Postcard Puzzle Design Contest - Voting

Thank you to those who submitted their artwork! They're all great and it'll be a tough competition.

We have a total of 3 entries for the contest. The winner will be determined through a ranking method. Voting will last from today, June 30, 2007 until July 2, 2007. The winning entry will be revealed on July 3, 2007.

We'll keep the voting anonymous but do keep in mind that you can only vote once.

For the purposes of this contest, the entries are not optimized and are watermarked. Obviously, when the winner is chosen, we'll send the image to the puzzle-maker optimized and without the watermark.

The voting form is found below the entries. Please base your rankings on the design entries below. Also consider the following criteria when evaluating the images:

- Must contain the message (in Japanese Kana - not in English)
- Encapsulates unity of fans
- Showcases North American flavor ( yes, both US and Canada, please!! )
- Creative
- Maximizes space
- NO COPYRIGHTED WORKS PLEASE!! Must be completely original (sorry, folks, no arashi pics unless you have explicit permission to use them)

Any questions please don't hesitate to contact us about it.

Good luck to all entries!

Entry A:


Entry B:


Entry C:


**** PLACE YOUR VOTE BELOW ****

Edit: Contest has ended. Thank you for voting!

Scheduled Update #7: Project Timeline, etc.

Hey, everyone! How are you all doing? June is just flying by so fast, it seems like! Gambatte, minna!

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Today's scheduled update includes:

I. Project Timeline + Details
II. PuzzleDesign Reminder
III. For interested people who want to join

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I. Project Timeline + Details

The project timeline and details will include, as it says, a rough timeline that is alloted for this project. You'll be able to see the our target dates for specific phases of the project. It also includes details of different aspects of the project. It is a Word document that will be emailed to you.

II. Puzzle Design Reminder

The Puzzle Design submission period is ongoing at the moment. The last day to submit entries is June 29, 2007 PST/PDT. Please refer to the PuzzleDesign Post and the entry answering questions we received from you about the design.

III. For people who want to join

We have received several requests regarding joining the project. We appreciate your interest in the project. If you wish to join, please be reminded of the following:

1. You are most welcome to be part of the video if we are going to the area you're located.
2. We cannot guarantee you a puzzle piece.
3. We'll need a statement from you verifying you are over 13 years old and that you are located in North America. Send your verification to arashiaroundamerica@gmail.com.
4. Once we receive that verification, we need to collect some data from you (it will be the same data collected from people who filled out the formal sign-up form). Please read our privacy policy here.

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For the next update:

- We'll give you a progress report on the puzzle design contest (We'll reveal the winner within the days of 7/3 - 7/10).

Thanks and have a good week ahead! ^^v

IMPORTANT! Please read - Postcard Design Deadline is Friday, 6/29

Yes, Everyone... The deadline for submitting your design for our postcard puzzle is Friday --not Wednesday -- 6/29. (One of our members had brought the error to our attention...thanks, dear!)

Gomen, ne?? Our apologies, minna, for the confusion.

Are you all hard at work with your designs??

Like we mentioned in Sunday's update, feel free to be creative! You can be as realistic or as abstract as you want!
Just make sure to follow the guidelines we gave... we really don't want to have to disqualify an entry on a technicality. And please incorporate the US and Canadian flavor... get those creative juices flowing!

We received a few questions and would just like to post them here in case any of you were also wondering and were just shy to ask:

The design will only be for the front of the puzzle, right?
- Correct. Only the front side of the postcard puzzle will display the design and the unified message(in Japanese). The back side will be reserved for our individual messages.

Is it okay if we put the design on an 8.5" x 11" sheet? won't we lose some of the image quality when we blow it up?
- You can, just keep in mind our final postcard puzzle size will be 18" x 24". The closer you are to the scale of the final dimensions, the more the space will be maximized. Say, you have a photo in the shape of a square...for you to make it rectangular you'll either have to stretch the sides (thus distorting the photo) or crop the top and/or bottom...either way, you have to alter the photo and lose the original image. If the photo was in a rectangular shape to begin with, the less the distortion to the image when it's blown up.

Any ideas on how I can scan my design?
- We understand that unless you work at Kinko's, it's highly unlikely any of us will have access to a commercial-use scanner/printer/copier for free. That being said, you can either:

1. scan your photo in sections. label each file appropriately, send it to us and we'll take care of putting the files together.
2. do the above, but you put the sections together and send us the file.
3. take a picture of your design with a digital camera (make sure the setting is on high res) and send the digital file to us

Or, you can go to Kinko's and ask them if they can scan your design (caveat: they may ask you to pay) XD If the above are not an option, do email us.

If there are any other questions, feel free to reach out to us!

We know there are some cool ideas for designs already in the works!! Gambatte!! We'll look forward to receiving your entries!

Scheduled Update #6: We have our message! Calling all artists!

Konnichiwa, minna! Genki de?

Before we get down to business, let's greet our beloved Nino a very happy 24th birthday!
O tanjoubi omedetou, Nino!!
Seems like he's got a busy year ahead, ne!! Gambatte, Kazu! We're here to support you!

Okay... now on to the serious stuff... In this week's update we have:

1. Our unified message
2. The start of our postcard design creation
3. Postcard design criteria and deadline
4. Project timeline

1. Our unified message
Thanks to your suggestions and to the lovely Nyanchan who translated for us, we have put together our unified message. This will be the message that will be revealed once all the pieces of the puzzle have been put together. Everyone had very good suggestions and we really tried to incorporate them all. We're really excited about it and hope you all will be too!

Without further ado, here it is:

嵐のみんなさんへ、

「A.Ra.Shi」の”dream"はアメリカにでも栄えります。＾＿＾
私たちの愛や感謝や友情を感じてください：３
ここに遊びに来て、自分で確かめてくださいね？：D

嵐の北米ファンのみんなさんから。

Translated:
To all of Arashi,
The 'dream' of 'A.Ra.Shi' is flourishing even in America^^
Please feel/sense/experience our love and gratitude and friendship:3
Please come and visit, and confirm it for yourselves ne :D
From all of your Noth American fans.

Well, minna, what do you think?

2. The start of our postcard design creation
Now that we have our message, we'd like to call on all our artists in the group. We know we have quite a few and are hoping to tap your artistic talents! Today, our postcard design creation begins! If you recall, the design will be on the side of the postcard where our unified message will reside and will also be revealed once all the pieces are put together. Here are some illustrations to help you visualize how the finished postcard puzzle will look like. The front side will have the design and the message, the back side will have our individual messages. This puzzle is just divided into squares for demo purposes, but the actual one will have real interlocking puzzle pieces, knobs and all.

Again, we welcome all ideas and we encourage everyone (even those who don't think they are not so artistic) to send in their submissions.

Once all the entries are in by the deadline we'll hold a poll and the design that gets the most votes will be the one we'll use! Anxious to start designing? This brings us to our next topic...

3. Postcard design criteria and deadline
Alright, to assist you all in creating a design, we've put together a set of criteria and listed them below. This will also be the criteria we'll use in the poll to judge all the entries. Here ya go:

Basics
- Must contain the message (in Japanese Kana - not in English)
- High resolution file (ideally 5400 x 7200 pixels would be best; at the least 1800 x 2400 pixels) This is the requirement from the vendor who we're looking to use to create the puzzle. If you experience or foresee any difficulty with it, do let us know and we'll see what can be done**.
- File format must either be: pdf, jpeg, tiff, psd, ai, eps, bmp
- Please try to scale: 18" x 24" will be the final size of the finished postcard
**Note: You are most welcome to scan your image and we'll try our best to blow it up to the desired resolution. The minimum requirement for this process is that the image fits within a regular sized copy paper (8 1/2" x 11").

Artistic content
- Encapsulates unity of fans
- Showcases North American flavor ( yes, both US and Canada, please!! )
- Creative
- Maximizes space
- NO COPYRIGHTED WORKS PLEASE!! Must be completely original (sorry, folks, no arashi pics unless you have explicit permission to use them)

Medium
- Prefer already digital/electronic entries
- If not digital, it must be easily scannable/digitized
- You are free to use any medium as long as it will translate well blown up to an 18x24 size

We'll be glad to answer any questions on the above.

The deadline for submissions is: Wednesday, 6/29. Due to the high resolution of the file, we figured the most suitable way to send your work would be to upload your entry to megaupload or sendspace and email us the link. If you are new to uploading on either megaupload or sendspace OR if you would like to use another method, feel free to email us.
Poll/voting will commence on 6/30.

Looking forward to seeing your submissions!!!!

4. Project timeline
We have hashed out our project timeline and will be emailing them to you. With that in hand, it should provide an idea of where we're at with the project.

We think that's already a lot to take in for this go around! Our project is in full swing!!! We just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for staying with us up to now and we hope you'll continue to support the project!

If you have any suggestions for the project, please do not hesitate to send them to us via email, arashiaroundamerica@gmail.com, or commenting on the blog!

'Til the next update, enjoy the rest of your week, everyone!

Scheduled Update #5: Puzzle Message

Hello, minna! How's everyone doing? Did you guys order the new Arashi album yet? :D Let's support our boys, ne?

Nino's 24th bday will be next week already! Do you think they'll have anything special set up for him in next week's Mago Talk? :D

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We mentioned last week that we were going to give specifications for the puzzle.

The first step to it is to agree on a unified message that will be written on the puzzle. >< We figured that if we have a unified message first, then our design can reflect the message that all of us have agreed on. ^^

From today (6/10/07) until Wednesday (6/13/07), we'll be accepting any ideas / suggestions to be included in the finalized message. That is what theme(s) should we have for our unified message? For example, gratitude, how much we love them, a concert here, etc.

After we've received suggestions, we'll combine them to come up with our unified message. Due to space restrictions for the design of our jigsaw puzzle, we'd like to keep our message to one sentence. Of course, we'll try our best to include everyone's suggestions.

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For the next scheduled update:

1. If ready, the unified message
2. Puzzle specs for design

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Thanks! Looking forward to everyone's responses! ^^v

Scheduled Update #4: Final Count!

Hello! How's everyone? Hope everyone's June starts out well.

Been hearing rumors of Aiba-chan's perm. Wonder how it looks like. >_>

Did you guys get to see the lates Kodomo no Bangohan yet? One of the funnier epsiodes! As expected of an Ohno-Aiba pairing! XD The blender part was just too cute. Next week's MMA is Sho and Nino as grandkids. Wonder when Jun and Nino will go for one of those Edo trips? ><

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Final Count

Thanks to all who signed up using our official sign-up form! Sign-up ended last Thursday, 5/31/07. The final count was tallied at 32. v^^v

If during the course of the project, you know someone who wants to join us, don't hesitate to contact us. ^^

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Puzzle Design Contest

A number of you said that you are willing to share your skills with regards to art or design. For that reason, we decided to make a contest to choose what design to put on our puzzle. We'll give the minimum criteria and deadlines in the next update or the one following that. As of the moment, all we can say is that it should include our one unified message for Arashi.

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For The Next Update

1. Puzzle Design Contest Criteria and Rules

2. And whatever else comes up as usual. :)

Ja mata!