See the picture above? Take it, make it your own!

Or rather, make it mine. Here’s the skinny… I want a new logo. See that “X-Globe” Guide Button I use in my logo? It’s trademarked property of Microsoft! I’d rather have something that I can call “mine.” However, since I can’t make anything of mine own, and many of you can, I want to offer my readers the chance to make my new logo!

Let’s lay the ground work, the idea I’m shooting for is to turn the “X” in the guide button image into an “A” (as in “Angel”). Early samples I have seen from others have already included Wings around the logo, some of you may wish to do away with the “halo,” ring, make the “A” into the word NuAngel, or WinBreak, things like that… whatever you want to do, give it a shot! You can do whatever you want!

You can use the files from here as a starting point, or make your own:
http://winbreak.com/logo_rc1.png - PNG (Macromedia Fireworks).
http://winbreak.com/logo_rc1.zip - Zipped PSD (Photo Shop).

I will personally select a winner based on a design I like best. It would be great to get ’source files’ from everyone, if possible. Individual layers, so I have the ability to make changes if and when necessary, and also (hopefully) not containing any materials which are the property of anyone else.

What’s the CONTEST part? Well, it hasn’t been totally decided… the contest has been announced to a few other communities who don’t have much to do with the Xbox / 360. The prize could be Microsoft points, an Arcade game, a retail game, a PC game, or just a deposit to a paypal account… the grand prize will be between myself and the winner!!! That should be a pretty big incentive, I think… the value will be no less than $20 - and could potentially be much higher. Remember, we’re trying to make this into the new identity for WinBreak.com - that’s valuable to me!

Fine print junk: The winning artist will get credit on the website as the designer of my new logo, however, all submissions become the property of Garrett “NuAngel” Culver and WinBreak.com. You may make submissions as comments here as a comment to this post, email them to contest@winbreak.com, or brought to my attention via posts in threads on forums and other websites which I have presented the contest to.

For reference, this is a great source of Hi-resolution Xbox related images:
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/press/xbox360.htm.

FIRST, the submissions.

GuyWhoLovesRice submitted a whopping FOUR pictures (remember, I said you could submit as many as you want).

TXPaladin submitted one, which he noted that because it included both the requred 360, and the TX in his gamertag, should count for bonus points.

LancerX7 said he looked all week and found nothing, then finally hacked his Logitech G15 keyboard to give us this message:

And then there was silence… there were no other submissions. Six total submissions from three total readers. Well, for the record, I enjoyed TXPaladin’s picture the most, but… because of the dedication of only three contestants making our first contest all the more special, I’m going to award the game to ALL THREE CONTESTANTS! EVERYONE IS A WINNER!

TX Paladin will get the official Uno CODE, for the other two, I will be “gifting” the game to you. I had no intention of doing this going into the contest, my pockets aren’t that deep, but I wanted to thank you all, and hope that maybe you spread the word. Thanks for taking part in our first contest, and making it memorable and enjoyable! Even with only 3 contestants, I consider the fact that I have any pictures to show off, a sucess.

Update 1: seems as though I’m a little more used to the “Wii.” I can’t “gift” games, and even the ability to gift POINTS seems to have been a “holiday promition” that billing.microsoft.com has disabled!! Very strange. I will work around this, I do not go back on my word! Lancer and Rice, you will be getting Uno, just hang tight!

Update 3: the judging shall commence… stay tuned! Or even turn on your Xbox incase you get the winning message!!

Remember, the contest ends @ noon EST on Sunday. Get your submissions in.

Now, I know a lot of poeple already have Uno, but I really expected a few people to enter just for fun! Maybe contestants are waiting until the last minute, maybe finding the number 360 in the wild and snagging a picture is harder than it sounds, I don’t know. All I know is that as of right now, your odds in this contest are really good.

Plus, we’re already concocting our next crazy scheme! More contests on the way, folks, stay tuned!

It’s been years since I’ve been in the position to have giveaways. On my previous website, I had a huge double prize pack, with T-Shirts, PC software, and all kinds of things. Well, I’m working my way up to the top again, and you have to start somewhere. This is WinBreak.com’s first giveaway, and we’re glad you can be a part of it!

The Prize: We’re just getting started, so at this time, we will only be giving away one copy of Uno for the Xbox Live Arcade.

The fine print: I don’t think there is any!! We will be giving away a code for Uno - this allows me to make this open internationally! Anyone can enter! As far as I know, the code will work anywhere, even Europe, the Middle East, Asia… everywhere!

The ultra fine print: If the code doesn’t work over seas, we will give the code to the 2nd place contestant, and we will GIFT the game to the first place winner! If you were the first place winner you will get your prize, even if I have to jump through hoops to do it!

The background: I was at work this week, and was seeing the number “360″ everywhere… paperwork, client numbers, serial numbers, everything I looked at, everywhere I looked!

Here’s how to enter: We want you to “360″ in the wild. Find it on a menu at a restaurant take a picture. Find it on the subway and take a picture with your phone. Find it online and take a screen shot (press the Print Screen key and PASTE it into MSPaint or something!). Just take pictures of the number “360″ or “three sixty” or “three six zero” or anything like that! See what you can find, you’ll be surprised! Submit your entries to contest@winbreak.com. We encourage multiple entries.

We will post the pictures of all entries deemed appropriate, and the winners will be announced after they have been contacted. Your pictures will be judged by WinBreak.com crew and friends. Your pictures will be judged on various things, including the originality and location! Update: Oh yeah, a few more details… we’re currently planning to hold the judging and announce our decision around noon EST (GMT -5) next Sunday. Also, while we are well aware of the power of photoshop, we want our entries to be in the spirit of competition and fun! Please just do what you can to find 360 in the wild!

If you have any questions, just use the contact us link on the right side of the page, or send an email to the contest email address. I can’t wait to see your entries!