XMAS 2.0 (a very short contest!)

Christmas is coming a little early this year! We’re running a sprint contest until October 15th 2009. This is so we can pop the cards on shelves in time for the early Christmas crowd in November.

To be honest, we have been scouring the net and every greeting card store we could find to come up with a decent theme for this year’s Christmas contest. And what have we come up with after all this exhausting research? Christmas cards are surprisingly DULL.

Here were the best ones we could find.

Oh wait… right… you guys designed these, didn’t you? :)

Anyhow, this year, we’ve come to a conclusion that it’s time for a change. Santa, Rudolph and the elves need a serious MAKEOVER! Welcome to Foldees 2nd ever Christmas contest, simply entitled…

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Maybe Santa needs to get on facebook… maybe he needs some budget cuts, or perhaps an army of cyborg elves and a hover-sleigh.Come up with your envisioning of the new XMAS (either based on present or future environments) and yes, you could win more than US$2500 in cash!

The contest runs until October 15th 2009, Details at www.foldees.com/contest. Don’t wait – participate!

Paypalz4Eva!

At long last, we’ve caved into the demand! Yes, we finally support PayPal. It was surprisingly difficult to integrate (cos it’s a bit more sophisticated than most payment gateways), but it’s all done now!

Enjoy, and tell all your friends about it!

If you have any issues with PayPal, we’re here to help at support@foldees.com

Our first Magazine Cover! (?)

Yup, someone’s finally decided that we’re worthy of a cover… and it’s… *drum roll*…

Sure, I’m sharing the stage with three other lovely ladies, but that’s fine :) They picked the only photo where I actually look shy. Here’s an excerpt of the article.

Anyways, the article’s about being an entrepreneur, and knowing what you’re getting into. It’s a good read (if slightly scattered), so go check it out at your local newstand (that is, if you’re in Malaysia).

The finalists for “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto”!

Congratulations to all 85 finalists! There are a few more pending comfirmation, but for now, we are proud to present our biggest turnout yet for a Foldees contest! There are some truly remarkable designs this time around, that we’re sure will be a hit with our customers.

In the meantime, once again, it’s up to YOU GUYS to decide the winner! Visit www.foldees.com/ratings to vote for all 85 cards, and get yourself a free one to send ANYWHERE in the world!

Don’t forget to share the love with your facebookians, blogfans and twitterees!

Bonus prizes for Monochrome

Over the past year, we’ve seen alot of designs go unrewarded. On average, we approve about 50-60 designs per contest, so essentially, only about 10% of you get significant prizes. And even then, it’s by public opinion, which means that weird, quirky cards are seldom recognised.

As such, for this contest, we wanted to change that. We want people to keep coming up with weird stuff, which is why we now have a few new awards to introduce, each worth US$100!

So, without further ado, the first award we’re giving out today is…

The “My-kid-could-paint-that!” Award

This one goes to the design that best illustrates that you don’t need a PhD in Graphic Design from the London School of Economics to win on Foldees. The design should be simple, but get the point across with an illustration that anyone could put together.

And the winner is…

You Light Up My Life
by melissachan

With about 6 months experience, you could have done this card with MSWord (although yes, we only accept AI). It’s a brilliant example of a simple concept that people appreciate simply because of it’s simplicity, echoed by the first commenter of the card - “just text, but somehow ..i like it.”

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The “Fourth-wall” Award

For this award, the user has to break what’s known as the fourth wall. This means talking to his audience in a way that makes them forget for a second that it’s just a printed greeting card. This award goes to..

Them Ol' Birthday Blues
by catpowers

Let us just say that those blotches on the right of the inside are awesome! It’s this sort of out-of-the-box thinking that we really do appreciate here at Foldees. Not to mention that when giving this card physically, it’s a great thing to be able to attribute different comments to different bugs. We’ve already used one ourselves :)

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The “How-come-it-didn’t-win-an-Award?!” Award

This award goes to the card that gives us the same feeling as going to watch “Burn After Reading” in the cinema. We’re wondering why we’re the only ones laughing, and attribute it to the weird sense of humour that was handed down by our ancestors.

Stop not laughing. Anyways, the award goes to….

Out Of Stock
by streetfx

Maybe it’s a Malaysian thing, cos you ALWAYS get this comment whenever you go to a shopping mall, simply cos the attendants are too lazy to get off their bums and look for the item for you, which is sorta like you being too lazy to go out and get your friend a gift. Whichever it is, we totally cracked up when we saw it!

And after the contest, we sort of realised that not everyone got it. Oops.

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The “What-were-you-smoking?!” Award

This award goes to the card that demonstrates best during his creation process that he was high. Without hesitation, this award goes to ….

Worried About Getting Older?
by Baskirovs

Not really much explanation needed. I’ll have what he’s having.

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We’ll be contacting you to arrange for your prizes in a bit. Congratulations again, guys… and stay whacked aight?

Winners of “Monochrome”

The time has come to separate the colour-blind men from mice. As you know, Foldees received a record number of entries from MONOCHROME, a contest suggested (but not joined… tsk) by one of our current designers, jayemcee. We’re proud that a contest created for designers by designers has garnered sucha response.

Unfortunately, the new contest also means that not everyone can possibly win, so for this contest, we have yet a new winner (no, we absolutely swear that we do not doctor the results), and quite a few first-timers. Because there were quite a few commendable entries this time that didn’t win, we’ve decided that on top of the prizes that we’re announcing today, there will be a few extra prizes that we’ll be announcing over the next coupla days, so do keep watch!

Without further ado…

5. ZacYouth – Surrender Now! (Prize: US$100)

ZacYouth has joined EVERY single contest that we’ve had at Foldees, and we’re grateful for it. Of course, we’re sure he’s pretty grateful as well, since he’s won prizes in more than half of them (and came within 0.05 points of winning almost all!). His style is best recognised by the thick outlines he uses on his characters, which make them look simple and appealing, despite their intricate designs.

This latest design is a true tribute to his creativity. God knows what kind of mind would think of pills as police chasing down worms as bad guys (maybe Vitagen?), but we absolutely LOVE IT!

4. shuwan – The Power of Love (Prize: US$100)

 

Continuing the Malaysian fight-back is a new designer that hails from the Klang Valley (not too far from where we are). She recently wrote on her blog that after seeing her card in real-life (at one of our stores), she doesnt “care much whether I can win the contest now. I know there're designs much better than mine.”

Well, not that many, shuwan. Your simple lines and great we-are-the-world theme are just the sort of thing we, and apparently the public, love! Congratulations on your first win… we hope to see alot more coming from you.

3. ayeisha – True Color Of Love(Prize: US$300)

For some reason, we always seem to have a special place in our hearts for the third place card. Our last third place winner was one of our favourite cards in the entire contest, and such is the case again. We love the concept of this card from ayeisha, another talented designer from the Philippines.

We also love that it adheres strictly to the monochrome rule, with only black, white, and one shade of green on the cover. We also love the fact that it’s the first ever Foldees card featuring a lizard on the cover (unless you think Yoda kinda looks like one)! Incidentally, one of our staff has already used this card.

2. dezilove_09 – The Hare & The Tortoise (Prize: US$600)

We originally wanted to reject this card. Because it was so detailed that we thought it was a raster. Upon closer inspection, it’s simply an extremely detailed vector, done by a barely-legal Aussie guy.

The message is simple (with more undertones than is at first apparent), but the attention to detail, both in the lighting on the cover and the pictures on the wall on the inside are absolutely staggering. If this is an indication of what you guys can do Down Under, then we’re hoping for the Marmite invasion asap!

1. Kokuzo - You Color Up My World! (Prize: US$1000)

 

We were smart about this. We gave Kokuzo an iPod Classic for our last Christmas contest, and he’s been hooked ever since. His style of drawing is very very versatile, as you can see here and here, which is nice since every card is a new surprise. And no where is is versatility more apparent than in his winner entry. It’s enough nuance and attention to detail for 6 cards, so this one’s a real bargain! A few things details we really, really liked about this card

• The eyebags on Tired
• The rain cloud above Sad
• The girlie bear has brushes hidden behind her back.
• The expressions of the singing flowers

Franz, here’s hoping that you’re enjoying that iPod classic enough to join us for many, many contests to come.

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THANK YOU to all of you who participated in Monochrome! Even if you didn’t win, don’t forget to check out your Royalties page for card purchases. If you want a better chance at making that happen, don’t forget to pop our widget over on your blog/website, and ensure that your profile is up to date!

PLUS On Sunday, we’ll be revealing a few extra “Special Mention” prizes, so don’t forget to revisit the blog then.

Ratings period closed for Monochrome

Ok, critics, mouses down please. The ratings period for the Monochrome greeting card contest is now closed. We will be tabulating the ratings and announcing the results on the 31st of July (maybe sooner if we’re itchy!). Keep tabs on the results at www.foldees.com/contest/monochrome.

In the meantime, if you’re feeling itchy, the deluge of entries has already started for Mr. Roboto! Hurry and submit your entry early for a better chance at better feedback from us! Submissions close on 15th August. Here’s a preview of some of the entries we’ve already received (some of these are not finalised or confirmed as yet).

Sweet.