The TheBadAsses.com website Banner Contest! (Visa Cash Card Prize) How would you like to Make a Flash Banner, get recognized for it, and make cash too? If you're handy with Photo shop or Flash, this is your chance! Announcing the TheBadAsses.com Ad Banner Contest. We're soon going to begin a website and we need some banners. So we thought, who better to make our banners than you? It's very simple. Just create your best-thought out banner for TheBadAsses.com in the standard 990x200 pixel format as an animated GIF or Flash banner. Each banner should represent a unique "campaign idea" that can easily be converted into other banner sizes and executions. First Prize: $100.00 (US) Make sure your design leaves room for small to medium text with this message (do not submit your banners with this message). Guidelines are as follows: * We provided a theme from the site http://www.surreal-media.com/templates/product_color_preview.php?product_id=199&color=full%20colour , just provide a Character from both Day Of Defeat Source and Team Fortress 2. Try to match the buttons stick with the design and colors or use the idea and run with it. * File size cannot exceed 1000k for Flash (.swf files). * You must be 18 or over and willing to supply us with your off line identity if you win and pay pal is possible (pay pal payments may be supported). * Submit your entries to, http://www.thebadasses.com/Evo-Forums_-_file_-_viewtopic_-_t_-_608.html. Your entry post should include your name, your age, and your agreement to provide off line contact info in the event you win a prize and or pay pal information. Along with a link to your image. * All files and folders are to be sent when you are determined the winner. * Once a banner is submitted, TheBadAsses.com is granted exclusive rights to the use, modification, of the image/files without compensation to the original designer. * More then one entry is allowed, would put all effort into the 1. * Contact me at DeadBodyman [at] thebadasses [dot] com DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES April 15th 2008. Good luck!!
$100 sounds like a lot - to pro designers it's chump change meaning any responses you do get will likely be the people that churn out the $10 templates that aren't even worth that. Some advice - please don't take offense I'm just being honest with you here: No self respecting web designer would waste a MEG on some stupid flash banner - there's a reason the people who do that are called flashtards. You want that, don't ask in the HTML section as most of the SANE designers here are going to tell you that using Flash for ANYTHING other than video or a game is bad... Using Flash for presentational elements or navigation is a total miserable /FAIL/. You might have better luck asking in the graphics and multimedia part of the site where the flashtards all hang out. Besides, at 784k (735k compressed) for the site in question for not even 4k of actual CONTENT - with undersized unusable fonts in colors that are too low contrast to be legible, 115 validation errors and more presentational markup than you can shake a Berners Lee at, MAKING NOISE and a whole host of other accessability and usability failures - I can't see many people wanting their name associated with that train wreck. Not trying to offend - I'm calling it as I see it. Besides, your post was up for barely five and a half hours before you started kvetching over no responses. Give it some time... though again, you might have better luck asking for that type of bloated crap in the area with the people who know nothing about web design and everything about graphics.
Have you maybe, just maybe, thought about the fact that we might want to use this for a new website? We know our current website sucks and that it barely has any content, that's why we want to get rid of it. I think the millions of websites using Flash banners would disagree with you on whether it's a good choice to have a Flash banner. It all depends on if you have a fall back system for people that don't have Flash... I also know a megabyte is a lot, we just wanted to set a limit so it doesn't get crazy large. Sure $100 is chump change for pro designers, but we're not looking for them. There's a shit load of people online who can do amazing stuff with Flash but aren't doing it professionally yet because they're too young. And I'm sure those people would be interested in that kind of money. Those are my 2 cents, just don't judge if you don't know the full story.
Then it's starting out on the wrong foot in the first place - which was kind of my point. But then, my philosophy of site design is you format the content FIRST in HTML using minimalist semantic markup, bend the content to your will in CSS to make your layout, and then and ONLY then do you boot up the goofy paint programs to hang graphics on the page. Starting with a flash banner (or even using a flash banner) is just a total /FAIL/ all around.
What makes you think we're starting with a Flash banner? We have the basic layout set up, XHTML and CSS and all those amazing technologies the web offers us today, so all we need is a theme. And part of the theme is the banner...