As you may or may not be aware, I recently held a contest on my site. The basic idea was to design a magazine cover for Dubtastic (the detailed rules are on the site). The deadline was midnight EST, 4/22/2002.

There are 45 entries which I am very pleased with. I am more than happy at the turn-out.

I have a panel of judges so far, but I would like for you guys to help in judge the contest (assuming you did not enter). Your votes here will be weighted into the final score. What I need from you is your top 3 picks, and a reason. Since this is an art forum I figured we could add a little critique to it.

A winner will be announced on April 30th, 2002. So I will tabulate all the votes here on April 29th.

wow, that is a great turn out Dub. :)

I just took a look at some of the entires...man those are exceptional. You have some very talented fans. :)

Hey Dub,

I'm in if I'm not already :P

Can't remember... :)

I cant remember either, I don't think he asked me this time. :)

This is an open invite to all to post their opinions on the contest and pick their top 3. :)

1. http://www.dubtastic.com/contest/e_drowned.jpg

Most pro by far I think. Looks very nice :)

2. http://www.dubtastic.com/contest/e_shift22_05.jpg

Little of pro, little of "Damn, that's cool"

3. http://www.dubtastic.com/contest/e_shift22.jpg or http://www.dubtastic.com/contest/e_digiteyez.jpg

DMX rules, but that's one mean "happy" face. :P

Hope this helps you out a bit. Let me know if you need anything else.

Dub I will post my picks soon, here but first so people can go directly to the entries:

http://www.dubtastic.com/contest/entries.html

*don't forget to visit dubs site when your done though. :) *

Cheers.

Okay here are my choices.

I aproached this with the idea that this magazine was for designers and artists and was by the same types of folks so I had to set aside some of my usual set of 'rules' and guides for making magazine covers that are more or less standard across the industry. Look at Ad Busters for example, there is a mag that always breaks with convention, but of course thats what they are all about.

The selection is fantastic here with some incredible covers. Some of them would not be suitable for actual production but are supa nice nonetheless. :)

Here are my choices and a brief critique of each. The final decisions were made based on how well I think the mag adheres to Dubtastic.com as well as how well it would sit on the stands.

1. Drowned #33
The title pops out and is clean. The contents are organized nicely and easy to read. The Yellow 'Photoshop 7' works great in catching the eye and would be the key to selling this mag for me if it was a first time thing. The rest of the cover carries over the branding for the current version of the site. Good job.

2. Shift22 #04
Great job here, and in fact all of shift22's stuff is great, I really had a hard time deciding which one to choose it came down to this one and the one with the angry smiley. This one has strong visual impact and all the items are easy to read and interesting subject matter.

3. Steve #42
I loved the colors and simplicity of the cover. Nice design and interesting concept. This one would certainly capture my attention. It lost points with me in the treatment of the title (really minor though).

There were some outstanding works here honorable mentions go to Shade and Digitaleyez (readibilty and title was far too hard to read which is a serious drawback here, but other wise a visually stunning cover.)

Cheers.

1. #26 is the best I think. Its really simple but still cool looking. If I saw it on a shelf then I would definately get it. And its DIFFERENT than what you would normally see, or what anyone has entered

2. I guess #42 since its interesting and has good comoposition for a magazine.

I dont really know what to choose for 3rd since the rest dont have much apeal to me as far as magazines are concerned.

But If I had to choose then it would be #3 because while I really doubt I would buy anything like that, I think it is the most accurate representation of a magazine and the style magazines are done in out of all the entrees.

Dub had posted the winners but the post was deleted in the great SDC Art Forum crash of '02 maybe he would be so kind as to post them again. ;)

The winners are listed on the site...

First (http://www.dubtastic.com/temp/e_drowned.jpg)
Second (http://www.dubtastic.com/temp/e_shift22_05.jpg)
Third (http://www.dubtastic.com/temp/e_adamdras.jpg)

I have not advertised it, but the DVD the winner got was the Playboy Mansion Parties behind the scenes DVD. :)

Dubtastic has some great fans

Congratulations Dub, you have some awesome fans. I wish I had fans that dedicate their work for me :). Well one day once my site is up it may be as popular who knows!

Well great job on that! Don't forget to check my site for updates!

Take care

Thank god I didn't win, my gf would go nuts if that dvd popped in our mail :D J/K

I actually like no.2 the best, didn't really care for the winner, reminded me more of a table of contents than a cover?!? But obviously that's just me :)

I thought it was a lot more like a table of contents also. When I first saw it I actually thought it was a table of contents untill I saw the barcode in the corner.