99designs fail.

A while ago I won a contest at 99designs for my online engineering education site design and was stoked.

Still, I never got to share all the failures I had in these online design contests. So, here we go, 99designs: The Fail Story.

In total, I submitted 8 designs to 8 different contests, some were just quick-edits of old designs and some were designs I made to WIN. That’s right, I had the win or bust mindset during the design process. I’d like to share two of the designs in the latter category.

Funny enough, the 3 contests I had the best shots to win at were engineering-related, which I’m taking as a sign to mean that engineering is truly right for me (I’m currently an electrical engineering major at THE U of I). Even though the two designs didn’t end up winning, I’m still proud of them. That’s the real reason I’m making this entry, to introduce two more designs into my portfolio.

1.   The Uno Design

This design was for a new invention that gained some big press. It’s a one-wheeled motorcycle that maintains balance for you through gyroscope-type technology and is of course gets pretty good mileage. It was designed by an MIT undergrad and if you want to learn more about it, here’s the site (using the winning design from the contest). There weren’t that many entries submitted into the contest, and I felt like mine was clearly the best.

In fact, the contest holder (the inventor of the Uno), agreed with me! He rated mine the best design out of the bunch before he made a decision. I thought that meant I was a shoe-in for the contest. Unfortunately, he ended up choosing a design that he rated lower than mine? That was a head-scratcher, but I guess they do things different at MIT (Illinois FTW!).

Anyways, I was really happy with the design, I even paid $3 at a pro stock image site for the texture in the background! Even though it lost, it’s still my baby and probably my favorite design I did over the Summer. It’s got a futuristic, sleek design thing going on. I dig the typography and main menu too. Therefore, I’m inducting it into the Thumbnail of Fame on my portfolio page.

2.   Quiet Acoustics Design

This one was for an acoustics engineering company (making sound ’sound’ better in rooms). I’m actually really interested in the acoustics field as it’s the only electrical engineering discipline that has sounded somewhat exciting to me. Not to be a pompous prick, but my design was by far the best out of the entries, BY FAR. Still, I didn’t want to get my hopes up because it was an engineer choosing the winner (hehehe).

So, when I got an email saying the contest was over and it wasn’t chosen, I wasn’t surprised. Later that day though, the contest holder contacted me and said he didn’t see my design and if he had, he definitely would have chosen it. He even offered me a sum of money that was slightly less than the contest winner’s money (still a good amount). In the end, that didn’t work out either.

Still, I’m proud of the minimalism I executed and the cool illy lines in the background. This one’s going in my portfolio too.

To cut a long fail story short, it’s a good thing I don’t design for the money. I do it for that feeling you get when you spend hours upon hours in Adobe Photoshop and edit each individual aspect down to the last pixel until you are completely satisfied. Wait, no, that’s the grueling process. Gazing at the finished product on my bright glossy mac screen is the feeling. You may say that’s loser talk, but eh…you’re probably right. At least I’ve got two new pieces to put in my portfolio sucka!