Banner for Pro Audio website *Project Over*

[prosoundcards]

(Admin code added by Palmer - 43774308)

Hi all. Love the work I see here.
We need a banner ad for our e-commerce site. We sell pro-grade high-end soundcards, audio interfaces, midi hardware and other PC audio related hardware.
Banner should be standard 468X60 in size. JPG, Animated gif or flash.
A lot of info on our products can be found at our site, http://www.prosoundcards.com
Our target customers and users are disc jockeys (<-big market for us), musicians, home recording, production, Radio and TV, live sound support.
Our customers include Radio stations, large houses of worship, nightclubs, recording studios, Warner Brothers Animation Dept., mobile disc jockey companies, small record companies and independent musicians
We specialize in high quality at super low prices. High quality meaning pro studio grade equipment (not talking no SoundBlaster junk here), our site offers all major professional name-brands at some of the absolute best prices available.
We market to the USA only, due to dealership agreements (we will serve Canada for certain needs but we dont promote that.
One item we do like to promote is that we do offer free UPS ground shipping on all orders over $150. (free is always a good keyword ;) )
Our market is somewhat of a niche market, being that our customers are professional or semi-professional users who usually already know what make/model equipment they are looking for when they come to our site. They have usually done their homework well as this is mostly specialized equipment.
This is stuff for the discriminating user.
The banner will be used on targeted/related DJ, recording and musician sites.

Manufacturers can be listed in the banner (or not). Heres a list of the major brands we offer:
http://www.prosoundcards.com/help.asp
Images of products are fine if used in the banner (or not)
Images portraying DJs, musicians, studios, producers or related implied imagery are fine with us.
We are fine with animation as sometimes more info can be packed into that.
Preferrably around 20K in size
No set deadline to meet on this, I would never rush quality :D

With all that said, I'll open the floor for comments, questions and ideas.
Thanks all!
-Ed

[Bill]

Here ya go!

[prosoundcards]

Thanks for joining me here Bill. I like that so far, good start.
In the list of manufacturers, feel free to eliminate ESI and Contour Designs. Maybe that can free some extra "breathing room"
Not feeling the yellow background behind the text, its just not working for me.
Would it result in too big of a file size if the "Free Shipping" frame 'slid' into place from one side or the other? :tup:

Anyone else feel like joining also? :D

[Bill]

Just to let you know the reason why I chose the colors I did... I sampled the yellow and redish colors from the sound card on your website. I thought that it would make the banners frames look consistant...

[prosoundcards]

Ahh, gotcha. The reddish is fine. Maybe even the yellow in a smaller dose. I'm just not very fond of the yellow in that big of an area as a text background. I do see now exactly where the yellow came from though.

[msaygin]

One flash piece is on the way.
I just want to learn which fonts are they in your current logo ?
Best,

[Huhhso]

Hello!
Here is my entry for your contest
Thanks! :)

[Nfrack]

Hello prosoundcards, I just wanted to add my banner.

[msaygin]

Hi,

My entry for your banner contest is a flash file and I am not sure if we can add flash files here, so here is the url of the banner;

::Flash banner for ProSoundCards:: (http://mehmetsaygin.com/do/banner2.html)

It is funky and colorful B)


And here is a screenshot from the banner;

<img src='http://mehmetsaygin.com/do/psc.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

File size is 18.5kb

Best,

[prosoundcards]

kalvinhobs, Huhhso and Nfrack, thank you so much for joining the fun :D

Huhhso Outstanding! I love it. If I had to search for any one thing I'd change, it would be the logo at the left-hand side. It looks a bit small but I do understand if you made it any bigger it would eat up too much space horizontally.
I'll attach a variation of our logo below. Its more of a stacked/square format that may work in the location you have the logo.

Nfrack Thank you. I'm confused though, is that supposed to be animating? Its not at my end

kalvinhobs Also outstanding! Sorry I couldnt get you the answer to the font question. Whatever you used looks sweet. Trying to find something to critique but its hard. Heres an idea, totally optional but some sites will allow it. Is it possibility to add a small mouse-over sound to that? Something like a DJ 'vinyl' scratch sound. Just a thought, not a requirement. It may just make the file size too big anyhoo.

I'm getting really torn here. I want the flash for the dynamics of flash but I want the gif as its supported on more sites :P
I may just need to buy from everyone here to get a good assortment :tup:

[prosoundcards]

Forgot the square image......
<img src='http://www.prosoundcards.com/images/psc-centered160x160.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

[Nfrack]

Here you go sorry about that. if you need anything changed just let me know.

[prosoundcards]

After seeing such good artwork just from everyones first contributions, I can tell it will be hard to nail it down to just one. So after a brief consult with Palmer I have sent more money and decided there will be two first place banners.
Variety is a good thing and makes my life easier. I hate tough choices LOL
So now we're looking for 2 first place banners, each carrying a $50 prize.
I kind of like the versitility of a flash and an ani. GIF. But whatever the formats, I like the diverseness I'm seeing here which was the clincher for me so I've tossed more money in the hat.

Nfrack I like that now that there is movement. I thought it was supposed to be animated before. Nice and clean and I like the little shipping guy off our site. The banner doesnt really say much about us at all, except our shipping policy.

Huhhso and kalvinhobs would still like to hear back from you on your designs when time permits.

Huhhso: Maybe if the logo portion can be tweaked a bit for more visibility. I totally love the rest. The three quick product images that flash by, if that first one in the sequence could be replaced by this product instead... Gigaport AG pic (http://www.esi-pro.com/upload/product/ag_side_b.jpg) that would rock. Its a very recognizable and widely used deviced.

kalvinhobs The only thing I'd touch on yours is *maybe* an audio clip as mentioned. Might not work but it might. If you cant do it with a reasonable file size outcome then scrap the sound byte.

Anyone else like to join in the fun....?
All are welcome to dive in here :tup:

[msaygin]

Hi,
Sure, sound will help, just didnt want to make the file bigger.

Now, I add a rollover effect, when we roll-over we saw your logo anytime and we hear a dj stratch.And that banner is linked to your hompepage.

::Please check it here:: (http://mehmetsaygin.com/do/banner3.html)

Now the file is 33kb.

First I wanted to add a sound loop but I don't think that people won't like a musical banner on their page and also that makes the file size huge for a banner.

Best,

[prosoundcards]

kalvinhobs: Outstanding my friend! Can we make the sound byte a bit shorter? Like about 1/2 a second long. Kind of trim it down to the first "wik-wikka" sound in the sample. If you're not comfortable editing audio, thats my forte and will gladly edit it down if you want to post the sound clip here or mail it to me for trimming. When we get that done, I believe we have a keeper! :tup:



All:Dont for get, as mentioned above there's two $50 prizes now

[Huhhso]

Hello here is a revised banner with the vertical logo
Thanks!

[msaygin]

Hi,

Here is the version with a shorter stratch, 1-2 sec. ;

::Shorter sound version:: (http://mehmetsaygin.com/do/banner4.html)

I hope it will help your business B)
Best,

[prosoundcards]

kalvinhobs & Huhhso I would have to say we found our two winners!
Thanks for everything. :tup:

kalvinhobs, would it be two much to ask if we'd like a silent version also of the exact same thing? Some sites wont allow us the audio but I love how it goes to the big logo on mouse over. We dont know flash so we'd never be able to silence it ourselves LOL

You all absolutely rock!

[msaygin]

Thanks.

Sure, I will upload both 2 versions in a zip file and will pm you the url asap.
Best,