The AboveTopSecret.com Ad Banner Contest! (cash prizes)

Originally posted by bodrul
where can i download the font used for the ATS images
so i can use it ?

The big font used in the ATS logo, is called "Abduction", many sites offer it as a free download, GOOGLE for it.

The smaller "abovetopsecret.com" font is "Arial MT Rounded Bold", you may have this font already, depending on if some application had installed it. It is also available on many of the free font download sites.

Originally posted by thesaint
For those of you like me who know nothing about designing these kinda things you too can have a go.

Almost every proffesional program or software there is can be used as a free trial to download for 30 days in most cases.

Just do a search on "Free animated flash design" or "Web design editing" or anything like that and you will find those free trials.

I know nothing about design but have decided to give it a go purely because its fun

The only problem with that is you'd be using trial software for a commercial use (ie, monetary gain in exchange for a service provided), which is most likely against the trial version's EULA and therefore probably illegal.

Originally posted by DCFusion
True, there are no rules preventing anyone from entering, but let's face it, only those members with Photoshop, Animated .GIF skills etc. will win the cash prize, so no point in any one else trying.

Well that's the whole point, isn't it? To get quality work done? Online advertisements are notoriously difficult to get right. You're looking at two years of post-secondary education to just get an entry level job doing it.

In my opinion, I feel it would have been nice to have a variation that would allow all to participate, maybe an expert category and a beginner’s category, or something along those lines, with each one eligible for a cash prize.

At the risk of sounding elitist, which I assuredly am not, what is the point of a beginner's category other than to give money away for no reason? Would you give your car to your neighbor's kid so he can work on the transmission, seeing as how he's been unfairly shut out of the professional mechanic biz? I doubt it. That's just what's going on here.

Anyway, good luck to all involved, amateur and professional alike. Think I'll give it a shot too, no harm in trying.

Originally posted by Thousand
The only problem with that is you'd be using trial software for a commercial use (ie, monetary gain in exchange for a service provided), which is most likely against the trial version's EULA and therefore probably illegal.

feel free to paste a TC from abobe trial

not saying my versions a trial

Originally posted by bodrul
feel free to paste a TC from abobe trial

not saying my versions a trial

I believe the pertinent section is 14.4:

14.4 Tryout, Product Sampler, NFR, Additional Terms. If the Software is tryout, starter, product sampler, or NFR software ("Tryout Software"), then the following Section applies. The Tryout Software may contain limited functionality and is to be used for demonstration and evaluation purposes only and not for your commercial purposes. YOUR USE OF TRYOUT SOFTWARE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. SEE SECTIONS 7 and 8 FOR WARRANTY DISCLAIMERS AND LIABILITY LIMITATIONS WHICH GOVERN TRYOUT SOFTWARE.

They don't explicitly mention penalties.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Announcing the AboveTopSecret.com Ad Banner Contest for Members

* File size cannot exceed 20k for animated GIF or 35k for Flash (.swf files).

uhhhh what would be the size limit to standard GIF files? I have three basic ones I would like to submit, but want to make sure I am within the standards.


Coven

I got Adobe Flash Pro for this, but I can't seem to teach myself to use it in time. My animated .gif file is grossly over the 20k limit. It comes it at around half a MB. There's no chance I could just submit it anyway? It took ages, and I dont see how I can reduce the file size a significant amount without impacting on the visuals of the gif.

Stuuupid Flash Pro . . . too hard for me to use . . . mutter mutter . . .

is this contest still open?

I used flash in the beginnings but don't like it too much in the web.
naturally, banners are quite some special exception.

are animated .gifs allowed too? i prefer to keep the web non-animated.
so whats your needs in this case?

Update and deadline extension coming soon.

Extension of this contest is a good idea. This way one member here may be able to send in some entries after-all ... Just found out a couple of days about about his unfortunate demise but things like this can turn around soon enough.

So Bill.....what's happening there in bannerland?

Keep us updated as to what's going on and how things are shaping up.

Cheers.

Within the next couple of days, we're going to refine the contest and allow anyone who submitted to resubmit.

Many of the entries didn't conform to the guidelines, and of those that did, there's not enough variety for a real contest.

More coming soon... really.

I'll make something, if this contest is still going. Is it still same rules? Are there going to be diffren rules? I'm confused.

[edit on 13-8-2007 by martianvirus]

Originally posted by martianvirus
I'll make something, if this contest is still going. Is it still same rules? Are there going to be diffren rules? I'm confused.

You're not the only one??

Thanks for your reply Bill, seems like you haven't got what you needed from this competition yet!

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be re-submitting as I don't have the time or the inclination anymore. My eyes got square enough the first time.

I would like to make a suggestion though.......

Having worked in advertising and design for about twenty years, I know that a product is only as good as the brief that is given. Please supply complete and detailed information on your requirements to other contestants so they don't waste their time like I did.

This should not have been a competition in my opinion but a "job".

Very dissappointed.......nerb.

ps..what does your new promotions company think about this and what would they charge for the job?

[edit on 14/8/2007 by nerbot]

Any Update?
If you didn't have what you needed i'm ok to make a new one

Oh Good! I'm glad we can start back all over again on this because, for me, I felt I was just revving up on ideas for this contest when I sent in my 3 samples.

And the information that I was gleaning from Skeptic's posts in this thread was a search for a general global message for these banners based on those couple of samples he gave us on this. We also didn't have the luxury of viewing or listening to any ATS advertisements out there so this made all of ths more challenging because at least those ads would have provided us with SOME information on the clients likes and dislikes. All we had to go by were those 2 message samples that Sceptic posted for us and no other information other than that. So is it any wonder why I focused exclusively on a global message banner this first time round? Lol, no wonder we all had the same messages with no variety!

But now, based on those podcasts ads for C2C that were done by your advertising agency, I can see that it's ok to focus on one of the top ToPics presented in this forum for this banner ad i.e. UFO's, Paranormal, Shocking news reports.. etc -- solong as you tag on at the end that there's a whole lot more here on ATS too. If I had known this, then I certainly would have gone that route because it's so much easier to come up with an ad for ATS that way than trying to approach it from the global perspective as suggested by Skeptic through his sample messages. ATS is just so chock-full of forums and topics, doing it the global way for a very small banner is much harder than doing it the TOPIC way which is much easier. No wonder those podcasts were done that way.

I'm hoping there will be an update soon and I had a lot of fun coming up with some banners the first time round. All of which only took me a very short time to create (the 2nd one took me no more that 45 minutes to do) but if you look HERE, you see that that's obvious. LOL

I don't know why some here are even complaining because there's no way we could have come up with what they were searching for when we were given no information except for those global message samples that Sceptic gave us to create those banners.

And as I'm used to working closely with my clients where I send in several ideas just to test out the waters and get things off and running.. this is same way I approached this project regardless that it's a contest. I simply do not know of any other way to approach such projects than the way I've been doing it for years now -- and this includes my years working as a mural artist before I learned computer graphics. It's samples, samples, samples and more samples until one finally hits on what the client wants.

So here once again are MY BANNERS (warning, they are pretty unexciting) that I did for the first phase of this contest. I plan on doing a whole new set based on what I'm hearing in those podcasts for C2C. And these podcasts involved back and forth interaction between the PR agency and their client (ATS) to come up with those ads. It's all about the process of elimination. You come up with samples, show them to the client and then client decides what he likes and what he doesn't like. If there's another way to do all of this, I don't know about it.


Perhaps SkepticOverlord would be willing to use my banners to make some points about what ATS is looking for in a banner. I've posted mine here for the benefit of those contestants who choose to participate in this contest.


[edit on 16-8-2007 by Palasheea]

This is funny...
Last night a friend of mine said to me: "Honey, you're so naive, it sounds like this (the Banner Contest) was a scam just to get you guys to give them good ideas they can use in advertising to me." (I was complaining that there has been no update yet on this)

Then I said:
No waaaaaaaaay! That would be totally out of character of them to do something like that! I can't think of anything more absurd... or creepy, for that matter -- they would never pull something like that or else they'd lose the respect of everyone at that forum! Jeesh!

Then he said:
"If you don't forget about this contest then you can forget about the cruise trip this winter"

Then I said:
"Ok, I'll forget about this contest, dear".

But... I had my fingers crossed behind my back while I was saying that... lol

UPDATE PLEASE. THANK-YOU.

Yeah for real what are they doing *sleeping? I'd not like the idea of "getting ripped off of my ideas" with all due respect.I'm sure they're not rippin' anyone but it's just the delay which raise the question

Thanks Skeptic,I messed mine up anyhow.Who says you don't get second chances!

Originally posted by themaster1
Yeah for real what are they doing *sleeping? I'd not like the idea of "getting ripped off of my ideas" with all due respect.I'm sure they're not rippin' anyone but it's just the delay which raise the question

I doubt if they're "sleeping"!!!!!

Staff at ATS work their b@*#s off sometimes I'm sure, and I too, would like to be kept in the know.... I just wait patiently in the wings imagining just how many balls Mr Overlord is juggling right now. What will be, will be.

And as for getting "ripped off".......are you crazy? For a start, the banners people sent in are only in one size format and ATS doesn't have original artwork and associated files to create other size formats needed easily.

Unfortunately I won't have time to work on banners at the moment, but wish everyone who has and will, every success.

Pixel Pushing Rules

[edit on 20/8/2007 by nerbot]

I cant buy the stealing material line . i mean the worlds most popular conspiracey theory site engaging in its own conspiracy of putting up a flase banner contest to steal ideas ..

pleeeaassseee that would be the end for ATS surely lol