Hi All, I've had this art site for several years and just can't come up with a banner idea. The site covers primarily 2-dimensional vintage art (illustrations, paintings, photos). Am looking for a banner for the existing site that fits within the current color scheme. It should include several of the vintage images from the posts on the site as well as any art-related elements you think it needs. I'm looking for classy but interesting and memorable. Maybe some sort of collage with some of the images and an art-related overlay of some sort. Please no clip art or stock other than original work or the public domain images from my site. I like the current tag line but I'm open to suggestions. Width-wise, it should fit within the current page design. I'm open to different heights as long as it doesn't take up too much of the above-the-fold space. I'll leave the font choice up to you but please consider that I'll need to use the same or similar font for advertising the site. I will add $20 if the winner provides 125 and 250 pixels square versions for advertising purposes. The site is ArtxxxxFilledxxxxDays.com (remove the x's) Contest runs until November 4th.
Good morning everyone. Thank you so much. Thus far I have one entry here and 3 via PM. They're all so different and that was what I was hoping for. I understand that entering a contest might not be for everyone but I intentionally choose the contest route because I like the collaborative nature of how they evolve and in the end can lead to something really wonderful. I don't plan on ending the contest early if I get an entry I really love. I just don't think that's fair after I posted a date. One of the PM entries was on a vertically striped background. The text was shadowed and four of the pictures were lined up side-by-side. I didn't like all of the straight lines. It didn't seem artistic enough. I was hoping for something that I would look at and go Wow, I wouldn't have thought of putting those elements together, I don't think I could have manipulated the graphics that way and I love it. pehulz - Thank you for making the first entry and making it public. I like that you chose such different styles of images. I like that they are all not straight across but they still seem like they are in a line. The frames seem a little too one-dimensional. I know that beige colors easily tend to yellow but I think your entry is too yellow. muddy786 - thank you for your entries - they are so different from each other. I like the fonts you've used but I'm not sure they would translate to the smaller sized ads. Entry 1 - I like the idea of going round with the frames. (Please, everyone else, don't just try round frames, just maybe try to get away from square frames in a straight line.) And I love that you've included several images as part of the background design. But, it seems as if the design is being stuffed into the existing height of the banner space on my site. Maybe it could go a little taller? I like the way you've incorporated the frame from the images to also surround the text and how it is not complete. But, I'm not sure I like the color of the frames and the background color of this one seems to tend to the yellow spectrum a bit too much. Entry 2 - I like the darker color scheme. I would have never thought to use browns. (Please, everyone, don't jump to browns, I would like the contest to not go in a single direction. But, I think I like something darker moreso than lighter in looking at the entries so far.) It gives it a bit of edge and goes from pretty/girly to hinting towards grunge/modern. Yet, the classic, vintage frames clearly turn it back to "art". I like that you didn't put the images exactly aligned across but the last three kinda look like you ran out of room but had been told all 5 images had to bee on the banner.
Thank you everyone for so many wonderful banners. I'm only back online after being out of the office all day. So exciting to see my little contest garnering so many wonderful entries. I promise I will give everyone specific feedback a little later but I just wanted to ask that you don't use any of the images from the article about Banksy (the graffiti artist). His work is still under copyright. At least two of the new entries have his work in them.
Hi Everyone, Sorry I didn't get back to you with feedback yesterday, it was my mother's birthday. I so very much appreciate the work everyone is doing for me and feel a little bad telling some of you that I don't like what you did or that I like someone else's better. Anyway, here goes... I'm finding I like the ones that incorporate more of the images better. So far I have only one that has collaged the pictures over the entire banner and placed the text as an overlay. I've gotta say that one is in the lead at this point as being my favorite. After seeing it, I think the ones with frames are still quite nice but just don't exemplify the concept of being full of art as well. But, there is room for another entry to take the lead and I do hope some of you give it another go. The following submissions are also quite nice and I wanted to thank each of you for doing such nice work. muddy786 (entries via PM) - I've liked all of your designs. I love the last one and the way you made it look like raw art with the rumpled paper edges and the scrolling on the swan image to make it look like a painter's canvas. The little stick pins were a clever touch. And I liked that each of your backgrounds included other elements and mottled colors. Your's is my second favorite. But, I just like the idea of a collage a bit better. natali77 (post #5) - it matches the site perfectly. But, I think it blends in a bit too perfectly and doesn't add the pop of color I was hoping for. I like the way it fits on the page and I do like the idea that you used different frames for each of the photos. I like the smaller advertisement image too. SB_GEMINI (post #9) - I like it and it really matches the site well. Like natali77's entry, I think it matches almost too well in that it somewhat blends into the page. I do like the rounded area around the text and how the 'y' of days drops down to the second line to almost frame the tag line. pahulz (post #4) and best designers (post #6) - I like that you both added some additional visual elements - the swirls and the ribbon. While, I really like the entries by those of you I've mentioned, I just like the look of incorporating a collage better. I do hope you give it another try because I really like your work. The other entries are just not what I was hoping for. Thank you for your submissions. I think I also owe everyone a bit of an apology but I think my mistake may have worked out well in the end. In my original post, I was hoping that the winning designer could make a 125X125 square advertisement and a 250x250 square advertisement, not a 125x250 advertisement. After seeing several nice pieces in the 125x250 size, I would like to amend that aspect of the contest to read one 125x125 and one 125x250. I'm sorry for the confusion. I should have spelled it out more clearly. We're down to only one more day. Please keep the entries coming. You've made this an exciting contest with so many wonderful choices. Thank you everyone for participating.
I think I might need to clarify something with a few of you. While I provided feedback about what I liked and loved about everyone's designs, it looks like I might not have been entirely clear. By explaining what I liked, I think some of you may have missed the point that I was asking for everyone to forego the picture on the wall in frames look and please try to make a collage of images. I thought by providing feedback of the elements I liked from the framed submissions that maybe you could incorporate some of those elements into a collage for me. I am terribly sorry if I didn't make that clear enough. My original post suggested using a collage and after seeing a wonderful submission using a collage, I'm certain that is what I would like. Based on all of your user profiles, I believe that I am the only one from the US here. I'm wondering if some of you might not be familiar with the term collage. Or maybe I confused you by my feedback (gosh I hope not)? Here are some examples of collages from Deviant Art - http://www.deviantart.com/?q=collage I would like to extend the contest until tomorrow. My apologies to the person who has submitted the only collage entry and is currently my favorite. But, I think everyone lost a day due to my poor explanation yesterday and I would like to give everyone a fair chance.