TN Banner

Greg L

April 2008:

Thanks to Mark Terrano for a new springy banner!

March 2008:

As you might have noticed, we've emerged somewhat from winter and I've reinstated the banner from Chris Dodds.  At some point, I might switch us to something more emphatically "springy," but I have yet to see the flowers emerging with any real force here in Philadelphia...

11/29/07: 

Thanks to everyone who sent in stuff.  Though it was a close race, Richard Page's submission came in with the most votes.  TN is now settled in for a long winter's blog.

11/26/07: Winter banners so far... (tomorrow is the deadline!)

from Richard Page

from Richard Bartle

from Bziomek

from Amanda Cosmos

from Tripp Robbins

Awesome!  Many thanks!

For what it's worth, here's the one we've used in past years, which is taken from the snowy woods of northeastern Pennsylvania:

11/15/07 Update:  So recently on a bus in Daegu, South Korea, I bumped into Mark Terrano, who, in addition to working for Hidden Path Entertainment, did that cool TN butterfly banner.  He was wondering when we were going to have another round of Terra Nova banner submissions.  Answer: How about now?

The current banner (which looks kind of "Highlander" according to Mike Sellers) was something I worked up from a photo I took on the Isle of Skye a few years ago.  But it looks like winter is soon to arrive here in the North, so it's probably time to switch it for something a little more chilly.

I'd really rather not call this a "contest" this time around, since there's really no prize, and we tend to like everything that you all submit. But, in short, if anyone with spare time and creativity wants to send in your "winter" banner ideas for popular display, please do.  What we're looking for are original, copyright-problem free,  900 pixel x 105 pixel, 30K or less,  JPEG files to be sent to the good old roaringshrimp address (see the about page).  And see the stuff below for ideas, but think "winter" rather than spring.

The deadline will be midnight Nov. 27th.  As before, if you send us stuff that looks good, I'll be posting it here so that folks can see what fabulously creative pixel-wizards our readers are.

p.s. Also, since last spring, you might have noticed I've started doing tiled matching background images that appear outside the 900 pixel width of the blog.  I can probably whip up something in a pinch, but if anyone wants to send in a wintry tiled background to make my life easier, feel free. :-) 

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6/15/07 Update -- Now featuring the awesome butterfly banner of Mark Terrano.

3/31/07 Update -- After counting all the votes, it looks like Chris Dodds (Christo) of Icon, Inc. is the winner.  It's really a pretty banner.  (And btw, Icon is located in Melbourne, Australia, where Spring looks an awful lot like fall -- so thanks, Christo, for putting up with our borealocentrism.)

I should also note that a majority of the TN judges suggested that we could do a rotation of these submissions, using some of the great stuff that folks created in the future months.   And I think that's what we'll do (with credit, of course).  So if you submitted something you'd rather not see at the top of the page someday, just let us know.

Thanks again.  We were really overwhelmed at the quantity and quality of the banners.

3/27 3/28/07 (update) -- Wow! We got a bunch of entries (11) (22!) for our Spring Banner!  Many thanks to our creative community for taking care of our design work.  (And if anyone has procrastinated, you've still got til midnight today). 

The next step is that I'll direct the TN authors to this post and we'll convene in the virtual star chamber this week to reach a decision.  But I firmly believe that all contests are somewhat silly and that creative work should be appreciated outside of artificial rankings.  So, just so that you can tell us where we go wrong in choosing among these, here's what we have received so far:

From Chad O'Neil:

From  Dave Levinson:

From Rory Starks

Two from Andy Havens:

Five (!!!) from Mike Michael Chui:

And from a Mike Michael Chui & Andy Havens collaboration:

And in under the wire, Sean Duncan:

And at the 11th hour, we've got two new sets, one set from Chris Dodds:

And these from Mark Terrano:

Again, thanks to everyone for submitting banners -- I'd be happy to have any of these at the top of the TN page.

Honestly, there are so many drop-dead gorgeous banners here that it really feel unfair to choose just one, but I guess that's what we said we would do.  We'll try to reach a decision before April.

Original Post from 3/20/07:

The snow is starting to thaw in Philadelphia and elsewhere -- it feels like it's about time to ditch our
winter bannerscape. 

Our past Spring banners have looked like this:

I could dust them off and drop them in place again, but I'm thinking something new would be more fun.  Does anyone want to take a shot at a seasonal Spring '07 TN banner?

If so, send us a 900 pixel x 105 pixel [ed: sorry, forgot that before] 30K or less JPEG file to the roaringshrimp address (see the about page) and if we get a few submissions we'll have a vote of the TN authors to pick a winner and do a post giving credit.  (If you come up with something nifty, you should post links to files in the comments here as well.)

Of course, graphics would need to be original.   (The photos above and the current snowy trees were both backyard shots.)

Update circa Vernal Equinox: I forgot to give a deadline -- let's make it the 27th of March.