15/01/08
Coversourcing: Random House says….
Looking for a nod from the Coversourcing judges? Well, you won’t get that here, but the below is a post from Adam Humphrey, marketing manager at Random House Business Books, whose job it is to market Crowdsourcing: The Book. Adam knows a bit or two about the kind of book jackets that make the grade, and he runs us through his weekend viewing of the submissions.
So, the submissions are rolling in, and here’s a quick update…
Acejet continues to lead our beauty contest with a very classy piece of design, but other serious contenders in the form of msmetana [who actually now seems to have withdrawn their entry, and risks losing their votes so far by being deleted - ed] and specx, as well as relative newcomers yonialter with a striking humanised montage; koleslaw with a slinky black number; and MattCooperInLondon with a super-clean composition are raising the bar further.
Add to this a whole other bunch of innovative, well-thought-out designs (alongside the obligatory joker who submitted their - disqualified - design on a scribbled piece of paper, featuring a crowd of stick-men drawn in what can only be described as ‘pen’) and it’s fair to say that there is plenty of creative juice flowing heading into the swimsuits round.
Just as good I think are the considered opinions and in some cases, outright insults, which are being flung around with gay abandon. A Crowdsourced project by definition should always encourage comment, and it has been equally great to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here are my top 3 comments so far:
1. This is one of the worst designs but the designer has a lot of friends!
2. It also has a very large area suitable for a massive 50% OFF sticker
3. It looks like a crowd of zombies walking into the mist
With still about a month to go there’s plenty of time for a new contender to emerge from the pack, so keep on Coversourcing – and keep those comments coming too!
Adam Humphrey
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# Comment by Gaynor Gritzi @ 2:42 pm, January 17, 2008:
So why has my design been left off the list then?
It’s been on Flickr and properly tagged for 5 days now, but doesn’t seem to ever make it onto the list - so that’s 5 days of potential votes missed out on.
And there’s no contact information on the Coversourcing site to complain to.
I’ve complained to the author, to Random House (3 times - they’re impossible to get a respose from)
and now here.
This competition is a bit of a joke if you ask me.
http://slconceptual.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/crowdsourcing-whats-that-then/
# Comment by msmetana @ 10:03 pm, January 17, 2008:
Thank you, Adam, for liking my work.
Well, after reading terms and conditions more carefully, I realized that I’m not really eligible to participate since I’m not a resident of the UK or the Republic of Ireland. But hey, if you like my idea - I’m back in.
(I’ve got another treatment for the megaphone idea, but haven’t got the photoraphers’ permission to publicize the picture yet)
# Comment by Peter Collingridge @ 10:34 pm, January 17, 2008:
@Gaynor:
As stated on the site (http://www.coversourcing.co.uk/rules#submit). images need to be classed as photos, not illustrations or screenshots, to appear on the site, because otherwise Flickr does not index them, as you say.
Click ‘flag your photo’ to change the settings.
Cheers
James
# Comment by Peter Collingridge @ 10:35 pm, January 17, 2008:
Also - we have a period after submissions are closed for a shared period of voting to take place.
Cheers
Peter
# Comment by Gaynor Gritzi @ 12:09 pm, January 18, 2008:
Yes my fault for tagging my design as Art/Illustation rather than photo - but then you would wouldn’t you.