Wow. That's a pretty cool thing to wake up to on a Friday morning! I agree we can't read too much into it, though. For all we know, that may be the "What the hell were these guys thinking?" board. Nice to get even a small bit of news about the contest, though, even if we have no clue what it means.
That seems highly unlikely. I'd say it's a foregone conclusion that those are 10 of the top 25. It's nice that their favorites are mostly the same as my favorites
Dan posted this over on the STO boards: "We have just started going through the "approved" submissions - meaning that they are deemed to be valid entries. Those on the board in my pic are ten examples I threw up on the art board to show the team examples of what were submitted (we have many more to go through). It was interesting to see all the differing opinions even amongst our art team. There was no clear favorite amongst any I've posted so far. Everyone has their own person fav. CBS will be selecting the winners from all valid available entries, so this is just for our internal fun."
Uh, someone already used that name: http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/tacticalheavycruiser_frontr.jpg, whose design I happen to like. I know that you probably didn't know about this design beforehand. I just thought that I should say something while it might be possible to be of some influence.
Several contestants chose "Frontier Class" and there are "Frontier Class" space station in at least one of the novels. It's a good class name. I chose it not only as a reference to the "Final Frontier", but also to my home state, Alaska: The "Last Frontier"
I'm sure mine was disqualified because it may have been deemed preexisiting. I wish they had given us more time like 6 months or something. It seemed so short.
You have taken TNG elements, but gave it the TMP refit vibe. Swanlike, as it should be. Love that big, open, wrap-around shuttlebay.
Your design is my favorite of the submissions for the contest, and my second favorite choice, period. (I would have loved to see the Grandeur in this contest, but I understand why she couldn't be.) I hope it wins. Looking at the other images of your Enterprise that you have linked, though, I have a tiny bone to pick with you: Is that a status diagram of the ship directly behind the captain's chair in the picture of the bridge? If so, PLEASE tell me that it isn't visible to whomever the captain would be talking to over comms! They did that a bunch of times on the various TNG-and-after TV series, and it always occurred to me: "Look! They're damaged there, and there. Target those, and fire."
That may be true. But I don't know about you, but I consider it a sign of respect towards other artists and their works by not using the same name that they used for a starship class, as well as to inform others when they are thinking of using that name. I think that class names for starships, craft smaller than runabouts, such as fighters, and stations probably can be shared, given the amount of class names that would be used in a period of time. To me, it gives an adequate explanation for example, of why the name Venture was used for both a Galaxy class and the scout used in Insurrection.
I don't think you need to ask permission for a name, particularly one so obvious that its been used for a million fanfics and RPGs.
Besides, names are not copyrightable. You can trademark it(a much more difficult process), but not copyright it.
Lol! I suppose I would be. Oops! I thought I'd try my hand at bridging the gap between the F and the J: -and here is the linage in silhouette going all the way back to the nx-01 refit: http://crossovercomic.com/media/extras/Unrelated/startrek_contest/legacy/e_through_j_orth.jpg Very rough of course. Just basic shapes. I might finish them a bit more in the future.
@Herkimer Jitty and sojourner: Like I said, restraining from using a class name that has already been used for a design is a sign of respect towards that design and the artist. You don't have to do this if you don't feel compelled to do so. I'm just saying that I think it would be nice to pay attention to the class names that are chosen by artists with considerable ability. Oh well, I said my piece. Dwell on it however you will.
The best G, H and I that I know, are these ones: http://samuelkowal906.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d140odg http://samuelkowal906.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d157epc http://samuelkowal906.deviantart.com/art/NCC-1701-I-68495635?q=boost%3Apopular%20enterprise%20g&qo=44
Found an F I'd never seen before-> http://www.mistletoenholly.com/store/Star-Trek-MICRO-MACHINESFASA-USSENTERPRISE-F-250744931172.html I like it. Looks like the NX-01 (Akira) but better. I wonder about the second set of bussard collector though. Does anyone know more about this design, or where it came from? I'm guessing it's Hasbro exclusive, but I could be wrong.