To create a contest that's perfectly fair, we ask you to post opinions, so

A) You don't vote for yourself
B) You don't make duplicate accounts to vote for yourself
C) So we can see the reason why you voted.

If your vote doesn't have an opinion, it will not be counted. To make sure all is fair we ask you to judge based on the colors, the render, the positioning of the characters (not the characters themselves such as "LUIGI ISN'T THERE, IS SUCK"), the contrast, and everything else that makes a banner, a banner. And remember, if you vote for yourself, you're not only showing faggotry but your vote will be revoked until you fix it. Refrain from harsh criticism such as "it sucks dick, add more color contrast" because not everybody is as "good" as you. If you have criticism, SAY it, don't leave it open-ended.

Vote for a 1st and 2nd place.

The system will work like this
1st place will gain 3 points
2nd place will gain 1 point

Pikmintendo's banner.
https://2img.net/h/i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b426/Pikmintendo/bannerimproved-1.png

Zman's banner
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img46/2365/tndbanner.png

5gum's banner
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img40/2365/tndbanner.png

Skochko's banner
https://2img.net/h/oi53.tinypic.com/29popig.png

KDB's banner (bare with him, this is his first photoshop art)
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img375/5121/bannerjwpg.png

So we gain points and you will rank us?

Anyways, my vote goes to Pikmintendo. I don't like how there are so many characters in it and some are standing out way too much over the others, but they are well cut out, barely any are really of bad quality and I like the green border. However, I feel like the text should stand out more...

Good job everyone and thanks for posting your banners. Kudos to you, Drybones, for your first art, it is very simple and good looking. Rather unique... :]

OH MAH GAWSH I HATE *insert random banner here* CAUSE THEY DONT HAWVE CONSOME PAWNCHI! RAEG!

Ok, now in all seriousness I will have to vote for Skochko's banner. Now, the other banners do have their pros and cons, as does this one (the Nintendo logo could have a better color scheme other then that light gray. There's something about that I just don't like.) But the polish on it is amazing. Although he might have not used cut out sprites/images as much as other people did (Pik, Zman, Sparky) he did take use of his creativity by taking images from amazing Nintendo games and beautifully connected them with a marvelous transition. The cleanness is just amazing. I love it. Now I commend the other competitors for putting on a good show, a lot of their work was really good, except, for me of course, had a bit more cons than this banner.

To conclude, I vote for Skochko's banner to be the new banner of TND.
If you wish to see my review for the other banners I'll be happy to post that somewhere else or here if you'd like. Just ask and I'll gladly give you my review of those as well. Thank you, and good job to all the competitors! Jolly good show!

My Vote would have to go to Skoch's. its quite different, and stands out from the others, and i feel it represents nintendo and the forum very well.

RandomConsomePanchi wrote:Although he might have not used cut out sprites/images as much as other people did (Pik, Zman, Sparky) he did take use of his creativity by taking images from amazing Nintendo games and beautifully connected them with a marvelous transition.

Yea, I was going to make a similar banner with sprites and stuff, but I saw everyone is doing, so I kind of wanted something different... Maybe the next one will be like that xD

Given permission by TBY to be able to post the rest of the reviews here, I shall do that:

COMMENCE REVIEW:
Pik's: Now, I love the huge cast of characters his banner contains, but I believe it is too much, and thus crowds the entire banner. The gradient edges are too bluntly incorporated, and would be better if they were blended with the background. And the white shadow of the 3 main characters are still there, so it takes away from the effect as well. But it must have taken a long time for him to make it, so I commend him.

Zman's: Now Zman's was quite lovely at first. With the blue kirbeh and stuff, however. What struck me as odd was the uneven empty spaces there was throughout the banner. I don't know about you but I rather prefer that if there were empty spaces then to make them seem even and somewhat symmetrical. Eh, not that I look at it I believe it's the background that creates this effect. Those swirly colors overfill one spot and leave others stark bare with none of those swirls at all. Character spacing is quite fine. The only other problem I have a problem with is the "Nintendo Domain" title. The font doesn't stand out and isn't that amazing, and the color doesn't go with the background color it seems. Maybe it's just me, but it just seems too...awkward? I don't know. But in all it's quite well made, and having Mario in the center was quite a genius idea if I say so myself.

Sparkeh's: Sparky's banner sticks to the traditional theme of important and meaningful people on the forum to him, or everyone. (EXCEPT CONSOME PANCHI! Kidding, continue) I don't know. Of course, it is not chock full of everyone on the forum and does not have an entire cast of characters, which by the way were wonderfully and expertly cut out as well, it does stand strong in itself as a true banner. Only complaint I have honestly is the background, which seems to be made up of several kinds of backgrounds and gradients and sort of makes it seem choppy when the two meet. I don't know if this was intentionally or not, but my suggestion would to make it blend, as always. (WILL IT BLEND?) The smoother the transition between objects the better and more appeasing to the eye. No? But another thing I must add is that I LOVE the title design! The shiny colors give it a metallic feel and the lettering fits well with the feel as well. Excellent job on the title!

Skochko's: See above post

Drybones': For a first photo-shop, it's really good! The background is awesome for someone who just recently started using PS. And the Mario hat is quite clever seeing as he is most recognized as Nintendo's mascot. Kudos to you man, but sadly we are also judging on quality, so this does not meet the competition. But keep up this work and you'll be creating epic banners in no time! Keep it up!

And thus concludes my review of all the banners. Forgive me if I seem too mean or unfair, I'm just giving out the advice that I think would make the banner better to the eye. It is all on opinion, no? Every man to his own.

The End

GUYS, PLEASE VOTE FOR A 1ST AND 2ND PLACE!!

I have to say my vote goes to Skoch as well. The way he took the approach was unique and worked out well. It's very neat, and the text is great.

Second would be KDB's. It's simple, but pretty good.

2nd place? I'm terribly sorry. For second place I will have to go for Sparkeh I guess. I thought 2nd place was going to literally be the person who got 2nd most votes. Oh well. lol

Sorry TBY. I misunderstood you, like Panchi. My second vote goes to Gummy then. While it is really a close call, I liked the banner because of it's colours. Despite the obvious faults it has, it is still very nice looking.

I vote number one for Hop-Skotch (Skochko), his is colorful, uses the most popular games, and looks WAY the most professional. It looks like something you could see on a REAL nintendo site LIKE nintendo.com!

Number two is zman's. It uses good pictures for all the characters on it, not sucky brawl pics (Except for Mario, seriuosly, DDR?) It ls colorful, great work to everyone though!

1)skoch's must take my top vote,i previously said zman,but i looked again and made a final decision, skoch's just has originality and looks really professional,not aimaing for character cut outs,but different scenes from artwork,and the colors are really nice too

2)zman's one has sort of a similarity to what we have now,but with different colors, a very nice background, and a blend of popular charcters spread evenly, i just think skoch's was a little better pretty much for above reasons

Skochko's designs have always been relatively flawless, considering he has taken no classes or has no interest in the field, he has learnt by himself.

Skochko's design by far exceeds everyone else's, and this is not because of "Cutting out better" or showing "Cooler characters", no, Skochko's wins because his design is appealing. If anyone else had thought about points of interest, formality, and colour transitions, it is quite possible that they may have beaten Skochko, but as you can see, most other designs just have a few cut out Nintendo characters thrown onto a substandard background.

My vote does go to Skochko, HOWEVER, this is not his best work. The choppiness(?) separating all the characters does not create the same bubbly feeling that Nintendo and it's franchises express. Some of the separation boxes, i'm going to call them for now, are not of the same size, but it's really not that noticeable, in fact it could just be the nature of the characters in them, as well as their positioning. One last complaint is 'The' and 'Domain', Nintendo is so bold and visible it almost makes the rest of the title seem unimportant, it's all part of this site's identity, and therefore is all equally important.

/Crazyguyspeech, Vote goes to Skochko.

I say KDB's. I just love how it looks and it just makes me go hysterical.

To Marioking and Cranky: You need to post 2 votes.

Oh emm sorry. 1st: KDB 2nd: 5gawm

Looool at Cranky

I am guessing this is over. TBY, can you, please, post the final results? We should have another contest, but give people much more time to prepare.

Skochko wrote:I am guessing this is over. TBY, can you, please, post the final results? We should have another contest, but give people much more time to prepare.

A week is enough time to prepare. I've warned you guys about it.

TheBlueYoshi wrote:

Skochko wrote:I am guessing this is over. TBY, can you, please, post the final results? We should have another contest, but give people much more time to prepare.

A week is enough time to prepare. I've warned you guys about it.

Oh I know, but more time would result in better banners... Why wait now, when you can just setup a new contest that lasts for 2-3 weeks? We can change banners regularly or use them again...
Or, we can use this banner in the next contest as well, so if it wins again, it can stay up... It wouldn't compete as my banner, but as a previously used banner... So once it changes, the banner after it gets to compete until it gets taken off... Do you understand what I just said? Lol

I do, the previous banner is a choice for the next banner voting, great idea, maybe i should enter once