The Official SitePoint Twitter BackGround competition

**Dark Tranquility** · Mar 2, 2009, 03:23

It's contest time so let's twitter!

Spring is getting closer and you know what this means… birds singing, flowers blooming, blood pressure rises and love is in the air… and we go crazy and want to give copies of our very best design books… one that's not even on the streets yet!

But since there are so many incredible SitePointers out there, we need to choose the one that will deserve such a good prize. Not just anyone, but one that truly feels the artist within!

Do you think that you have what it takes? The imagination? The creativity? The style? Then, this contest is for you. Give it your very best shot!

What we want you to do

We want you to design the best Twitter profile background you can think/ dream of/ design. Why Twitter? Well, because it is the second best thing on the internet (the first, of course, is SitePoint).

Your limited only by your imagination, any theme and style will be accepted. That said, we will not consider entries that include any kind of political or adult references (including violence, or anything that may be offensive). We want good taste, no polemics. There are so many sources of inspiration, so use them.

How you can submit your entry?

You can send any kind of graphic format you may consider appropriate, as long as photoshop can open it. Remember that you'll be sending it by e-mail so don’t make it unnecessarily large. But just remember choosing the right format can help a lot rendering a good quality of your design!

Where you should send your master piece

You need to send it to forums@sitepoint.com

When you need to deliver your artwork

Before the 26th of March 2009

Who will be judging the contest?

Dark Tranquility (@khaled_ouanes)
Datura
Nadia P (@nadiap)
Varelse,
Ingoal (@Ingoal)
DaveMaxwell (@DaveMaxwell)
molona (@NuriaZ)

The prize

A copy of The Principles of Beautiful Design by Jason Beaird and a copy of the soon to be released book Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks… You’ll be one of the first to own a copy!
Prizes will be offered to the top 10 entries!!!

The rules

You can send as many entries as you want.
It must be original work.
The judges will decide which designs are the best.
The top 10 entries will be featured in an article on SitePoint.

Spread the word

Let everyone know! make it more fun and use twitter (or any other mean) to spread the word. For Twitter use the hashtag #SPTBC when you tweet about this competition. Retweeting the tweet of the judges and those of @sitepointdotcom about this competition will be really helpful too! Thanks

Important: Your entry may be made available for free download on sitepoint.com, therefore the entrant must release the appropriate copyright to do so.

**akritic** · Mar 2, 2009, 04:24

Tweeted!

This will be a great competition, looking forward to seeing the final designs! Good luck to all participants too

**Nadia P** · Mar 2, 2009, 04:30

Twittered !!

Looking forward to seeing some really cool designs.

**ShayneTilley** · Mar 2, 2009, 04:38

Tweeted from my account and @sitepointdotcom. Can't wait to see the entries. Good luck everyone.

**mpcovcd** · Mar 2, 2009, 04:56

tweeted

**Japh** · Mar 2, 2009, 05:29

I assume you mean 26th of March 2009 is the deadline?

Sounds like it'll be a fun comp!

**molona** · Mar 2, 2009, 06:53

Done as requested... tweeted

**Dark Tranquility** · Mar 2, 2009, 07:11

@japh Yep

**Dan Schulz** · Mar 2, 2009, 18:49

Tweeted from @danschulz - good luck, everybody!

**corbyboy** · Mar 3, 2009, 10:11

Sorry if I have missed the answer in the original post, but are we designing a background for Sitepoint to use on their Twitter account, or just a general interest one for anybody to use?

**DaveMaxwell** · Mar 3, 2009, 10:34

Originally Posted by corbyboy

Sorry if I have missed the answer in the original post, but are we designing a background for Sitepoint to use on their Twitter account, or just a general interest one for anybody to use?

Just general interest for everyone to use - though SitePoint MIGHT use it if they like it. You never know...

**kikykuang** · Mar 3, 2009, 20:38

tweeted, good luck to every participant
look forward to the woderful desings.

**lerxtjr** · Mar 3, 2009, 21:05

Hate to be a stickler here, but I've been tweaking my Twitter background design every week for the past two months...not for design flair at the forefront of my mind, but focusing on how many people visit my profile and follow me or come to my blog or friend-up at facebook. How will your judging be perceived if the coolest design wins but your follow percentage plummets?

**ShayneTilley** · Mar 3, 2009, 21:37

It depends on what your purpose for using twitter is. Not everyone is in it for the follow count, and find it as a value tool to keep in touch with friends. I'm sure we'll see a good mix of entries with some that focus on pure aesthetics, others that focus on coveting follows.

**Datura** · Mar 3, 2009, 21:47

Originally Posted by lerxtjr

Hate to be a stickler here, but I've been tweaking my Twitter background design every week for the past two months...not for design flair at the forefront of my mind, but focusing on how many people visit my profile and follow me or come to my blog or friend-up at facebook. How will your judging be perceived if the coolest design wins but your follow percentage plummets?

Both criteria should go hand in hand really

And what would the judging of a design have to do with how many followers there are?

Judging is done by individuals, we all have different aspects we like and/or do not, so in the end there will be a consensus of objectivity and subjectivity, just like it is in the real world

I would not worry about that at all.

-----

Good luck to the participants in finding the thing that will be appealing to the individuals that will determine the outcome. I look forward to some nice surprises. So bring it on

**Mihaela Lica** · Mar 4, 2009, 08:59

I wish you all good luck - and I can hardly wait to see your artwork. In the meanwhile, I posted an article on SitePoint's Web Design Blog:

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/...rounds-contest

Beautiful Twitter Backgrounds to Inspire You for the SitePoint Twitter Contest

I hope you enjoy the examples listed there.

There are also some Twitter background design tips, but I wrote those mainly for newbies, not for experienced designers.

**Dan Schulz** · Mar 4, 2009, 09:05

Off Topic:

Activated the link for you, Mihaela. (By the way, I love the signature.)

**Mihaela Lica** · Mar 4, 2009, 09:47

Originally Posted by Dan Schulz

Off Topic:

Activated the link for you, Mihaela. (By the way, I love the signature.)

Thank you, Dan! It's amazing we cannot post links to SitePoint articles in our own forums. Anyway, I've decided to become a more active participant here, so when my karma will be better the links will no longer be a problem.

I am now following you on twitter too. I am @miguelstil - just in case

**Dan Schulz** · Mar 4, 2009, 09:54

So I saw. And you're four posts away (GC and Intro don't count), so it won't take long.

**lweeks** · Mar 4, 2009, 13:53

I only have "Paint" to work with, so I don't think I stand a chance. LOL.

**Dan Schulz** · Mar 4, 2009, 14:10

Originally Posted by lweeks

I only have "Paint" to work with, so I don't think I stand a chance. LOL.

If someone can draw the Mona Lisa using only Microsoft Paint then I think you'll do just fine.

There are other free alternatives available, two of them being www.gimp.org and www.getpaint.net (the latter requires Microsoft's .NET framework to be installed).

**molona** · Mar 4, 2009, 14:47

Originally Posted by lweeks

I only have "Paint" to work with, so I don't think I stand a chance. LOL.

You can save your files using any of the most popular image formats, so I don't see a problem with it. True, it is more challenging than using Photoshop as your tools are limited, but you can supply that with imagination.

**Datura** · Mar 4, 2009, 14:57

Originally Posted by lweeks

I only have "Paint" to work with, so I don't think I stand a chance. LOL.

The software is really not important, even with a simple program and your artistic presentation can you make some wonderful images. Simple is sometimes better than some jazzed up image that screams special effects.

And like molona says, all we need is the right format to be able to see it

**TheBrewPig** · Mar 4, 2009, 16:31

The problem with Twitter backgrounds is that depending on screen size, resolution, browser etc.... you might have some of your background obscured.

Is there a recommended size for the backgrounds.. and how big to make the images visible to the left and right of the actual twitter panel.

I'm @TheBrewPig but haven't really done much with my twitter yet.

**Nadia P** · Mar 4, 2009, 17:59

Originally Posted by TheBrewPig

Is there a recommended size for the backgrounds.. and how big to make the images visible to the left and right of the actual twitter panel.

You bring up a good point. Not much good having a great looking background if half of it is cut off for the majority of viewers :-)

Not sure that there is a recommended size, but you are right, I've seen some twitter backgrounds that are lovely but they get cut off at the bottom, generally on the left hand side where they usually write stuff about themselves or their company.

I actually found this tutorial quite helpful. The dimensions given work well for the height, but you could probably add more to the right hand side of the twitter box if you really wanted to (this for a 17" monitor on a laptop).

Good luck :-)

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