THN Banner Graphics Competition

[Ronin Storm]

I'm working on redesigning the THN Hub, the front page that currently doesn't do a lot. We've had various aspirations for that page in the past but as much of the activity for THN has been at THN Games we've not given it much time.

I've got the shell of a new design put together but I'm stumbling on two main things: a banner and site colours. Now, I figure that I can use colours from a banner to imply site colours, which leads me to this...

The THN Banner Graphics Competition

The aim is produce a banner to go at the top of the THN Hub page, seen at www.thehavennet.org.uk. Don't fret about the content that is there currently as that's all going to be archived and replaced with the new content.

There are some constraints, listed in the rules below. However, from a design point of view, this is a relatively green-fields piece. As long as the banner can be associated with THN in some way.

Haven has kindly provided access to a collection of master images for the THN tree, but do not feel obliged to use them unless you want to.

Here are the rules, such as they are:

1. The banner must be exactly 937 pixels wide, or 935 pixels wide with the intention to have a 1 pixel HTML/CSS defined border around it.
2. The banner must be no larger than 100 pixels tall.
3. The banner should not be any larger than 150Kbytes, though a little leeway is available. Less than 100Kbytes would be ideal.
4. The banner must be available in any of PNG, GIF or JPG format for final use.
5. The "master" banner can be in any format but Photoshop is somewhat preferable if available.
6. A copy of the master banner must be available to the THN Admins (so we don't potentially end up with a banner we can't tweak some months down the line).
7. Any member of THN can enter, providing they have an activated account at THN Games.
8. No more than 3 entries per member.
9. All entries to be made by 12:00 GMT Thursday 7th February 2008.
10. Optionally, the image can be designed to allow for tabs to drop down from the bottom of it. These tabs should not be defined on the image, just that the image could be designed to allow for easy "merging" of tabs to the bottom of the image.

The winner will be chosen by vote by the Moderators and Administrators, not including any Mod or Admin who enters the competition. In the event of a tie in the choice, the final choice will go to me (as I'm the one building the site). This vote will (aim to) close 22:00 GMT on Friday 8th February 2008.

Prize is currently being discussed but, at the very least, some nifty title will be on offer, quite possibly the first graphical title proclaiming the winner the Uber-Artist or something. Oh, and you get your graphics on the front page of www.thehavennet.org.uk too!

Questions, comments, praise and submissions in this thread please.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Oh, yeah, if you're actually thinking of entering, please could you post in this thread so I can get a feel for how many entries we might be looking at and thus how many Mods/Admins I'm going to need to round-up for the discussion and voting?

 

[Traxata]

I'll probably enter

Ronin, whats the theme you're looking for as that will help some of us come up with something better than off the top of the head

 

[Macca]

I think that's what Ronin is looking for. He wants you to decide your own theme. Just aslong as the banner has the right dimensions and filesize etc .

 

[Traxata]

Yeah, but if thats the case, the site is going to be produced around the banner

 

[Ronin Storm]

Yep, that's about the shape of it. I've given you a space to fill. The colours for the rest of it come from whatever ends up being the winning banner.

Theme really isn't terribly important from an HTML point of view.

 

[Traxata]

Well.. heres the first attempt I didn't really go with any sort of theme other than 'games' on this

I was thinking about the fact that we do, do other stuff but over looked it

JPEG : 141KB

PNG : 468KB

PSD : 12.9MB Banner PSD

 

[DocBot]

That one's really nice trax, but if I may suggest it; try changing the colour of the text. With the yellow and purple in the background the text gets slightly hard to read. I'd maybe try white with red outlining, or something like that. Or just go with any colour of a lighter shade.

 

[Colrob]

theres my noobish attempt lol, had to get a joke in it too

I know it should be blurs your vision, but I can change that if someone actually likes it!

 

[Traxata]

That one's really nice trax, but if I may suggest it; try changing the colour of the text. With the yellow and purple in the background the text gets slightly hard to read. I'd maybe try white with red outlining, or something like that. Or just go with any colour of a lighter shade.

I had them a sort of yellow at first, I changed the colour and added the globe after xD I'll sort that out later

 

[Sephiroth]

i like yours tarxata the idea of showing the better part of the games that are played is a good idea...
and that writing looks like something i've seen before im having de ja vu lately and its starting to annoy me. but i like the writing too it looks fairly awesome ^^

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Really nice, trax. The edges on the renders are really accurate Im cack handed at cutting those things out. The one thing I'd do if it was me, apart from border the text, would be to overlay the renders so that they are all in the same colour pallette. As it stands, the big mesh of different colours (especially the neon purple/yellow globe) is a bit garish, a bit of equalisation would go down nicely I think

 

[lt.kirby]

Well.. heres the first attempt I didn't really go with any sort of theme other than 'games' on this

I was thinking about the fact that we do, do other stuff but over looked it

JPEG : 141KB

hehe i added a few things

dont count it if you dont want to, just playing around..

 

[Ronin Storm]

With the yellow and purple in the background the text gets slightly hard to read.

Yeah, I agree with DB here. The text is too hard to make out on that background. It needs to be obvious that you're visiting THN.

 

[Traxata]

Really nice, trax. The edges on the renders are really accurate Im cack handed at cutting those things out. The one thing I'd do if it was me, apart from border the text, would be to overlay the renders so that they are all in the same colour pallette. As it stands, the big mesh of different colours (especially the neon purple/yellow globe) is a bit garish, a bit of equalisation would go down nicely I think

Uhh yeah ... I totally cut those out myself

haha no I find them on the web mostly, unless they all suck then I do them myself, I got one picture of the guy from Coded Arms and cut him out used him for the background and colours then deleted him lol
Lasso tool for the win

Yeah, I agree with DB here. The text is too hard to make out on that background. It needs to be obvious that you're visiting THN.

Right I don't know if a variation on the first counts as another 'entry' or not its just for showing differences really ;p

 

[waterproofbob]

I don't like that blue, far too blue.
All you need to do is have a play with the planet and the writing so it is easier to read. Kinda like the first blue one just without the blue.

 

[Traxata]

Like this bob ?

 

[Ronin Storm]

Right I don't know if a variation on the first counts as another 'entry' or not

Sometime early next week I'll post asking for each artist to nominate their best three contributions and those will be their entries. I'm not intending to just browse this thread looking for images posted.

 

[Traxata]

Sometime early next week I'll post asking for each artist to nominate their best three contributions and those will be their entries. I'm not intending to just browse this thread looking for images posted.

Cool, because I think here is a pretty solid banner from me , though the captain is a little dark..

125KB though :/

 

[KillCrazy]

I like the silver colour to the writing, it seems to fit the images well.