plaintxt.org

The Sandbox Designs Competition came to a close this past Tuesday with results awarding prizes to six designs: SandPress, Moo-Point, Prima, Essay, Tiffany Blue, and Shades of Gray. But I would like to congratulate the participants because the sum is only as good as the whole. Or something.

Though I administered all aspects of the competition, I went to great efforts to make sure I didn’t influence the judges, pressure the sponsors, or direct the participants. While I believe this competition was a success, I hope to have the chance in the future to apply what I learned. And I’ll be writing about some of those things shortly.

Anyhow, I did want to post my own choice cuts from the competition. My choices below should not be interpreted as who I think should have won or how I think the judges should have voted. Nope. The judges did a fine job and, in their place, perhaps my choices below would be different.

So here are just some guy’s take on the designs. These are the designs I have time to sit down and highlight my appreciation for.

1. Diurnal

   

   Carolyn’s expert use of the date-based classes in the Sandbox makes this design shift with the cycles of the day. A clean design with a subtle but engaging feature. Not to mention this design has built-in support for the other layouts packaged with the Sandbox. My personal favorite.

2. Takimata

   

   I think Robert submitted the most daring design in to the competition. Which is great. But the best part is how lovely this design is. It’s details, use of color, layout, everything. It’s exactly what I would love to see more of in blog design: thorough innovation. Excellent.

3. Promised Land

   

   Adam’s design exhibits a mastery of graphic design, layout, and attention to detail. Promised Land is a design people should pay for. And pay a lot for. The completeness of this style sheet should be used as the example for WordPress theme developers. Period.

4. Moo-Point

   

   Will’s design tastes are also just after my own. I love most everything about this design, but especially I love his post layout. I think it’s really clean and open. I also think Will did excellent at integrating certain, choice Sandbox classes. The details are subtle but enhance the design. Thumbs up.

5. Essay

   

   After my own heart, Ian’s clean, open design does everything it should. The majority of designers who aim to produce minimalist designs usually muddle things up in the details, Essay doesn’t. The header graphic is an excellent flare, well done. Pretty much this is what I enjoy stumbling upon on the Web.

6. Veracity

   

   I see a tremendous amount of potential in this Weiran Zhang’s design. While not perfect, this design inspires me. When I see it, I think about ways to build on what’s already been accomplished. I expect to see many, many derivatives of this design for exactly that reason. And that’s a hell of an achievement.

7. Shades of Gray

   

   Leslie submitted this clean design and I love that it is shades of gray. Some uses of color in this design are a bit strong, a bit dramatic, I immediately know when looking at it that it is a thoughtful, thorough design. Like the second sidebar below the content area. Yes!

8. Hourglass

   

   Anyone interested in developing for the Sandbox or wanting to understand what can be done with the Sandbox should look at Daniela’s design, which utilities a great number of the Sandbox dynamic classes. While not my color scheme nor my favorite, it can be pointed to a quintessential Sandbox design.

Honestly, I have other favorites too, like Picnic, Sakeena, CITYscape, and Blueberry, just to mention a few.

So which are your favorites? And why?