And the Winners Are...

Quark VS InDesign.com announces the winners of simultaneous design competitions celebrating InDesign and QuarkXPress.

Announcing the Winners of the…

Logo: Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Design Competition and Celebrate InDesign Postcard Design Competition

On 11 April 2005 Quark VS InDesign​.com, The Authority for News and Opinion on the War Between Desktop Publishing Giants QuarkXPress® and Adobe® InDesign®, announced twin design con­tests in cel­e­bra­tion of InDesign and QuarkXPress. In that announce­ment was a $10,000 prize chest to be divid­ed amongst six win­ners. Within hours addi­tion­al announce­ments had to be made when the total prizes increased to first $14,000 then $15,500 with the entire desk­top pub­lish­ing sup­port indus­try show­ing its sup­port for the con­tests, the design com­mu­ni­ty, and QuarkXPress and InDesign.

While Quark VS InDesign​.com and the indus­try hon­ored its affin­i­ty and pas­sion for two of the graph­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tions indus­tries’ great­est pow­er­house tools, the design com­pe­ti­tions were tru­ly about pro­vid­ing a vehi­cle for Quark and InDesign users to express their pas­sions. And express they did.

Though with an open forum for extolling the virtues of two tools that have so vehe­ment­ly polar­ized a dozen indus­tries and with such a valu­able prize chest, we had antic­i­pat­ed a greater num­ber of entries, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the QuarkXPress con­test, we did receive some amaz­ing exam­ples of graph­ic design.

Postcards were cho­sen as the for­mat for both con­tests, which pre­sent­ed two dis­tinct chal­lenges to entrants:

First, the small space con­strained the amount of copy that could be employed to describe the lay­out appli­ca­tion or its fea­tures. In a post­card adver­tise­ment, which would arrive in a mail­box amidst a hail of bills and adver­tise­ments, the use of com­pelling visu­als was essential—even more so when adver­tis­ing the tools of visu­al pro­duc­tion. That con­strained the space avail­able for copy, forc­ing design­ers to weigh the val­ue of each word against the space it would occupy.

Second, because a post­card is double-sided and one can nev­er pre­dict which side will greet a view­er, both sides had to be equal­ly engag­ing. And, rather than all-or-nothing design pos­si­ble with one-page pub­li­ca­tion adver­tise­ments, entrants were forced to cre­ate a sto­ry and visu­al iden­ti­ty that tra­versed the flip and uni­fied the front and back of each postcard.

I was impressed with the way each design met these chal­lenges and with the unique vision each design­er brought to the same top­ics, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the Celebrate InDesign Postcard Competitionwhere we received so many more entries. Each entry dis­played tal­ent, ded­i­ca­tion to the crafts of design and illus­tra­tion, and, most of all, pas­sion for their sub­jects. I tru­ly wish I could give all the entrants a share of the prizes. But, through long and dif­fi­cult eval­u­a­tion, of all the amaz­ing designs sub­mit­ted to the twin com­pe­ti­tions, it is the six designs below that best exem­pli­fy cre­ative orig­i­nal­i­ty, atten­tion to struc­tur­al detail, good typog­ra­phy and use of space, and, most impor­tant­ly, a pas­sion­ate cel­e­bra­tion of their respec­tive sub­ject matter.

With great plea­sure, I present the win­ners of the Quark VS InDesign​.com Celebrate InDesign Postcard Competition.

1st Place

Migrate 1st Place

Migrate
Jeremy Schultz
Jeremy Schultz Artist
W DesMoines, IA
See both sides of “Migrate” at full-size and read the inter­view with Jeremy.

1st Runner-Up

Fly with InDesignCS 1st Runner-Up

Fly with InDesignCS
Bonnie Wetzel

Windsor, CT
See both sides of “Fly with InDesignCS” at full-size and read the inter­view with Bonnie.

2nd Runner-Up

Daisies 2nd Runner-Up

Daisies
Vadim Litvak
easternBLOCK Design
SF, CA
See both sides of “Daisies” at full-size and read the inter­view with Vadim.

And, with equal­ly great plea­sure, I present the win­ners of the Quark VS InDesign​.com Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Competition.

1st Place

QuarkMan Delivers 1st Place

QuarkMan Delivers
Matt Bargell
Rodderboy LLC
Sterling, CO
See both sides of “QuarkMan Delivers” at full-size and read the inter­view with Matt.

1st Runner-Up

Redefining Layout 1st Runner-Up

Redefining Layout
Michael Piperno
Imbue Creative
New Hope, PA
See both sides of “Redefining Layout” at full-size and read the inter­view with Michael.

2nd Runner-Up

Definition 2nd Runner-Up

Definition
Stephen Cheslik
Casper Star Tribune
Casper, WY
See both sides of “Definition” at full-size and read the inter­view with Stephen.

Prizes - First Place

Jeremy Schultz, First Place Winner in the Celebrate InDesign Postcard Contest will receive as his prizes:

Prizes - First Place

Matt Bargell, First Place Winner in the Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Contest will receive as his prizes (which he will donate to Sterling, Colo.‘s Northeastern Junior College and Sterling High School):

Prizes - 1st Runner-Up

Bonnie Wetzel, 1st Runner-Up in the Celebrate InDesign Postcard Contest will receive as her prizes:

  • 2 Copies of InDesign CS2 from Adobe
  • InDesign CS2 Product Expert Support Contract (1 year) from Adobe
  • 4‑Disc Set of David Blatner’s InDesign CS videos from Software Cinema
  • 1‑Year Subscription to InDesign Magazine
  • Choice of Text Count or History plug-in by DTP Tools
  • Overset Manager plug-in by SoftCare
  • Notes Manager plug-in by SoftCare
  • Commercial Press Template of choice by StockLayouts

Prizes - 1st Runner-Up

Michael Piperno, 1st Runner-Up in the Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Contest will receive as his prizes:

  • QuarkXPress 6.5 by Quark
  • 1‑Year Print Subscription to X‑Ray Magazine
  • X‑Ray Magazine T‑shirt
  • FlightCheck Studio (Mac only) by Markzware
  • Spellbound with Webster’s Dictionary xten­sion by Compusense
  • Choice of MIF Filter or Text Count xten­sion by DTP Tools
  • ProPack xten­sion by Gluon
  • Commercial Press Template of choice by StockLayouts

Prizes - 2nd Runner-Up

Vadim Litvak, 2nd Runner-Up in the Celebrate InDesign Postcard Contest will receive as his prizes:

Prizes - 2nd Runner-Up

Stephen Cheslik, 2nd Runner-Up in the Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Contest will receive as his prizes:

  • QuarkXPress 6.5 by Quark
  • 1‑Year Print Subscription to X‑Ray Magazine
  • X‑Ray Magazine T‑shirt
  • 1‑Month Stock Photography Subscription to AbsolutVision
  • explainIT xten­sion (Mac only) by Alef
  • ProPack xten­sion by Gluon
  • Commercial Press Template of choice by StockLayouts

Congratulations to the win­ners, Jeremy, Matt, Bonnie, Michael, Vadim, and Stephen! Enjoy your booty!

Thank You

On behalf of myself, Quark VS InDesign​.com, and the gen­er­ous com­pa­nies and indi­vid­u­als fur­nish­ings prizes for these two con­tests, I would like to thank every one of the cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als who cel­e­brat­ed QuarkXPress or InDesign by enter­ing these com­pe­ti­tions. Your designs were intrigu­ing, impres­sive, and extra­or­di­nary. And your pas­sions for QuarkXPress and InDesign are inspiring.

Thank you once again to those indi­vid­u­als who helped make these con­tests fun and excit­ing: Christy Siebler, Samuel John Klein, Cyndie Shaffstall, Michael Taylor, 65bit, AbsolutVision, Adobe, ALAP, Alef, Compusense, DTP Tools, eQuatrix, Extensis, Gluon, InDesign Magazine, Markzware, Meadows Publishing, Quark, RogueSheep, SoftCare, Sterling Ledet & Associates, StockLayouts, Techno Design, Total Training, Vision’s Edge, and X‑Ray Magazine.

Sincerely,

Pariah S. Burke

Editor-In-Chief