OK, guys and gals, I've decided on a new contest, one that will help shape the future look and feel of NintendoAge. The contest is for the new NintendoAge logo. As you've no doubt noticed, NintendoAge has never had a true logo, at least nothing to write home to momma about.

The winner of the contest will receive a very rare CIB NES game that is worth roughly $150-$175 (any guesses?). I would put it in the top 5 rarest licensed CIB NES games.

There are two parts to the contest, and possibly 1 or 2 winners:

Part 1: The site logo

Part 2: The print media logo (optional, keep reading)

The main contest is for part 1; however, if the winner is unable to create a print logo, another "gift" will be awarded to the person who can convert the winning logo into an image format that is sufficient for print media. This gift is also a NES game worth no less than $100.

If the winner is able to do Part 1 and Part 2, they will receive both the prize and the gift, a value of around $250-$275. But who cares about the value -- you'd be the envy of all your friends! Think of how cool you'll be?

The Rules:

1.) You can submit as MANY entries as you want. They can be only limited by your imagination.

2.) Entries by default will not be anonymous -- just post them in this thread. If you can't post them, email them to webmaster@.

3.) If you would like your entry(ies) to be anonymous, just email them to me and I'll post them.

4.) You can hire, bribe, threaten, or sucker anyone you know into designing one FOR YOU to submit. In other words, your buddy "Limpy" next door is a graphic artist that loves to drink beer and eat pretzels -- go get him drunk, slip a blunt into his mouth, light that bitch, and have him design a logo for you. I won't tell. Besides, you'll get some cool stuff and he'll be too drunk and stoned to care

5.) Judging will begin September 1st. This allows for a full 3 weeks to kick around and submit ideas. Remember, you can submit 50 ideas if you want (or more) -- there is no limit!

6.) No copyrighted characters can be used in the logo; ie, no Chubby Cherubs with Chubbies.

7.) The logo must not look too much like Nintendo's logo (like the one on my ebay store -- I'm still surprised they allowed that). We don't want anyone (ie, Nintendo) to mistake our logo for theirs.

8.) Images for Part 1 can be in raster format (GIF, JPEG, or PNG), preferably with an associated layered PSD (Photoshop) file. Images for part 2 can be any vector format, preferably encapsulated postscript (EPS) via Adobe Illustrator.

9.) The number of colors in the image for Part 2 is a huge consideration -- it should have no more than 6 colors (any more than 5-6 colors, and printing will be insane).

10.) Anything else I can think of that I likely forgot to mention, to be posted later on.

Tips:

1.) You do not have to be a superb graphic artist to participate. If you can't fulfill Part 2, and you know someone here who can, team up together and split the kitty. If you don't know someone who can, and you're the winner of Part 1, I'm sure someone here can do the vector conversion for you and they'll get the gift.

2.) Judging will be held on NA by site members, but the ultimate decision will be by me (hey, I gotta integrate it, right?). In other words, if I'm really unhappy with all the entries (unlikely -- you guys rock the chook), or none of them will work into the new design, we'll just keep what we have.

3.) Keep in mind that this is for a web site, so dimensions should be a consideration. I don't want to make too many limitations simply because I want to see what you guys come up with. If I see the "one," and it's not quite what I need, I may consider modifying the site layout to accommodate it.

4.) Branding/Name recognition: If you could barely make out the eBay logo a 100 yards away on a billboard, you'd know instantly it was for eBay. In other words, I'm hoping for solid logos, ideas, etc, for branding NintendoAge (i.e., banners at the next CGE [hint hint], and other cool things that will be announced on the 14th of August). Cool is cool, but memorable is mo' betta.

'Nuff said -- ask away if you have any questions.

-Dain

Too bad im not a graphic artist this sounds like  a great bribe "go get him drunk, slip a blunt into his mouth, light that bitch"

Hey Dain, I'm interested in this project. Could you tell me more about what kind of print media the second logo will be used for? Thanks.

Sounds like fun to me. I will have to break out the old paint and see what I can do.
~~NGD

Any indication as to what size or aspect ratio would be preferred? I have a site logo that seems to be ready, but just wondering about size before I submit, as it's 320 x 125...

Where do you plan to put the logo? I know you're in the process of developing a new version of NintendoAGE, roughly what dimensions does it have to be? If possible, can you take a screen shot of the new version of NA and post it here so I can get an idea of what will look good around it?

Also, and most importantly, what is the color scheme of the new version? Currently the site is very simple without a real color scheme other than white and light blue. Is this the same in the new version?

Also, is the logo going to go all the way across the top of the screen? Is it going to stretch from the left (above "Search") all the way to the right of the screen (under "Store")?

-Nick

NESarmstrong:

- This will be used for printed materials, ie anything made of paper, t-shirts silk-screening, and anything else that could include magazines, flyers, etc.. This is primarily why we need it as a vector-based image, so we can have 150-300 DPI versions.

mb7241:

- The aspect ratio is still up for consideration, but I would prefer it to be longer than it is tall, and it sounds like you've already done that.

burnambill333:

- While it may depend on the winning logo, I would plan on having it in the upper left corner of the site unless the logo inspired me to put it elsewhere.
- The dimensions are not set in stone. I don't want to hinder creativity on this one, but I'm a proponent of using screen space more for functionality than glitz.
- See attached, though this will likely change based on the logo.
- The color scheme isn't too much different at present, but it's been cleaned up a bit. This could also change based on the new logo.
- For this type of logo (a "stretched" logo), it would have to be no longer than 620 pixels and be able to gracefully merge into a solid or repeatable background (since the page is always 100% wide, to utilize all screen real estate). Alternatively, it could be a "split" logo where it starts on the left, merges into a solid/repeatable background color/pattern, then end on the right side of the screen. Just keep in mind that the site will not be using a fixed width, so it would have to dynamic enough to where we can still utilize 100% width.

**notes about the screenshot***

The auction widget and a few other features will not be part of the initial release. I'm still working on an event proxy for the sniper bot, and that's going to require a pure Java solution that taps into eBay's SDK directly.

Tell me what you think. The symbol on the left has no meaning behind it, it's just a random blob, but I thought it looked kinda cool. Blue & green color scheme. Simple, but effective.

Oh, wow - I just realized on the screenshot - NA auctions! If (when) that goes live, all my shit will be listed on NA.

You and I both! The auctions & storefronts are inspired by me being very tired of getting nickel and dimed by eBay. There will still be a fee (not at first though), but it will be a single fee, and a lot lower and based on the "if it sells" principle, providing motivation for users to list a lot of items. Amazon does this really well -- you can list thousands of items for free, and only pay when something sells. I personally think that's fair, though the 25% they charge is a bit steep.

I'm going to reserve all opinions on logo ideas until later on -- I don't want to steer entrants in a single direction based on my comments.

Here is my first attempt. Not sure what I think about it yet, but oh well. Lets get some submissions in boys, this is your chance to make a huge impact on the site.
~~NGD

I'm definitely gonna try this, got to busy for the corner stone contest. Do you still want the exact same "AGE" text in the logo? If you do, what font did you use.

It wasn't a font, AFAIK -- my younger brother did it a long time ago just as a mock-up. I've used it ever since only because I've had nothing else.

You guys are in trouble.

I was in trouble before I ever started, I only use Paint LOL. I really need to teach myself some photoshop so I actually have a chance with these type of contests.
~~NGD

First submission, wanted to try something different.

Uncletusk is all over this.  Watch out.

love the third person reference, always cracks me for some reason. NGD is LOL
~~NGD

Yeah, uncletusk tends to do that sometimes.  oops.

early submissions. Going less for a theme and more for a distinct logo to use cross-media. Some I like a lot better than others but I don't really throw out work, it's a voting contest so I'll leave it to you all.

dangevin 1


dangevin 2


dangevin 3


dangevin 4


dangevin 5

I like your first one the best Dan, looks nice. Maybe I should just go the logo route and not the whole header.
~~NGD

Looking good, inspires me to make MORE

man this stuff all looks real nice!!! to bad im no good with this kind of stuff... but good job so far everyone...

Dangevin, I like your logo #4 a lot.

Here's my first submission. More coming.