Notice: This website was just upgraded to a 4.0 Level by Award Sites! Those of you who have won my award, and who keep track of levels and award points, may let your award reflect that.

The 'T.C. Design Eye On Design Award of Excellence' will be bestowed the first part of the month, each month, upon those sites that meet a certain high standard of art and design. I am looking for sites that rise above the ordinary to the level of artistic excellence.

You can expect a review waiting period of 2-4 weeks from the receipt of your application for your site to be reviewed. Please do not expect to receive an answer unless you have won. If you request an answer, I will try to send you one, but cannot send evaluations of your website to you as, if everyone requested one, I would have no time to work on my own site.

Some changes and additions have been madeto the criteria, as of April 16, 2001:

You must be over thirteen (13) years old in order to apply for this award.

Before you apply for my award, please be sure that you have an award page or a place for the award, or you will be disqualified automatically.

Things That Matter:

I am an artist and I tend to be most drawn towards sites that are art-centered -- one created by a person with an obvious talent for dynamic, compelling design. I will also pay attention to continuity in color and theme. Only those who endeavor to reach excellence in artistic design and execution will be considered. A qualifying site will display obvious forethought in composition, content, and programming.

Personally, I prefer websites without sound or music, but if the sound/music is appropriate, is of a very high quality, does not take forever to load, and has an off button, that might be different.

To get an idea of what kinds of sites I'm looking for, take a look at the Current Winner and Past Winners pages.

Beyond points, and if there is a tie, it comes down to what I find aesthetically pleasing -- or perhaps two awards will be given for that month. Or none. In any given month, I reserve the right to award a website that I have found on the Web (one that meets the criteria), if I so choose, rather than award an applicant.

Please have your site submission in by the fifteenth of each month, as awards will be given by the end of the month for the next month's award. Those who are late, or those who have not included the address of the site and the required information, will not be eligible to win the award. Only the winning applicant will receive an answering email.

Don't Bother Applying if...

Hate sites will be immediately disqualified, as will porn pages and sites that are nothing but a collection of links.

Under Construction signs are not acceptable. If you would like to apply for this award, finish your page first. It is understood that all websites are a work in progress, as rust never sleeps; neither, it appears, do web designers.

Additionally, your web page must either be written in English or have an English language option, or translator, on the site, so I know what I'm reading.

Sites with flashing, bobbing, wildly-blinking GIF-animated whirligigs will immediately be an indication to me that you haven't read enough of the criteria to understand the purpose of this award and will be disqualified.

Sites that I have contributed work to will not be eligible for the award, so as to eliminate any real or perceived conflict of interest.

Points will be awarded accordingly:

2 pts. Loading time, one minute or under for home page and most other pages. I understand it may take a bit more time for galleries to load. Two to three minutes should be more than enough time for a graphics-laden gallery to load.

2 pts. Meaningful content.

2 pts. Continuity of design, theme, graphics, and colors.

2 pts. For each of the following attributes your site possesses:

3 pts. Use of your own original graphics and programming.

2 pt. Linkware with an obvious, and operational, link back to the artist/designer/programmer.

Points will be subtracted accordingly:

Those sites with broken links and/or excessively long loading times, will have points subtracted accordingly. Music that blasts a cacophony of tinny midi music that cannot be turned off will assuredly lose you points.

-2 pts. Loading times over one minute, unless it's for a gallery with many images. Then it should be under three minutes and had better be worth it.

-2 pts. Lacking continuity of design, theme, graphics, and colors.

-2 pts. 'Under Construction' signs.

-3 pts. No 'off' button for midi sounds and music. Music that blasts a cacophony of tinny midi music that cannot be turned off will assuredly lose you points

-4 pts. No link back to artist/designer/programmer if the site wasn't created by owner.

-2 pts. Site has more than two broken links.

To apply:

Please send an email to: WebMstress@tcdesign.net giving your name, email address, the exact address of your website, and whether or not you created the site graphics and did your own programming. Neither the graphics nor programming need be your own, but those who create their own graphics will get extra points and have a better chance of winning. For those who use linkware, you must give a proper link-back to the artist who created them on each page where you have used their graphics.

Check out the Award page for the announcement of each month's winners.

If you ever have difficulty emailing me, an alternate address is: t.c.design@gurlmail.com.