Sorry for the extreme delay. The client had to have a bunch of internal meetings to discuss the designs. The winner is Dalv. I sincerely appreciate all the submissions. Almost all of the designs were very good.

Just wanted to update everyone. I've sent the designs on to the client and I'm awaiting their feedback. They indicated that they would let us know something today after some internal meetings to discuss the designs. I will let everyone know as soon as I hear something back.

Eddy

I intended to extend the contest a few hours, but the new sitepoint contest application does not allow me to extend a few hours, only in 1 day increments.

Thanks for everyone's submissions. It will be tough making a final decision as the submissions are all very good. I will cut down the number of "finalists" to 3 or so and send those on to the client. The client will select the winner from the finalists. I will send the finalists on to the client either tonight or tomorrow. They will then likely take a few days to reach their decision.

Eddy

All,
I feel that I should reiterate a few things:
1. Do not alter the header, footer, or logo in any way. The header and footer must stay as they are and the logo needs to remain black. Please size the logo so that it does not overwhelm the main logo.
2. The login button on the left is just a button. Do not add username and password fields
3. Try to keep fonts as standard as possible. All navigation elements need to be html text, not images. You should strive to make just about all of the wording text only and not an image.
4. Some of you have created the search box on the top right of the page. I don't think this will work as first, it will be confusing to the user to have two search boxes in the same area of the screen. Second, I was envisioning that the right column would disappear on the interior pages of the site to provide more room for the content.

I've got to say that just about everything that has been submitted so far has been overall very nice work. This competition will be tough. Please pay attention to the details as that is likely what will determine the winner.

Eddy

Vandenberg (and others),
I would hope that you DO NOT build the template and css files until after the contest is awarded. I will likely have a few revisions to whatever design I select so you'd be wasting your time to build the pages in html now.

Eddy

Lasenorita,

You're correct, the header and footer is table-based. As such, no you will not have to convert it into xhtml.

Eddy

All, My apologies but I had to make a few late breaking changes. Please see the readme document on my webserver for the changes... it shouldn't be anything too major. If you're already too far along to include them, that's fine, but if you are selected the winner you will need to make the needed revisions.

Eddy