Graphic Design Contests

**eJM** · 09-04-2005, 04:24 PM

Site Template Contest - $100.00 Prize - Ends Midnight, October 1, 2005

I have a website in serious need of complete re-design. No more wysiwyg designing. You can help get me started down the right path with your expert template design that can be used site-wide. The winning design will get $100.00 via PayPal. If no design is used, the best attempt in this forum will receive a $10.00 consolation prize. This is not the only site this contest is posted.

The site is www.GrumpsPlace.com. It is a personal site, but I will be incorporating ad banners and links in the future. My main passion is customized computers, but I also have a flooring business (with its own website too), other hobbies and interests. The template must be appropriate for all of these pages.

My avatar is part of my logo.

This is the only original I have. You can re-draw it any size you want, but do not change the aspect ratio, color or design except in very subtle ways if necessary. You will see my own depiction of it replicated in the side panel of one of my computers on the home page.

My vision of the template is simple: Avatar in upper left corner, site name printed along a vertical banner on the left side (you would have to tilt your head left to read it), page title at top of page with roll-over links/buttons below that and at the bottom of the page just above the copyright notice. There should be framed modules for content and ad blocks (simple borders with a header and footer).

You do not have to follow my vision if you have an original idea that is appealing to a wide range of people, young and old.

Color scheme: It should compliment or blend with the avatar. I will want to be able to change the background colors/images to help define the area of the site - one scheme for the computer areas, one for the home remodeling and flooring areas, one for automotive areas and one for home, contacts and misc. pages. The logos and main graphics will be the same on every page (except any background images, if used).

Type of design: Site template, including graphics, buttons and all other elements except actual content.

Desired size: The site will be designed for 800x600 and larger (that doesn't mean you should design a template for 1024x768, because that won't FIT on a 800x600 monitor, but it should be able to be resized to fit the monitor size of the viewer).

Prize: $100.00 to the person who designs the whole template, including a by-line and link in the copyright area of every page. Ten dollars to the best design on this forum if I choose to use none. Do not submit your design on more than one forum, I will link to the winner and their forum if allowed. I would be happy to negotiate a prize for single elements of the template - the banner logo only, the roll-over buttons/links only, etc. - but would prefer to award and credit one designer. If you do not trust me to pay the awards upon successful delivery (I will want to make sure the elements work), do not submit entries.

Desired font: Your choice, but common fonts don't excite me. I will pay extra for an original font, but it would have to be scalable and really good.

Other relevant information: The template must be delivered with .PSD and .HTML files in working order. It must be editable. After the contest closes, I may ask for alterations, which I would be willing to pay a reasonable fee for.

I hope I have included all the information you need. Please make comments and ask all questions here on the forum. Thank you in advance for your participation.

Best R'gards,

Grump
PS: My real name and contact info is located on the contacts page of my site.

**Jake** · 09-04-2005, 08:35 PM

I redrew your logo in vector format, and added some text. If you like the style, I will continue with the actual site design.

**fancymoustache** · 09-04-2005, 08:49 PM

Wow, thats a really good replica of the logo!

**eJM** · 09-04-2005, 10:26 PM

Yes, that is a good replica of the avatar, but it is missing the background and some of the details. Maybe it would help to know I chose that avatar because it best represents me in appearance. I have prominent teeth (not buck-teeth, just big) and wrinkles (I'm 55 years old). Your depiction looks too young, has no wrinkles (no neck either), but it's a good start.

Of course, we're talking the avatar here, not that plain vanilla type style and swishy line under it. I am definitely not swishy or plain vanilla.

I'm happy to see a good start. Thank you.

**Jake** · 09-04-2005, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grump

Yes, that is a good replica of the avatar, but it is missing the background and some of the details. Maybe it would help to know I chose that avatar because it best represents me in appearance. I have prominent teeth (not buck-teeth, just big) and wrinkles (I'm 55 years old). Your depiction looks too young, has no wrinkles (no neck either), but it's a good start.

Of course, we're talking the avatar here, not that plain vanilla type style and swishy line under it. I am definitely not swishy or plain vanilla.

I'm happy to see a good start. Thank you.

Your avatar also does not have any wrinkles or a "neck", so giving me that info now doesn't help. You said that you wanted your avatar to be part of your logo on your site, so it must be re-drawn in a higher-quality format. A tiny pixelated image will not work well for any logo.

Do you want the website to reflect you? If so, you should have said that in your first post and also described what you are like. The text and such are just examples.

**eJM** · 09-04-2005, 11:18 PM

Alright, I don't want a pissing contest, I want a site template contest. I am willing to pay for it, so I should be able to say what I like and what I don't. My additional information is to help you, not piss you off.

Look at my avatar again. It does have a neck -- a wrinkled neck and chin. See the lines? See the jagged lines around the face? Wrinkles. Subtle maybe, but it's there. That is what it looked like to me when I chose it a number of years ago. It's how I depicted it on my case panel that I mentioned was on my home page. You did visit the home page, right?

My name is Grump. My website domain name is Grumps Place. Why wouldn't I want the site design to reflect me? I thought it was too obvious to state, however I did mention it was a personal website.

If you follow this thread, I am sure you will gather even more information as people ask questions and make comments. I am sorry if I didn't post every bit of info you needed to create something I might like from the beginning. I am not clairvoyant and I am sure you aren't either. So, we can help each other along the way, can we not?

I thought it was a good start. That's what I said in my last post. If you think it wasn't, then we'll just have to deal with it.

Grump

**jaclyn05** · 09-05-2005, 11:32 AM

I did something like he did, how do I post it?

hwy cant I pm you??

Well, it looks like his, but has your neck and that. I will try to get it on here. And the words are blue

this is making me mad

I have more than 5 posts

**eJM** · 09-05-2005, 12:46 PM

Please don't fret, Jaclyn. You have until midnight, October 1. Judging will take place then. I did receive your email, but you should find a way to post a screen shot or host the page on your own site with a link here.

Thank you for participating.

Grump

**jaclyn05** · 09:25 PM

Here is an image I made.

**Jake** · 09-05-2005, 04:27 PM

Logo. Wrinklefied.

**fancymoustache** · 09:27 PM

Hows about a nice pixel version?

**Blakehil** · 09-05-2005, 07:06 PM

Hello Grump,

Here is my submission to date,
http://www.skywide.net/inwork/layout01.jpg

I will be happy to make further changes to suit your personal preference, simply say what and where.

A little piece of advice for the other participant’s. Adding oversized watermarks severely diminishes the aesthetic appeal of your work; perhaps you should rethink your strategy.

Blake,
Skywide.net,

**Jake** · 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blakehil

Hello Grump,

Here is my submission to date,
http://www.skywide.net/inwork/layout01.jpg

I will be happy to make further changes to suit your personal preference, simply say what and where.

A little piece of advice for the other participant’s. Adding oversized watermarks severely diminishes the aesthetic appeal of your work; perhaps you should rethink your strategy.

Blake,
Skywide.net,

And not adding any watermark is a smart idea? It's just a logo, settle down.

**eJM** · 09-05-2005, 09:22 PM

Blake, that is absolutely beautiful. Very high quality design. Now tell me, will the navbar links do roll-overs or similar? I won't be doing a newsletter, but the search feature is interesting. I imagine that would require some PHP coding and database configuration -- would you be willing to guide me in that area? Can the color scheme and main banner image be changed for the different sections (ie: a pic of my '65 Tbird and a reddish scheme for the auto pages, darker scheme and the same image for the computer pages - I have some landscape images that might look better on the home page - and a pic of my house with earth tones for the house remodeling and flooring pages)? Will I be able to make these changes fairly easily myself? Will the rounded corners around the images and input boxes work with Firefox, Netscape, etc.? How will the pages react to resizing, especially for those who have larger screen resolutions?

Lots of questions, sorry. You've submitted a very handsome design. I hope this will encourage others to create something with a similar attention to details and completeness. Thank you for participating.

**Blakehil** · 10:06 PM

> Now tell me, will the navbar links do roll-overs or similar?
Yes, I plan on doing this in Flash for added quality and flow.

> The search feature is interesting. I imagine that would require some PHP coding and database configuration -- would you be willing to guide me in that area?
Sure

> Can the color scheme and main banner image be changed for the different sections?
Yes of course.

> Will I be able to make these changes fairly easily ?
If you have a basic understanding of webdesign.

> Will the rounded corners around the images and input boxes work with Firefox, Netscape, etc.?
Yes, I've used rounded corners in various of my other websites.

> How will the pages react to resizing, especially for those who have larger screen resolutions?
It will auto-size based on however you want the website aligned (Right or center align typically)

How exactly are you going to choose the winner? I am reluctant to invest further hours of my time only to find out that you have chosen another design (Time as in making the website ready to publish). I would prefer it if the winner is chosen based on the jpg, and having the designer bring it to life afterwards.

**eJM** · 09-05-2005, 10:55 PM

This seems like an important question, so I am quoting it first:

Quote:

How exactly are you going to choose the winner? I am reluctant to invest further hours of my time only to find out that you have chosen another design (Time as in making the website ready to publish). I would prefer it if the winner is chosen based on the jpg, and having the designer bring it to life afterwards.

I do understand your reluctance. Judging the screen shot or JPEG of the submissions seems only fair, but I would have to know the designer is capable of building the template, not just making a nice picture. In your case, I have seen your site and portfolio and can see that you can do what you say. Other entrants would have to provide similar proof before being considered the winner.

Keep in mind that this is for a template, not a whole website. I can add the content. In that regard, the template does need to be fluid, allowing me to change colors and header images and to include a variety of content consisting of text, images, ad-sense or banner ad blocks, etc. I have some familiarity with PhotoShop/ImageReady CS and can do some coding -- I'm just not very good.

Quote:

Yes, I plan on doing [roll-overs] in Flash for added quality and flow.

I like flash in very sparse doses. Flash is a concern in that it takes longer to load. Broadband is not widely available in my world, so I wouldn't want my dialup visitors to leave because the site seemed to be too slow. I have seen some flash navigation bars that were very well done, however. I particularly like the roll-over sounds, although I am sure some would say it's superfluous. Can you give an example of a flash roll-over or link to an existing one you think would be appropriate?

Thanks,

Grump

**Blakehil** · 09-06-2005, 12:44 AM

Loading time is not really an issue for what I had in mind. It will only take a couple seconds to load even on a dial up connection. Currently the jpg banner is about 70kb, once converted and exported from flash I project the file size in the area of 130-170 kb. At a standard dialup connection that should take 3 seconds to load, I belive?

Example of similar concept can be seen at another of my websites: (Noting that this banner takes awhile to load because it has a ton of extra features that you will not require, such as music/periodic animations)
http://www.drugayaforma.com/drugayaforma.php

**LGR** · 07:00 AM

Three seconds to download a 170Kb file on a dial-up connection? Are you kidding me?

The standard connection speed for dialup is 56kb per second, remembering though that 'kb' relates to Kilobits, rather than Kilobytes. With a 'kilobyte' being made up of 8 'kilobits', the maximum download speed lies around 7Kb/s. This pushes the minimum download time for a 170Kb file to just over 24 seconds.

You'd think a web designer would know that.

**eJM** · 09-06-2005, 07:33 AM

LGR, it may have been a while since Blake has used dialup. Or maybe it was a typo and he meant 30 seconds, not 3. Please don't go into flame mode over it.

Anyway, Blake, maybe we can pare that weight down a tad. Flashing just the nav might not cost that much in download time. That's why I asked for an example of just the navbar. A bit more optimizing of the template could bring the total down even more I suspect.

R'gards,

Grump

**LGR** · 09-06-2005, 07:43 AM

Nobody's going in to 'flame mode' Grump, I was merely stating fact.