Now that I’ve launched this blog, it’s time to bring the community in on a matter of dire, mission-critical importance: I need a sweet image for the header. And you folks are just the people to help me out. If you’re interested in making a design, here are a few guidelines:
- Use fanart or sprites from awesome games (including, but not limited to, EarthBound) in your design
- If you use someone else’s artwork, you must get permission from the artist first, and you must also tell me what their name/username is so I can credit them
- Don’t use any text — just designs/images/pictures/art
- Your image must be 780 x 200 pixels
- Your image must be a .jpg or .png (no .bmp files!)
- This will be an ongoing contest, so there’s no fixed deadline (I’ll let you guys know if/when I’m no longer accepting submissions). Don’t forget to tell me your forum username when you send your image!
Email your design to me (reidman@starmen.net) when you’re done!
If you put even a minimal amount of effort into your entry (subtext: no 5-second MS Paint monstrosities), I’ll post your design in one of my updates and you’ll get a 
d-pad badge on the Starmen.Net Forum. If I decide to use your submission, you’ll get an upgrade to a 
gold d-pad badge. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with :D
Even though it doesn’t say, we’re certainly encouraged to use our own fanart, right?
This looks pretty cool. Let’s see those entries, folks!
I know I’m doing one.
Yeah, I’m definitely encouraging people to use their own fanart. I want these banners to be unique, not the kind of thing you’d see on just any gaming website :D
Can we send as many submissions as we like?
Any kind of spoiler warning or anything?
Hurrrr, my entry is funny. I hope no one stole my brain and submitted something identical to it. D:
@ Tim: Yes, definitely! You might even wait a day or two so you can see what kind of designs I like. I’ll be making an update a little later today to show some of the submissions I’ve already gotten, and perhaps I’ll make my own banner to help you guys understand the style I’m going for.
@ Koopser: Well, I guess its subjective. I probably won’t use any designs with MOTHER 3 spoilers in the header because, obviously, there are still a lot of people who haven’t finished it. So if you’re going to put spoilers in, make sure the game has been around for a while, and don’t make it too obvious!
Sounds great! While I’m not great with hand art (my brother hijacked those genes), I’m pretty good with computer art. I’ll definitely make a submission. Is there any sort of size limitation that we should keep in mind?
Kden, I’ve sent a banner to ya, Reid old chum.
I was going to make it a hi-resolution banner. But since it’s only for internet use, the standard 72 ppp is alright, yes?
I’m pretty convinced to make it Earthbound exclusive since I don’t know what to make. But then again, we’ll see!
@P-RO: Yup, normal screen resolution (72 dpi) is fine :)
Will the text stay on the left there?
Yeah, that text will be put there automatically, so you shouldn’t put anything critical to the design in that spot (unless you don’t mind having it covered up).
Out of curiosity, is other official game art besides sprites acceptable? I’m a big fan of video-game concept art, so I’m thinking about something along those lines, but if that’s not cool I’ll reconsider.
Yup, non-game art should be fine. Most of the entries I’ve received so far have used sprites or renders, so concept art might be a nice change of pace.
Is it okay if we use some beveled edges, shiny shines, and gradients a la Web 2.0? I know you use a bit of that in your other sites, yet fangamer so far looks a bit plain, in my opinion.
Hey sweet I just sent you my submission reidman. I hope you like it.
Well, I’ll admit that I’ve been a fan of gradients and rounded rectangles, but I can also claim to have liked them long before they became the flavor of “Web 2.0″ ;)
My Starmen.Net and Fangamer designs are going to be departures from my usual style, but you guys can definitely use whatever you like for the header design.
Hey, BackintheDayEB from Starmen.net here. I just spent a little over an hour whipping up a design of which I’m really proud. I’m sending it in, tomorrow as I want to sleep on it and decide if I’m going to make any changes in the morning. Adios, and good luck, Reid.
-Scott
Hahaha, I’m definitely not artsy enough to try and submit a full-fledged banner, maybe just the lettering, and someone else can contribute fanart to it, heh heh.
Darn! All my fanart is Mother 3-related. :( I’ll use some sprites.
Did you not get mine? I sent it to you but you didn’t seem to give me a badge on the forums.
Um, I got a D-pad badge, but it’s white. I thought it would be blue. Explanation, please?
Uh, I sent mine in yesterday, I have the badge, but it’s not in the update… ?
Wait never mind. I read your post today. disregard the ^^X above message
@Wiiplayah43: Blue on blue is difficult for color blind people to see.
Incidentally, it’s hard for everyone else to see, too.
You mention jpg, png, and bmp specifically, but no mention of gif, are animated header’s ok? They seem to be, so far, a grey area between allowed and disallowed.
I’ll probably accept anything you send, but I probably won’t consider it for use as an ‘official’ header unless you can keep it under 120kb. That could prove difficult with a .gif of that size, but you’re free to try ;)
Awesome!! I just sent in my header today! hope ya like it ;)
had to re send my header, because for some reason it hasnt been updated yet. Hope ya got it reid. I took like a whole day of school figuring out what to do and actually doing it. :P
Yea, i sent in my header today, i liked it…lol
I sent mine in a little over a week ago. I don’t know if they are even being accepted anymore, but…hope you got it! :)
I sent mine a couple months ago and I hope you guys are still accepting them. Thanks!
I submitted one recently and am doing another now.
I hope they are still being accepted!
I’m sending another one…
Oh wow, if this is still open, I’ll cook something up soon!
Just sent my first entry in. Not working with MS Paint is so frustrating (I just switched to a Mac). All the programs try to make stuff fancy with layers and all that jazz I just want to copy and past but noooo hahaha. Well I hope you liked it Reid.
Is this contest still up? I’ts been a while since anyone touched this site.