Design Contest Recap and Winners!

2013 Art and Design Contest Recap - Here are your three winners!

We did it!

Our very first Art & Design contest was a huge success and I must say the results have been nothing short of incredible. We never thought we would get this much love from the art community and we're truly thankful for everyone whose shown their support and voted for their favorite contestants.

The submissions, unsurprisingly, have been awesome. We had 32 contestants from around the world submit their most unique and interesting designs to us. The rules were simple. The top three submissions with the most votes would win 50 of our card-twist style flash drives imprinted with their prize winning design. It was up to the contestants to share and promote their entries as much as they wanted.

And boy did they get to work! By the end of our contest we had well over 4000 people cast their vote for their favorite designs. For a couple of weeks the race was really close between many of our contestants. This is the type of passion we wanted to see from our top three winners.

We launched this contest with the idea of reaching out to the art community. We really wanted to give a little back to the hard working artists that enliven the business world with unique visual content every day. But we also wanted to see how well our contestant could engage their own audiences to help them win.

We're going to be rolling out the winning designs and selecting our raffle winners over the next few days. But first, we're absolutely thrilled to share the results of the contest with you.

So, without further delay, here is your top three Art & Design contest winners from USB Memory Direct!

Henrique Lacerda

Henrique (HIK) Lacerda is the type of artist who strives for the extraordinary. Born and raised in the city of Santos, Sao Paulo - Brazil, Henrique graduated with a dual degree in architecture and urbanism from his local university.

His exploration of art came at a really early age where Henrique was able to use computer illustration programs to produce his work. "I cannot draw," he says, "I work entirely with what the internet gives me."

In other words, just how a painter would use a brush and a wooden paint palette, Henrique uses the figure, image, and texture editing tools of popular programs like Coral Draw, AutoCAD, and SketchUp to create his art. He wanted to show the world that you can make fantastic visual designs without the skills of a traditional illustrator.

Henrique got the inspiration for his design during a recent collaboration with fellow artist Paulo Consentino. He was invited to work with Paulo on a project that involved a huge colorful skull. From this, he was able to develop the general concept behind his design, and reached a very interesting result.

He also wanted to reinterpret the concept of Pop Art by M. Duchamp and Andy Warhol, who transformed everyday objects in art. The strong use of color throughout the design was inspired by bold fashion trends used extensively by Ed Hardy and Alexandre Herchcovitch in their creations.

Fantastic work Henrique!

Nicky Beltran

Nicky Beltran is a seasoned professor of graphic design over at Barry University in Miami Shores. Her inspiration for the design came from the actual form of the custom flash drive we provided.

Card-Twist custom usb drives come with an open slit that exposes the actually memory stick cleverly hidden to look like a regular business card. Nicky noticed that when the flash drive was in the open position, it reminded her of a person sitting at a desk. Then she pictured himself working at her own desk, diligently working on her next design at her computer and simply produced a visual representation to reflect that. As a final touch, she decided to add the "I heart Design" statement to the post-it note sitting off to the right hand side of the image. It's rather simple, but it's funny and cute. Not to mention it does reinforce her passion for all thing graphic design.

We really enjoyed the creativity that Nicky brought to the table. Art often involves thinking outside the box, and Nicky definitely used this to his advantage here.

Through the support of her fellow faculty members, students, family, and friends, Nicky was able to come in at a strong second and claim her prize! We were really amazed by how she rose through the ranks rather quickly. It was a close race for many weeks but she pulled through to a guarantee her slot in our top three!

"Thank you to USB Memory Direct for inspiring creativity in myself and all of the others who entered the contest. This truly was an enjoyable experience to be a part of." - Nicky Beltran

Phenomenal design and congratulations on your win Nicky!

Glitschka Studios

Glitschka Studios was one of the few professional companies to submit their design to us. Even though they usually work alongside large companies and corporations as clients, they also thrive on designing for small business owners as well. We also recognize how important this market is and we were really glad to find Glitschka Studios shared our admiration for young entrepreneurs. They welcome the creative challenge of facilitating a small business, so they can successfully market themselves on the same visual level as the big name brands they compete with on a daily basis.

"Creativity is all about thinking beyond the literal in order to harness concepts that can apply to the practical and work in context of commercial art." - Glitschka Studios

To coincide with their ideals, Glitschka Studios submitted an artwork sample that was fringe in nature and strange in its attempt to communicate to the viewer.

"I felt since thumb drives are used to transport ideas that having art inspired by and reflective of creative thinking would be an appropriate visual narrative for the skin."

We couldn't agree more. Congratulations to all of our winners!

Raffle Winners

As promised, we will be holding our raffle on June 10th. Over the next 3 weeks, each of the 150 raffle winners will get a sample (selected at random) imprinted with one of the top three designs. If you're a winner, we'll contact you through email about delivery and your style. Even if you don't win this time around, be prepared! More giveaways are coming. Don't forget, you can always order your very own custom shape flash drives from us as well. Visit our custom shaped USB drives section for more information. Once again we want to thank every participant and voter your support and we wish you all the best of luck in the raffle!