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Want to Do an Icon? $300

Want to do an icon? We're looking for an icon for MailDrop 2.0, which should be available in public beta tomorrow. We've been through some ups and downs with our icon designer (no comments nor questions about this), and we're simply going to have a contest instead.

The rules are simple. Design one application icon and one document icon for MailDrop 2.0. Send them to us at icons [at] freshsqueeze . com and we'll have a look at them. Submissions must be in by November 18, 2004. We'll respond with our thoughts so that you can make changes if you'd like.

Read on for more.

The best icon will be chosen on the 19th and MailDrop 2.0 will be released on the 20th. The winner will receive $300 and a license to every FSS product we've got. All other submissions that are "halfway decent" will receive a license to one piece of software. By "halfway decent" we mean: we will reject anything that looks like someone submitted something just to "enter" so they get a license.

Here are our favorite ideas in order of preference:

  1. The FSS orange done up like a mail carrier, kinda like those 7-up dudes, carrying a sack of letters like this guy.
  2. A package (or multiple packages) attached to a parachute(s) dropping from the sky.
  3. A stack of letters with customized elements and a "photo" of the FSS logo paperclipped onto the stack.

Submissions will be judged on a few things:

  1. How tightly the icons adhere to Apple's recommendations for icons.
  2. How tightly the icons adhere to "the FSS style" (our other icons).
  3. Creativity and Cleverness.
  4. Ability to answer the question "What does this application do?"
  5. Icons look good at all sizes.

We do require a final icon available in about 500 x 500 format so that we can use the icon in various ways (graphics for the web site, etc.), but obviously the only sizes we're terribly concerned about are 128x128, 64x64, and 32x32. 16x16 matters just a tiny bit.

This could be a great way for a newcomer to earn $600 in cash and prizes as well as recognition. The winning entry will be posted here on the blog and used extensively. The winning designer will also receive a credit on the MailDrop product pages.

If you have any questions, contact us or post a question. Please post questions relating only to the contest.

9 Responses to "Want to Do an Icon? $300"

  1. Any chance we could get the orange logo PSD? I looked for one but couldn't find it.

  2. Y'all can ask for it if you'd like, and we'll send it. Ask at the address provided above.

  3. I'm sorry, am I completely missing something? I as well require a PSD or etc. of the orange logo for my rendition, but I can't seem to find the link you refer to, Erik.

  4. Folks, if you can't read the above enough to find an email address within it, I don't know if we want you working on our icons! Besides, it's right there in the "rules" section.

    Any artwork we send out is of course to be used only for this contest and for no other purpose. Use of our artwork for any other purpose is against the law.

    Just throwing that disclaimer on here too.

  5. The MailDrop 2 Icon Contest is still going on but ends in just one week. So far we've received a few submissions, but there is still plenty of room - and plenty of opportunity. Let me reiterate our top two...

  6. Any chance you'd be willing to throw in (or substitute) licenses for MailDrop and FTPeel, versions 2? We already own licenses to most of the others. 🙂

  7. Well, I said this:

    The best icon will be chosen on the 19th and MailDrop 2.0 will be released on the 20th. The winner will receive $300 and a license to every FSS product we've got.

    That will include MailDrop 2 of course. And if ya want FTPeel 2.0 when it comes out (no scheduled date yet) and already bought 1.x, sure.

  8. The MailDrop 2 Icon contest is over, and we have a winner: Mike Rohde. The toolbar icons in MailDrop 2 were done by mini-Buzz (aka Bobby). MailDrop 2 will be available just as soon as we get it done, which...

  9. MailDrop 2.0 Icon Story

    Okay everyone, time for a little horn-tooting PR for a “deisgn and icon” contest I won last week.