Interactive Design Competitions - Fees and Deadlines

Adobe Site of the Day
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm
Enter anytime
$Free

Favourite Web Site Awards
http://www.thefwa.com/
Enter anytime
$10

OMMA Awards
http://www.mediapost.com/ommaawards/
Due end of July
$375

Flash Forward
http://www.flashforwardconference.com/
every 6 months
$Free

Webbys
http://www.webbyawards.com/index.php
Call for entries opens September 19th 2006
$?

One Show Interactive
http://www.oneclub.org/os/osi/showcase/?year=2006
End of January
$?

Communication Arts Interactive
http://www.commarts.com/CA/magazine/comp/mag_ia.html
January 12, 2007
$100

How Interactive
http://www.howdesign.com/competitions/idc/
July 17th, 2006
$75

AIGA 100
http://slc.aiga.org/
March
$?

Cannes Cyber Lions
http://www.canneslions.com/home/index.cfm?CFID=333244&CFTOKEN=20962181
May?
$500-1000

Addys
http://www.aaf.org/awards/addys.html
January
$50-100 (Depending on membership)

OMMA Awards 2006 Finalist

CashBackBoulevard.com is a finalist for the OMMA Awards in the "Viral Campaign" category. The winner will be announced in New York at the end of the month at the OMMA Conference.

Adobe "Site of the Day" Award

I just landed my first Macromedia/Adobe Site of the Day! CashBackBoulevard.com was designed and illustrated by myself (with help from Bryan Beach) and programmed by David Mcguigan. Big day for me - and for Richter7.

World Trade Center Movie

I saw a sneak preview of World Trade Center and it was a very good movie. No politics, no glorification of violence, good moral values. Makes me glad I am part of the human race.

I Lava You

It's been a busy week. Here is the third project we launched this week. ILavaYou.com is a site created to get college students to sign up for a Zions Bank account and a free lava lamp. You can upload photos of you and your romantic interest and send the lamp. The faux wood paneling in the background is inspired by by parents basement decor.

Richter7 Rumble Invitation

Check out this invitation I created for Richter7. I had fun researching Lucha Libre (Mexican Wrestling). I bought some real wrestling masks on eBay and a cool wrestling arena made in mexico that is complete with hand painted action figures.

Zions Bank CashBackBoulevard.com Launches

We finally competed a major interactive project this week called Zions Bank CashBackBoulevard.com. I designed and co-illustrated it with Bryan Beach (I drew them in pencil and he finished and improved them in Adobe Illustrator). Cash Rewards is a program for Zions Bank customers where if you use your credit card at select businesses you get cash back. This game was created to get people to sign up for credit cards and to remind existing customers to get out there and spend!

I Took the Red Pill

I got a new job at Richter7, an ad agency in Salt Lake City. My title is Interactive Designer and I am having a great time. It is a welcome change. I have made some good decisions in my life. This is in the top ten.

XBox 360 Rocks

I finally got by Xbox 360. Holy cow. It's awesome. I have Burnout Revenge and the detail and sense of realism is staggering. You can see cars way off in the distance where before they were just jumbles of pixels. My hdtv displays the games at 1080i. Wow. Wow. Wow. I'll never be happy playing a first gen game again.

Zions Bank Equity Adventure Game

This is a new game that I designed and programmed for Zions Bank. Play the game and let me know what you think. See if you can get past level 4.

Apple Store in Gateway

Did you know that there is an Apple Store here in Utah? I just found out. It is over in the Gateway and it opened on November 19th. I haven't made it over there yet, but I have been in the LA location and it is a cool retail experience. Good design matters and Apple Store is a prime example. Don't bring your credit card.

Polynesian Cultural Center Map

I created this map recently for the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Psychology Today Article on Creativity

This is a great article on creativity. Here is an excerpt: "We are more open to insights from the unconscious mind when we are not thinking of anything in particular. That is why daydreams are so useful in the quest for creativity. Anytime you can just daydream and relax is useful in the creative process: a shower, long drives, a quiet walk. For example, Nolan Bushnell, the founder of the Atari company, got the inspiration for what became a best-selling video game while idly flicking sand on a beach."

You Gotta See "Hoodwinked"

Trust me on this one. The critics didn't like this and I wasn't too excited to see it, but I took my kids to see it anyway. We ended up laughing through the whole movie. Definite future DVD purchase for the family.

My New Position Announced (sort of)

Okay, so I got this new position at the church - I've been promoted! See the company newsletter? Yay, Me. - Oh, wait - just a minute. Dang. It says MAX Maxwell - not Matt. I knew that I couldn't trust that Max guy!

New Redesigned Intel Logo

Hmm. Sort of a boring new Intel logo. At least the old logo had something memorable about it. The new version joins the ranks of the kajillions of other logos that are surrounded by an orbit swoop. Kinda sad. -But what do I know? I guess they had their reasons.

Maybe they hired these guys to do their logo (note that there are THREE long web pages of swoop logos). Here are more swoosh links: Link 1, Link 2.

And finally, a funny site that pokes fun at swoosh-wielding designers. Note the links on the last page in the sequence on this site.

Finally Got OS X Tiger

I bought Apple OS X for my Powerbook and for the most part it's worth the money. The Widgets were cool at first and I downloaded a million of them, but one by one I realized that most of them were unnecessary and I ended up with just a few. They seemed to be hogging my processor. What is really nice is Spotlight. Basically it is a search tool for your local files that works great. As you type the search terms, the list dynamically changes and the thing I am looking for ALWAYS ends up at the top of the list - it's almost spooky.

EyeTV EZ

My Mac is now also my TV - and my video game console - and a DVR. This new product from elgato.com costs only $150 and lets you connect a tv antenna, svideo, or RCA media jacks to your Mac. It also functions as a DVR - sort of. You can't pause live tv, but you can schedule recordings and your Mac will automatically turn on and record them.