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APRIL 2012 WINNER – CHUCKY

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Hail to the king!

Big congrats to our new King of Comments, who is actually very well known around these parts.

Grant Shepley (aka: CHUCKY) is a designer that has created some of the most memorable designs ever to grace our contest. Not only that but he is a champion when it comes to giving feedback on design submissions.

CHUCKY is worthy of being a King of Comments because of his positive nature - he is never hurtful or condescending.

He tells it how it is, but still gives helpful feedback whilst being a gentleman.

This is why Grant makes a good King:

1. “The idea is here, could of been executed better with more colour and textures. Perhaps the butterflies could of all been different bright colours :)”

2. “Pretty cool! Would definitely work as a tourist type of tee. Lots of work put in here too.”

3. “Even though you have used 1 colour, it works perfect. Epic design!”

CHUCKY’s most recently sent through his super old school The 21st Century Eye Test design. This was definitely one of the most popular designs of Open Theme April 1 and was slugging it out with the best-of-the-best for the top spot.

Whenever we see one of his designs come through we know it will do well. This has nothing to do with having a large following (which he does), but rather the fact that his designs are always mega-unique and well executed!


Why not say hi to him on his Springleap page.

Well done Grant dude, you ROCK!

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MARCH 2012 WINNER – EFFIN’SWEET

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The king ascends…again!

Well done to Effin’Sweet who once again takes the crown, becoming our King of Comments for the second time.

There is no doubt in our minds that this man is one of the most helpful members on Springleap.

As I mentioned last time he won, his best quality is the fact that he is not condescending at all.
Effin’Sweet will let you know if you have done something that he feels you can do better, but will always give you some positive feedback to help improve your work.

When Effin’Sweet gives you feedback it is hard to take it negatively. It always seems as if it’s coming from a friend. This is the kind of energy that this guy gives off in abundance!

Here are just a few comments from the past month which illustrate exactly why he deserves to win:

1. “Haha nice little character design there.. poor guys got no arms though.. add to it and have a mouse nibbling on him.”

2. “Cool! looks a bit odd on the tee though.. think it’s because of the perspective.. I would add some subtle lines to show the walls inside to make the design more square and less lob sided.”

3. “adding some more texture detail to the car would definitely improve this design.”

Super friendly…to the MAX!

Effin’Sweet most recent submission came through for the Manentines day contest.
His design submission entitled ‘What every manly man Needs’ was one of the top favourites for the contest and made a great impression on the voting community. We can’t wait to see more from him!

Why not say hi to him on his Springleap page, Twitter, or ‘like’ his Facebook page.

Thanks to Effin’Sweet for his continued support of our community and for always getting involved!

WELL DONE :D

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FEBRUARY 2012 WINNER – VALKYRIE32

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We are always amazed at how our community has grown in recent times and we love that our members get involved with leaving comments on a regular basis.

There are however some members who take their passion for Springleap beyond making comments on our website and actually start spreading the word far and wide!

Our latest Queen of Quotes, Meagan (aka: Valkyrie32), is one of these amazing people who truly helps to grow our brand across various social media platforms.
Meagan is a Twitter guru who has been good enough to say some really cool stuff about our designs and hard-working team:

"#Springleap - good service, great products + wonderful team!"

When Meagan sees a design she loves she makes sure to let her Twitter followers know.
If you would like to become our next Queen of Quotes/ King of Comments, best take a look at how Meagan goes about supporting us :)

We like to show our thanks to our supporters. So guess what Meagan, we are going to send you US$100 and also hook you up with 2 free Springleap t-shirts…to add to your collection!

Please check out Meagan’s Twitter page. She will keep you up to date with everything from current affairs to the latest gadgets.

We hope you enjoy your prizes Meagan.

Thanks so much - we know we will be seeing you again very soon.

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JANUARY 2012 WINNER – XIAMIST

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Long live the Queen :)

Congratulations to our very first winner for 2012, Xiamist.

Wow, this is our third Queen of Quotes in a row. The girls are really showing the guys how it’s done. Nice one ladies!

This month we have a winner with a difference!

Xiamist (aka: Galaxie Maria) is one of those designers that we really appreciate around these parts. She has created fantastic community interaction by coming up with a clever infographic on how you can vote for ‘her’ design.

Her infographic is extremely helpful to our community, but at the same time it was also a rather clever way of racking up some votes for her ‘The Ultimate Nommage’ submission to our Marmite contest. Good thinking!

You can take a look at her infographic by checking out our original blog posting. It will educate and make you laugh all at the same time.

Marketing your own design is never as easy as it seems, but this was a truly fantastic way of getting herself some valuable design exposure.

Once again, well done, we hope that the community sees this effort and emulates your creativity.

Bravo!

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DECEMBER 2011 WINNER – CARIANNE

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We bow before thee!!!

The Springleap.com team sends out a hearty congratulations to our latest Queen of Quotes winner, Carianne Klein Katryn.

We are happy to know that more and more Springleapers are commenting on the multitude of designs that are coming through to our contest. However, there are very few who comment on practically all designs that come through!

Our latest Queen of Quotes winner is just such a person. She has gotten seriously involved in the commenting process and always brings an uplifting word for our hardworking designers.
Not only is Carianne a regular commenter but she is also extremely positive.

After a hard year for most designers it was great to see her uplifting comments coming through in December’s contests. We appreciated it, so you can just imagine how thankful our designers were to receive such a ‘gushing of goodness’.

Sometimes she will leave short to-the-point messages showing her love for a design, other times she will leave comments that help designers to improve their work, without being too harsh.

Take this one for example:
In the right screen, in the background the design is in a different shade of green and caught my eye immediately. The solid black almost looks "smudged" to me. I still think it's great :-)

Not only has this uber friendly member commented like crazy on Springleap, but also very prolifically on our ever growing Facebook page.

We are very happy to crown this latest winner!
Thank you for adding a bit of sunshine into our lives Carianne :)

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NOVEMBER 2011 WINNER – IZZICANE

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Hail to the QUEEN….again!

We are very happy to announce our very first queen (or king for that matter) to win this coveted compo for the second time.
Well done Izzicane :D

There are few Springleapers that put as much effort as Elzaan (AKA: Izzicane) does into her comments. She is fair, helpful and highly informative. There is nothing worse than getting a one word comment, which is why when she breaks it down so nicely, I think the designers really appreciate it.

It’s not just about the genuine comments that she makes on designs either. Elzaan takes it upon herself to speak about Springleap absolutely everywhere she goes. Yep, she is like a one-woman Springleap marketing team. You ROCK!!!

Check out her picture on the left, Elzaan even got involved in our Movember awareness campaign.
Hows that for being a good sport! Thanks so much....your are workin' that ponystache, hehe.

Congratulations Elzaan, we are very happy to once again give you a seat on this hallowed throne!
You more than deserve it and know that we will continue to see you around.

If you would like to read more about Elzaan, please scroll down a bit further and read her original Queen of Quotes write-up.

Just for the information of the other members: Springleapers can be Queen/King more than one, as long as there is a 3 month period between wins and that he/she cannot win more than twice in any given year.

Elzaan is a Springleaper who is adding serious value to our platform. She doesn’t hover silently in the background and really gets conversations going between voters and designers.

Well done once again, you well and truly deserve it!!!

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OCTOBER 2011 WINNER – WILBUR LIKE SMITH

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Monsoon, Assegai, River God?…..nope wrong kinda Wilbur!

All hail our October King of Comments, Wilbur Like Smith!

We are happy to announce a winner that really impressed us with his positive nature. Considering that he made lots of comments of our Positive Heroes competition entries we feel that he is definitely the right choice.

Wilbur Like Smith is one of those guys who gets involved and helps build the confidence of designers!
Honestly he comes across more as a friend and less of a critic, which is certainly a great quality that we look for in our King of Comments.
As with most people who comment, there is often a fine line between being helpful and just plain patronising of the artist work.

Wilbur Like Smith gets it right every time!

Just have a lookie at his comments and you will begin to see what we look for in a King:

“This is also a great pattern concept. Wanted to say that the logo could have been one of the four blocks, but I like the off-balance composition, nice work”

“Really like this as well. Would have maybe put the Positive Heroes logo above the shield, but it's great :)”

“I really like the image, but it's a bit comical for the topic :)”

You see what I mean? He is helpful and very good-natured in how he gets his opinion across.
Notice that at the end of every one of these comments he puts a smiley face…you can’t get more happily optimistic than that!

This is what our King had to say when he received the crown:

This is so orsm!!1! That's why I love Springleap!! You guys rock, apart from not just having great designs, fantastic print work, Springleap has gone and created a sense of community as well.

Winning this reminded me of something I read the other day, the words are by Feenix (designer of the Goodjoe logo) - 

"Everyday throughout the nation, ordinary people are doing small things, acts of kindness that make a huge difference in the lives of others and continue to inspire and provide hope to so many."

To all the designers, keep up the good work and good luck. Springleap's all about the designs and real people. (I still have to submit my first design)

Thanks again to Wilbur Like Smith. It was tremendous to see your comments coming through and we know we will see more and more of you in the future.

We appreciate all your hard work.
Enjoy your awesome prizes!

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SEPTEMBER 2011 WINNER – UNCLEHANI

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NICE ONE!

Time to crown our King of Comments for September!

Springleap sends out a big highfive to UncleHani for all of his contributions to the competition this month. It is great to see a Leaper who takes the time to get involved and give some feedback for our design submissions.

One of the best things about UncleHani is the fact that he is very to the point!
Now I’m not saying that he is rude, but he doesn’t tip-toe through the tulips when he gives his opinion. If he sees something that he feels should be tweaked he says so.

In many cases this is the most effective way to help designers out. They don’t want to hear false congratulatory nonsense, they want somebody to call a spade-a-spade and help them grow.

I liked these comments below most. The reason being he is so friendly and supportive of the designers work in both cases:

“Loveliest design, I like the idea of the baby, attached to the plus sign, big ups!”

“I love the message in this design "Life Never End", it shows that whether you are positive, it is no death sentence, big ups!”

He also made me laugh when he made a typo on one of his comments and then quickly ‘rectified’ his mistake:

“So lovey Macuz.”
“I meant lovely lol.”

Yup don’t wanna be giving the designers the wrong idea there, hehehe.

This is what UncleHani had to say about why he loves Springleap:

I love Springleap because it allows you to express yourself in a artistic manner, it keeps you out of trouble like drugs, crime etc. and I am thankful

UncleHani has sent through so many great designs to our competition. It has been really amazing watching his style develop over the past few months. His latest submission Sesame Street meets Twilight was a really fun design, which had us all in stitches here at the HQ.

Thanks again UncleHani…we know we will see you around!

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AUGUST 2011 WINNER – EFFIN’SWEET

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WINNER WINNER WINNER!

SUPER CONGRATS go out to Effin’Sweet for winning our King of Comments competition for August .

What we love about Effin’Sweet is that he is not at all condescending when he makes his comments about designs. He is helpful and gives suggestions for placement, but is never cocky or elitist when he does so.

It’s cool that he is always mega chilled and friendly!
So often we get comments that are negative and at the same time don’t give any worthy feedback to help the designer grow. We can all learn from Effin’Sweet in this regard!

Here are a few recent comments from Effin’Sweet which I felt illustrated his style of commenting:

1. “I quite like this one...out of the three I like the red version best, but I also like the red and blue version, I think that the randomness of colour becomes a bit busy, maybe try doing the Rev counter Red, speedo white and fuel gauge side blue.”

2. “Haha...cool glasses. If you break up some of the solid black it could look really good.”

3. “Nicely Done! I dunno why but I’m feeling like a slogan of sorts could have gone well at the bottom of the illustration.”

You see what I mean? Zero aggression or negativity....just useful and happy comments.

Effin’Sweet most recently collaborated with none other than local South African design guru, CHUCKY, to put together one of the most memorable and unique designs from the LEXUS  ‘CT 200h’ competition. There were so many people at the Springleap HQ who felt that this one was a winner.

To find out more about Effin'Sweet why not check him out on his Twitter page.

Thanks to Effin’Sweet for all the positive energy, we LOVE IT!!!

The Springleap team salutes you.

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JULY 2011 WINNER – MATSANNI

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Weeeee have a WINNER!

Well done to Sannidya (AKA: Matsanni ) for scooping our King of Comments prize for July .

We are always impressed with the awesome contributions this Springleaper adds to the website. Not only does he always have a positive word to say about a design, but he is also very helpful with insights that can help designers improve their work.

We often talk about the “balance” of the ‘perfect critique’ and how if you are too negative you could scare off designers , or if you are too positive, the designer never learns from their mistakes.

Matsanni has his comments down to a fine art and always seems to leave the designers informed and confident about what they produce.

Take these examples of his comments below for instance, if I was the designer I would be so amped about my design:

1. “BADASS character , I love the firm line, nice coloring and the distressed effect. I can’t imagine how cool I am when I wear this tee on the summer and I will wear the sunglasses, I don’t wanna have too much eyes LOL well done”

2. “Heya mr.Barmalisi
I always love your work. Overall, it looks great on a black tee, very well execution, but why don’t you put the design at the bottom? I guess it will be better. yay!”

See what I mean? He is open and friendly , makes you feel good about your design, but also shares insights in a controlled manner.

Many of you will already know Matsanni from his amazing winning design No place for Hubris! Which blew away the competition in the April 1 OPEN THEME compo.

So, not just a talented designer , but a helpful member of our community too!

You are a legend Matsanni, thanks for your contributions . You are most certainly the deserving winner of our King of Comments for July HIGH FIVE

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JUNE 2011 WINNER – BLEET

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Once again it is time to crown our monthly King of Comments .

Congratulations go out to Warren (AKA: Bleet) for his contributions and genuine feedback!

The designers he has helped will no doubt grow from his advice and comments.

What we like most about Bleet’s comments is the fact that they are critical without coming across as harsh …which is paramount to helping improve designers, without crushing their spirits altogether!
So often we have people making comments which come across a tad….well, venomous.

Bleet uses a bit of humour to get his message across, for example he said, “Reminds me of snakes and ladders, would have been cool if u connected the 2. Snakes and ladders with the dude, ok that concept is free, next one you will have to pay ;) “, haha.
Here is another example that I liked. Simple and to the point. He is critical, but balances his critique with positive aspects of the design, “The characters are a bit cliché, would have been way better if you made text out of the foam or something else, really well executed and the T colour choice is spot on”.

Bleet is already earning himself huge praise from the Springleap community and his skills seem to be growing at an exponential rate.

When you consider how good he is it is abundantly clear that he will very soon have his first Springleap victory under his belt.

It’s one of those ‘It’s not if he will win, but WHEN’ kind of a situations.
His latest submissions to the Hansa Pilsener ‘Special Ingredient’ competition stands testament to his growth. Until the last drops 02 and HANSA FLAGS are both highly rated by the community and stand a BIG chance of scooping the win!

Thanks again for the great comments Bleet, enjoy your prize ;)

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MAY 2011 WINNER – IZZICANE

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May has been another amazing month here at Springleap, both of our Open Theme winners were absolutely brilliant and we announced the winner of the Stepdog competition.

We have had an equally impressive amount of informative feedback and comments from the community.
The King of Comments, Queen of Quotes winner would likewise have to be somebody who really deserved it .

The great news is that we have our very first Queen of Comments.
Congratulations go out to Elzaan , aka: Izzicane , for her HUGE contribution to the competition.

What I really like about our South African winner is that she may not be a designer, but she is passionate about good design. Izzicane says, “I’m not a designer or arty person but I love creativity and a good shirt :)!”

Not only did Izzicane get involved with most of the submissions up for vote, but she also tweeted on just about every design too.
Wow that really is awesome!
Springleap appreciates you going out of your way to bring awareness to our designs.

Izzicane had loads of insightful comments, but this is my favorite:

“Great design Hanno, the layer affect really works well. I feel that the design or logo just needs a bit more colour though as it has a lot of white open space, which could be a bit distracting. Maybe if you put some more shading into the moon or dirty the white up a bit? Maybe consider enlarging the logo a bit as well to give it a bit more attention and like Maike said maybe place it closer to the moon. I love the hand drawn feel and I think you nailed the eerie and sombre feel you where going for, over a great piece of art.”

I like that she compliments the design, gives constructive criticism , but at the same time isn’t patronizing .
That’s the way to do it guys and girls!

Thanks again to Elzaan and well done!

Find out more about the King of Comments, Queen of Quotes competitions.

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APRIL 2011 WINNER – SIMON

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Greetings one and all.

First off, thanks to the community for their awesome feedback with the April competitions.
Seriously, we are lucky to have a community that goes out of its way to make constructive comments about design submissions.

It is usually a very difficult, or at least a close race, when it comes to making our choice.
However, April 2011’s King of Comments winner was a relatively easy decision for us!
This was because one Springleaper really went out of his way to make positive yet ‘helpfully precise’ suggestions.

Huge congrats and thanks go out to Simon for his comments which undoubtedly helped raise our designers A-game .

Here is one of his comments that I really enjoyed:

Hey, you know what, I am a GUY and I love the pink, so bleh! This gives me the feeling of a vintage cake shop, I don’t know why, but I like cake so hey, what the hell! This is one of those shirts that I reckon would be quite “fashionable” when worn with some nice dark faded jeans. It has a ‘vintageness’ to it, and that seems fairly popular these days. I think the way you’ve used the typography as the “chair” is a clever touch. Because she is sitting down, one would naturally be drawn to the “chair”, in this case your words. Looking at your design preview on white, I think the design has been placed too large. Another thought, I could see this working without the background pink and it’s containing border, so if the girl just sat on the words to the left or right of the bottom area of the shirt I reckon that could work too? Agree?

For those of you who have been Springleapers for a long time , you will definitely recognise this talented designer’s work. Perhaps one of the greatest ‘designers designs’ ever to grace Springleap, came from this man.
Take a look at the design on the left of the above image, CMY… was an instant hit with creatives and sold very well indeed.

How long is a piece of String? , feature on the right hand side , is another simple yet effective design that helped raise Springleaps cred back in the day.

Thanks again to Simon for being a true all-around Springleaper , who adds value to our platform and community.

Enjoy your prize ;)

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MARCH 2011 WINNER – ACME

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Hi there friends .

It’s time to announce our King of Comments winner for MARCH 2011!

It has been really fantastic to see so many people getting involved and sending through positive feedback to our designers.

We would like to send a big THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS to our winner acme !

This designer had plenty of helpful hints for our community of designers, whilst still being a nice guy ;)

Take a look at two of his comments below. This is just the sort of thing we are looking for from the King of Comments, Queen of Quotes winner:

“I think the concentric circles make it a bit stiff overall, specifically the outer ones . It could loosen a bit then it would be really great. The fist and electric shocks are the most powerful elements of this design so that should be the focus”

“That unicorn is EPIC! Would have loved to see more of the unicorn and clouds without the geometric elements though”

Acme is already very well known on Springleap!

You will surely know his hilarious Mule Bear and beach-arific Big Wave Challenge submissions.
Both were very well received and got impressive high scores . It is not a question of whether or not acme will win on Springleap, rather when he will win.
Which we have a feeling will be soon .

Most recently acme’s Happy Dolphin design made a huge impression on our March 1 OPEN THEME.
You didn’t know whether to laugh or be horrified , hehe, awesome work!

Thanks again acme, we hope you enjoy your prizes .
Please send us a few pics of you in your t-shirts ;)

So, who will be our King of Comments, Queen of Quotes winner for April?
Wanna get involved? CLICK HERE .

SL team.

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