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.

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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Thanks Ya'll.. im super stoked.. glad i could help out. and i'll aspire to continue the good comments and crits shoutBack 1 day, 13 hours ago by Valesidecc

Well done Matsanni! You continue to motivate and inspire the community :) shoutBack 4 weeks, 2 days ago by CathRon

Rock on Bleet dude! Well deserved :) shoutBack on 14/7/11 by DuncanBoxie

jeeepers shot dudes…thats awesome case of beers and cash…def quitting my job (just kidding dig my job.) but thanks my friends u da shizzle in the dizzle shoutBack on 12/7/11 by bleet

Well done Bleet! shoutBack on 1/7/11 by amyabrahams

Well done Simon. I especially log in to read your constructive and inspiring comments. I think you have done a great deal in motivating our designers to push the limits, so this win is well-deserved! Thank you for your imput and keep it coming! shoutBack on 4/5/11 by CathRon

Well done Acme! shoutBack on 6/4/11 by CathRon

Springleap gives you the freedom to be yourself!

Hahahaha, very nice! shoutBack 1 day, 21 hours ago by UncleHani

Nice design and really cool story going there…I love the fact that it promotes Springleap so well,after all,the more the merrier right? shoutBack on 28/5/11 by Joker

Haha simple and easy :) shoutBack on 1/2/11 by DuncanBoxie

awesome shoutBack on 7/12/10 by Sergio37

awesome shoutBack on 7/12/10 by Sergio37

I actually think this one is really clever! shoutBack on 22/10/10 by Jade

This is what happened to me when i found out about Springleap, an explosion of ideas and enthusiasm! Awesome!

/ girl haha shoutBack 4 days, 12 hours ago by Valesidecc

pretty wicked design guy shoutBack 4 days, 12 hours ago by Valesidecc

this is seriously cool, love the style. I like the guy. I think it could be a wee bit smaller on the tee though. shoutBack on 21/4/11 by Frunch

Love the idea bubble effect but the guy does not fit in to me, really love the color use. Maybe another character or just the bubble on its own. Nice work though :) shoutBack on 11/4/11 by Izzicane

mind = blown excellent design! shoutBack on 23/3/11 by GoldenAce

I had so much fun trying to discover what Springleap’s ESSENCE is.

To me, and surely to many of you loyal Springleapers, it’s mostly a tool to challenge yourself to be better. A better designer, a better illustrator, a better creative.

My T-shirt summarises this in a tongue-in-cheek illustration. Hope you like it!

4 Colours including the black.

this may be odd.. but i just told my friend to do his cars wheels these exact colours.. cool concept!!  shoutBack 4 days, 12 hours ago by Valesidecc

a bit dark shoutBack on 8/12/10 by PatrickNormandin

Cool concept. shoutBack on 7/11/10 by EranEyal

I like the biological / science feel this has, it’s differnet. shoutBack on 9/8/10 by simon

well done, something very unique and different which is very much what springleap is Its not as obvious and in your face as some of the others i like this one very much shoutBack on 4/8/10 by claudiosworld

=] shoutBack on 3/8/10 by sarahkamadao

great concept! shoutBack on 22/3/10 by Qimstudio

awesome concept. could have been displayed better, which is a pity coz it could have been unbelievable rather than just clever, but still think it’s good. nice job! shoutBack on 21/3/10 by Eric

i LOVE the concept.. i really do.. but i find the illustration looks like it came from a Biology text book. I think it has a great deal of potential. What if you took a comic approach.. like creating a cartoon of 2 different characters-1 having a rather large right brain. It is 1 of those situations where it’s better to let the viewer figure things out for himself than make it so in your face. Really well done on idea- love the blue & pink (bubblegum colours) shoutBack on 19/3/10 by cloMO

it’s kinda cool shoutBack on 18/3/10 by Styrofred

National Heritage Day is just around the corner!

While many South Africans now seem to prefer calling this special day “National Braai Day”, I feel it is important to remember that this day is all about the various cultures that reside within the borders of South Africa. This day is all about our heritage as a nation, the braai is merely the instrument of our togetherness!

Just to fill in the international readers, a braai is the South African name for a barbecue!
However it is so much more than just an open fire for cooking meat. It is a symbol of our joint cultures and is a pastime that every single person, no matter their socio-political background, loves dearly. Even the vegetarians get involved by braaing their own healthy treats!

Black, white, brown....it doesn’t matter. We all come together to celebrate National braai day.

Braai.com has begun their 2011 campaign to bring SA together on Heritage Day!
Cruise across to their website to find out more about what will be happening this year.
Also, if you cruise across to the National Braai Day Facebook page, you can stand a chance of winning a lamb every day in the run-up to the big day. Simply ‘Like’ their page.

Join the revolution to unite 50 million people.

Here are the official lyrics for the National Braai Day Anthem:

Verse 1

The spring has arrived in Southern Africa

Not a cloud in the sky

Only flames in our eyes

As if everybody seems to know what time it is

Time for a braai

It’s time to have some fun

 

Chorus

I hear those voices until late at night

All together and we feel all right, all right

I see their faces in the golden light

All together and we feel all right, all right

Feeling Alright, hope you feeling alright people…

 

Verse 2

We stand united at the bonfire

We raise our glasses to the clear, blue sky

Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine

Things will be better and I’m feeling fine

 

Chorus

I hear those voices until late at night

All together and we feel all right, all right

I see their faces in the golden light

All together and we feel all right, all right

I’m alright, are you?

Bridge

Try picturing a whole lotta people out at my place.

Everybody chilling. Re dibusa(getting down) by the fire place.

I’ll be in the back. Marinating on the braai vleis

Beer’s in the KEG, Pierre is bringing out the wine case

Its a known phrase,O jo re rata go braaya (we love to braai)

If you got no space chessa nyama o kaya (you can go to a public braaing spot)

If you’re not disgraced, say it loud “BRAAI DAY IS MY DAY”

Even ka labone(even on a thursday) I treat it like its a friday…

So it’s a fly (so it’s a fly day)

We call it a braai day e ne we do it our way

Cause it’s so mzanzi

Happy times are so naturalle in our county

Re rata sunshine

Pull out your smiles come on lets have a fun time

I’ll call Jabba and SGC cause in SA Die Heuwels is so Fantasties!

 

Chorus

I hear those voices until late at night

All together and we feel all right, all right

I see their faces in the golden light

All together and we feel all right, all right

I hear those voices x4

All together and we feel all right, all right x4

Braai please!!

Everybody sing together....we do not stand alone. This is the very reason why Ard Matthews should not have been left to sing the National Anthem all by himself...he should have had some kind of backup.

South Africa is a truly diverse nation, with influences from all across the world.
This is why I urge not only South Africans, but people the world over to get involved. You can be an honorary South African and help us spread the spirit of togetherness.

Come together!

D