Challenge Summary
Welcome to the TopCoder Studio Newsletter Design Contest.
This contest really is all about you, the community. TopCoder Design Studio is looking for your help to design it's very first newsletter for the Studio community. We want this newsletter to be fun and engaging and to include statistics, tips, member information, contests and many other things Studio related. Each newsletter will be unique and informative. The newsletter will be used in both email and web formats. The email host/client will take care of the web version of this email.
Please read the contest description and let us know if you have any questions.
Round 1
Your submitted design solution for a review.
1. Newsletter Naming
2. Newsletter Design Template - You can submit multiple designs
Round 2
All requirements as stated in contest details with client feedback applied.
The goal of this contest is to create new design for “TopCoder Design Studio” Newsletter. This newsletter will be send to our recipients emails on a weekly basis. The audience for the newsletter is you, the Studio community member.
For this contest we are looking for:
1) Title Name for TopCoder Studio Newsletter
- Provide us with different titles for the newsletter. "TopCoder Studio Newsletter" doesn't sound interesting.
- Your newsletter title suggestions must have "Design Studio" phrase inside it.
2) Design the newsletter template
Your design must take in consideration the new Studio logo and it's colors. We have provides logo placeholder contains style design (font and color) of the new studio logo in attachment document. It must be simple and elegant and represent graphic design community. We like the idea of hand drawn images, icons and social media icons. We are open to any designs idea that look:
- Hand drawn
- Sleek and stylish
- Digital looking
Design Requirements :
- Your template design width should be in size between 500 to 600px maximum. The newsletter will be send to our recipient email and many of them will see their email from preview pane which is usually a small portion of their available monitor screen.
- Keep your design clean and simple. Put into consideration that in the next development phase after this contest finished, your design will be converted to HTML table layout. Avoid complicated layouts, too many embedded tables, and tables with too many rows and columns. A simple two-column table or it’s variations with a row across the top is about as complex as you can get.
- Include placeholder to add the new Topcoder Studio logo later.
- Avoid using background images in your design as much as possible.
- Use web safe font
- Check for typos
- Keep a check on your font heirarchy
Content Requirements:
These are content elements that MUST appear in your template layout:
1. Header to include placeholder for Studio logo
2. Studio News and welcome message
3. Issue/Newsletter number or edition e.g. Issue #1
4. Analytics content:
a. Overview of Active Contests, Current Prize Payouts, Total Studio Members, Total Prize Payouts, Total Studio Contests run (Could this be categorizes by contest type, or size of contest?)
b. Studio cup leader/Monthly winner/Scoreboard or leaderboard
c. Studio Member of the month
We might want to add and rotate the newsletter content from week to week so please create and allow space in your design for the additional elements below :
- New rules and polices
- New member of the week/month (profile/handle/name/location)
- Stories from our designers
- Technology/Software trends
- Website of the week
- Skills/Tips and Tricks/Help topics/links for new Studio members
- Top section for message from TopCoder Studio team
- Section for currently active contests and links to contest page (Perhaps this could be linked directly to active contest page)
- Puzzle/Game or Trivia Question
- Client tips/stories from the clients/client approach
- Internal contests for free t-shirt
Notes : Please be creative, you can create one template design that accomodates all the "MUST" and additional elements in one screen with capability to hidden any elements without breaking the newsletter layout OR create several newsletter template design with all the “must” elements appear but only several additional elements added.
References about HTML email Newsletter :
- some design inspiration :
* http://bashooka.com/inspiration/25-beautiful-html-email-newsletter-designs/
* http://beautiful-email-newsletters.com/
* http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/create-send-email-newsletter/
- Explanation about HTML Email Newsletter :
* http://www.sitepoint.com/code-html-email-newsletters/
* http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/html/email-marketing-field-guide/
Target Audience
Our awesome Topcoder Studio Design community member.
Judging Criteria
- Cleanliness of your graphics and design.
- Proper implementation on your design for development purpose (HTML table layout).
- Uniqueness and Originality
- Creativity.
Submission & Source Files
Preview Image
Please create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024px JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi and place a screenshot of your submission within it.
Submission File
Submit JPG/PNG image files based on contest submission requirements stated above.
Source Files
All source files of all graphics created in either Adobe Photoshop and saved as editable file.
Final Fixes
As part of the final fixes phase you may be asked to modify your graphics (sizes or colors) or modify overall colors.
Please read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. It is important that you monitor any updates provided by the client or Studio Admins in the forums. Please post any questions you might have for the client in the forums.