I’ve never been big on design competitions. Especially when the prize consists of your work being used without financial compensation. If you want good design, find a good designer and pay her.
That said, the Monson Snowboard Design Contest caught my attention because of the caliber of some of last years winners (I voted for Snow Burner and Relax 163) and because of the ultra-hip-hot-pants sponsors (k10k, surfstation, three.oh, designiskinky, etc.).
This year, the list of sponsors is longer and cooler, including Australian INFront and recent aov-linkers Coudal Partners. I thought about entering, but didn’t get around to it. Then yesterday, my good friend Ffoeg (the one in the yellow sweater-vest on Moses Media’s sweet xmas splash page) stopped by with his designs and encouraged me to whip up something quick. I did.
The trouble with a contest like this is, since the finalists are chosen by public vote, it’s more battle of who can design the best little-JPGS-shaped-like-a-snowboard rather than who can design the best actual snowboard. It’s hard to imagine these things five feet long. Still a fun excercise though.
Voting starts next month, but you shouldn’t vote for my designs, you should vote for Ffoeg’s drac or RoBo or one of these other beauties.
Some of my favourites include snowypeaks, flame, Giraffes Think, Paisley and pure novelty, see hotdog and slotcar.
Most clever entry: //STYLESHEET//. Best use of type (I tried to do something like this, failed, and gave up): racefortheprize. Generally cool: king of m.
Best entries so far, in my opinion:
Van Gogh Summer and winter. I can’t get enough of that Super-Mario-World-meets-Windows-XP soft gradient illustration style.
My humble entries are slice and blues.