Six-Pointed Star Awards
Filed under: Analysis | 3 Comments » TweetThe Flag of Chicago is one of the most totemic and recognizable images around. In particular, the 6-pointed star of the flag is a unique graphic element that immediately says “Chicago” to those of us who live here. You see it appropriated everywhere (even Audi garages). It’s no wonder why so many designers of Aldermanic Web sites use the star in their imagery. Here are my awards for those who have tried and (sometimes just barely) succeeded in using the six-pointed star of the Chicago flag.
Bruce Lee Memorial Award for Dangerous Stars Goes to Joe “Proco” Moreno
This star actually belongs in the “Close But No Star” category, but it *is* six-pointed, so I kept it in. The angles are slightly off, giving it that martial-arts-weapon feel. Details count, people!
Best Visual / Verbal Usage Award Goes to Federico Sciammarella
Extra points for using 2 stars to signify the second ward. Looks all the better when contrasted with John’s Arena’s forced “45″ knockout.
Shiniest Star Evar Award Goes to Dan Balanoff
This Flash-based shield-star combo does all sorts of shimmying for you. Go ahead and see it while you can– Balanoff dropped out of the race already.
Most Patriotic Award Goes to Bita Buenrostro
The idea of the robust flag, fluttering behind the stalwart candidate, is pretty much irresistible to designers. There were a lot contenders, but this one stands out for the Carl Sandburg-like big shoulder flutter behind the smiling candidate.
Copy/ Paste Award Goes to Edward Burke
When you’re Ed Burke, you don’t even bother having a campaign Web site– you just have a site for the powerful committee that you expect to control for the foreseeable age. That also means you don’t have to hire anyone to do anything fancy with the flag– just pop it in the upper right and you’re done. Pavlik gets an honorable mention.
Creative Firearms Award Goes to Jason C. Ervin
This award goes to Ervin’s designer for deciding to use the star (a correct one) instead of HTML bullets. Extra points for red on light blue. If you shake your laptop, the star wiggles like it’s 3D.
Gold Star Award Goes to Scott Waguespack
The original red clashes with your site design color scheme? Change it to gold! Honorable mention: Chuck Eastwood. Meanwhile, Ameya Pawar goes blue, Greg Brewer chooses orange, and Hector Gonzalez goes plum while Rhymefest is grey.
Low Res Award Goes to Dick Mell
Someone in the City’s Graphics and Reproduction Center really ought to send a hi-res file of the city flag over to Alderman Dick Mell.
Best Character Award Goes to Nancy Schiavone
Star dotting the exclamation point. Well-played. Contrast this to the pedestrian i-dotting for Don Blair (not to mention the failed 5-pointer). Close, but not quite sublime, is John Carroll’s O-center.
Under-Achiever Award Goes to Diane Shapiro
Republicans? Seriously?
Betsy Ross Award
Don’t like elements of the flag? Create your own! Sleet wins for single-handedly supplanting the three white stripes and popping in his own flowing water blue. Well-done, actually. Meanwhile, John Pope deletes the North and South sides.
Best 1-2 Punch Award Goes to Alberto Bocanegra
Next to the six-pointed star, there’s nothing like the outline of the city limits that says, “Chicago”. Bocanegra’s designer gets it done.
Too Much of a Good Thing Award Goes to Sheldon L. Sherman
Not content with merely 4 stars lined up, Sherman’s designer decides to go five.
Did I miss anything? Disagree? Lemme know in the comments!