First off, I want to thank everyone of you who participated in this competition, it means a lot to me that you took the time to enter this competition and giving us such tremendous covers in the process.
Also, big thanks to the judges, I highly appreciate you guys helping me out deciding the winner!
Congratulations to "stampe", on winning the True Romance (1993) Summer Competition and the price of $125
First Place - $125
stampe - 118 points
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Bazzah:
First impression was very good, with a great palette and a lot of detail. The front art’s main image is key-art, but has been very skillfully brought to life from the low quality image used. The fonts used are perfect, and background details (heart cloud/bullet holes/Hollywood details) make a really powerful image. In fact the more I look, the more detail I find. The only negatives I have for the front is the front is partially inspired by one of the movies posters, and the car is missing behind the main characters. The main back art scene is fantastic, again with so much detail and work done to it. A lot of time, thought and effort has gone into the whole design and the designer seems to really want to win the competition.
Originality 7, as front art is inspired by a poster and back stills has been done before. Quality 7, as so much time has been put into getting the images up to great quality, it is almost perfect quality. Skill 7, as the designer clearly knows what they are doing and has executed their design with near perfection, and it looks like only standard Photoshop filters have been used. Effort 7, as there is so much detail and a lot of time has been put into reworking low quality images. However, I think it would have benefited from a spine image.
Originality: 7 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 7 | Effort: 7
Speedz0r:
Originality, the way you've included all these different and very important pieces of the movie is just amazing. I really like the title and title you've made, it fits the movie really well. The bullet holes in the heart shaped sky is brilliant. Quality, all the resources used seem to be of high quality, I can't spot any resources being of lesser quality. Skill, the amount of skill on display here is next level. How everything is set up and fit together is truly stunning. Effort, the effort made here is more than I ever could have asked for. The fact that you even included the roller coaster as well as the note and the correct corkscrew with the dinosaur shows that you truly are a next level designer with amazing attention to detail. How you made it all fit so well and naturally together as well. I'm truly amazed.
Overall, the front looks absolutely stunning, WOW! The attention to detail is superb, the way you've included all these different, yet very important pieces of the movie is just stunning. The title you've made also looks great and fits the movie and theme of the cover perfectly. I love the detail with the bullet holes and blood in the heart cloud, simply amazing. The still used of the characters on the front is perfect, it fits so well, both the theme and the movie. I love the way the characters are implemented on the back, all of them brilliantly cut out and fit the scenery very well. Brilliant work with the Porsche too, it's a great scene and you manage to include it and making it fit superbly. I also love the selection of the stills and also the frame border. The way the special features are done look amazing and the way you used the template, making it fit so well, great job. This is very likely my new favorite cover of all time. I just have to praise how well you implemented the roller coaster, the corkscrew (yes the exact same as in the movie) even with the dinosaur and maybe the most important, the note. I'm just blown away by this one. WOW!
Originality: 8 | Quality: 8 | Skill: 8 | Effort: 8
JollyRoger:
Excellent layout. Bold color choices. Good consistency between front and back. Consistency between all of the images; levels/cutouts/image handling areal adjusted really well. Top overlay brings it all together. Very cool back layout; the tilted screen caps and SF areas work seamlessly with the top image, and helps bring some action into this cover.
Originality: 6 | Quality: 6 | Skill: 7 | Effort: 7
chouette:
I'm sorry, but I just can't see anything negative with this cover. That handmade TT is just perfect. Nice touch. Everything is at the right place and nicely done. All the details makes it so special to me. Colors are wow! This is the one that I struggle the most with because a cover can't be perfect, right? Well, in my eyes, this one is.
Originality: 8 | Quality: 8 | Skill: 8 | Effort: 8
Second Place - $50
Fidi - 112 points
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Bazzah:
First impressions are very good, with a pleasing design and colour scheme. The main front art has used a modified poster, but some clever filter work and adjustments have made an impressive improvement on the image quality. While there are not as many details on the front as entry 2, there is still a lot to see and has been built very skillfully. I really like the little details like the characters in the car, the different background images which fit in seamlessly, and the custom TT is great. The spine is a solid design too, cleverly incorporating the background sky. The back has also been very well made, with great lighting work and excellent work restoring the old images. The stills are original, but the general layout of the back is a little generic.
Originality 7, as the back layout is somewhat generic and the main front art of the two characters is from a poster. Quality 7, as the skin tones are not consistent across the cover. Skill 6, as there is quite a bit of filter work (including Topaz I think) although the filters have been used very well. Effort 7, as I think some more time could have been taken matching up skin tones across the cover, and some poster art has been used.
Originality: 7 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 6 | Effort: 7
Speedz0r:
Originality, the front looks simply amazing, very nice touches here and there, like adding the phone booth and the Safari Inn sign. The title work is top notch and the effect you've made looks awesome. The special features on back looks great and I really love the little hearts you've added, very nice touch. Quality, great job getting a lot of details out of the images used on the front. I'm not a huge fan of Topaz (I'm assuming it's been used here, correct me if I'm wrong) and for me it's just a tiny bit too much. I can't spot anything being of a lesser quality. Skill, it takes a special kind of skill in order to combine all these different resources making them all fit so superbly good and naturally together. You can tell this has been done by a designer of the highest level. Effort, the stills on the back are implemented brilliantly and I really love the frame effect you've used (same as the TT). Also using Alabama's pants pattern for the heart on the front was a nice touch.
Overall, I'm not too sure about the white edge around the characters on the stills tho, I think it would look better without it. I'm not too sure about the white heart, I feel like a heart cloud or a heart trace after the plane would fit better.
A true masterpiece and a superbly done cover, I really have to nitpick which mostly is just down to taste in order to separate these entries.
Originality: 8 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 8 | Effort: 8
JollyRoger:
Excellent front and back layouts. Very nice image handling. Typography looks great, even with the many styles. Front and back works well together. Colors look sharp and fresh.
Originality: 6 | Quality: 6 | Skill: 6 | Effort: 6
chouette:
Another flawless cover and could have had a perfect score also but one thing that bothered me was the brownish color from the credits and all through the bottom. Colors matters to me when a prize plays in the balance. It seems that another color should have been chosen, especially since the background is a light color. My opinion only. A very nice TT that fits well.
Originality: 7 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 8 | Effort: 8
Third Place - $25
Kellevra - 108 points
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Bazzah:
First impression is a strong layout and very unique palette. The standard colour scheme for this title is usually blues and pinks. However this entrant has opted for an original yellow/orange theme. The front is a mix of stills, and the main two characters are taken from poster art, from what I can ascertain. There isn’t a lot of detail, but I like the worn look and custom title. However, I am not sure if the worn look suits the crime/romance genre. The spine is quite plain, but continues the old, distressed vibe. The back layout is very original, and I like the way the specs and features have been made. I also like the photos running down the side. And while it has been executed very well, the main scene is a little boring, and could do with more detail.
Originality 6, as the front is a fairly generic design, but the back is much more unique. However, they have chosen to use a unique colour scheme. Quality 7, as the images have been coloured/shaded really well, but some of the masking could be better. Some images have parts of the old background visible and have an outer glow to blend them together. Skill 6, The images have been worked well to improve their quality, and are uniform across the cover with colouring/levels etc. Effort 5, as compared to others there is not much detail. While it has been made very well, it would have been better with more details incorporated.
Originality: 6 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 6 | Effort: 5
Speedz0r:
Originality, lovely work with the characters on the front, great job on the title and I really like the "out of focus" feel to the bottom of the front. I also like the coloring, it stands out from the rest of the entries going with that yellow theme. Quality, the quality of the resources look good, can't spot any thing of lesser quality. Skill, it's very clear that the cover is made by a skilled designer. The way the characters have been compiled together and the coloring is stunning. Effort, a great deal of effort has been made, we can easily see that by the way everything is fitting so nicely together as well as how good the coloring is. However, I'm not sure about the background image, it kinda looks like a desert/canyon and the old car to the right just doesn't really fit with the movie in my opinion. The images on the back together with the stills (head shots) look fantastic. Again tho, the background image (this one fits a lot better) could have been more related to the movie or of an important scene.
Overall:
All in all everything looks great and it truly is a great cover.
Originality: 8 | Quality: 8 | Skill: 7 | Effort: 6
JollyRoger:
A very cool cover - Nice layout, consistent colors overall - good synergy between front and back. The worn look (overlay), muted colors, the snapshots all work very well together. Great work, which complements the movie and lets the artists love for design shine through. Only question I have, design wise - is the worn look appropriate for the movie title (even if it’s an older movie)? Something to ponder for the artist…
Originality: 7 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 6 | Effort: 7
chouette:
This one had almost the perfect score for so long until I noticed it doesn't have a synopsis. It doesn't take away the great work done all around, but that's me being a judge, lol - The TT is handmade but not as impressive as others have done. Now that I know who did it, originality took a nose dive because that's a template he used on some of his previous covers. It's nice and catchy, just not original (for him). And of course, Effort lost a point because of this.
Originality: 6 | Quality: 8 | Skill: 7 | Effort: 7
Fourth Place
subwoofer - 104 points
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Bazzah:
First impressions are again very good, with a great design and colour palette. The front design is very good, with a custom title and nice details. However it is mostly a mix of studio resources. The details are really good, but the images are of lower quality than other entrants. The spine is also studio artwork, as well as the custom title. The back has a unique layout, with excellent details and execution, however the image quality again could be better. The resources used are a mix of studio art and stills to create the scene, with the car and couple cleverly being pieced together from different images. The text layouts are very good, but some of the text may be hard to read when printed.
Originality 7, as despite some studio being used used, it has all been reworked to create an original design. Quality 6, as I think more could have been done to improve image quality, and some images are sharper than others. Skill 7, as again I come back to the image quality. However, the masking and lighting on the images has been done really well. Effort 7, as more time could have been taken to make the images more uniform across the cover, but there is so much great detail and work put into lighting, colouring, masking etc.
Originality: 7 | Quality: 6 | Skill: 7 | Effort: 7
Speedz0r:
Originality, excellent work completing the Cadillac on the back, it looks like it's the original image. Nice job on the special features, they look good and makes the two stills fit nicely. Quality, some of the resources is a little low on the quality side, but overall the front looks really great. Skill, fantastic work on the front, everything fits really well together and great job on the coloring. The characters on the back look great, they all fit really well together and again, nice job on the coloring. Effort, the effort made here is of a very high level, excellent work on all the cutouts and how well you've made it all fit together.
Overall:
The one thing I would change tho would be to replace the props used with ones from the actual movie (more meaningful props). It would have raised the attention to details a bit for me. I would also prefer if the gun on the spine was a revolver, seeing that's the most important gun in this movie. Lastly I'm not sure why the Sony template is used for this movie. All in all it truly is a brilliant cover that shows a lot of effort, but just not enough for me to give it top score.
Originality: 8 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 7 | Effort: 7
JollyRoger:
Lovely color choices. Nice with the little extras the SF area, adding in the cherries/high heels/sun glasses also. Legal area drags down a little, with the many colored logos, while original, a uniform color choice would have been easier on the eye, and help the overall back layout. LIT no. missing also drags down. Overall a very nice cover.
Originality: 5 | Quality: 5 | Skill: 5 | Effort: 6
chouette:
First, the TT is not handmade so it will cost 1 point for "Effort". It looks weird to have 2 different fonts for the tagline at the back. You can't read part of the synopsis. And finally, something doesn't sit right with that big bright pink block at the bottom which would have been so much nicer if the designer would have chosen the soft pink of the car on the top image or the light purple of "Special Features"... or no block at all.
Originality: 6 | Quality: 8 | Skill: 7 | Effort: 7
Fifth Place
Antistatic - 87 points
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Bazzah:
First impression is a unique ‘retailesque’ layout. The front box design is a clever way of incorporating all the main characters, with a fade out from the dark blue background to a white background for the title. Some stylish fonts have been used, but it is a pretty standard title treatment. The spine only has the title, logos and white background. The back continues the box layout (which could have been used to spice up the spine), but it is mostly just some screenshots , quote and synopsis. While it isn’t an exciting looking cover, it is very neat and classy looking. The images are decent quality, but lack consistency across the cover. Skin tones vary, as well as lighting.
Originality 5, as it is an original layout for this title, but we have seen these box designs before. Quality 6, as the images that have been masked have been done so very well. The image quality is good, but could have been better and uniform across the cover. Skill 4, as it is mostly stills with varying quality, lighting and colouring. Effort 5, as it is a professional looking cover design, with great care taken in masking.
Originality: 5 | Quality: 6 | Skill: 4 | Effort: 5
Speedz0r:
Originality, nice idea with the different framing and nice selection of resources used. The white smoke gives it a kinda mystic type of feel which is nice and kinda unique compared to other artwork I've seen for this film. Quality, the quality of the resources used look good. I can't spot any resources of lesser quality. Skill, it's a unique style that's been used here, even tho some resources might have been easily placed inside a frame, it still requires some skill to match it all up finding the prefect fit. Effort, nice job putting everything really well together, nice cutouts as well. I really like the color of the text and title and also the fonts used look great. The back is also nicely separated with the different stills and I like how the synopsis are in the middle, the tagline (rating) on the top left and the great still used in the bottom of the synopsis.
Overall:
The corkscrew is not the "correct one", not sure about the lighter either, I feel like there's more important props that could have been used. All in all it's a very solid cover.
Originality: 7 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 6 | Effort: 5
JollyRoger:
Nice work with the many boxes which helps to bring the front and back together. Consistency in image handling across the cover missing; levels/lighting/colours are vastly different. Nice typography; I like the synergy between the handwritten font and the bold all caps font on the front. Text color consistent on both front and back.
Originality: 3 | Quality: 3 | Skill: 3 | Effort: 3
chouette:
The only thing I find off are that images are a mix of color and black images as the 2 small stills on the front, one being blue-ish and the one on top is in color. Not a big deal because the quality is good but it lost a point. I love the colors of the TT and how it all coordinates all through the cover. I really struggled with this one.
Originality: 7 | Quality: 7 | Skill: 8 | Effort: 8
Sixth Place
Didier60 - 50 points
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Bazzah:
First impression is a fairly generic layout using studio artwork. The front is a poster with no changes, and studio title treatment. The spine has a masked poster image, with no modifications, a studio TT and a plain background. The backs main image is an unmodified studio publicity image, with a plain blue logo and standard text. The stills are mostly just images masked with a gradient to blend together, with one image popping out of the box. The features are pretty standard, with a beveled shape.
Originality 2, as it is a generic layout , with a very basic retail look. Quality 2, as none of the images have been reworked to improve quality and make the images match across the cover. Skill 2, as the only real work that has been done is masking the spine image, and a head in the back stills. Effort 3, as this has more effort than entry 1, but I do not get the impression the entrant is really fussed about winning the competition.
Originality: 2 | Quality: 2 | Skill: 2 | Effort: 3
Speedz0r:
Originality, a nice and simple cover with the original poster, but different title treatment, also included the tattoo on the back. Quality, the poster on the front looks good, it looks sharp even if it's an old photo with lots of noise. Skill, it's a simple cover, but it's clear that the creator know how to set up a cover. Effort, the stills images look nice, some could have transitioned better, but all in all, pretty good.
Overall:
The synopsis could have been wrapped a bit better, instead of going over the characters. I'm not familiar with the template used, I haven't seen it used for this movie before.
Originality: 2 | Quality: 3 | Skill: 3 | Effort: 3
JollyRoger:
Nice cover. While the image choices are solid, there seems to be some consistency missing in color choices for typography. Blue, white, red, yellow. Drop shadows on the back text could have been lessened or left out, and some work done to the back image instead, to help the text stand out. Colors/lighting/levels of the front and back images are not consistent.
Originality: 2 | Quality: 2 | Skill: 2 | Effort: 2
chouette:
Well, it's quite obvious that this is one of Didier's cover. I've seen some great covers from him so I'm very disappointed that he submitted this one. He could have done so much better. The stills are not all the same clarity for one, inconsistent. Not a handmade TT. Copy/paste poster. And so on...
Originality: 4 | Quality: 6 | Skill: 6 | Effort: 6
Seventh Place
Wrench - 30 points
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Bazzah:
First impression is the cover has a decent enough layout, but the images on the back have not been cut out well. The text on the back looks like it may have been cut and paste, as all of the text has a halo around it. The front is basically poster art, but the colours have been altered to match the rest of the cover. But the text again has a halo around it. Unfortunately no effort has been made to improve the image quality of any of the images used. The cover really could have done with some more time put into it.
Originality 2, as it is mostly cut and paste stock images/poster art. Quality 2, as most images and text low quality. Skill 2, as the only real work that seems to have been done is recolouring the front art. Effort 2, as I think this very likely only took a couple of hours to make.
Originality: 2 | Quality: 2 | Skill: 2 | Effort: 2
Speedz0r:
Originality, I like the title used, even tho it's cutout from a poster, it looks nice and a great way to include many of the actors in the front of the cover. I also like the sunglasses image used, again tho, cutout from a poster. Quality, the quality of the resources used here seem to be somewhat bad quality. The text on the front looks like it has been cutout as it has a lot of noise around it. The two images on the back could have been cutout better, the one on the right has cut away some of Alabama's face. Skill, it's a very simple cover which don't require a lot of skill, but it's clear that the creator have knowledge of how a cover should be set up. Effort, some effort was made when you see how the images was cutout and how the background has been erased.
Overall:
All in all, a very simple cover.
Originality: 3 | Quality: 2 | Skill: 2 | Effort: 3
JollyRoger:
Bold color choices. While the back blue text does compliment (to some degree) the front (some text color) - the overall look makes front and back very different. The front is pink heavy, while the back is blue overall. The masking on the back images is blurred on the edges, and the front image looks blurred or of poorer quality; noticeable on the woman’s arm. No image adjustment has been attempted as fares can tell, no effort to bring the front, spine and back images together in terms of look/levels/color
Originality: 2 | Quality: 3 | Skill: 2 | Effort: 2
chouette:
Not much to like on this one tbh but it takes guts to submit a cover for this type of competition, lol - Designer should have at least use the same TT for the front cover and spine. Images consists only of 2 characters in the movie. Images poorly cut at the back. And the list goes on... On the bright side (for me), this one was the easiest one to judge.
Originality: 0 | Quality: 1 | Skill: 1 | Effort: 1
I was hoping everyone would participate. 
