congratulations Hustlerdog

Thanks to all.. See you on the next contest.

Congrats Hustlerdog ... nice job

Jpike - I agree with some of what you say. However I'm trying to build up a portfolio, that's why I'm entering these contests. I do have clients outside of SitePoint, and I sometimes refer prospective clients to SitePoint so that they can see example of what I do and in that light I don't appreciate seeing my name against comments of 'dont cut it'. You are perfectly entitled to your opinion, I just don't think everyone needs to know it.

There were some very good designs entered and I hope that the public mud slinging has not put off any prospective/budding designers from entering contests in the future.

Its time to move on.

Good luck to all.

roldanh, take note of my "recent works", you may find out that they are not so recent. Don't assume I'm venting on being eliminated, but just take a look at your entry. It's pure black background (100$ if you can tell me which design element that goes against), with a crappy navigation and dim lines. Yeah, that doesn't cut it if you ask me, I'm not going to run around pretending I like it just because the client does. I've looked at your past work, and I like a lot of it, but this one is just shoddy if you ask me (which I know you didn't, but I'm one of those bastards that likes to offer his opinion when it isn't asked for) Please don't ever insult ME, as I have never insulted YOU, and I find it very ignorant to insult someone whom you have yet to meet. As a side note, all you're doing is demeaning the industry by playing into these stupid contests (trust me, there are even web design sites protesting them and their negative effect on web design and how it's portrayed). Yeah, I enter a few of them with extra designs that I have left over - because those designs would just sit in my scraps folder or get deleted if I didn't, so I may as well try to get something out of them. Yeah, I don't win. Yeah, I don't care, because what's important to me is my actual clients. Go ahead and mock my contest entries if you like, because it doesn't really bother me, but please don't get testy when I say that if you want to improve as a designer, it's time to stop putting the beef of your work into Sitepoint contests, and start putting it into an actual design firm.

As for EvolveIntegratio, here will be my first bashful message of this thread (not really, but I'll let you have this one if you want to call me bashful so badly); you clearly do not have a firm grasp of the English language. Nowhere did I bash other competitors of this contest. Once I said that the majority of Sitepoint contestants do not know the design elements. I'm not aiming this at anyone, it is simply true that the Sitepoint contests tend to be beginner designers because most of the better designers would not sell something that they worked hard on for a few hundred dollars, and they actually have somewhere else to sell their work. That's just the truth. There are some good designers here too, of course, but the majority of them are the way I've described, and if you hope to be successful in your contest running, you need to know a little about design elements (which you clearly don't, or else there would be nothing stopping you from making feedback) so that you don't get burned. Another thing you may have considered bashful was what I said about Grebo's entry, which, if you saw it as insulting in any way, you must not be clear of mind. I said that his entry could be nicer if you had provided a better logo. That's not insulting, that's the truth, because he kinda just cut-and-pasted a logo and the background behind it looks a little out of place. The final thing I said that may have been seen otherwise was when I suggested which entry to pick. Maybe I phrased it poorly, but am I to pretend that I think all three are amazing? I think that hustlerdog's is the only real viable entry here, feel free to disagree, but nowhere did I insult Grebo or roldanh.

Bashing other contenders? Now, I'm sure any sane man would agree, such a statement is ridiculous. Don't like my undertone? Too bad, that's the way I write, but don't put words in my mouth... or perhaps, in this case, I should say in my fingers?

I also agree with Nadia P... I'm almost glad I didn't win (well, obviously not, but you understand what I mean), because when I submitted my templates I didn't realize that you expected coding, and, I'm sorry but, for only $700 there's no way in hell I'm designing AND coding a website.

And as a final note, it's very difficult to "try harder not to be sour", as you say, when all you receive as feedback is "wow, interesting!", and "I really love your style!", and then an hour later you've been completely forgotten. How about, "wow interesting, but it has some things that I feel could be improved... maybe provide more space for the content?". That would take you what, 10 seconds? But I guess the way you are doing it only hurts yourself, I just thought I should mention (and nobody can disagree) that had you provided better feedback, there would have been better entries all around.

The only thing I'll say in addition to some of the remarks about feedback just in case you hold another contest EvolveIntegratio - it would have been nice to have the questions answered that were asked at the beginning of the contest... there may have been more (or maybe even less) entries to this contest.

I see that with the last feedback to one entry, you say that for the prize money, you need the whole site coded (doesn't matter whether it's php or asp), it's still a completely coded site with some flash incorporated into it. Sorry to say, I don't believe the prize on offer reflects the work required to complete this project. Good luck to the finalists - hope it goes smoothly for you all :-)

jpike, i browsed all your recent works...yeah from the looks of it you really understand 'designing for the web' lol

if you can't stand being eliminated, then do not join any sitepoint contest especially if you're going to throw you're frustrations at other contestants...

we won't cut it? really now...

republickadesign,very nice design! very fits the company IMHO, too bad the CH didnt like it. i was thinking of making the type of style you had. but seems you got eliminated, so i wont submit :).

btw, dark-colored with full blown content in thehomepage website is so outdated. people want to see very simple yet informative when visiting the first page. white spaces is always wins the crowd, but then again.. its just my opinion :)

good luck!

I'd agree with JPike, it's just sensible and Flash is not a web friendly platform either. I'd totally agree there.

Well it was an interesting contest to say the least. I don't mean to be sour, I offer my congratulations to roldanh, GreboGuru, and hustlerdog, but if I may offer a few suggestions for your next contest here at sitepoint (which will very likely be quite soon).

-> First I suggest doing some research on effective Web Design, instead of just selecting websites based on your fancy. Aesthetics are, of course, an important aspect of design, but there are some elements that you need to know about. Positive colour schemes, negative space, and effective layout, which can make or break a sale. Honestly I mean no offense (we all pass through the phase at one point or another) when I say that most of the people who compete in Sitepoint contests have no idea about any of these elements, so it's important that you do.

-> Do not provide your logo in a jpeg format. Always always always provide it in .PSD or .AI, because otherwise it's very difficult to make it look crisp against any background you want. I'm not sure if you noticed, but I never once used your logo. I re-created it, because it's simply a lot easier than pulling it off of a jpeg image without making it look choppy. As you can see from GreboGuru's entry (not bashing it, I'm just using it to make a point), his entry could be nicer if you provided him with the logo PSD.

-> Try to provide better feedback. All I ever heard from you were positive things up until your finalist decision, and all of a sudden, I'm eliminated. Honestly I don't really mind, because (and I'm going to be perfectly honest here) in this contest I only entered templates that were designed for an actual client who turned them down, which I edited to suit your website. However, if I had received some feedback and a better idea of what you were looking for, I could have provided you with a design that suited exactly what you want. Ask any of the other designers in this contest, I'm sure they will agree that they weren't sure exactly what you were looking for, and could have done better if you had provided that.

-> This is a personal recommendation for your website; don't use flash. Flash is not meant to be used for websites like yours, which appeal to people who are consumers who are often not very web-savvy. Flash load times tend to distract/irritate these people, and it can have a very negative effect on your business. You have to think a lot about your target market when creating a website, it certainly has to go a lot farther than "appeal to the rich".

And I'm going to part this contest with my personal advice. I hope, for your sake, that you select hustlerdog's design as the winner, because, to be frank and honest, the other two won't cut it.

Cheers,

JP

hey guys, how's everyone doing here... lots of great design here, I'll post my entry in 3 hours.

Hi,
I'm working on one... Should i still submit it?
cheers,
Matt