I will pay $100 for the person who would be able to do this project with absolute class and exceptional skills. I will give this contest a running time of three whole days. I guess that should be enough time to find the best designer here in DP. Here is a prototype design: http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8017/lobbyzf2.png I need you to do the exact same design but with complete professionalism and lots of minor professional touches. Every pixel should scream awesomeness. I have a few required improvements, but you are free to add your full creative touch. Here are mine: Every box should be in a different layer and individually adjustable, especially the text. Maintain the transparencies wherever it is in the prototype. In addition to it, make the chat box the same color, but make it transparent. Not as transparent as the typing area, but slightly lesser than that. Don't forget that the base color of the chat box (that is shown in prototype) should show fine and the text well readable. The background image should be: http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7333/bgrx2.png and this should show up in as many places as possible while maintaining the aesthetics. Feel free to add adjustment layers to the background to make it blend and look good rather than stand out. That is, I need the result to be something like this: http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/2408/resultpn9.png but, way way better. All buttons should be in individual layers and nicely editable. I want you to remove the icon and the green or grey bar at the left of the usernames and in their place, add 9 tiny squares in a 3x3 box. These squares have to be inside a grey box with 3D effect like the grey bars in the prototype have. These squares should have a thin but prominent darker grey border and should be filled with either red or green solid colors. However, you need to make sure that the colors are not too bright to cause strain on the eyes especially when there could be 32x9 squares on the screen. Choose a perfect color and blend them well. Don't miss the 3D dot at the top right of each player button and also leave the free area buttons - there are 8 empty player boxes in the prototype. Finally, group them all together for ease of editing. Make the text under the icons perfectly editable as well. Make each part of the scrollbar individually editable - the buttons, the bar itself (make sure this is complete) and the slider on the bar. Iron out every mistake and shoddy work at all the places. Like sharp corners, some unerased lines, etc. This was just a design prototype. Now it is in your hands to make it a work of art! Don't put that text on the bottom right of the screen in the prototype. Make that area clean. Post your mock/complete images. However, don't go too overboard and overexpressive with colors. I do not really want the color theme changed much. I just want to see lot more beauty within the already done layout - 3D effects, shadows, nicer lines, nicer images (for example, the symbols to the right of CHATTING could be a great place to start experimenting), etc. Good luck everyone! P.S.: If you are not able to do the transparency, it is alright. Just do the classy design completely opaque/solid and I will take care of the transparency with background conversion myself.
What a great contest, i've never tried something like this before, but i'm working on it now! What about the 'rank' badges, shall we just leave them out?
Yep, you can leave the bar and the badges. In that place, make a square that is nicely cornered to the left of the player box (rectangle) with the same 3D effect of the grey bars (with the same luminous grey background) - so that the box now looks etched (on all four sides) within the rectangle. Inside this perfect square would be 9 small squares arranged 3x3 filled with either red or green.
Oops. I don't think you got it right or I explained it well enough. I don't want the colors changed. At all. I want the layout and the colors to remain exactly the same. Or, at most, pretty much. I just wanted to see all the extra effects and beautifying additions, plus made into nice layered PSD file for better editing. Also, the background also was only for the transparent effect like this: http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/2408/resultpn9.png. This could actually be used as a rough guide as well. The final image, from a distance should look pretty similar to this one (except the rank badges of course) while on closer inspection should look like it has been chiseled by a talented digital artist. There should be more details seen every time. I hope you get what I mean. That said, I do like the border you have added for the blue boxes. Try doing those minor additions to the exact same design, exact same color, exact same icons, exact same buttons, etc. You can either redo them from scratch to look exactly like those buttons in the prototype of use the image crop from the prototype itself and add effects to it. I am sorry, but I don't know whose mistake it is.
Its my fault mate, too busy skim reading! I'm gonna finish this design, and present both to you, the original one, and the one that you can use Thanks