”Every good painter paints what he is.”

—Jackson Pollock

Today, a man’s fantasy has became reality in a forum never seen before: Designers’ Stadium: a giant designing arena.

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The motivation for spending his fortune to create Designers’ Stadium is to encounter new original designs, which could be called true artistic creations.

Allez design!

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To realize his dream, he has started chasing the top designers of various styles of image-making. And he will raise a glbum and name the greatest one of them the Iron Designer: the invincible person of artistic skills.

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If memory serves me right, topic icons date back to the Web 1.0 period. Topic icons are used to label forum threads according to the thread’s intended subject or to make them more interesting and colorful. In the artistic harmony between image and word, topic icons have become an essential part of forum design. At the size of 60x15 pixels, a topic icon is indeed small. But do not mistake their small size for unimportance. Indeed, they are the amuse bouche of forum imagery. They whet your appetite and ready your eyes for what you will encounter within each and every thread.

I love topic icons and I think it is about time we had a topic icon battle.

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One of my extremely famous Japanese actor friends recommended that I select my challengers, and ultimately my Iron Designer, from the citizens of Forumwarz. Having covertly studied them from the safety of my hidden estate, I agree that some of them have promise as designers. But who will step forward? Who will battle for the ultimate title of …

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If you have the strength to fulfill my challenge and battle your fellow posters for this title, reveal your intentions here, in this thread, by Friday, August 7th at 2pm EST.

On Monday, August 10th, I will open Battle Topic Icon for those worthy participants. Each individual poster is limited to three submissions. You do not have to use all three submissions. Sometimes it is better to create a single masterpiece than make many mediocre attempts. Round One will close on Friday, August 14th at 2pm EST and the top challengers will proceed to the next round and will have another week to create up to three new topic icons for battle. The number of rounds depends on the number of participants and the quality of entries.

In this new thread, each poster will make one post per submission. You will be allowed to explain briefly in that post why you think your image is superior. However, be warned that art that requires explanation is often not very good. Do not annoy or bore your Chairman or the judges. They will be merciless.

Who will be your judges? I, your Chairman, will judge your entries, but they will also be judged by the Jalapeno Bootyhole, the Apprentices, and by your fellow posters in this forum. They will be encouraged to reward you by upvoting your entries or show their disdain by downvoting your entries. Additionally, a few of my usual judges will be making special appearances.

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Yes, hello. I will especially enjoy judging your attempts at artistry. This will prove most…interesting.

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Hee hee! I’m so excited! It sounds like so much fun already!

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I was told there would be sake. I do not want to have to call my manager.

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I predict that some of the participants will do well and others will do…poorly. Yes, that’s right. That is my prediction.

Now that you have met my judges, you may be wondering about prizes. In addition to the title of Iron Designer, the ultimate winner will receive a unique E-Peen and five Brownie Points. Second place will receive three Brownie Points and third place will receive one Brownie Point. All non-first place entries chosen for use in Flamebate will receive the Design Guyz! E-Peen. You are allowed one entry participant per account. And now, let me hear from you, designers. Who will step up to this challenge?

ETA: The contest has begun!