eBook Awards Badges March Madness Final Bracket Voting

Yes, we’ve got March Madness pretty badly over here in the design studio, more about that in a minute.

First I want to thank the hundreds of readers who voted in the recent opening bracket face-off in the competition to pick a new awards badge for the monthly eBook Cover Design Awards. You guys are awesome.

(Editor’s note: If you think that I never mentioned it was “just the opening round,” you are correct. Read on.)

No Tie Games in Championships

After several days of voting, our first round competition ended in a dead heat. Tying for first place are designers Lafcadio and DJ Rogers. Congratulations to both.

Having a tie vote opens some interesting possibilities, but none of them were particularly appealing. There’s no point using 2 completely different images, since it would just confuse the branding for the contest.

I could vote as the tie breaker, but I don’t have a strong preference between these two designs.

What to do?

Buzzer Beaters and Final Brackets

However, there was another development that had also tripped me up, just as I was heading for the basket to bring this contest to a close.

Designer Derek Murphy sent me 5 different badge designs just as the voting started. Here are my 3 favorites:

And not just any designs, either. These were beautiful, dynamic, modern, and just the thing I had been looking for all along!

Now I realized that fate had interceded to give Derek a “bye” and send him directly to the Final Three.

After some thought, I picked my favorite of the badges Derek submitted, and decided to hold a 3-way final event, pitting the 2 winners from the first round against Derek’s best.

Here they are, ladies and gentlemen, your three finalists in the eBook Cover Design Award Badge Contest.

Pick your favorite and vote by Monday at midnight Pacific time. Let’s crown a worthy champion!

(Inbox readers: You’ll need to click the title of this article to go to the blog where you’ll be able to vote.)

1. Designer: DJ Rogers

2. Designer: Lafcadio

3. Designer: Derek Murphy

Okay, now go vote.

Photo: bigstockphoto.com