Design competition for the official CMSMS site
September 17th, 2007 by Daniel WestergrenIn light of recent articles, and in the interest of updating its main sites, CMSMS is holding a design competition for re-designing cmsmadesimple.org.
If you’re a talented designer and think you’ve got what it takes to take the CMSMS domains to the next level, then keep reading.
CMSMS needs you!
We can’t offer much in the way of incentive or prizes - this is an open source project, remember?! - but we can promise you kudos and praise beyond your wildest dreams. Plus the sure knowledge that your name will be up in lights across all the CMSMS domains in perpetuity, or at least until we need another re-design. Maybe we’ll even give you a free t-shirt… 
Here are the guidelines:
- Edit: What we’re after is a great design for cmsmadesimple.org. So although a full XHTML/CSS markup would be preferred you can just as well submit a Photoshop image. We are aware that the timeline is tight, so if you have a great design, don’t let any details below scare you!
- Your design should preferably be provided as a CMSMS Theme. That is, export templates and stylesheets with the module called Theme Manager (can be installed through the Module Manager) to an xml file.
- You may also provide a Photoshop layered image, although that makes it more difficult to win…
- If you include images with a theme, link them to the uploads/images/<themename> folder in the stylesheets and pack the theme xml file and the image(s) in a zip or tar file.
- Themes should be valid XHTML 1.0 transitional and CSS 2.1 (minimum). That means no hacks, or as few as humanly possible, and same appearance in all major browsers.
- No Flash or other propritary technologies - avoid Java and JavaScripts to the greatest extent possible.
- blink tag is banned
- gif animations are just as bad as flash
- We would like to see a Web 2.0, clean and accessible layout.
- We would like you to use CMSMMS tags in the templates. These include but are not limited to {sitename}, {title}, {breadcrumbs}, {search}, {content}, {footer} etc.
- You may include content example pages in the zip file.
- The general navigation structure should be similar to the current site structure, but flexible enough to be able to adjust.
- Everything included in the theme must be the designer’s original work. No copyrighted images or template theft!
Timeline:
- Send all themes to competition@cmsmadesimple.org at the last by October 10 2007.
- include your contact details in the email and in a README.txt file in the zip package
- A jury from the core team will select which theme will be used for cmsmadesimple.org. The winner will be announced on October 15.
- Themes that are submitted as proper packages will be presented on the themes site (http://themes.cmsmadesimple.org) after the winner has been announced
Disclaimer:
CMS Made Simple claims the right to edit the winning design to fit with the site structure.
Well?! What are you waiting for? Get designing. 
September 11th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Im not much of a designer, so I can’t really help (though I would be more than happy to do some slicing and markup if needed).
However, I really think that the requirments should be XHTML or HTML 4.01 Strict (valid - some warnings ok, but no errors). There is really no point in encouraging anyone to create transitional documents anymore. Transitional is just that - for transitioning between the old invalid tag-soup to proper html markup. It should never be used for creating a new document.
Just my 2c. I hope you get some good submissions!
September 12th, 2007 at 3:53 am
Cool idea … I was thinking that I would love to do a design but i’m a bit time poor right now and I don’t know if I would have time to do the markup etc.
Henry - maybe we should combine our powers and try to win half a t-shirt
Send me an e-mail if your interested, I could design up some photoshop files and you could code it up.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I would like to ask, why it isn’t possible to use photos with free license. I would like to use something similar like beach in the current template, but I don’t have any such a photo…
September 12th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I totally agree with previous 2 posts ! It’s too much work to create the design and also whole markup.
I hope you (guys at CMSMS) will not loose some good designers only because they have no time to do all the markup and CSS stuff. Maybe if you get some good design (as a PNG or Photoshop file) and you find another guy who will “convert” it into a theme, you can put both guy’s names on the site.
(and cut the t-shirt in two parts :)))
Good luck !
September 12th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Thanks for your replies Henry, Michael, Milhaus and Erik!
To clarify: it IS possible to only submit a Photoshop design too and we will do the markup. However, markup is preferred, since then most of the work is done and it is easier to see how the actual XHTML/CSS works.
But we are aware that good designers might not always be as good with XHTML/CSS and also might not have all the time during this particular month. What we need is a great design for an accessible, usable Web 2.0 site.
Henry, about XHTML strict. Yes, that is of course ideal. However, we didn’t want to put that restriction in the actual competition, as that also may scare away some.
If the design and the markup are done by different people, both will have their name listed.
We are looking forward to some nice design submissions during the coming month!
September 12th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Do we any freedom with the CMSMS logo?
September 13th, 2007 at 4:44 am
Maybe it should be a two-stage thing? ie: contestants could submit their designs, then when one is chosen, someone (could be me
) would do up the markup and theme files.
As you guys said, it seems like a lot of work to create the markup for something that could be decided in the design stages anyway.
I would certainly be more than happy to create the markup/css
September 13th, 2007 at 4:45 am
Oh, and a recent example of my work: http://www.champagnegallery.com.au (note that I did NOT create the design)
September 15th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Would love to see this site with a slick design! I’m a professional developer, not a professional designer. The best I can help is to volunteer do to markup for a good design (jonnywee uses hotmail). Dont hesitate, it will be clean.
BTW: Please define Web 2.0
September 16th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Hi!
i’ll give a try but as said by the other persons here, design+coding will be too much for me (lot of work this september!)
I’m interested by this “competition”
A good question have been asked : do we have any freedom with the CMSMS logo?
September 17th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Thanks for your interest all!
Indeed, what we are after is a great design for cmsmadesimple.org. Although not clearly expressed in the original post we do accept Photoshop images for submissions, without necessarily any XHTML/CSS for it. We have volunteers who can do that part of the layout, as long as we have a great design to start out from!
And yes, designers have freedom to certain extent with the CMSMS Logo. If we feel it drifts too far we may edit it, but if it suits the design better some changes to the logo are fine.
By Web 2.0 we mainly mean a clean, fresh design, with usable navigation and accessible to any user. In this context it’s mainly the design/feeling/apperance we mean when we say web 2.0. Design-wise you could for example look at the following links:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/03/10/web-20-tutorials-round-up/
http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-2.0-design-style-guide.cfm
http://www.f6design.com/journal/2006/10/21/the-visual-design-of-web-20/
Good luck!
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 pm
I am a huge fan of CMSMS, and promote it a lot. I have been looking forward to a tangible way to contribute to the community (I am not a programmer - just a designer and XHTML/CSS/Flash developer), so I will most certainly be entering because, no offence to the original designers, but I do think the current site puts people off.
I am concerned about the timeframe though, because I do have clients etc, I can send the graphics AND create the markup no problem, but the markup would probably need to be produced after the deadline. Is this ok?
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:22 pm
oh and for anyone looking for a Vector of the logo, I did a quick Pen Tool version here:
http://www.linkartist.com.au/cmsmslogo.pdf
September 23rd, 2007 at 3:40 am
Téa B, yes it is ok to send the graphics by October 10 and the markup will be done after that. We have several volunteers who are able to make an accessible markup of a nice design.
And btw, as one of the two who did the current design, I agree with you.
That’s why we are running this design competition. Believe it or not, but at the time when this design was new it was a huge improvement to the one before that…
Looking forward to your submissions!
September 28th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Go go, way back machine!
http://web.archive.org/web/20040807091738/http://cmsmadesimple.org/
http://web.archive.org/web/20041114054926/http://cmsmadesimple.org/
classic!
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:36 am
Have you had any submissions so far?
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Yes, we’ve had a few submissions, but more are welcome! Deadline is October 10, and as stated above, it’s ok to submit psd files and we can make the markup later. Thanks!
October 7th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Web 2.0… Sorry for snickering but that term is SO overused by now. As a professional webdesigner I’m sick and tired of hearing “make it look web 2.0″. What people refer to as the web 2.0 look has nothing to do with accessibility and readability. Believe me, I’ve come across lots of so called web 2.0 looking sites and they’re awful as far as readability and accessibility goes. So let me just get this off my chest, and if this doesn’t apply to you then DON’T BE OFFENDED BY THIS FOLLOWING STATEMENT!
Web 2.0 is NOT about badges, shiny floors, glossy logo’s and gradients! That is merely a DESIGN TREND. Like Sliders in banners are this year, shiny floors were last year, and diagonal lines for the background was the year before that.
So a few guidelines, think about navigation and readability first, then glossy text and shiny floors. Content is already available, so use that.
Just a small PSA, don’t be mad.
And good luck!
October 7th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
P.S
Sorry for the double post but maybe I also should add that I too am a HUGE fan of CMSMS… HUUGE!
I absolutely LOVE it (Yes I use it for my site too)!
I wish I had time to make a design but I’m currently swamped at the moment.. =(
So to the rest of you, once again, good luck!
Oh and like the slogan says: “Don’t imitate. Innovate” ;P
D.S
October 9th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Thanks for this competition guys. Let’s say I’ve been waiting for redesign on this page
hehe. I’m a designer myself, and I just wanted to second what Tem-Tupac Aguerre said, though I still question the term Web 2.0 as a whole. Is it a written standard? And if it is, does it say anywhere spesificly that design trend is not a part of this “standard”.. ? As much as I’m tired of hearing the term Web2.0, I still immediately “understand” what the client means design-wise… With all the shinyness and glosiness it brings…
But I still agree that it’s overused like Tem-Tupac Aguerre sais
If you got a name for this web 2.0 design trend that could be used instead, I’m happy using that instead.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
It’s October 15th. Did anyone win?
October 16th, 2007 at 4:32 am
And the winner is ???