hi again everyone...
well its been quite the rollercoaster this one, but we're finally able to announce a winner.
after much consideration, we've decided to award the contest to sk3tch for his (her?) brilliant first entries coming in just 12 hours out from the deadline.
we chose sk3tch due to a standard of design that was in a league of its own. whilst we ended up with several worthy entrants, and quite a few that were of a standard good enough to win, sk3tch's designs stood head and shoulders above the rest, and provided us with a style we'll be very comfortable with for our business.
As mentioned earlier, we were very impressed particularly by entries from ukis, marcel_pi and republickadesign.... congrats to all of you, you all delivered work good enough to win, but unfortunately the competition was very tough.
Of course, everyone who entered contributed to the process, providing inspiration and creative challenge to us and other entrants. many thanks to all of you, you've all helped to make this a toughly contested but very successful contest.
thanks again!
Tom and Fenn

this is the last chance i'll get to post a comment before the contest ends... thanks for all the entries, this has already been a very successful contest, and the decision will be a hard one, as there are many good ones and a handful of exceptional ones to choose from.

the current leader is probably sk3tch with some great entries today, with ukis marcel_pi and republickadesign still in the hunt if they can come up with some magic.

just a warning, it's now after 8pm on friday so we may not be able to make a final decision for a couple of days... i'll do my best but just don't be that surprised as i have a busy weekend ahead.

cheers!
tom

sk3tch... wow, your entries are really reaaly good.. best we've received so far as far as pure design quality goes, although missing some of the key points of the brief.

I think i like the first 2 best... although I do like the blue feature strip in the last 2.

A couple of things
- these would be great for a front page, but I'd also like to see something for inner pages that conforms more to the brief (ie, left and right columns, etc
- the container for our photo looks a bit like a love-heart... we are very close, but not quite like that :)
- I think the brand could be a bit larger and more prominent.

Again, thanks very much and congrats, you're in a strong position to win the contest with entries of this quality.

Great work!

heya there everyone, with about 24 hours left to run things are getting interesting. we've had quite a few very strong entries, and a couple of standouts, so we're pretty certain to have a winner for this contest.

currently the leader is ukis, with particularly strong entries from republickadesign and marcel_pi. whilst there are a few others worthy of commendation, these are the standouts at this point.

many thanks to all who have entered, the standard has been very high.

looking forward to seeing what the next 24 hours will deliver!

Hi all, many thanks to all who have entered the contest so far, we've had a variety of interesting entries and a few that are certainly on the right track.

The best entries so far are from Adam Sheridan, maildrmm and narra - each for different reasons.

Some general comments:
- everyone seems to be getting the idea with the layout, good work;
- a reminder to avoid integrating the photo in the design or allowing it to influence the design... if you are going to use it only use it in the sample content.
- from what we've seen we're not liking the concepts that use "hot" shades of yellow and orange... we're much more into the cooler tones, particularly Adam's (not very bold, I know) but also maildrmm.
- a couple of entries look a little reminiscent of things you can get from template sites like template monster... not for a moment accusing anyone of using/copying these templates, just pointing it out so you can make sure you keep your entries unique and original.

Thanks again for your efforts so far, but the door is very much wide open for new entrants to come in and take it out!