…alas Tallis Shorts didn't make it into the final selection. We’re a bit gutted especially when all the finalists seem to be profit making organisations with either paid membership access or Google Adwords littered around every corner.

I’ve seen site much better than Mindbites and I can get free tutorial videos off YouTube, and OnlyHuman seems to have very little (useful) educational content. I always wanted to know 'How to not cut your finger off’!!

Tallis Shorts is funded, maintained and supported by the school and in my eyes is a true Educational Resource with students and staff creating and sharing media amongst themselves for the purpose of creative learning.

To be fair there are a couple of great finalists and I’m certain one of these two will be the winner. It’ll either be; Ecolect (with it’s SN-esque typography) or TED.

My money’s on TED.

It’s funny — after missing SXSW for the past two years (as a winner and as a finalist) this year I’ve managed to blag my way to SXSW! Of course, I’m not that biitter about not getting to the final — it is after all just a bit of fun. But I will be flying the flag for Tallis Shorts and will be championing the need for good, unique graphic design. Which leads me onto the actual point for this news post.

With an estimated 6 billion websites currently out in the web-o-sphere, how can one site distinguish itself from another?

Unique graphic design is one way. Unique graphic design can define and shape a product. It can help differentiate one product from another. It doesn’t mean simply following a trend or style to emulate your heroes. A quick scoot through the SXSW finalists from all the categories confirms a mass homogenisation of the web. I can barely distinguish the sites I’ve just looked at.

This advice is relevant for all aspects of creativity. Be original and stick with your approach. Being different makes a difference.