[Contest] Good designers ask "Why?"

[DeletedUser]

... and can answer the same question.

Preface

This is a contest. The idea of it has been brewing in my head for about two months and finally its time to carry it out.

Why the title? The way I see it, forum and in-game graphics by their nature are somewhat on a borderline between art and design, yet lean a bit more on design side, as they are meant to convey a certain idea or concept to an auditory. So the creator working on requests of said graphics become designers for the time being.

Good art is talent, good design is skill. With this contest I wish to encourage the participants to analyze their own work and to get to know what and why they're doing the things they do. This article explain the importance of "Why" better than I can: Good designers ask "why?"

Task

To enter, the participant must create a graphic representation of a tribe. The ways, means and elements are up to the designer. One can either create a fictional tribe, pick his/her own tribe, choose a premade, or even get hired for an existing tribe.

Most importantly, though, the participant is required to write a short "case study" for the work they've done, explaining their idea, concept, approach and reasoning behind it. Basically: why did you do what you did? A paragraph or two shall be fine. Here's an example of a logo design case study: link

Rules

An entry must consist of:

1. Tribe name and tag, a short description if necessary, so we know what the work is made for (for example, if tribes name and tag is "aa", mention whether it stands for aardvark or anti-aircraft)
2. The work. Which and how many of the elements (Tribe CoA, member's CoA's, forum signature, avatars, userbars, etc) you choose to include is up to you.
3. Case study. What and Why?

No pre-made work, only new one created within the timeframe of this contest.

One entry from participant. Entry can be edited, changed or updated any time within the timeframe.

No use of other people's artwork. There's plenty of valid reosurces out there, e.g. FringeFX Stock Garage, stock.xchng, DA resource section, PlanetRenders, etc.

The compliance with TW Forum rules is kind of self-explanatory, you don't want your clients banned, right?

Determining the winner

Jury members:

• violett - our beloved mod,
• rockerdish - the master of making other people's jaws drop when it comes to graphics,
• h0llygh0st - a veteran forum personality, member or leader of several successful and well-known tribes, an expert about forum representation,
• rewritable - me and myself.

Thanks to all jury members for devoting their time to this contest.
Respect and love them. No bribing, though. Seriously.

Prizes

1st place: 30 Premium Points
2nd place: 15 Premium Points
3rd place: 5 Premium Points
Special prizes: few PP to a few participants for any achievement as jury deems necessary.

Entry thread​

 

[DeletedUser]

1)
[spoil]

When creating this forum sigg for my tribe on world 1 (uk server) I decided to do it on the personality's of myself and my co player. This is shown in the comparison of colours, Black and White i felt that this was necessary to show the difference between us. Martin (the dark character) tends to hide within the account and doesn't join the debates and PnP and even Skype, I felt that this relates to him "hiding in the dark". Whereas myself whom tends to openly discuss his feelings and feels out of sort when I am not talking to other people. The relation between the sizes of the characters were also intentional as he has done more on the account than I have, so I related the size to that.

The tribe that i am involved in is W1N - World one noobs - http://www.twstats.co.uk/uk1/index.php?page=tribe&id=273.

I chose not to insert a tribal COA because the one that we have is a motion image plus I thought seems though it was meant to be a character piece then it wouldn't be needed. Although I have put the tribes TAG within the image. I feel that the writing of the image blends well with the image, it is very easy to read as well.

Macros
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2)
[spoil]

Tribe: They rawr, we ROAR!
Tag: ROAR!

..What I wanted to do with this sig was to make it unique and different. Where as most people rawr and most signatures are filled with colors, this is the quite opposite. The image used in this signature was drawn so in order to match it, the background was made in black and white. Another reason for the black and white is that it shows contrast within the tribe to show that they're not a one-trick monkey.

Other Info: The name of that image used in this signature is Hihio Zabimaru which means Baboon King Snake Tail in Japanese. The tribe is completely made up. I made use of the rule of thirds to place my image at a focal point on the graphic.

Geeky Stuff: The samurai believed that their katana was an extension of their souls, and Zabimaru is a zanpakuto which is the trademark weapon of a soul reaper. Each soul reaper carries an unique Zanpakuto: as the swords are both reflections of their soul and power. The Zanpakuto's name is also the name of the living spirit that empowers the sword and lends its strength to the carrier who wields it. Zabimaru's release command is "Roar" so that is the reason why I chosen it as the image.
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3)
[spoil]

Name:Ritual
Tag:Ritual

Description: The tribe is named as Ritual because their members perform Rituals on the players they rimmed as an offering to the Skull God. They believe that by performing sacrifices, the Skull God will be appeased and will grant their tribe prosperity and bring their villagers both health and wealth.

The skull piles are the skulls of those sacrificed. The Skull God's hand has a ball of light to show that he has just saw the victim and his hand is reacting in a way for him to reach out to grab it, and gain possession of it. There are blood splatters because during the sacrifice, blood will be spilled. The word Ritual is faded and enlarged to show the viewer that he is about to be sacrificed, therefore his vision is getting blurred as he gets nervous and feels like he is about to faint. The sacrificial dagger is what is used to bring the blood shed and appease the Skull God.
[/spoil]

4)
[spoil]

On W44 my tribe was called Party
This image represents the tribe,
Basically we were a festive group, :icon_smile:
We always were having a good time, no matter what,
We had a skype chat, and like the people in the picture, we were always using the dancing icon, :icon_smile:
We danced the night away every day and every night.
Our leader had to leave temporarily, to run something or other, :icon_sad:
So I was left in charge, me being co duke,
So we we're still dancing, and partying, but we felt like a piece of us was missing, :icon_surprised:
We gott into a war and got out again, vicotrius, but we our leader was still away, and we still felt a part of the community gone. :icon_sad: Then, my comp broke, and I couldn't remember the pass, (Whole different boring story)
So the baron, named noel vermillion, decided to take up power, and he merged some members with another tribe, to become the rank 1 tribe, :icon_smile:
I didn't ever get my account back, but I still talk to them on skype, those that remain, and now, with our leader back, (He left the world, but was still on the chat) we were back to partying, day and night, and having been doing so since, :icon_smile:
[/spoil]

5)
[spoil]Good Desingners Ask Why?

Introduction
I was aksed to create and design the grpahics for a Pre-Made tribe of my choice. Falling under the graphics catergory would be the Tribal Forum Signatures, Tribal Coat Of Arms, Tribal Avatars and Tribal Forum Avatars. I made all the graphics to link and match with each other sticking with the same colours and characters which kept my work consistant threw out the task. I was also incharge of coming up with the theme and and name of my chosen premade. The name I had chose was Dynasty Warriors after the game made by KOEI. I gained all the renders I needed from Planet Renders.

Tribe Name
Dynasty Warriors

Tribe Tag
~D.W~

Tribe Description
When Three armys become One they become the undfeated. This tribe is full of the finest warriors from the Three Kingdoms "Wei, Wu and Shu". as The tribe has harvested all the finest officers and leaders from the land there in no need for recruitment nor alliances. The only way of joining the Capaign is to prove your self in battle against the tribe and if suitable you may join and become a legend in the makeing....

Tribal Coat of Arms

Tribal Avatar
The Avatar would be Different for each player depending on what player (Title) they have chosen. The below Image is an example of the player whom took the name/player Zhou Tai.

Tribal Forum Signature Set
I have chose to do one of each, again the Signature can change on the character chosen, the below would be an example. Also I have given three posibilities. A legal sized signature with the example of Gan Ning. A spoiler signature which covers theme of The Wu Kingdom and lastly I gave it a go and made my first ever vertical Signature with the example Sun Ce.

Tribal Forum Avatar
Once more this would chnage depending on the Character and Signature chosen. The example again is Gan Ning and a cut from the original Signature.

Why???
I chose Dynasty Warriors because it had been a whilse since I had played the game when I came across it whislt tidying my room. I love the game and the characters and though it would be great to make a tribe based on the game. I think it goes well with Tribal wars as it is all about fighting although in the game it is The 3 Kingidoms whilst in Tribal Wars its like a thousand. I based my work gennerally on the Kingdom Wu because I like the colour red (and black) so decided to use that as a colour theme.

Speacial Thanks To:

KOEI the creators of Dynasty Warriors and the Characters and them I used.
http://www.koei.co.uk/

Planet Renders for providing the renders from Dynasty Warriors.
http://planetrenders.net/

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6)
[spoil]

[/spoil]

7)
[spoil]
I am of the belief that a tribe must have a well-humored attitude, but also a serious enough demeanor to get stuff done. I tend not to go for seriously rendered/c4d/prettied up CoAs. There's plenty of that from individual sigs/CoAs. A tribe needs a memorable CoA that people see and go, wow... That's interesting. I included links to most of the things I mention. If it has a linky, it ought to take you to something pertaining what it's connected to. That said, here's how and why I did what I did...

[spoil]Prelude

I was asked to make a CoA for -MARIO-'s tribe Bored!. He didn't have any specific requests, so I chose to go with the idea I had developed for a future tribe. I recently setup a hi-res scanner as part of a new printer I got. I had been itching to use the scanner function in a sig, and this provided the perfect chance. Both the sig, and the CoA were made with a mix of gimp, MS paint, and scanned hand-drawn images (some with ink, some with pencil). For the final CoA, I used one stock, and a render (whose exact url I cannot find. It came from Planetrenders though.) My general concept was to focus on what one does while bored. I dont know about you all, but in school I always doodle... I had a few specific doodles in mind, and I'll cover them as we go.

The CoA

I had two major ideas for this. The first one was of a child looking out of a window at a godzilla-esque world. I found a solid stock that fit my needs, but as time droned on I felt that I made little progress in making my idea realistically reach fruition. This is what was eventually pitched to -MARIO-:

[spoil]

[/spoil]

It did not turn out how I wanted, and he equally disapproved. It was scrapped, and I used it to help plan out my next attempt. This time I used a new stock. This one was much easier to work with, as it had a fairly well defined foreground, middleground, and background. This made rendering the boy easy, and it made meshing it all together look much better in the long run. This was what I initially came up with.

[spoil]

[/spoil]

I removed the background, and replaced it with a forest scene. Once this was all said and done I inked out some doodles, and scanned them in. I cut them apart, made a few edits to some via MS paint, did some touch ups, and then put them into the image in a pseudo-surreal scene. I wanted a wide spectrum of doodles, as they are very rarely all on the same topic, so in random order here they are: we have 6 holding up 1 as a shield due to it's fear of 7 (because 7 is trying to eat 9 *drumcrash*), we've got the first grader man with torso for head, every child's worst nightmare, a math problem come to life (Triangle with pythagorean theorum related numbers), there's a spooky ghost king (worthy of being the next Mario Party character... :icon_rolleyes, we've got a swordsman, and spearfighter dueling to the death, cupid is in there near the boy's arm, then there's a giant squid, and a baby demon. They're not absolutely perfect, but that was partially the point (and a handy byproduct of my inability to draw). With this completed I went for some feedback. The primary problems people had with it were the size of the creatures, and the background. They thought it fit, but the moon had to go. I decided to cut the backgroudn entirely and replace it with more doodles. The new background would consist of a sad rain cloud, a happy cloud, a tree angry that a woodsman is coming to chop it down, a flock of birds + one dragon, and Jack going up the hill to fetch a pail of water. I also cut a bit out of the foreground, as there was just too much there to make everything bigger and still have room to make it work. The giant squid was toned down, cupid, spearfighter, swordsman, and triangle all got taken out because I felt they were the most boring and bulky. The images got shifted a bit, and I added the tribe's name on the side. I put it on the side instead of the middle because I though it looked better with a "scrapbook" look to it. As though a parent collected the different doodles and put them in a pretty little package just for them. The background for the sidebar was me scanning a strip of newspaper, and the letters were made by me and also scanned in. Since there were two different parts in essence, I included two borders, one for the main pic, and another for the whole thing. Sort of dividers if you will. To cap it all off, I put my signature creepy strange fish/lizard thing in to munch on the exclamation point, because exclamation points taste good from what I'm told. I put him in because I thought the sidebar was missing something. Not sure what it was, still am not sure, but I think that fit the need. Without further ado, here's the CoA:

[spoil]

[/spoil]

The Sig

I was not expressedly asked to make a sig, but I had the inspiration for one, and was in the mood. This one was done 90% on paper, and scanned in. It is a rather silly sig in my opinion, making fun of two things. BP, and spiked barbs. Two of people's favorite things in the startup of a world, and both leading to immense boredom. Again, this was done in the doodle style, but this time I tried something I havent done in a few years. See back in grade school, when I was bored I'd draw extremely elaborate ways of squishing, melting, disintegrating, disemboweling, hewing, etc a poor defenseless stickman. Morbid, I know... But oh how entertaining it was. With this spirit in mind, I decided to see how many ways I could trap a poor little axeman contingent running into a spiked barbarian. You can count the number of reasons that axeman isn't getting out of that barb village alive. Initially the two signatures were supposed to be separate, but I had the room to include them both on one, so I did. The joke is rather old, and was the basis for another signature that I made for Pervis' Peasantry. I revamped it, and decided to hand-draw it as well. The idea is about the bane of all farming squad's existence: Beginner Protection. As for the actual labeling and bordering, I used simple line tools to do it, and then faded the opacity to match that of the pencil drawn sketches. I put a very transparent World 43 label beneath the phrase, and the tribe's name at the top, where the tribe name in a sig always belongs. The sig is finished by saying "Are you? Because we are". Echoing the tribe's actual name, "We b bored!". I do not leave room for an individual member's name to be included because I do not believe in it. It may sound silly, but if one is using a tribal signature, the driving point should not be the individual's name. It is the tribe signature. The idea behind being in, and leading a good tribe is eliminating individual desire in order to support communal success. Starting small is the first step in doing this. Just like a player should not snipe their tribemate's village, or choke them out due to over-farming, a player shouldn't plaster their name all over a tribal sig. In a tribal sig, individuals are not the emphasis, the tribe is. That said, here's the sig...

[spoil]

[/spoil][/spoil]

Well that's my take on matters. Have fun all, and on this note I crash.[/color][/spoil]

8)
[SPOIL]

The Writing Bit

Tribe Name : Combat Masters
Tribe Tag : -CB-

Descrition of sig :

The tribe is powerful, and has a strong presence within the world they inhabit with is shown by the large ogre type character. The Armour the character wears is strong and looks impenetrable just like the tribes army. The tribe wins all and any wars they are challenged to, as after all they aren't called Combat Master's for nothing.

The Tribal Sig


http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5444/combatmaster.png

[/SPOIL]

 

[DeletedUser51929]

hmmm, I love idea. Not sure if I'm good enough although I'd more like to do it for the fun of it =]

 

[Apathetic h0llygh0st]

I hope you will all dazzle us judges with your skills and ideas.
Lets see some graphics :icon_wink:

 

[jaysizzle]

i hope noone else enters so i can enter a stick man made on paint and get 30 premium points

 

[DeletedUser]

So the judging will be based primarily on the explanation, and in part, the graphic? My kind of contest. :icon_redface: Sigs that actually mean something are generally my forte...

 

[DeletedUser]

So the judging will be based primarily on the explanation, and in part, the graphic?

Quite the both. It is important how the graphic does its task at representing the tribe, and how the creator can explain the link between an idea and the elements in the design.

Though I'm not outlining any guidelines for judging, because I consider the judges expert enough and trust their opinions and values in graphics.

 

[DeletedUser]

Entry thread is now open.

 

[DeletedUser56488]

will enter 2moz

 

[DeletedUser]

Cant wait to see some good entries ;D

 

[DeletedUser]

From what depth of the ABYSS did the logic you insult the intelligent by pretending to posses come?! Answer me with nobility and reason, lest I cast you into the fiery pits of the damned for wishing such a horror on the eyes!

xD I loled.

 

[DeletedUser]

xD I loled.

Yep, that's a good blog. :icon_razz:

 

[DeletedUser45021]

Looking forward to some good entries

 

[DeletedUser83993]

If anyone is up for making me a perfect CoA for my tribe then message me...

 

[DeletedUser]

Just a reminder that this is still ongoing and prize fund of 50 PP is still yours to win. One week to go left.

 

[DeletedUser51929]

So if say one person enters did they win by default? or would the competion just be canceled?

 

[DeletedUser]

It won't get canceled, no matter the number of entries. I'll skip poll, probably, if there's just 1-3 entries, but the contest will be finished one way or another.

 

[Apathetic h0llygh0st]

If nobody enters the contest prize should go to the judges by default >_>

 

[DeletedUser51929]

I would exspect there donating the prize so either way wouldn't matter. I'd submit a square just to get the winning prize by default but in all seriousness. I'd reject the prize would be harsh to rob them of there premium when only one person was in the competion not really a competion in my eyes so no need for a prize ^__________^

 

[DeletedUser45021]

We should give them more time rewritable, considering that most people here are still in school and the beginning of the 2nd semester is usually the most difficult one (hence people are more busy).