Amazon Kindle design contest: now it's your turn to decide who wins!

Our Kindle contest that we're running in cooperation with our good friends at Adafruit Industries and Amazon has drawn to an epic conclusion, and there's simply no other way to put it -- we're blown away. We received literally dozens upon dozens of incredible, art gallery-worthy entries and it was all but impossible to narrow them down to a group of finalists -- but after an entire weekend of mulling, debating, and hand-wringing, we've done the dirty work and narrowed it down to a group of just twenty-three. Now, dear readers, the fate of five Kindles lies in your hands and your hands alone. The laser awaits.

So here's what we need from you: pick your favorite by 11:59PM ET on Monday, August 3rd. That's it. We'll take the five top vote-getters and award each with a 6-inch Kindle engraved with their design -- and of course, we'll post pictures of the finished products before they go out to their lucky owners.

Follow the break to see the entries (which you can click to see in larger form). Below each design, you'll see a number -- these correspond to numbers in the poll, which you'll find directly below the entries. Just choose your favorite by number and we'll take care of the rest.

Good luck, contestants -- and good luck picking from all of these amazing entries, readers!

Update: The contest is now closed. No votes have been counted since August 3rd at 11:59PM ET. Stay tuned for the winners!

1. The Amazing Book of Everything	2. Assembly Diagram	3. Never Stop Reading
4. Peace	5. Ahmbi	6. A Press Can Dream
7. Atlantis Sank	8. Robot Atlas	9. Chibi Book
10. Cthulhu	11. Piano Cat	12. Fire
13. Library Card	14. Quotes	15. Will You Marry Me?
16. Steampunk Kindle	17. 451	18. Bookburst
19. Bookshelf	20. Pattern	21. Poem
22. Sam Jackson	23. Ubik

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:05PM]

Right now it is a dead heat...each one has a single vote...although that will probably change as I'm writing this.

But really...what were the chances of that happening?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:11PM]

Very slim. Engadget has like 10 hits a day I think.

[bri1232001 Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:46PM]

HAD to go with 17....fckin loved Fahrenheit 451

[sindbad Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:41PM]

1, 2, 9, and 16 are by far the best. would be cool if adafruit will allow us to custom-etch our own kindles.

[Ghen Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:48PM]

Actually all webblog polls start with just 1 vote each instead of zero votes. Don't ask me why.

[Jonthomasdesigns Posted Jul 29th 2009 5:03PM]

I say 2 ... Fkn 2 Dammit

[Templarian Posted Jul 29th 2009 6:28PM]

The 451 is so poetic. On a digital device, the irony.

[NOOOOPedro Posted Jul 29th 2009 7:35PM]

1 the Amazing Book needs to win, it made me laugh. Now with more automatic deletion or something LOL

[ndrwme Posted Jul 29th 2009 7:54PM]

A Press Can Dream!

[MarnBeast Posted Jul 29th 2009 11:02PM]

@Brian and Templarian
Yeah that book was awesome! I was originally gonna vote for the Amazing Book but when I saw 451 up there I just had to give it to him. Who needs books in a digital age? BURN THEM! BURN THEM ALL!

(Or just automatically delete them, hehe)

[Gi Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:14PM]

wow #20 wtf

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:20PM]

Yeaaahhh... wtf

I know everyone thinks theirs is better than everyone else's, but did you guys look at all of them?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:45PM]

Since mine isn't a finalist, here it is for all to see.

http://imgur.com/3NxbO.jpg

[ChrisAre Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:48PM]

@LR2

Classy. :-)

[Ghen Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:49PM]

LR2 that's hilarious

[Gi Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:53PM]

Yeah I know right haha project kindle


LR2 that's priceless

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:15PM]

Well that sucks mine didn't make it. (It was definitely better than a few of those)

[hhh Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:26PM]

mine didn't make it either
... and the rules didn't say anything about entries getting narrowed down

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:26PM]

Link: http://bit.ly/11k0bJ

[lunged Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:38PM]

I didn't make it either (and I also think it was better than some of these)... Pretty sure the instructions said black and white only - that means no shades of grey. What's going on here?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:40PM]

Yeah, black and white only, those are the rules I followed. I'm running as the write in candidate. Vote For Me!

[JeremyBenthem Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:50PM]

yeah, wtf engadget, half the damn nominees don't even qualify
there's a reason it was supposed to be black and white because the laser can only choose to hit a spot or not
if I knew I could use greyscales I would have, sorry for following the rules...

[Tony Posted Jul 30th 2009 2:23AM]

I'm pretty sure B&W TV was grayscale. I know they could've just said GRAYSCALE to make things crystal clear, but I pretty much thought it was a given. Lasers have to hit an area to make it darker, therefore it can move on once it's dark enough, leaving different shades of gray/black.

[ikrolm Posted Jul 30th 2009 2:26AM]

If you have a high enough resolution, a series of black and white dots makes a grey color, as I did in my entry, but then mine didn't make it so go figure.

Scaled down version so that it's in gray scale again:
http://tiny.cc/sdizq

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 30th 2009 10:59AM]

No, black and white was the rule, not greyscale. When I asked ladyada whether half of these would even etch she said, "maybe, we advised only black and white, we'll see how it goes"

[ikrolm Posted Jul 30th 2009 6:44PM]

Clarifying with my actual entry (not the scaled png):
http://www.filedropper.com/spaghetibw

It looks best at the resolution I edited it in (10240x6500), but easily viewable at anything larger than 2048x1300, but the quality goes down from there. Although it appears gray scale when zoomed out, zoom in and it is entirely made up from black and white dots.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:15PM]

I voted Library Card because it reminds me of elementary school, and I have a boner for nostalgia.

Assembly Diagram is the most creative, though, in my opinion.

[Poop Chef Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:20PM]

I have a boner for Slater

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:34PM]

Duh! Who doesn't?!

Well, except Artie... because he's dead.

[Lody Posted Jul 29th 2009 5:25PM]

I voted the library card too -- it's original yet understandable by just about everyone, has nice clean lines, it's always bound to get a laugh or a remark when you show it to someone new... best one in my opinion!

[darklighter Posted Jul 29th 2009 5:34PM]

I voted Library for the dig at Amazon's removal of the Orwell books.

[duanes1967 Posted Jul 29th 2009 7:11PM]

I love the steam punk, but had to vote for the library card due in 1984. It's going to be a while before Amazon lives the book deletion thing down.

[Poop Chef Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:15PM]

Steampunk Kindle in second place? Not a bad design, but doesn't originality matter?

[fanandualum Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:17PM]

If I knew the competition would be this easy I wouldve tried!

[ndrwme Posted Jul 29th 2009 7:47PM]

Yea I know, some of the ones toward the end were so simple I could even do them. =]

[meikat Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:16PM]

Come on #2! I really think #2 will win given the crowd that reads engadget... But I thought the Chibi was cute :D

[danreetz Posted Jul 30th 2009 11:49AM]

Thanks for your support. I told myself if I got over a thousand votes, I would set my design free.

So here it is, in the public domain. You can do whatever you want with it -- it's free now to anyone for any purpose. I'd love to see it on Kindles everywhere... maybe even one for me!

EPS: http://danreetz.com/for_engadget/Kindle_Vector_Final_Public_Domain_Daniel_Reetz_danreetzgmailcom.eps
PDF:http://danreetz.com/for_engadget/Kindle_Vector_Final_Public_Domain_Daniel_Reetz_danreetzgmailcom.pdf

I worked pretty hard on my entry. Here's the 3D model I created to get proper outlines:
http://danreetz.com/for_engadget/workup.jpg

Congratulations and good luck to all the finalists. I am proud to see my assembly diagram among such great competition, and grateful for all the support!

[meikat Posted Jul 31st 2009 4:57PM]

That's awesome of you to put that out for public domain. I'd get your design on the back of my kindle if I... uhh had one. But none the less, awesome work again. ;)

[ZeroCorpse Posted Aug 1st 2009 12:50PM]

You got my vote. And thanks for releasing the design... I'd put it on my Kindle, but I have no idea where or who to have do such a thing.

Still, I dig the thought you put into this. I hope you win.

[APV Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:20PM]

The assembly one is ahead, hmmm...

[Steven Wozniak Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:22PM]

Is it just me, or do the +, -, and ! buttons have blue squares around them?

[swimatm Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:55PM]

It's happening to me too.

[Frank Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:23PM]

33 for the SERIOUS reader, hehehe

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:25PM]

Mine isn't there either. Some of them are clearly not black and white. What the heck engadget?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:34PM]

Yeah, "black and white" and grayscale are not the same thing. How about picking some designs that can actually be engraved?

Also, I think the rules said, "something that means a lot to you". Not that I'm sure Samual L. Jackson doesn't mean a lot to many people, but...

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:41PM]

I would say it is pretty clear that these 23 were drawn at random like the second set of rules states, but they should have ruled out the ones that can't be engraved.

[NapkinDoodle Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:49PM]

They also mentioned that the engrave able area is around 5x7", which doesn't go all the way to the edges (I measured with reference the measurements of the kindle 2). Some of these either violate that or have complete disregard for the FCC / Amazon logos that would be lying underneath.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 7:29PM]

Thats what we get for following the rules.

[MowDownJoe Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:26PM]

#15 needs to win... that guy made that design for a reason.

[sindbad Posted Jul 29th 2009 4:39PM]

And that reason has nothing to do with which of these is the best. "Will you marry me" nonsense is painfully corny.