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Reminder from the Calendar of MEFAwards FanArt Award Banner Contest begins Friday November 5, 2004 All Day This event repeats every day, until Sunday November 14, 2004. Event Location: MEFAwards YahooGroup Polls Notes: You must be a member to vote. Voting is done in the Polls section of the Yahoo site. Yahoo! Greetings Send a Yahoo! Greeting. Birthday Reminders Set up birthday reminders! ADVERTISEMENT

Copyright ©  2004  Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service

Hi all,
I went through the voting for the banners.

I saw many, many different designs for the banners.

I tried to choose for each category
banners which show per category a common design.
That was often not possible.

Though I did not make one single banner
(I thank all the artists for their work !)
I would like to propose for next time
to pre-set standards for all banners.
It looks now more like a hotchpotch of very different styles.
Often there is even in one category not one set of three banners
in a common design to be found.

I think, it would make a better impression
if MEFAwards had a common design framework
for all the different banners as to facilitate the
recognition of MEFAwards and the various placements.

And these standards should be polled IMO:
0) a standard for height times width
1) character-type of script
2) arrangement of picture with respect to frames
3) arrangement of script with respect to picture
4) arrangement of MEFAwards, year, category, name of the award, place
5) use of a different frame colour for first, second and third place
but in the same order for all categories
6) or when place is stated one distinct colour per category

OK, the standard height x width is for me paramount.

For me also the citation of the category is very important.
I for instance do not know what the "Shadow of Cuivienen" is
and that this has anything to do with Mystery.

Also now for non-expert readers nothing reveals
that "Cuivienen" is first place
and "barrow weights" is third place.
Therefore, I would prefer that a certain frame colour
assigns the placement and/or
that the placement is stated on the banner.

Frames I feel to be important as it is very difficult
to place the script in a standard set pattern
on very different pictures.

With a common set of rules
very different artists could deliver a more
congruent set of banners.

The banners will appear probably at various websites
and there in the alien surrounding it should also
become clear what the banner represents.
In this case not even a certain colour frame
transports enough information to tell the
visitor that the story achieved the third place in
the MEFAwards mystery category 2004.

I write this now before the analysis
announced to take place after all the polls
because I have just seen the problems
and they still crowd my mind.

Best wishes Elanor

(please bear with me, this is the first time I take part
in a banner award voting, so I am perhaps unusually surprised
by the very incongruous banners)

I was going to suggest this after the fact, but now
that elanor has brought it up ;) ...

If you think it would help clarify things, I would be
willing to take whichever banners win, open them in
Photoshop, and add a narrow bar at the bottom, saying
which place and category (or subcategory) the award
represents. I don't think a simple black (or
colormatched) bar would take anything away from most
of the designs, and the extra information seems like
it would be helpful. Just let me know, Ainae, if you
want to do this.

Regarding strict limits on the banners submissions
themselves next year, I'll save my opinions for a
contest post-mortem. :)

viv

--- elanor of aquitania <elanor@codacode.net> wrote:

> I would like to propose for next time
> to pre-set standards for all banners.

> And these standards should be polled IMO:
> 0) a standard for height times width
> 1) character-type of script
> 2) arrangement of picture with respect to frames
> 3) arrangement of script with respect to picture
> 4) arrangement of MEFAwards, year, category, name
> of the award, place
> 5) use of a different frame colour for first, second
> and third place
> but in the same order for all categories
> 6) or when place is stated one distinct colour per
> category
>
> With a common set of rules
> very different artists could deliver a more
> congruent set of banners.
>
>
> Best wishes Elanor
>
> (please bear with me, this is the first time I take
> part
> in a banner award voting, so I am perhaps unusually
> surprised
> by the very incongruous banners)

=====
Spacellama Palace: http://spacellama.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Viv [mailto:spacellamaprincess@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 9:20 AM
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Problems with FanArt Award Banners

>I was going to suggest this after the fact, but now that elanor has brought

it up ;) ...

>If you think it would help clarify things, I would be willing to take

whichever banners win, open them in Photoshop, and add a narrow bar at the
bottom, saying which place and category (or subcategory) the award
represents. I don't think a simple black (or
colormatched) bar would take anything away from most of the designs, and the
extra information seems like it would be helpful. Just let me know, Ainae,
if you want to do this.

I don't think it would hurt.

>Regarding strict limits on the banners submissions themselves next year,

I'll save my opinions for a contest post-mortem. :)
--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves," Elrond said, "for
it is Windows-compatible, and freeware at that." --H.F.

http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards
Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com

-----Original Message-----
From: elanor of aquitania [mailto:elanor@codacode.net]
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 5:45 AM
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MEFAwards] Problems with FanArt Award Banners

>Hi all,
>I went through the voting for the banners.

>I saw many, many different designs for the banners.

>I tried to choose for each category

banners which show per category a common design.
That was often not possible.

Vote for whichever single banner you like best. If you can't do that for a
particular award, just don't vote for that one.

>Though I did not make one single banner

(I thank all the artists for their work !) I would like to propose for next
time to pre-set standards for all banners.
It looks now more like a hotchpotch of very different styles.
Often there is even in one category not one set of three banners in a common
design to be found.

>I think, it would make a better impression if MEFAwards had a common design

framework for all the different banners as to facilitate the recognition of
MEFAwards and the various placements.

>And these standards should be polled IMO:

0) a standard for height times width

A definite. We tried to do this after-the-fact this year as Yahoo was
blowing them up so I'd have to shrink them again. Next year, we will have
better guidelines on size, though I don't think they will be as strick as
that. More like minimums and maximums.

>1) character-type of script

No

>2) arrangement of picture with respect to frames

No.

>3) arrangement of script with respect to picture

No.

>4) arrangement of MEFAwards, year, category, name of the award, place

No.

>5) use of a different frame colour for first, second and third place but in

the same order for all categories


No.

>6) or when place is stated one distinct colour per category

>OK, the standard height x width is for me paramount.

>For me also the citation of the category is very important.

>I for instance do not know what the "Shadow of Cuivienen" is and that this

has anything to do with Mystery.

That one I could live with.

>Also now for non-expert readers nothing reveals that "Cuivienen" is first

place and "barrow weights" is third place.
Therefore, I would prefer that a certain frame colour assigns the placement
and/or that the placement is stated on the banner.

No. Though 1st, 2nd, and 3rd could be stated in text.

>Frames I feel to be important as it is very difficult to place the script

in a standard set pattern on very different pictures.

Thus the script should fit the picture. Pictures are different. I would
want a pretty script for a picture of Eowyn as a princess. But not for a
picture as a warrior about to kill the Witch King.

>With a common set of rules

very different artists could deliver a more congruent set of banners.

But less would do so. Why? Because your suggestions would so stifle
creativity as to take all the fun right out of it. I made a LOT of those
banners. And I didn't think of myself as an artist or one who could do it
at all. But once I did, I found it was fun. I found lots of different pics
from the films. Some were brightly colored, some were dark, some were just
portraits that I put together with symbols or matched with other portraits.
And then other people posted banners that were completely different. They
had four pics of the same person. Or had really interesting shadowy text in
the background, etc. It's creativity, Elanor.

If I was more concerned with a congruent set of banners, we wouldn't have
made a contest of it at all. We would have just made one banner for each
award and said, "here you go!".

As I said about the fanfic contest, we will have a post mortem to discuss
what worked, and what didn't and what can be approved. And we can do the
same with the banners. But like I said for the fanfic contest, there are
some things for which I will not budge. These awards, for example, will
NEVER move from the comment-based voting. And I will not stifle the
creativity of the banners. I'd even like to open up to a more formal fanart
contest where people submit drawings and such (not banners) and members vote
on them (comment based or simple vote?).

>The banners will appear probably at various websites and there in the alien

surrounding it should also become clear what the banner represents.
In this case not even a certain colour frame transports enough information
to tell the visitor that the story achieved the third place in the MEFAwards
mystery category 2004.

We may do what Viv suggests and put a black banner underneath with the
category (if it's not already on the banner, as some of them do have that
info) and the placement. I originally didn't think that information was
completely necessary. I like the idea that someone whose interest is piqued
by the Shadows of Cuivienen Award might click on the banner and follow the
link to find out what the MEFAs are. And then they might join and
participate the next year.

Besides, what does it matter if the three banners match for the three awards
in each category unless the stories that win them are all on the same page,
let alone the same site? They will likely not appear side-by-side anywhere
but here.

>I write this now before the analysis

announced to take place after all the polls because I have just seen the
problems and they still crowd my mind.

>Best wishes Elanor

>(please bear with me, this is the first time I take part in a banner award

voting, so I am perhaps unusually surprised by the very incongruous banners)

It's, as far as I know, the first time for everyone as I've not seen this
done anywhere before. (They don't even do it for the Alt.StarTrek.Awards,
from which I borrowed heavily for the fanfic awards.) I just thought it
would be a fun way for some artistic folks to express themselves in these
awards. But like the fanfic awards' first priority is feedback and
competition is secondary, I see the banner contest as having a first
priority of presenting the basic information in a creative way. Matching
across categories or representing the MEFAs in any formal way is secondary.

And this is enough of this discussion for now. Any more, save it for the
post-mortem.

--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves," Elrond said, "for
it is Windows-compatible, and freeware at that." --H.F.

http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards
Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com