*(Brief update at end of post.)
Our banner contest ended last night and we received a good turn out.? We have 6 entries with one of the banners being a flash design.? Below are smaller versions of the banners, so please review them (including our current banner on top) and place your vote on the right side bar! Vote for the banner that you think goes best with our layout.? One vote per person please. Voting will be available until? noon PST Wednesday, February 28th (tomorrow).
Our current banner (also seen on top):
Banner #1:
Banner #2:
Banner #3:
Banner #4:
Banner #5:
Banner #6 (flash banner, click for actual flash file):
Thank you to everyone who submitted banners and thanks to our readers for voting.? To check full contest rules, click here and vote on the sidebar to your right.
*Update: We have received 2 additional entries but they missed yesterday’s deadline. To be fair to the other contestants the new entries are not eligible for the prize but we will display them for your comments.? I personally really like Late Entry #1.
Late Entry #1:
Late entry #2:
I do like the #1. You can do something like I was when I was using the MistyLook theme, and it’s to have a image picked at random on every page load. Not a great idea if you are trying to create a brand image, but good if you like all of the images!
Just drop this into your header.php file:
.jpg” alt=”SOMETHING CLEAVER” />
You need to name all of the files header_1, header_2 and so on. The code will randomly pick an image (between the numbers 1 through 6) and display it! If you add a seventh image, change the the code at the end:
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the piece of info…if not now, that might come in handy later…thanx!
No problem, I see that the entire code was removed by WordPress – if you’ve interested at any point just let me know!
Hi,
Is it too late to put my entry in
http://www.everybodygoto.com/uploads/careerramblings.jpg
I wanted to get this done yesterday but just got stuck with something else.
I would be real happy if you could add it to your poll.
Thanks
Ali,
Unfortunately it is too late to add your banner to the poll but I will add an update in a few minutes with your banner for our readers to comment on, but if we were to add it to the poll, all current votes would be erased, which wouldn’t be fair.
I happen to really like your work. Thanks.
John
I vote for banner #4.
Is it me or does banner #1 have a copyright violation as it clips a scene from a movie?
Steve,
Hopefully you saw the voting poll on the right sidebar. But thanks for letting us know what you like
I was thinking the same thing.
Every media company I can think of offers free stock photos or media kits for people to use.
I was thinking the same thing about the copyright infringement.
What’s wrong with your current banner??? I love this designer, can we have his contact info? Give him the 50 bux!!!!!
Current banner is great! We wanted to get everyone involved with a contest, so we figure this would be a great way.
If you email me, I’ll give you his info…he’s a great guy but dropped the ball with this contest JK, I don’t want to piss him off…hehe
haha i just sent you my second submission… it looks cleaner than my first submission.. if it has time to be squeezed in that’d be awesome!
I’ll reserve voting until I get home. There are some excellent submissions here. I’m leaning toward #2, VERY professional looking and very well done.
Your original banner resonates a dab of professionalism with just the right blend of intimacy as well. Banner #2 thoroughly drips ‘professionalism’. (I still love the original, so this will be a tough one
By the way, your sidebar has dropped down in Internet explorer to below your content (probably because of the banner widths). So IE visitors will need to go fishing in order to cast their votes.
Jennifer,
I’m having the same trouble in deciding. I like our current banner, but I also like some of the submissions…gonna be a tough one!
Thanks for bringing up IE…For those running IE6, the sidebar appears at the very bottom of all the content, so you have to scroll down after you know what banner you like.
IE7 users are fine, the sidebar appears where it is supposed to be. Not sure why the different versions of IE see this site differently, but it happens.
Thanks,
Jennifer,
I like the fourth one because it has a feeling of a boardroom waiting to be filled with tomorrows professionals… like myself. The current banner looks like the girl has a tumor on her left arm.
I like the empty board room idea…creative
Hey Jane,
Hmmm… definitely the current one – it’s professional but with a personal touch – cute, fun, and warm.
And the girl is looking right at you, that’s great. I think you’re best off with a banner showing people, but ideally not too big corporate looking, not too sterile.
Have an awesome day!
Dan
I would vote for banner #2.
You MUST admit that my entries have more effort put in.. :D:D
Shapes/logos generated from Illustrator, converted from paths to pixels and embedded…
Generated new layers for the sphere effects on the C and the R…
Dude, the business folk just want it to look pretty – they don’t give a darn how hard you worked on it!!! LOL
Have an awesome day!
Dan
I like the original one better than the rest, but that’s just my humble opinion.
what happens if nobody gets picked?? Will you guys stick with the old one?
** This Just In **
Jennifer likes number 6 – yes, she told me to write that. And I said “Yes Dear”.
Have an awesome day!
Dan
Yeah Jennifer!!!!
Glad to see you coming out to the polls for this one
Thanks guys!!!
ya thats true. but the circles do look neat!!!
I like #5… I like the half-constructed building, symbolizing potential growth to a higher level..
I like #3 because of the big smile. It makes it look much more personable.
I am laughing my a** off right now!!! The effort and work put into your banners are very much appreciated and apparent for the reasons you mentioned Jeff. Thanks a lot!!!
This is going to be hard.
Nobody likes the Office Space reference? Dorks!
It’s not that we do not like the reference, we see it as a possible copyright violation.
Hmmm. Too late, I could design something better than that, maybe next time! good post, by the way I voted for Banner #3
Your original banner looks the best in my opinion – cleaner, smart, and show’s who you are which is way more important than the stock photography in the others. (that is you is it?)
The only thing I would improve is the quality of it – perhaps making the text a GIF, which would make it much cleaner. (but leaving the photo as a JPEG)
Thanks for the great feedback Tim! Everything has been trial and error, so the more feedback we get, the better site we can create. Thanks a lot.
Emm guys.. It’s web 2.0 time! Looking at some of the banners it looks like we are going backwards in time. Don’t use stock images! They really suck Try something new, don’t be afraid of eye catching colors. Try dock icons/illustrations etc. 3d reflections, glass style and so on.
I voted for ‘current’ banner, because It’s the only one I like (still it’s not as good as it could be).
Cheers
ok, np.
am i still eligible for the prize though?
if not and you do end up choosing my banner a link back would be nice.
thanks.
How long did it take everyone to make their banners?
Took me about 30 minutes? #5 is mine. I slapped the circles/spheres together on illustrator, exported it out to photoshop, processed the TV screen effect and put the photos/text on it, and then spherized the C and the R again (although with the C it’s hard to tell).
Andthen my second entry way down took another 15 minutes to get another shape (that funky line thing on the corner) from illustrator, rid of the photo/TV screen filter, and boom.
Is the woman in #2 also appearing in #6? Dang… she gets around ^_^.
current one for sure. it seems like the most personal one. i think it has the best branding too. i agree with Tim and Slave about the stock photos in the other banners – personally i think it looks kinda cheesey. the current one does look clean, in a Gap sense. just sharpen the image, as Tim says. and definitely don’t rotate.
and yes i am a geek and i love office space, but there are a lot of people who have never heard of it. unfortunately.
So I admit, I couldn’t punch out a banner in time because I couldn’t find a photo of people talking at the water cooler ( i envisioned a banner where people would be talking at the water cooler (rambling) with a water drop/ripple effect in the background – kind of representing how the ramblings at the water cooler have a ripple effect, but I digress . . . .I agree with Danielle that I like the current one the best, but I think it can be improved (with water coolers and ripples :)) . . . haha . . . I wonder who’s gonna win!
Banner 5, or late entry 2.. for sure.
Banner #5