Neowin HP Magic Giveaway winners

[tomwarren Veteran]

Neowin ran a competition last week where we asked members to make a Neowin logo out of real world elements and make it look as magical as possible.

We received 128 unique and truly amazing demonstrations of effort and creativity. You can view all the entries here. We made a list of the top 25 entries and asked the staff to vote on their top 10 from the list. Entries were given rankings based on a 1 to 10 basis. The voting was extremely close but there was a clear winner as shown below:

We'd like to thank and congratulate all the winners and everyone who entered the competition. We were very impressed with the entries we received and wished we had more prizes to give away!

The prizes are awarded as follows:

1st Place - HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC awarded to sawdustfarmer

sawdustfarmer by name and nature, a great example of the Neowin logo made from saw dust on a field:

2nd Place - HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC awarded to qwexor

Made with Canadian snow, qwexor used a peg in his backyard and made a couple of big circles by tying a rope around the peg. He then roughed out the Neowin logo and shovelled the snow out of the logo:

3rd Place - HP Mini 1000 awarded to factoid

factoid used a Nikon DX10 and a parking lot to create an artistic Neowin logo in the night:

4th Place - HP MediaSmart Connect awarded to sundayx

sundayx set up a D300 on a tri-pod and started drawing with the light from his Nokia in his hand (he couldn't find a torch) on a 30 second exposure to create this Neowin logo effect:

5th Place - HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO multifunction and a HP 564 Photo Value Pack awarded to rm20010

Watch out the magical batman Neowin logo is calling...

Rm20010 cut out the Neowin logo on cardboard and used his phone as a flashlight so the light would project a large Neowin logo onto the wall. For extra effect he placed himself beside the logo with a WTF facial expression. The camera used was set on a tripod, ISO speed to 200 and a timer.

6th Place - Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition awarded to Lechio

The work started with making a "frame" out of wire and by giving it a circular shape, after that was complete the central letter "N" was made using that same material. The wire frame was then inserted into a metal cup. The metal cup was then filled with small rounded pieces of acrylic, of different colors and opacity levels. In the central circle, transparent bright blue was used, for the letter "N" a darker blue was used and for the external borders an opaque white was used. After all of the different parts in the composition were filled, the cup was then inserted into a pre-heated oven for a couple of minutes until the acrylic melted. It was then taken from the oven and left to rest for a few minutes. Small adjustments on the shape were then made, and the borders were "polished". The picture was taken in the complete dark using a background light so that the transparent blue and the logo shape would be the only thing revealed in the picture:

7th Place - Corel VideoStudio X2 awarded to McDave

McDave made the neowin logo first by tracing the logo onto paper from his TV, then he transferred that image onto card and constructed a stand. Everything was covered by Paper Mache and sprayed blue. To take the picture he visited a local mall.

8th Place - Kung Fu Panda DVD awarded to neoraptor

The first thing that came to neoraptors mind was the idea with the pumpkin that transformed into carriage from "Cinderella". Unfortunately he couldn't find an orange pumpkin and horses so he had to improvise with apple. This made the job a little bit trickier since the apple is softer and it is harder to be carved with the knife. The end result was an impressive Neowin apple:

All winners have been contacted and their prizes will be shipped on or before the 22nd December. Please remember that the compeititon is still ongoing at other sites, check out the HP site for full details.

[Marshalus Veteran]

Congrats to all!

[Rob Veteran]

Very cool guys, congratulations! As you can see, with fifty staff members voting the winning places really did change with every vote! A close call but some truly artistic entries, nice one.

[pHaez]

This competition really was incredibly difficult to judge. There were so many amazing entries, that it took quite a while to pick out my favorites. I honestly wish we had more prizes to give out, as so many of you guys and gals honestly deserved a prize.

[Wannes]

Congratulations everyone. I'm still sad I didn't find the time to enter though I doubt my entry would have stood tall against these!

Congratulations!

[Hiveon]

How are the 3rd and 4th place winners using real objects to create their logos? They used fancy cameras and computers.. And the other one was just cut out.. like wth.. Wasn't the theme supposed to be "magical" ........"We asked members to make a Neowin logo out of real world elements and make it look as magical as possible." The first 2 didn't show magic at all. How is snow magical. I don't usually complain about crap like this, but half of those don't relate to the guidelines or theme to this contest. For all of you who think I'm just some loser complaining.. I honestly think the apple should have won.

Who else thinks there should be a revote.. lol

Edited December 10, 2008 by Hiveon

[markwolfe Veteran]

Congrats to all!

It was hard to pick out favorites from the selection. So many were unique, and required thought and effort.

Another great Neowin contest! (Y)

How are the 3rd and 4th place winners using real objects to create their logos? They used fancy cameras and computers..

Quit whining.

They used a real light source.

Captured on a camera.

Just a different method, and someone comes in to crap all over the contest. Way to go. :rolleyes:

[pHaez]

How are the 3rd and 4th place winners using real objects to create their logos? They used fancy cameras and computers..

They used a camera with the shutter open, and some kind of light source, and then snapped a picture while moving the light source to shape out the logo.

[fix-this!]

How are the 3rd and 4th place winners using real objects to create their logos? They used fancy cameras and computers..

hate to say it but i agree, congrats to all though, i was never good at competing anyways. :(

[Y2Stu]

wow great work from all the winners!

[giga Veteran]

How are the 3rd and 4th place winners using real objects to create their logos? They used fancy cameras and computers..

Light photons are real life elements. It doesn't require fancy computers or cameras--just a slow shutter speed to capture the light.

[Rob Veteran]

Anyway, no more arguments, let's just congratulate the winners - take any grievances up via PM with creamhackered (you love me man!).

[lykwid]

Congrats to the winners!

A lot of the entries by the winners were a lot more interesting once you found out how they made it. Maybe next contest you can incorporate a line where it explains what you did (to further appreciate the subtleties :))

[MChino]

Congratulations to all the winners some really innovative designs. :)

[Denis W. Veteran]

Congrats to everyone! And thanks staff :blush:

Extra congrats goes to McDave and factoid, whose entries I've also liked, and for factoid because his entry was so similar to mine, just as his and sundayx's entries both used light painting.

[Hiveon]

None of those responses answered the "magical" comment i made as well.

Just a different method, and someone comes in to crap all over the contest. Way to go. rolleyes.gif

And I'm sorry but when there are $6,000 in prizes i would expect you to stick to your contest guidelines.. I designed my logo specifically to meet the "Magical" criteria as stated was required.

[Rob Veteran]

None of those responses answered the "magical" comment i made as well.

Any issues you have, such as the semantics of the word 'magical' which you seem to be arguing, should be taken up with the contest organiser - creamhackered - via PM. That's a legitimate response.

There's always one...

[giga Veteran]

None of those responses answered the "magical" comment i made as well.

And I'm sorry but when there are $6,000 in prizes i would expect you to stick to your contest guidelines.. I designed my logo specifically to meet the "Magical" criteria as stated was required.

Magical doesn't always refer to 'magic' literally..

[tomwarren Veteran]

None of those responses answered the "magical" comment i made as well.

And I'm sorry but when there are $6,000 in prizes i would expect you to stick to your contest guidelines.. I designed my logo specifically to meet the "Magical" criteria as stated was required.

The main focus was the Neowin logo and making it as magical "as possible". It wasn't a dead set requirement for the logo to seem magical in crystal ball sense. Magical by definition is opinion based and one that our staff felt the winners achieved by voting in the way they did.

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

Great stuff (Y) congrats to all, i liked factoid's entry the most ;)

[cardg]

Grats to the winners, questions about the other works sent by pm :)

Edited December 10, 2008 by cardg

[Jigoku]

damn was sure I was going to get top 3 and I didn't even get into the top 10.. lol :wacko:

oh well now I remember why I don't enter contests! rofl

congratulations to all of the winners! merry christmas and all that good stuff

[Hiveon]

Magical doesn't always refer to 'magic' literally..

lol, considering the HP company image uses the first definition, you can only assume the contest would follow along with their products. (You're going to try to get me back on this statement saying, "well maybe you shouldn't have assumed" or some nonsense like that.) Anyway, w.e. way to screw up this competition.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Congratulations to qwexor

After I submitted my snow logo I checked the entries and I thought, eh.... I still got it. Then I came upon qwexor entry. It was 1000000x better than mine. I thought if I had to choose I'd give it to him.

Great job qwexor

I want to thank Neowin.net for a very clean easy to under stand and a very well layed out contest. I wish every tech site would conduct a contest in such a manor.

Edited December 10, 2008 by warwagon

[McDave]

sawdustfarmers was my fave, the skale of the whole thing was impressive.

Was weired when I took my picture everyone was stareing at us.