We’re going to need a bigger podium.
The first-ever FontStruct competition is a wrap and we, the FontStruct staff, think it was a huge success. Thanks to everyone who played, commented, cheered, favorited and judged. Everyone came together in the spirit of play to produce some outstanding results. The high level of quality FontStructions made this sports competition nearly impossible for the judges to pick just three winners. I think Rob Meek summed up the hard task facing the judges when he wrote in an email:
“People produced some incredible and diverse work and every entry needed to be looked at in detail in order to try and make a fair judgement. I’m only glad that there are other judges.”
Continue reading…
First up, don’t forget to get your entries in for the competition! You’ve got just under four days left.
We made some very small changes to the site today.
Firstly there is a new version of the FontStructor. There are a lot of technical changes under the hood, in preparation for future enhancements, but don’t get too excited, there are no new features in this version. A few minor bugs should be fixed though. In particular, an annoying issue where the FontStructor insisted that you had unsaved changes when in fact you didn’t should no longer occur.
There is also one tiny change to the preview widget. You can now look at fonts at multiple pixel resolutions. Click on the “PXL” button to go to pixel resolution, then shift-click to zoom x 2. Click again to zoom x 2 again etc. You can also alt-shift-click to get smaller (zoom x 0.5). You can use the same technique to zoom out further than was previously possible – useful for getting an overview of some of those giant FontStructions.
That’s about it.
As always if there are any problems with the changes, please let us know.
Welcome to the first-ever FontStruct competition
The 2010 Winter Olympics have come to a close but the memories of daring triple axles, stratosphere-surfing Double McTwists, and barnstorming bobsled runs are still fresh in our minds. In the spirit of Olympic world-wide fellowship we are thrilled to kick off our first-ever FontStruct competition.
Competition brief:
This is a friendly competition amongst FontStructors to see who can create the best sports themed FontStruction. To enter, you must create and publish a new FontStruction that plays into the world of sports, athletics and competition. You can draw inspiration from your favorite sport, your favorite team, your favorite athlete, your favorite jersey, — whatever! Whether you want to create a slab serif or a script, a dingbat or a pictogram, we’d love to see it. If you think your submission has any kind of sports application then GO FOR IT!
If sports isn’t your thing, don’t worry. We want to keep the competition broad and encourage all FontStructors to join in on the fun. Keep in mind there are numerous examples of typefaces in the world that are not specifically designed for sport but work well in that context. Look no further then the recent Winter Olympics, where the Vancouver Organizing Committee chose the stylish Neo® Sans and the modular BD Brick as their primary and secondary typefaces.
For more sport type inspiration, check out: the Sports tag on FontStruct and my recent blog post on FontStructors and their love of sport. You’d also do well to browse through a few of FontShop’s hand-picked lists. See: Sports, Collegiate Athletics, and Sports Scrips.
Competition time period:
March 1st – March 12th
Eligibility:
You must be a registered FontStruct user.
Competition rules:
1. Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between March 1st – March 12th. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between the 1st and the 12th, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later then March 12th at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public until March 19th in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
2. Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “SportsComp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period (March 1st – March 12th) no FontStruction with the “SportsComp” tag will be awarded a Top Pick or be available for a Featured FontStruction pick)
3. Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction breaks the FontMortar, the submission will be disqualified.
4. Your submission must be a newly posted FontStruction. Simply adding the “SportsComp” tag to an already existing font is strictly prohibited.
5. For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
6. FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
7. You may enter as many FontStructions to the competition as you like.
8. This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
Licensing:
No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any Creative Commons license you like for your FontStruction.
Judging:
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by the FontStruct staff.
Formal judging period:
March 13th – March 19th.
Winner announcement:
Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Monday, March 22nd, 2010.
Awards:
Gold, silver, and bronze medals. Judges will determine winners and medal order.
Prizes:
Gold medal wins a copy of the coveted FontBook by FontShop International. An amazing prize this. FontBook is the most complete digital type reference in the world. Since 1991, “the big yellow book” has been the trusted friend of designers, typographers, advertisers, manufacturers, publishers, historians, and anyone else who uses type.
Silver & bronze medal win t-shirts from the FontStruct Shop. Winning this t-shirt will greatly simplify your wardrobe as you’ll never want to leave the house without wearing FontStruct close to your heart.
In addition, all medal winners will have their winning FontStructions posted as Featured FontStructions for two weeks starting March 22nd.
Have a question? Leave me a note in the comments and I’ll get it answered.
Ready…Set…FontStruct!
