AND THE WINNER IS..........lots to read.

soooooo, after pondering over the 70 entries for the last 12 days, i've finally made a decision. it was incredibly difficult and there were a bunch of entries that could have easily won. here are some of the major determining factors as to how the winner was chosen.

Series2 Artists: i asked 11 artists to be a part of Mini 10-Doh! Series2 and they had the same Jan 31st deadline to deliver their label art. just like the contest participants, they had almost complete freedom for the label. this presented a couple problems, like when 2 artists wanted to do a label based on the same game. it was solved by first come first served, but i couldn't communicate that to the contest participants. i felt it was best to let the contest run it's course and any similar or duplicate game entries would be second in line to any of the labels created by the designated artists for Series2. 

so, i had to wait and see all of the art for Series2 before choosing a winner. even though there is one label i'm still waiting on. anyway, the winner had to fit in the series, but too much. 

Color: it really boiled down to color for some of them. if i already had a heavy white label in the mix, all white label entries weren't likely to win. i know that might suck for those that chose white, but i couldn't tell them to not use white. i didn't know what colors the artists would be using. there also ended up being a lot of black labels from both artist and contest entries. so, a lot of great classic looking labels weren't chosen because there will be plenty of classic styled labels already in Series2.

Content: others weren't selected because the subject matter was too similar. i didn't want to have a series full of a certain animal. so, if one of the artists used a specific animal, all entries with that same animal probably wouldn't be selected.

Decision: the final decision was mine, but i did ask some friends for their top 5 and then discussed them further once i showed them the rest of Series2 as a whole. like i said, there were at least a good 10-15 entries that had a solid chance at winning. 

AND THE WINNER IS.........

Zonbey Kong was designed by Riccardo Bucchioni. it's not heavy on black or white. and none of the other artists chose to do zombie gorillas, so no overlap there. but seriously, it's funny and well illustrated. it will also be easily recognizable for lots of people. i have no idea who Riccardo Bucchioni is, but i soon will and so will some other folks out there.

UPDATE: check out more of Riccardo's work at http://www.riccardobucchioni.com and https://www.facebook.com/riccardobucchioniart

i was incredibly tough to choose the winner. i'm amazed at all of the great entries, so i want to try and do some other stuff with the entries. below are some ideas on how to do that. 

Series3: i may select a couple of the entries to be part of Series3, but i have to get through Series2 first. 

Limited Edition Mini 10-Dohs: i'm planning at least 2 Limited Edition figures using the art from the contest. i've already contacted those 2 artists, but i'll reveal those later. 

Kickstarter: i'm trying to set up a Kickstarter project to fund Series2. counter to popular belief, i'm not made of monies. this may also give me a chance to produce other So Analog characters like A-Drive and B-Side, but again, i have to focus on Series2 first. so, stay tuned. i may also open voting for backers to select other contest entries to be made into Limited Editions Mini 10-Doh! figures.

Everyone is a winner, kinda. i'm also working on having a Custom Mini 10-Doh! art show where i can show off all 70 designs. it's in the very early stages of planning, so i'll post more once anything gets solidified. 

i'm sure there was a better way to run the contest, but i'm just one guy trying to make some toys that also help other artists get their stuff seen by more people. i'd like to do another contest at some point, but it will be probably being more specific or something. i learned a lot during this little adventure.

i really want to thank everyone that took the time to read this, but more importantly, thanks to everyone that took the time to enter. the quantity and quality of the submissions was impressive. i truly appreciate the support.