Our overlords at the Denver Egotist got a little gift in the mail from a new friend in town. His name's Ernie, and he's created a new site: Draw Your Face Off. It works like this. You submit a picture of yourself and he does an original illustration (with some secret Ernie sauce) that comes back to you as a framed piece you can hang on the wall. He even sent us a picture of what he thinks they look like (it is flattering, yes), along with the note below. At $34, it's a pretty sweet deal.

Ernie's an interesting guy, as his interesting letter interestingly shows:

Hello Denver Egotist,

My name is Ernie and we seem to have a lot in common. The first is you run a sweet website…and I like to look at pictures. Number 2, I have a website also. It’s called www.drawyourfaceoff.com. Basically, people upload their picture or a pic of someone they want drawn and I draw it. Only thing is I add awesomeness to it, cause let’s face it, you could be boring…looking. Don’t worry, it’ll look sweet and awesome! Anyway, I drew this one for you. Even though I don’t know what you look like I’m pretty sure you’re a dude, who must wear a headband to keep that big ol’ brain inside your skull. Or maybe you just have a wicked backhand. Also if you were wondering, your shiny teeth aren’t tin foil…that’s platinum. Sweet! I figured you could probably afford it. Hope you like it. Thanks.

Ernie

Matt Ingwalson picks apart the pitfalls you'll find in every creative brief.

A recent high school PSA competition asked students to come up with spots to persuade young drivers to avoid distractions when behind the wheel. Sponsors included Maryland Shock Trauma, the docs in charge of piecing distracted drivers back together like meaty puzzle pieces.

The spots have their charms. Like other "activities" high school kids tend to engage in, it's creative, a bit clumsy and heavy handed, but the potential's there. So keep at it, youngsters. You're the future of advertising. Unless you fall into the wrong crowd and end up somewhere like med school or Congress.

Not surprising: the best concept didn't win, but it's our damn site, and we'll feature what we want:

And the first and second place winners:

(via)