SKEPTOID BLOG:And the Winning T-Shirt Design Is...May 24, 2012 In going through them all, we found a great diversity of artistic styles and messaging. Some had great message but a lame design; others had great design but minimal messaging. In the end, we found one design that struck a great balance between a neat, attractive design, and a message of positive, science-based exploration. The winner of the Skeptoid T-shirt design contest is Sam Daley, a professional designer and animator in Brisbane. His design will be produced and should be available for purchase by The Amazing Meeting in July 2012. We liked that it's a cool design, worthy of a second glance by passersby, and shows the character utilizing a number of tools of science, reminiscent of the many subjects Skeptoid embraces. As a bonus, it even includes a nod to the Skeptical Eye and to the Illuminati pyramid, just for fun. Sam wins $100 cash, T-shirts (of course), a signed Skeptoid book and DVD, and a custom voice recording. Do please check out Sam's web site to see his demo reel. Super mind-blowingly awesome. First runner up is Ben Ivey. Just as we did with the winning design, we liked that Ben's catches people's eyes, and is stylistically kind of cool. The only mark it had against is was that we felt it pigeonholed Skeptoid into appearing to be a source of UFO information. Ben wins the same prize as the other runners up, which is a signed Skeptoid book and DVD and a custom voice recording. Second runner up is Russell Moverly. Russell's design actually won in the scoring department based on its great style. Everyone would love to wear this shirt. The only reason it ended up being relegated to runner-up status was that we felt its conveyance of the message of Skeptoid was lacking. Third runner up is Jordan Penny. We all thought it would look cool on a shirt. Some liked the icons; some didn't. Given a different subset of judges, this one might have won. In all there were about 15 designs that made it to the final cut. It's fair to throw a special mention here to entrants Patsy Szastkiw, Naomi Fearn, David Ramares, Shawn Luke, John Rael & Jen Brown, Paul Williams, Danit Falik, Alexander Medina, Tom Mullin, Keegan Gordon, and Noah Lewkowitz, all of whom prolonged the judging process. (Full disclosure: I snuck in a couple designs of my own under a pseudonym, and they did not make that cut.) One design in particular was a favorite as the Official Worst Design of the contest for some truly incomprehensible messaging; but don't worry, if you entered, I'm sure it wasn't yours. Keep you eye on the Skeptoid newsletter to find out when you can order your new Skeptoid T-shirt in the store. Thanks again to all who entered! @Skeptoid Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit |