If you fancy either the rock band AFI or designing Twitter backgrounds, then you’ve probably heard about the Twitter Background Design Contest that AFI is co-running with TwitBacks. While the contest runs until the end of February, there are already a lot of awesome background designs being submitted. So, how do you make your background design stand out from the crowd to catch the band’s eye and win the most votes? Lucky for you, I have some winning tips:
Follow the Rules
As a child, you heard it from your parents, teachers, and coaches: “Follow the rules”. And as much as you may not have liked to hear it then, the mantra is just as important for this contest. The rules are simple:
See? Simple.
Use Twitter Background Design “Best Practices”
Creating a custom Twitter background is a lot trickier than most people think. There are certain dimensions it needs to be, certain placement of graphic elements that work and don’t work, and certain mistakes that you’ll want to avoid. It’s a good thing, then, that TwiTip has covered these “best practices” here and here. There should be no excuse for creating a background that doesn’t work.
Make it “Wow” the Band and the Voters
Since great design is in the eye of the beholder, I won’t go into detail about what colors, style, or design elements to use. But remember, AFI themselves will be choosing the first place winner and placing that design on their official Twitter page. Think, “If I were AFI, what type of design would I want to represent the band on our official Twitter page?” Second and third place winners are chosen by popular vote, so your design has to impress voters too. If your design looks similar to all of the others (check out your competition), or if there’s nothing “wow” about it, then it will probably get lost in the sea of other backgrounds.
Promote It
This point should go without saying, but just to cover all the bases, I’m saying it anyway. If you want your entry to have a shot at winning, you’ve got to promote it! That means tweet it, Facebook it, blog it, bookmark it… basically, do whatever it takes to get the word out about your awesome design. Don’t be afraid to ask for 10-star votes from your social sphere!
Submit More Than One Background Design
The number of your entries is limited only by your own creativity. Since there is no limit to how many entries you can submit, why not up your chances of winning by submitting several design concepts?
So, now that you have the winning tips, get started on creating your prize-winning AFI Twitter background design. At the very least, you’ll brush up on your Twitter background design skills, and at best, you’ll have your design in front of over 30,000 people and win one of the top three AFI prize giveaways. Good luck!
@TwarksDesigns
First time I learned about this, I badly wanted to enter (and so does my friends). But turns out it’s restricted to US only background designers. Oh pity. AFI could’ve had an awesome background. lol
@lynnatter
Couldn’t agree more – US only? What sort of world do they live in?
wow the design that won is super wide… interesting choice..