time".

If anybody is still interested in the contest, I'm going to add one more rule (if this is legal): You must not spend more than one hour on your entry.

This way, some participants may lose one hour trying, but the winning participant will make at least $100/hr, which hopefully comes closer to covering the value of their time. Is this a dumb idea?

**CouponGuy** · 07-09-2010, 11:44 AM

As long as I am rambling, did anybody notice that I watermarked my really crappy attempt? Looking back, that's pretty hilarious.

But please, all seriousness aside, don't steal my crappy work.

**rhoula** · 07-10-2010, 12:50 AM

I think that the seller has the right to set any price he wants. If no one is interested then they can go somewhere else and find work.

I have seen people building a 20 page quality website from scratch in as little as 1 day.

We manage 40 websites and we sell banner ads. We make as low as 10 a month from some websites and as much as 1500 from others.

We learned to be honest we never promise more banner impressions than what we can offer. The reason why I m bringing up this subject is because many of our potential customers want to offer 1/4 of the price we ask. We never get upset we understand that some people are doing better than others.

That's why I invite all members here to respect other people's suggestion, comments and Complains as long as they make sense.

This is just my two cents, I may be wrong.

Thank you for reading my post

**Trim** · 07-10-2010, 11:20 AM

Imo it doesn`t matter how long it took you to create design, only thing that matter is how good it is. If someone is creating quality design fast and it`s good you can`t tell him "I won`t pay you so much, you have been working too short". That would be insane.

Anyway, buyer got his right to lower and creator to rise his price but they both should be reasonable.

@CouponGuy - check your PM

**katesrobyn** · 11:08 PM

entry via PM sent.. sorry for typo at the banner.
it's supposedly "finding" ...... awaiting for your feedback. thanks.

**jnjnnino** · 07-10-2010, 04:04 PM

will definitely give this a try...

**CouponGuy** · 07-11-2010, 01:41 PM

I received Trim's, katesrobyn's, and webpablo's entries via PM.

Trim- I like the simple layout, and it is very clean and professional. The colors are good, too. In your vision, is the gray section the part that will change each time a new navigation link is clicked? Right now it looks like the contact link is active, and the contact form and information is in the gray section. This layout doesn't seem to have a lot of "character", and appears to be missing most of the navigation links. Besides that, it's a very good layout.

katesrobyn- Your layout is extemely clean and appears very easy to navigate. The only concern I would have (but I could easily figure out, and this does not take away from the greatness of your layout) is the adding of future links. However if I categorize the site properly from the beginning, there may not be a need for more. I like this layout a lot!

webpablo- Your layout is very inspiring. It has a very professional feel, and is very organized and complete. The colors are very bold, and perhaps a little too bold, but it's not hard to imagine a tamer color scheme. This layout makes it easy for the user to get to every page on the site in one click, no matter where they're at.

Thanks.

**Trim** · 07-11-2010, 06:49 PM

Yes, gray section is the one with changing content, however the blue one is also ready to be some kind of introduction and yes, example shows Contact tab. About links, menu section is just an example, vertical space is big enough to put there everything, smaller or bigger, that any site needs .