- Joined
- Sep 21, 2003
- Messages
- 31,044
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
- Car(s)
- 2008 Dodge Viper, 2006 MB CLS55 AMG
This is just a draft post (the contest hasn't officially started yet). All criteria are still a work in progress and subject to change -- please help add to the lists.
The previous attempts to find a new design for the site didn't go so well, so I thought I'd do a contest and offer up $250 to the winner. However, I need feedback on the rules, criteria, etc. before I make the actual thread and news post. +rep to those with good ideas!
The Internet has changed quite a bit since FinalGear.com first launched in 2005 and the main site is sure showing it's age. So, it's time for a redesign.
However, rather than going out and hiring some fancy dancy web design firm who's never heard of Top Gear to create a layout for the new site, I thought I'd let you, the people who visit and use the site, create the new design. This is your chance to influence what features and look the site will have for the next few years.
And to motivate those of you who are web designers, I'm putting up a US$250 prize for the person (or people, although you'd share the prize) who creates the winning design.
So let's get down to some specifics.
Design Criteria
Submission Criteria
Your submission must be a layered file, such as a PSD. Flat images will be accepted, but I'd REALLY rather have something that I could use to easily isolate the image parts. You could also just mock it up directly in (X)HTML/CSS and submit that if you wish, but that's entirely up to you.
I will be taking your submission (if it wins that is) and convert it to XHTML/CSS myself. You will not need to do this and infact even if you do, I'll be redoing it myself anyway.
Submission Rules
All entries are due by Month, Day Year at midnight GMT. Submit entires to some@email.com and then make sure to shoot me a PM to ensure I got the e-mail (spam filters and all).
Anyone who is not permanently banned from the forums as of the content ending is open to submit entires (sorry MoparMan, you can go ahead and close MSPaint right now).
You can submit as many entries as you wish and continue to submit revised editions of your entries until the contest close, so don't hesitate to submit early!
The winning submission will become property of me (Viper007Bond) and will be for exclusive use on this website (i.e. you cannot use the design elsewhere). You will however be more than welcome to use this site and the design in your online portfolio.
All criteria are subject to change, although I'll try to keep them the same.
The previous attempts to find a new design for the site didn't go so well, so I thought I'd do a contest and offer up $250 to the winner. However, I need feedback on the rules, criteria, etc. before I make the actual thread and news post. +rep to those with good ideas!
The Internet has changed quite a bit since FinalGear.com first launched in 2005 and the main site is sure showing it's age. So, it's time for a redesign.
However, rather than going out and hiring some fancy dancy web design firm who's never heard of Top Gear to create a layout for the new site, I thought I'd let you, the people who visit and use the site, create the new design. This is your chance to influence what features and look the site will have for the next few years.
And to motivate those of you who are web designers, I'm putting up a US$250 prize for the person (or people, although you'd share the prize) who creates the winning design.
So let's get down to some specifics.
Design Criteria
- Must be a fixed width, designed for a 1024x768 screen. Should use the full or nearly the full width of the screen in order to have as much content room as possible.
- Must have spaces for advertisements as they pay the huge server bills. You can use any solid colors you want for the ads, but Google Adsense does not support gradients or anything like that.
- 728x90 above-the-fold (i.e. you can see it without scrolling down) banner somewhere near the content like it is now. Having it be above the banner on the current site for example would be bad.
- 468x60 small banner after the first post
- 468x60 after the second post OR even better, a "square" ad in the sidebar (300x250) although that may not be able to fit (300x250's make good money)
- A sidebar of some type to allow the listing of shows, mailing list subscribe form, categories, etc. Maybe the countdowns too if you want them there.
- Fairly low maintenance. I don't want to have to post a screenshot from the episode each time a new episode is released. I have enough trouble as it is making sure all episodes have descriptions! :lol:
- Room for 4 countdowns (TG, FG, TG America, TG Aussie). They can be similar to the current site, or maybe crammed into the sidebar, or whatever you want really. The code powering them is fairly flexible. Full details on it are here if you are interested.
- The episode listing pages for the shows (like Top Gear) are getting really long, so I'd like to switch to a Show -> Season -> Episode navigation format. Design accordingly.
- The content should be a standard web font, not some crazy ass one. Headlines can be a custom font as I can use Flash or PHP to create a fancy titles, but that's it.
- Other stuff? Suggest!
Submission Criteria
Your submission must be a layered file, such as a PSD. Flat images will be accepted, but I'd REALLY rather have something that I could use to easily isolate the image parts. You could also just mock it up directly in (X)HTML/CSS and submit that if you wish, but that's entirely up to you.
I will be taking your submission (if it wins that is) and convert it to XHTML/CSS myself. You will not need to do this and infact even if you do, I'll be redoing it myself anyway.
Submission Rules
All entries are due by Month, Day Year at midnight GMT. Submit entires to some@email.com and then make sure to shoot me a PM to ensure I got the e-mail (spam filters and all).
Anyone who is not permanently banned from the forums as of the content ending is open to submit entires (sorry MoparMan, you can go ahead and close MSPaint right now).
You can submit as many entries as you wish and continue to submit revised editions of your entries until the contest close, so don't hesitate to submit early!
The winning submission will become property of me (Viper007Bond) and will be for exclusive use on this website (i.e. you cannot use the design elsewhere). You will however be more than welcome to use this site and the design in your online portfolio.
All criteria are subject to change, although I'll try to keep them the same.
Last edited: