Well everybody, it's been a really tough decision. In a way I wish there weren't so many entries!
The winner is
Matt's (170) design, which he posted earlier for everyone to see.
It eneded up as a toss up between this one and DadaDesigns at the last minute, with locazo coming third. Locazo's final design didn't get to second place mainly because it lacked a bit of colour, while I wanted it dark I feel that it was a bit topo much of the same colour, also I think the 'ripped' effect got a bit overused in the final design.
The main reason for Dada's coming second is that it was a bit too graphically intensive. it's a brilliant design and would look quite good, but we already have trouble with loading times. I also don't think it quite reflects the look of the rest of the site as well as 170's.
170 won because of several reasons, it's different to the current look - with a bar instead of the left section for the nav, it's the right colours and has a good balance of light and dark. It has a lovely big banner space taking up most of the top. And really he's done everything that was in the specification, listened to all my feedback and got the design looking perfect - I'm not saying that others didn't listen to the feedback.
I would like to thank everyon who put the time and effort into this contest, it's been the best one we've ever ran!
Particularly good designs from zemads, wonkpg and a fantastic piece of artwork from blakehil!
Like I said before, I may contact some of you regarding other design work for the site in the future as I know that you can all work well to the style and specifications. That'll be via PM.
I will now contact 170 by PM to arrange payment etc and will ask him to post here when the transaction is complete so everyone knows they are dealing with a trustworthy guy
Thanks again everyone, such a great contest. May there be plenty more!
Cheers
Simon
