With the launch of the 404 page design contest a few weeks ago, we wanted to achieve 2 goals:

  • supply a premium giveaway that didn't involve social media for a change and
  • give the talented readers of Android Police a chance to showcase their creativity and leave a permanent imprint on this website's design and identity

After over 140 submissions - some great, some not so good, some incredibly creative and witty, and some hilarious, I've requested your help in selecting your winner by picking the top 20 designs and putting them up for a reader vote.

To be clear, the poll's purpose was to gauge the general public's opinion on the designs to help us select the finalist, but some people took it as a popularity contest and an invitation to cheat. The cheating entry suddenly shot to the top, but one of our eagle-eyed readers brought this fact to our attention, and after an investigation that showed obviously dishonest voting history using Tor and anonymous proxies, a disqualification decision was made.

Getting past the unfortunate incident, let's get to the real winner, as selected by Android Police and aided by all of you who voted.

The Winner

If you are one of the winners or if your entry was in the top 20 and you want to send the original PSD/AI/etc file for us to use on the site, please send an email to giveaways [at] AP.

The winner of the contest - the author of the most creative entry - will receive a T-Mobile G2x, sponsored by NVIDIA. Unfortunately, there could only be one, and even though it was incredibly hard to pick just one, we had no other choice but force ourselves to do it.

Meet the author of the top entry, goatomatic, aka Nicholas Bess. He worked on his entry throughout the duration of the competition and ended up with the one you see below. Clever, original, clean - brilliant work, enjoy your well deserved G2x, Nicholas!

Update: And here's Nick with his new baby!

Runners-Up

After creative entries started pouring in, one after another, we decided it wouldn't be fair to leave our runners-up without something to take home, so we'll be sending Android Police shirts of their choosing to the 5 design authors listed below (these may or may not be the same as the ones at the top of the reader vote). In exchange, all we ask for are the original design files - might as well throw them into a random rotation when AP's 404 page is hit, right?

Here they are.

Runner-Up #1

This was a very close contender but, unfortunately, we had to select one. The cleverly planted 404 sign, the donut reference (one six) on the box, the originality of the graphics, the humor - it's all in there.

Design by: RougeCrown, aka ~aoisora9x at Deviant Art. I liked this and his other designs by him so much that I had to do a separate spotlight to highlight his talent.

Runner-Up #2

I love this cartoonish sketch full of Android version characters and what somebody referred to as "sideways butt crack" (it really isn't - just some Android back fat that came from all the donuts).

Design by: SeanM.

Runner-Up #3

Another great design by SeanM - you get 2 shirts, Sean.

Design by: SeanM.

Runner-Up #4

A crowd favorite, this design combines an Android lock screen with our main page, so it gets major geek points for wittiness.

Design by: pha9992000.

Runner-Up #5

The only animated design that was submitted, I felt like this entry deserved special recognition for the hard work that went into putting it together. To see the animated version, hit this link.

Design by: Fotomedic.

I'd like to once again send a huge thanks to all the contestants - without you, AP wouldn't be the site many of you have grown to love. If you're bursting with creativity, stay tuned for another creative contest coming up soon.