Announcing the Winners of the “What Do You Have To Say” Theme Contest

Update: After the winners of the "What Do You Have To Say?" theme design contest  were announced, it was brought to our attention that the design of one of the winning entries was not an original work, as the contest rules required, so it was not eligible for a prize.  “River at Night" designed by Teresa Jones is now the First Place Winner and “Live and Learn” by Li Kim Goh is now the Second Place winner.  Our judges picked a new Third Place winner: "Vector Drips" by Terri.  The winning themes were selected from 355 entries based on outside voting and an internal judging by Six Apart designers. A People’s Choice Award was also awarded to heythisisnoah's theme “Shiny” which received a total of 1,733 votes.  Congratulations to Terri for joining the winners!

We talked to the winners to find out more about their inspiration to enter the contest. Second Place winner Li Kim Goh said that blog design was important “because it draws readers' attention and makes your blog stand out from the millions of other blogs.”  First Place winner Teresa Jones agrees that design brings readers to the ‘essence’ of the blog. She said, “Blog design is that first good impression, and it also usually gives us an idea about the blogger's personality and style. On a lot of occasions too, you get an idea of what kind of content you can expect during your visit...think about it - what good is a cone without the ice cream?”

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest.  The winning designs will be incorporated into TypePad as well as Vox and LiveJournal.  We'll keep you posted here when we add the winning designs to TypePad.  Congratulations again to all of the winners!

Comments

[hewn & hammered]

I think it's great you've had this contest, but when will the winners of your original theme contest have theirs added? 6A staff has said 3x over the past 2 years that eventually the winners and many of the other entrants will be available, but it's been well over a year since the end of the contest and they are still not available on Typepad.

Is that plan officially dropped, now?

[Jane Doe]

Hi Moe,

At this time, all of the Style Content themes can be used with an Advanced Template set. Since the styles are available in this way, we don't know if or when these styles will be added as pre-defined themes. If you need any help setting up one of the Style Contest themes on your weblog, please feel free to ask for assistance by filing a Support Ticket under Control Panel > Help.

[lmj (alias hez)]

Like, Moe, I, too have been waiting for the Style Content themes to be added. Yes, we can add them through Advanced Templates, but I, personally, don't like to mess with all that. I like to just click a theme and try it out - maybe I'll like it and use it, maybe I won't. I hope the folks at 6A will consider adding them as pre-defined themes for our convenience. Thanks!

[Beria]

Hello everybody!
In the very last minutes of the contest I submitted some designs and I never expect to win first place. At this time I want to apologize for the misunderstanding and be clear that was never my intention to take advantage of someone else's design! I was announced as a winner but my design was pulled out because I've used scrappbooking elements on my composition. They were from Shabby Princess and I already apologized (and congratulated) to them! I'm new on digital scrappbooking and I DID NOT KNOW the rules. I used the elements because the short time I had left to create something and I ended up running as winner! I regret not doing a completely new and original design that I'm sure I have the talent for.
Again, I apologize to Shabby Princess. You are the winner!

Also, Congratulations to all the winners, and I specially loved Terri's design! Yours is the best of all for me! Congrats!

[Rose]

When will any of the new themes be added to the Design Assistant online? I want to let my guest authors help me pick a new theme, and the Design Assistant *would* be the best tool -- but it doesn't include any of the new HP/Vox themes.

Guess I'm spending my afternoon taking screenshots of the new themes on a demo blog... unless there is a better alternative?

[hewn & hammered]

Actually, Typepad Support, contestants and folks watching the style contest were told - two years ago - that at least the winners and maybe all the entrants would be available as part of the stock available styles when the contest was over.

I'm just wondering why the language to that effect was removed from the style contest site, and why this never happened. I've been waiting awhile for some of those, but after the problems I've had with using advanced templates - it's just not worth the trouble since I'm not very technically adept - I'll just wait for you guys to fulfill your process, even if it takes another two years.

[Account Deleted]

When, when, when? I know that I only have a basic account or whatever...but seriously, I would like to use these themes and it seems to take forever to get new themes. Come on guys...help a sista out. Either let us use these themes or create/let us have access to other new or cool ones. Okay, thanks.

[Krissy]

Hi Kristi - We just added the first, second and third place winners' themes. Just search under "New themes" in the Design tab. We'll be adding the remaining contest winner's theme next week!

[hewn & hammered]

Hi Krissy. Those remaining themes were never added as you said they would be back in June. Is there a timeline for this?

[Ginevra]

Hey there - looks like we added the four winning themes, plus

Beautiful Day
Blooming Garden
Whimsical Night

was there another one you were looking for?