The winners of the Foldees “Zodiac Zoo”Greeting Card Contest

Wow. I can’t believe this is the first blog post of 2010. Serious apologies to our designers and users for neglecting you recently :( We have been rather busy bees, and as such, we’ve kinda slowed down our contests and our interactions with you guys to get the business going.

As such, as some of our designers will already know, we’ve had a very good run in the past 3 months (please check your Royalties page, if you haven’t already). We’ve also been expanding our retail locations, with our current 15 and we’re in talks to double that by mid-year. All with our teeny tiny team. Aren’t you proud of us?

However, leave that for now. Let’s get down to the business at hand. We have 5 winners (this number might increase in our next competition *wink*) that have entirely validated our voting system, since these were some of the top-selling cards of the season. One of the designers was a very early adopter for Foldees that finally gets a long-deserved place on our podium with a truly stellar effort.

5. Anacleto Avarro – Lovely Strike (Prize: US$100)

 

Welcome to the winners’ circle! This would definitely be our first prize if it was a T-shirt! The design is very very striking (thus the appropriate name) and many people had to get a double take to understand its true brilliance (including us!). Alot of effort was obviously put into this design, and that makes you a deserving winner. Nice one Anacleto!

4. seafishyi – Happy Tiger Year (Prize: US$100)

 

Another new winner! Awesomeness! Louise Yap (yes, it’s a girl) has a very polished style, similar to that of other previous winners like Kokuzo, and the depth of detail, especially on the inside of the card shows talent that could easily bring her to the top step of the podium next time around. This time though, it’s an impressive 4th place. Don’t forget that in his first contest, Kokuzo ‘only’ placed 4th as well.

3. Fox – The Animals (Prize: US$300)

 

Not to be biased, but we really wanted this design to win. Not only is it so darned adorable with a frankly brilliant idea, but it’s also by one of our most loyal designers, Terence (a.k.a. Fox a.k.a. terryisdafox) who has participated in all of our contests, and only won once (Xmas 2008!). He’s not the most polished designer, having picked the talent up just for Foldees, but his style and his ideas have improved by leaps and bounds since our first contest, and we’re proud to have grown up together with him. Finally, Terry… we get to give you money. Awesome idea.

PS: Oh, and great seller too. Check your royalties mate ;)

2. salchipunk – How to Celebrate the New Year (Prize: US$600)

 

y’know… we seriously have to start giving this guy a challenge. Since the day he swept our Christmas awards in 2008, he has won a prize in EVERY contest except for one. Honestly, we’d be afraid that the Spanish might think the rest of the designers in the world were pushovers if it wasn’t for the fact that many other Spanish designers haven’t had the same fortune on our site.

Still, there’s no denying that this guy is seriously talented. While his art style never runs far, it’s so darn appealing (and selling well to boot) that we should just bloody hire him and pay him less than the prize money he’s earning already!

Just kidding, Mauricio… congrats again *hands over cheque begrudgingly*.

1. Kokuzo – God of Wealth is Coming (Prize: US$1000)

 

It’s a hat-trick for this designer from Indonesia. We honestly don’t know how he does it. When we first saw this card, we thought…”Oh… finally, Franz got tired of his ridiculously intricate yet beautiful artwork!”

And then we saw the inside.

 

We don’t know how much time he spends on one design. Seriously. It’s so perfectly composed with an amazing attention to detail. On top of that, it’s also been a top seller at retail, and to some of our corporate clients. You might begrudge him for being a constant winner on Foldees, but no one would begrudge this design winning.

It’s absolutely stunning. (Oh and just to add to the woes of other designers, his not untalented little brother has joined us as well.)

Check out our previous interview with Franz after his first win a few months back!

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Once again, THANK YOU to all of you who participated in Zodiac Zoo!

We’ll be making some very interesting announcements next week, in particular to do with our next contest, which is going to be something totally different from what we’ve done before, so be sure to check up on us next week, and keep an eye on those inboxes.

PS: If you want to know your final position in the rankings, do drop me a mail :)