As many of you, we’ve been working on our Tshirt design competition site springleap for MANY months.
And springleap is now live!
But it’s a work in progress…
We had previously been (incorrectly it seems) advised to develop our vision for a community / eCommerce / 2.0 “masterpiece” (we like to think of springleap as a future da Vinci) in ASP.net, and the site just wasn’t working the way we wanted.
So we made the difficult decision to START AGAIN developing in PHP (which should make all the linux boys very happy).
Instead of waiting a few months to redevelop the entire site, we’ve launched the most important part - letting people join the community and enter the first tshirt design competition. On the first of April voting on the entry’s starts - who votes? YOU. The winners get decided by YOU.
We’re working with a FANTASTIC bunch of people from the MANGO-OMC PR agency to spread the word about springleap, and they’ve issued our FIRST SPRINGLEAP PRESS RELEASE…
…but if you know any designers who you think design kickBlast designs, please let them know about springleap so they can enter. (here’s what they can win)
And if you have any good ideas for ANYTHING we should add to springleap, please let us know. We’ve got a LONG TO-DO list, but it’s a work-in-progress, and if your ideas make more sense to us to implement first, they’ll simply get bumped up the list.
springleap is LIVE! WELL DONE ROB, KENDYL, ERAN, DUNCAN, SHEENA, MARK, CATHERINE, BEVERLEY, PETER, AIDEN (CHARL for writing the first blog review of springleap) and everyone else involved. YOU made it happen!!!!
22 responses so far ↓
1 FeistyFemale // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:18 am
Always a pleasure Eric! It’s an awesome concept.
2 Duncan.Boxie.Elite. // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:19 am
This is going to be huge man, can’t wait for it to kick off.
3 Tim Shier // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:19 am
Hi Eric,
Love the site! A definite need in SA
4 Mark // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:40 am
awesome awesome awesome concept! I can’t wait to see all the designs!
well done guys,wooohoooo!!!
5 Kimster // Feb 27, 2008 at 11:13 am
Great concept, good luck Eric!
6 Tania // Feb 27, 2008 at 1:52 pm
For the life of me, nothing I click on that site takes me anywhere except for the same page. Oh, there were one or two things I did click that did say other things, asking me for more and more information about myself, and soliciting my friends’ e-mail addresses just to be able to actually click to the next page. It made me feel very uncomfortable, and I attempted to unsubscribe. No luck. I attempted to contact the administrator via a Web form and got no response. I never did get to see any t-shirts (which is what I actually signed up for in the first place), and I never did figure out how to vote in the competition. If you have any idea of how I can get my name and details out of that database, please let me know. I don’t like signing up for something that puts its tentacles around me and sucks me in more and more with no chance of escape.
7 Eric // Feb 27, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Heya Tania, some EXCELLENT points. thought i’d take your comments and reply to each of them…
Keep the feedback coming - THANKS
Eric
—————————————-
For the life of me, nothing I click on that site takes me anywhere except for the same page.
==> we have a couple sections up and running at the moment - the entire SUBMIT site is working (you don’t need to register) - and once you’ve registered you can submit your designs to the first competition. Each week for the next few months we’ll be adding new features.
Oh, there were one or two things I did click that did say other things, asking me for more and more information about myself, and soliciting my friends’ e-mail addresses just to be able to actually click to the next page.
==> after you register, we ask if you want to tell others about the site coz the more designs we get for the first competition, the more fun the voters will have and the better the tshirts will be
It made me feel very uncomfortable, and I attempted to unsubscribe. No luck. I attempted to contact the administrator via a Web form and got no response.
==> if you want to unsubscribe, send me a mail or let me know and i’ll have you deleted from the database. once the profile pages are set up in a few weeks time, you’ll be able to change your email settings on these pages
I never did get to see any t-shirts (which is what I actually signed up for in the first place), and I never did figure out how to vote in the competition.
==> at the moment people can submit design entries to the first competition - voting starts on the 1st april. The first winning designs will be displayed on the site on the 1st May. You don’t need to sign up to see Tshirts or see the designs in the competition after the voting starts - you only need to register if you want to be interactive - ie: vote on a design, chat to the world about tshirts and everything else, set up a profile page etc.
If you have any idea of how I can get my name and details out of that database, please let me know. I don’t like signing up for something that puts its tentacles around me and sucks me in more and more with no chance of escape.
==> after my explanations, if you want me to have you deleted, let me know and i’ll have it actioned immediately.
BUT hope you give us a chance - we’re going to be adding tons of stuff in the next few months, and the voting on the Tshirts starts on the 1st April - and coz you’re already registered you can vote on all the designs to help decide the winner
Keep the feedback coming - REALLY appreciate it…
8 Tania // Feb 29, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I’d prefer to unsubscribe now, until the site is actually up and running, and then maybe subscribe again once it is out of Beta. I don’t want to have to go off and find other designers just to be able to be part of this, because the only potential t-shirt designer I can think of is leaving for Italy in April, and I don’t have his e-mail address. It just seems like too much work. I was actually only doing this for fun, because I am a t-shirt fan. (Still looking forward to coming to use the voucher I won last winter, BTW!)
9 Eric // Feb 29, 2008 at 3:43 pm
@Tania - have unsubscribed you from receiving updates. if you want to come back at a later stage, your user name and password will still work, and you’ll be able to subscribe again.
Have a great weekend
10 ilAn // Mar 3, 2008 at 8:32 pm
You can write perfectly good quality web sites in ASP.NET, php, a thousand different AJAX frameworks, and so on. Theyre all perfectly good languages for achieving your website.
That’s a fact.
It sounds like you designed it badly to start with; and so in the redesign you fixed all the original design flaws.
I would not be surprised that if you had started in php you could come up with the same answer.
The own real downside with ASP.NET is its lock in with the Microsoft operating system. That’s it.
11 gavin // Mar 3, 2008 at 9:30 pm
bad design for a site promoting a design competition. I kept on being taken to the same page (see tania’s comments) from pretty much all the links (this was last week). BETA actually means your site works. Overall a shocking site from people in the online marketing field.
12 Eric // Mar 3, 2008 at 9:39 pm
@gavin we decided that the most important part of the site to launch was the submission section, so that people could enter the first competition which is starting on the 1st april.
so we linked everything else to a “coming soon” page
This morning we launched the blog functionality, so nearly all of the “nav bar” links now link to sections.
By the end of March, you’ll see a redesigned submit section (where you can see the designs you’ve entered), profile pages, and a lot more…
A number of people told us they wanted to know when they were logged in, so we added some functionality around that today.
The more feedback we get about springleap, the better we can make it, so good or bad, keep the feedback coming…
ps: we already started replacing some of the home page links to actual content rather than the registration or coming soon page. Hopefully by the end of this month, all links on the home page and nav bar will lead to specific sections…
pps: we’ve had no feedback that the actual design isn’t like - people have RAVED about it, and told us how much they like it. Are you saying that you don’t like the actual design? If so, what don’t you like about it?
13 Tania // Mar 4, 2008 at 11:29 am
>> if you want to come back at a later stage, your user name and password will still work
Reminds me of Facebook (or a Cape Flats drug gang — they tend to run an “analog” version of the same thing): You can unsubscribe from all the notifications and try to leave, but they will never REALLY delete your username, password or profile. Once you’re in, they have you for life. Of course, you could always change your e-mail address, or apply to Home Affairs for a new name…
14 Eric // Mar 4, 2008 at 11:39 am
Tania - you want me to have you removed from the database? not a problem to do so. Will that make you happier that the CIA isn’t after you (see “facebook conspiracy” for details)?
15 Tania // Mar 4, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Hehe, I wouldn’t worry about the CIA anyway, because I can’t imagine that I would be very important to them! I think I have a greater perceived importance to marketers in a saleable database of prospective customers, so I have a greater stake in ensuring that people to whom I give my details understand my rights in terms of South Africa’s Electronic Communications and Transactions Act than that they understand America’s anti-terrorist legislation, where, as I understand it anyway, no-one has any rights.
16 Tania // Mar 4, 2008 at 2:24 pm
PS: Sorry, yes, perhaps I was ambiguous in my earlier request. By unsubscribe, I didn’t mean unsubscribe from mailing lists only, I meant get out of the database, leave the site, wipe out all my details, erase my presence, delete my profile, purge my records, de-register me until at a later stage I choose to re-register.
If you allow me re-register after all this, that is!
17 Eric // Mar 4, 2008 at 3:02 pm
no prob Tania - have asked for your entire record and any trace you were ever their to be vanquished.
hope you visit again soon though - you’re ALWAYS welcome
the voting starts on the 1st april so you can see the designs of the different tshirts, and the winning tshirt designs are shown from the 1st may
18 Eran // Mar 4, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Fellas!!! Can’t we all just get along?
I would like to answer a few of the very real and pertinent questions - btw : thanks to ALL of you - I consider ANY in put, whether critical or otherwise to be invaluable, so I just want to take a seccie to give a heart-warming thank you for taking the time.
We were going o launch much earlier, and ran into serious issues with ASP.Net and the development team we were working with. Sufice to say we parted ways with them and got a new team together - the current on : ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC BUNCH! Very cool guys and we went with their recommendation to steer away from the Microsoft route and head for the hills of PHP - and they were spot on. In no time at all we had the functional site you now see at http://www.springleap.com. Really amazing work considering the time frame.
So we went with a decision that this would be an organic site, evolving every week further and further. True to our word the site launched new features yesterday, namely the ability to blog.
I think the design looks AWESOME! (but perhaps I am a bit biased
), and just like our designers who we hope to empower : we are learning as well and implementing as we learn. The site does work, and as Eric points out : the areas that are developed are functional.
Tania, to address your issues with the site : we are MADE of ethics and I promise you now that at no stage will there be any tentacles or CIA-like behaviour. If you ever want out- you’re out - but you can always come back!
The reason we have the “recommend your friends” is not as a gross mass e-mail campaign, but rather out of the genuine understanding that the bigger a success http://www.springleap.com becomes, the bigger the success for the artists… but we need to help those artists find out about this amazing opportunity and the best way is through their social circles.
Everything about springleap is an open book.
Best of all btw : ANY artist can try their hand at winning and getting massive exposure, cash and prizes. You don’t have to be a “fashion” or “tshirt” designer… you just have to be creative and inspired.
SO please spread the word guys, because we are in this not just to build an awesome business - we are here to empower and expose talent which in turn will build an awesome business.
A couple of great reasons to tell your buds :
1. You can help them get MASSIVE exposure.
2. They can win hard cash
3. They can get the accolade and recognition of their peers, collegues and public.
4. And it’s going to be HUGE fun! - lets face it : the fun factor is a MUST!
So if you think we did ya wrong or we did ya just right; or if you wanna scram or get more involved; if you wanna jump for joy or gripe - whatever - our doors are ALWAYS open with a very big welcome mat right at the entrance to hear ANY concerns you have or find a way to improve.
So in short : thanks for taking the time and I hope that I addressed some of the issues.
19 Eric // Mar 4, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I can see in a few years the Lord of the Rings 1000 page master pieces will be SMALL compared the writings of Eran
20 Eran // Mar 4, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Hhahahhaa!
Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
- if it’s not worth a 1000 pages, then it’s not worth the print.
You know E - I could go for quality over quantity, but why skimp when you can go for gold and have both
LOL!
21 t-shirt guy // Mar 18, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Wow, great idea. This site could really explode. Is there a certain format or size the designs need to be? I’m going to make a few and submit them.
22 Eran // Mar 19, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Ola t-shirt guy
The process to submit designs for springleap is SUPER simple :
1. Download the springleap tshirt template pack from the website
2. choose from one of four formats in the pack : adobe illustrator, adobe photoshop, or macromedia freehand.
3. Create your design.
4. put it onto one of the tshirt templates and choose the tshirt colour from one of the provided 12 colour options.
5. make a thumbnail image of just the design 124 (w) x 88 (h) pixels and either as a GIF, JPG or PNG format. Keep it under 100k.
6. make a preview in one of those formats 600×800 pixels and smaller than 260kb
7. make a preview of the tshirt itself : 600 pixels x 600 pixels
and submit
easy as that!!!
You can submit up to 5 designs a month - it’s almost the end of March and this month there are bound to be fewer designs than in any other month submitted so your chances are best this month - get cracking
You could very well win!
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