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The <hr /> Contest

August 22nd, 2008 in Events | 143 Comments

What is <hr />? Basically, it is an old HTML-tag which has been used since the very beginning of the Web. hr stands for the horizontal rule and represents exactly what you would expect — a horizontal line or a horizontal divider. By default, web browsers render hr as a simple horizontal line. In terms of semantics the tag is supposed to clearly separate content blocks. This is often used in design of footers, but also makes sense in other situations — for instance, if you want to separate two blog posts or make the divisions within the content structure sharper.

However, the design of horizontal lines is quite simple and not really appealing by default. HTML offers designers four styling attributes: align, noshade, width and size. This is the reason why designers often use CSS to make hr’s look a little bit more attractive. Alternatively, one can replace hr’s completely with an image using the background-property in CSS.

Some designers consider horizontal rule to be unnecessary — after all, you can simple assign some border styling to the container which contains the block. However, hr’s offer more possibilities as you can do whatever you want with a single, standalone HTML-tag. And here is where our contest comes into play.

Similar to our blog header contest we’d like to create a smashing gallery of freely available <hr /> graphics which every designer could use without any restrictions whatsoever. To achieve this we need the help of our creative readers. Which is why we decided to announce the <hr /> contest.

Is there a reward?

Of course. We’ll select 15 most beautiful dividers, present them in a post and ask our readers to rate them in a poll. The winner will get a Wacom Intuos3 9X12 USB Tablet — Metallic Gray. It is worth to participate, since we’ll also mention your name and your URL in the article which will contain the smashing examples of contest entries.

Wacom Tablet

What is required?

In order to participate, your design should

be unusual, creative and attractive,
be designed for the contest and shouldn’t be in use already
be recognizable as a divider or a line and has to serve its function — separate content blocks from each other,
be in the format PNG, JPG, GIF (if possible, please provide us with the source file as well — such as PSD, EPS, AI etc.)
no Flash or Gif-animations, please.

Apart from that,

every file must be titled with your name. Samples: hr-john-doe.gif or hr-jane-doe.jpg
each image should have the max. size of 30 Kb/each.

Each participant can send up to 5 different graphics (do not use ZIP, RAR etc.) and you must own the copyright for the designs you submit.

Send your designs via e-mail at sven at smashingmagazine.com with the subject line [Hr Contest Entry]. Please mention your name, your URL and the country you are from. If possible, please also provide us with the brief description of the ideas which have been the driving force behind your designs. Be creative, use unusual techniques, explore your skills, do whatever it takes — we’d like you to get really excited about it.

Deadline?

We’ll consider all designs we’ll receive until the 1st of September 2008. The best entries will be published briefly after the contest has ended.

Examples

To spark your creativity we present some excellent examples of how visually appealing <hr /> graphics may look like. The images are clickable and lead to the sites from which they’ve been taken.

Our examples show that a number of creative approaches are possible. The Web needs a creative library of fresh <hr>-dividers. Vignettes and ornaments may be a nice idea, uneven and handwritten elements are also used sometimes. However, the possibilites offered to designers are rarely used. You can definitely risk some unusual design approaches. What are you capable of?

You can also get some inspiration from our previous showcase Footers In Modern Web Design: Creative Examples and Ideas.

Get creative, folks! And good luck!

Published in Events, August 22nd, 2008
Tags: contests, divider, Graphics, horizontal

1.

amfis (August 22nd, 2008, 4:43 am)

Good luck to everyone!
2.

Eli (August 22nd, 2008, 4:51 am)

I’ll definitely consider entering :)
3.

Leannekera (August 22nd, 2008, 4:52 am)

oh yes count me in! :D
4.

Daniel (August 22nd, 2008, 4:57 am)

Definetly doing this!
5.

Michal (August 22nd, 2008, 5:04 am)

is this hr contest or a divider contest, every example uses divs or images i have checked the first three and not one uses the physical tag
6.

David Airey (August 22nd, 2008, 5:13 am)

I’ve alwasys liked the divider on ilovetypography.com (identical to that of kinoute.org/log).

Good luck to all who enter. I’ve yet to sample using a tablet, but have heard nice reviews.
7.

Ryan (August 22nd, 2008, 5:13 am)

This is rather unusual, HR’s are notoriously difficult to style for cross browser and to achieve some of the example styles you have to wrap the hr in a div generally.

Will be interesting to see how this turns out.
8.

Cosmi (August 22nd, 2008, 5:15 am)

Nice contest. I’m in. Succes to everyone!
9.

Daniel Whyte (August 22nd, 2008, 5:18 am)

nice ill have to do this :D
10.

r007 (August 22nd, 2008, 5:22 am)

yeah, i’m in. tablet is all i need :)
11.

Martius (August 22nd, 2008, 5:32 am)

Great contest! I’m in :)
12.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (August 22nd, 2008, 5:35 am)

@all: it’s a contest for dividers which can afterwards be used to style hr’s.
13.

Joe Casabona (August 22nd, 2008, 5:35 am)

Are we restricted to only using the <hr/> tag and styling that?
14.

SataFLASH (August 22nd, 2008, 6:01 am)

Hmmm… intresting… & the prize it’s worth a try!

i think i’m going in!

Good luck everyone
15.

Eliezer (August 22nd, 2008, 6:11 am)

Wow, sounds a great idea, good luck to everyone
16.

Jason (August 22nd, 2008, 6:18 am)

Definitely going to enter this one.

Link [www.vagrantradio.com]
17.

Niki Brown (August 22nd, 2008, 6:25 am)

interesting concept! will definitely take a stab at it!
18.

Lee Rickler (August 22nd, 2008, 6:46 am)

Entered (sneek peek at Link [pointandstare.com] !)
19.

Jeff (August 22nd, 2008, 6:47 am)

this is great… I had a professor in college who said that the “hr” was all but dead, now I use it all the time… shows what they teach you in college.
20.

Christian (August 22nd, 2008, 6:51 am)

Awesome idea for a contest! Might be competing myself this time!
21.

rvaneo (August 22nd, 2008, 7:33 am)

I’ll make sure to join this time … thanks smash!
22.

Chris (August 22nd, 2008, 7:50 am)

Im confused…can we only use the tag?
23.

lucero (August 22nd, 2008, 7:50 am)

My.. my… This is interesting… Good luck everyone!
24.

KunalDeziner (August 22nd, 2008, 8:03 am)

Best of luck!!! who will participate in this contest :)
25.

Valeria (August 22nd, 2008, 8:05 am)

Nice contest. I’m in
26.

Rob (August 22nd, 2008, 8:19 am)

nice idea :)
27.

Jenn (August 22nd, 2008, 8:21 am)

how fun! and a prize i am greatly interested in. will definitely enter. :)
28.

Brian (August 22nd, 2008, 8:22 am)

cool, this will be fun!
29.

Daan (August 22nd, 2008, 8:47 am)

I kindof don’t get what’s supposed to happen.

“be only CSS+HTML-based, no Flash or Gif-animations, please,”
“be in the format PNG, JPG, GIF (if possible, please provide us with the source file as well — such as PSD, EPS, AI etc.)”

that confuses me, could you guys make it more clear please?
30.

Dana Woodman (August 22nd, 2008, 9:13 am)

Yes, I agree with Daan.

You ask for a CSS+HTML based Hr, but then say to submit it as a graphic only. You also say don’t submit as a ZIP, so how can we send the image and the CSS/HTML? Could you please clarify?

Thanks,
Dana
31.

Jason (August 22nd, 2008, 9:46 am)

I’m in !
32.

Chris (August 22nd, 2008, 10:01 am)

Question: Do we just provide the picture(s), or do we also need to provide an example of it in use on a webpage?

Thank you.
33.

Mr. Dude (August 22nd, 2008, 10:16 am)

I understood the rules as being to create and image in the above formats that can be used with HTML/CSS. Animated gif or Flash formats are not allowed.
34.

neillium (August 22nd, 2008, 10:49 am)

I agree with Mr. Dude. I believe that we are simply to create an image that can be implemented into someone’s website using HTML/CSS. If someone creates one that deals with Flash, there is a possibility that they will not be able to use it.
35.

Abhijit Kumar (August 22nd, 2008, 11:06 am)

I m sorry to say but none of the examples use tag…..
So what say??
36.

Sofia (August 22nd, 2008, 11:26 am)

What does it mean: “you must own the copyright for the designs you submit”.
Are they just trying to emphasize that the design is not someone elses?
37.

Alex Ch (August 22nd, 2008, 12:50 pm)

count me in :)
38.

creativelotus (August 22nd, 2008, 12:53 pm)

im going to try and see what I can come up with
39.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (August 22nd, 2008, 1:07 pm)

@all: we expect pure graphics (no animated Gifs or Flash) which can be used with CSS and HTML afterwards.
40.

Kalgar (August 22nd, 2008, 1:10 pm)

I ever worked few hours with photoshop :)
Good luck !
41.

Paul Walker (August 22nd, 2008, 2:10 pm)

It’s not exciting enough to win the contest, but I almost always style HRs to appear as three big, spaced apart asterisks — like most novels seem to have to separate sub-chapters.

But I’m going to try something new for this.
42.

HBartlett (August 22nd, 2008, 2:35 pm)

This should be interesting - unlike the blog header contest, we’re talking about a line, not a whole header background. Can’t wait to see the results, I’ll bet it’s tougher than it sounds to come up with something.
43.

Mario (August 22nd, 2008, 2:39 pm)

At a glance Link [whywewhisper.com] seems not to use any at all, does it?
44.

Rodrigo R. Mammano (August 22nd, 2008, 2:46 pm)

I’m (really) in! Gonna be a nice and sweet contest.
45.

Daisy (August 22nd, 2008, 10:27 pm)

@Mario - whywewhisper.com uses this graphic: Link [www.whywewhisper.com]
46.

Violeta (August 22nd, 2008, 10:40 pm)

Cool!!! I’m definitely in! (:
47.

Mark (August 23rd, 2008, 2:03 am)

Is it allowed Javascript?
48.

Jens (August 23rd, 2008, 5:32 am)

I will give it a try. Count me in. :)
49.

mukesh (August 23rd, 2008, 7:41 am)

i will try to participate………….isn’t it nice if i won
50.

Omar Al-Dolaimy (August 23rd, 2008, 9:41 am)

I’ll take the chance :).
Thank you smashing
51.

Gavin Steele (August 23rd, 2008, 9:44 am)

I’m in.
Link []
52.

Jehzeel Laurente (August 23rd, 2008, 10:14 am)

wow this is a cool contest.. *thinking of a cool entry*
53.

web tasarımı (August 23rd, 2008, 2:34 pm)

Thanks, i share that post in my blog but turkish version :)
Link [www.3beyaz.com]
54.

Rodrigo Seroiska (August 23rd, 2008, 3:54 pm)

@mark

i guess not, only pure images =)
55.

Silvia (August 23rd, 2008, 5:45 pm)

I’m soooo in!
56.

Khoa Nguyen (August 24th, 2008, 2:21 am)

Thanks!
57.

Puneet Sakhuja (August 24th, 2008, 4:29 am)

Cool, always good to participate in such competitions, not just for winning’s sake..but to see everyone contributing great ideas. I am in !

~ All the best guys & keep it up Smashing Magazine ~
58.

anjum (August 24th, 2008, 6:35 am)

wonderful competition i am in . ;)
59.

Steven (August 24th, 2008, 8:32 am)

Ahh, I’m taking the plunge. Let’s do this! :)
60.

Steven (August 24th, 2008, 8:41 am)

Should it be created for use on a white background, or does that matter?
61.

BogDinamita (August 24th, 2008, 12:03 pm)

what about the size in px? does it matter how wide it is? or do you speciffically need 800px wide or 1024 or anything?
62.

Daniel Vazquez (August 24th, 2008, 1:00 pm)

I’m in! :D

Good luck to everyone :)

This is an amazing opportunity for designers to show their styles, everyone must join this to see what we can achieve, the hr divider gallery is going to be awesome!
63.

Vasili (August 24th, 2008, 1:46 pm)

What an amazing prize. :D
64.

praveen Vijayan (August 24th, 2008, 8:58 pm)

Gud luck dudes. Awesome contest
65.

restu (August 24th, 2008, 9:52 pm)

cool contest, i’ll be there too
66.

Sandie Sørensen (August 24th, 2008, 10:13 pm)

Great contest!
I’ve never heard any use of the hr-tag, but now I can’t wait to see, what will be designed. Might even participate myself… :)
67.

Jehzeel Laurente (August 24th, 2008, 11:47 pm)

i just submitted my entry.. i hope i can make it :D
68.

Chris (August 25th, 2008, 12:30 am)

To bad, I already have that graphics tablet
69.

Rakkoon (August 25th, 2008, 2:30 am)

Is this a US-only contest? I’m not wasting my time otherwise…
70.

NeoSheet (August 25th, 2008, 2:33 am)

count me in, i’ll take the chance
71.

Nils (August 25th, 2008, 2:34 am)

Recently I stumbled upon the Link [www.straelen.de] listed as a winner in a german accessibility award. They use the hr-element quite often and - to my surprise - the use it very smart inside the header, allthough it is used in combination with a surrounding DIV since the site is from 2005 and I assume this is because IE can not handle these nice graphics for hr-element for older versions.
72.

Mr. Dude (August 25th, 2008, 2:34 am)

I’d be a bit worried about the voting procedure. What’s stopping somebody voting multiple times for their own design?
73.

Nicole (August 25th, 2008, 2:39 am)

Great contest idea! But I have one question: I want to style my hr width a fixed width (for example 550px) because of the background-image. Is there any width you would like me to choose or which you’d advise me to take? Cheers, nicole
74.

klk (August 25th, 2008, 5:02 am)

I made my submissions at a width of either 800 px or 640px which is what i felt would be the most useful sizes. How about everyone else?
75.

itobacci (August 25th, 2008, 5:07 am)

yeah! i’m in!
76.

Mario Santos (August 25th, 2008, 5:57 am)

Nice contest…Another! :)

My work it’s sent to SM Email… good luck to everyone!
77.

An (August 25th, 2008, 7:25 am)

Is it a “must” to provide an URL for the graphic? I mean does it have to be seen in a working webpage. I could make a hr graphic…send it (via email with the proper source file to clear the copywright theft theorie)…Is that ok?
78.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (August 25th, 2008, 7:45 am)

@An (#78): URL is optional. It doesn’t have to be actually used. It’s enough to send the graphics.
79.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (August 25th, 2008, 7:46 am)

@Rakkoon (#70): no, it’s not USA-only content, and not Europe-only contest. Please participate, the country you come from doesn’t matter to us.
80.

Jimbob (August 25th, 2008, 10:52 am)

Here is mine.
_
81.

Alex Holt (August 25th, 2008, 11:30 am)

Nice contest idea… might be nice if we could also provide a screenshot of how it’s supposed to look?

Ie: if i make one that is a repeating pattern for an hr.. it’s not necessarily going to be obvious when you guys receive the image file how it’s supposed to be used…
82.

Chris (August 25th, 2008, 4:24 pm)

awesome! :P

Didn’t want to get scripty with a ‘~’? LOL
83.

alectro (August 26th, 2008, 1:03 am)

Good luck folks, I’m definitely going after that wacom beauty!
84.

kern (August 26th, 2008, 5:29 am)

Excellent contest……guess I am in on this one.
85.

jeevs (August 26th, 2008, 8:52 am)

i’m in and i’m done. Waiting to see other entries and how they turn out to be.

Very Interesting and thought provoking contest though.There’s a million ways to do this but only 5 are allowed ;)

Good luck everyone.
86.

1 (August 26th, 2008, 12:04 pm)

facil!!
87.

Vernon (August 26th, 2008, 4:26 pm)

I’m in! Definitely out of the ordinary as far as contests go (first thing that came to mind was early FrontPage theme dividers… ha!) but man would I love that tablet!!
88.

rifai (August 27th, 2008, 4:22 am)

hhmm… im gonna post my design.. lets go !!
89.

robin (August 27th, 2008, 3:06 pm)

I’m just confused with this:
“• each image should have the max. size of 30 Kb/each” does this mean the overall size of the jpg/png/gif + psd/ai/eps files or just for the jpg/png/gif only?
thanks for the immediate reply.
90.

Vernon (August 27th, 2008, 4:17 pm)

Robin… I’m pretty sure the size is for the image itself, not necessarily the source file. Wouldn’t make sense if it was a combination of both files put together, then you could just submit one or the other.
91.

robin (August 27th, 2008, 5:29 pm)

haha, dumb question :) thanks nways
92.

Hussein Makki (August 29th, 2008, 5:31 am)

cool contest !!

but how to subscribe ??
93.

nisreen (August 30th, 2008, 12:30 am)

got lots of ideas…hmmm, but only 2 days left to work on them! hope i can make it ;)
but if I couldn’t, can I send them anyway? not for contest -purposes i mean? to be used other where or something like that?!
94.

fathonix (August 30th, 2008, 6:13 am)

I’m in, and pray me to become the winner :)
95.

Bill (August 30th, 2008, 5:31 pm)

You should consider extending the contest by a day or so.
96.

Manasa (August 31st, 2008, 1:33 am)

I just submitted my entries. I don’t know if I’ll win, but I do hope that one of my entries makes it to the top 15. It’ll boost my confidence. I’m a graphic design newbie. Good luck to everyone who’s participating. I can’t wait to see all the beautiful dividers that are going to come out.
97.

Liw (August 31st, 2008, 6:10 am)

Hi!
Does the 30Kb limit also applies to the source files? Or they can be more?
98.

Nisreen (August 31st, 2008, 2:05 pm)

just submitted 4 designes, with the .ai files smashing ;)
hope im not too late, just finished the designed.wish me luck, wanna make it to the top 15!
99.

Gaurav (August 31st, 2008, 11:21 pm)

Posted … let see now
100.

qwerty (September 1st, 2008, 5:01 am)

any update?
101.

susanapassinhas (September 1st, 2008, 6:50 am)

hi! i just submited my design! it was until september 1…right?
102.

Harrison (September 1st, 2008, 6:57 am)

I dont know the GMT from smashing! anyone?
103.

Paradajz (September 1st, 2008, 4:19 pm)

You have their time on your comment, I dont know when you posted it but I think that you have some time left even now.
Its a shame I just noticed it now, I was wondering the same thing for three days :D
104.

Leo (September 1st, 2008, 5:51 pm)

Oh! Thanks for clever tip =)
It’s good to known that maybe there’s some time left.
Working on some more Hrs!

Good luck everyone.
105.

Marta Feio (September 1st, 2008, 6:53 pm)

Good Luck Folks!
106.

diecimarzo (September 2nd, 2008, 12:05 am)

I just submitted my entries by mail.
Any news??
107.

Competitor taking part (September 2nd, 2008, 4:10 am)

When is winner announcement?
108.

rifai (September 2nd, 2008, 6:50 am)

hmm… maybe the staff still confused to choose 15 nominators…
109.

Competitor taking part (September 2nd, 2008, 8:49 am)

Yeah, choice might be difficult ;-)
110.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (September 2nd, 2008, 9:33 am)

still confused?
sven just had a look through 149 submissions. and there are 196 to go. so this will take at least a couple of days. patience please…
111.

Nisreen (September 2nd, 2008, 11:14 am)

Ohhh im dreaming about seeing on of my designs get ti the top 15 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll Call my next webdesign “Smashing” haha :)
112.

Silvia (September 3rd, 2008, 9:26 am)

Wow! Long way to go =S
Good luck guys! Choose one of mine, ok? hahaha jk!
113.

Dariusz (antraxis) (September 3rd, 2008, 12:15 pm)

This is the one of the most interesting and minimalism competition I have seen
I’m in love of the smashing magazine for ideas like that :)
114.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (September 4th, 2008, 8:27 am)

results will be posted on sep/9th. more than one hundred fantastic graphics…
115.

Nisreen (September 6th, 2008, 3:07 am)

Sep/9 is my birthday!!!! i better win then ;)
116.

diecimarzo (September 7th, 2008, 11:44 pm)

..And the winner is……
117.

just wondering (September 8th, 2008, 11:57 pm)

what the time is at smashing….hope my comment lets me know… :D
118.

Cyn (September 9th, 2008, 6:39 am)

happy Birthday Nisreen ! :)
119.

Justin Floyd (September 9th, 2008, 9:32 am)

The suspense is killing me! Agh!
120.

Silvia (September 9th, 2008, 9:37 am)

it’s killing me too!!!
I can’t stop refreshing! hahaha

btw, Happy Bday Nisreen! =)
121.

Nisreen (September 9th, 2008, 10:27 am)

@Cyn & Silvia: THANKS :)
ooooh this is soo sweetie of you guys! i hope you both win then :P
thanks alot, my birthdays keep getting better and better!
122.

Liw (September 9th, 2008, 12:26 pm)

I thought that my refresh button is not working:) haha
Happy birthday Nisreen:)
123.

Nisreen (September 9th, 2008, 12:41 pm)

@Liw: thank you’re soo sweet! all of you!
whats up smashing?! sep/9 is over and the results aint out yet! whats goin on?!
124.

Silvia (September 9th, 2008, 12:49 pm)

omg!!! this is getting so exciting! what time sep. 9 will you let us know Smashing? I’m so curious!!!
125.

diecimarzo (September 9th, 2008, 11:25 pm)

…..I’m curious too…
=)