There are plenty of companies out there providing a way for you to get a cool case for all your devices be it the iPhone, iTouch, Blackberry and so on. IMakeMyCase, a side job of case-mate.com,  is no exception in that they are also a provider of cool cases, yet their concept is wildly unique – they collaborate with world-class artists and musicians to produce some pretty rock’n designs.

Not only does IMakeMyCase provide case designs from top artists in both the music and art industries, but they provide a unique experience where you can use design pieces of a particular artist’s collection of style to be the designer yourself.

How it works:

I decide to go with the work of Chuck Anderson of NoPattern.com.

After I pick the artist I want to go with, the animation zooms me down to Chuck Anderson’s Design Studio where you can either make a custom design based on Chuck’s artwork and inspirational style or I can simply buy a pre-made Chuck Anderson case (pre-designed by Chuck – “what would chuck do?”).

1. 1) Start with a Background
2. 2) Add design Elements
3. 3) Mess around with design elements like mirroring them, changing colors or totally warping the design elements with the kaleidoscope tool.

When you first start designing you might feel limited with some of the artwork and tools, but actually the secret lies in laying a few things out and then completely mauling it with the Mirror, Colors and Kaleidoscope tools – many times over.

I like to start with something simple and then mess with it. See how easy and different that is? You wouldn’t think that that was a tree to begin with. Now let’s start overhauling it! (note: I used the “color” tool before moving on to the next thousand steps – hence the orange turned reddish).

As you can see, my pattern is to add a few elements and then warp them, rinse and repeat, repeat, repeat.

My finished design, which I could continue to warp even more. between both the right and left images I had continued to add more elements (tree’s) using both the mirror and kaleidoscope tools over and over in different variations. It’s pretty fun and addicting.

TIPS:

Most of the tools work with you selecting them and then hovering and dragging your mouse over the case to make it change, spin and flip in different directions. For instance, the Mirror Tool has a horizontal as well as vertical flip depending on where you position your mouse. The kaleidoscope can produce all sorts of wacky results the more you rotate-drag your mouse around the case. I find using mirror and then the kaleidoscope tool one after the other produces some wild effects.

Warning. Unless you want a pre-designed Chuck Anderson case, do not click on the “What Would Chuck Do?” button in the Tools panel – it will take you away from your design (just hit “close” at the top of the designs to go back to your design).
Chuck as some pretty awesome designs in there. My favorite being the far right case.

Build a Collection – Design For Fun

Notice in the case editor, below the case designer, some options: Undo, Reset, Save, Buy this Case and Change Device/Case.

I’m going to focus on the fact that yes, you can play around designing and then SAVE your case design and even go back later to edit it!

Aside from buying it, you can send it to Facbook or Flickr with a two second click. Pretty neat. From this panel you can choose to Preview it, which gives you a 3 angle view (helps to see the case wrap-around features), Edit, Delete or even download it.

Overall, a pretty neat site for making your custom device cover.

The case printing is pretty high-end too. The cases are made with a 3D printing process that actually embeds the inks directly within the case. This is nicer than ink applied over a shell because it ensures your case won’t get those ugly scuff’s and scratches from every day use. The print, as you can see in the preview of my case (above image) – also completely wraps around the edge of the case. You can find more details about the printing and quality/durability in the About section of imakemycase.com.

Case choices: Barely There or Tough!

Most of the devices come with an option for cover style and durability. If you trash your phone like I do, you’ll probably want the “Tough” version, but if you’re a dainty neat-freak you might be able to easily get away with the slim-sporty “Barely There”. Details and cost shows up when you pick out your case type – which you can change at any time in the design process.

Their website is completely Flash-built, really fun with quirky little things flying all around the main screen when you drag your mouse around. I think I could spend 10 minutes just watching all the funky things that go on in the functionality of the main page.

IMakeMyCase Giveaway!

So of course we’re going to give one of you lucky dogs a case! But you’ve got to earn it!

Now that I’ve fully shown you what you can do, I want you to show me what you can do on imakemycase.com:

1. 1.) Choose any artist you want
2. 2.) Design a case (any device case template is fine)
3. 3.) Show everyone your design in the comments of this blog post (how-to below).

Showing off your design can be done easily in a number of ways: When you are saving your finished case design, you can either upload it to your flicker account or use a service like imgur.com to host your photo.

Using flickr.com:

Follow the steps after clicking the flickr icon at imakemycase.com, then go to your image on flickr and do the following: Using the ACTIONS toolbar/dropdown, select “Grab the link” which will give you HTML to post your image in the comments section here.

Using imgur.com:

From the save screen on imakemycase.com, you can download your design. After downloading to your computer, you will need to upload it to imgur.com from your computer:

Then choose any of these options after it’s been uploaded – we’d prefer you use the HTML Image for website’s and blogs as it will actually produce a picture of your image/case IN the comments.

So that’s it!

Go to imakemycase.com, make a design, show us your design in the comments and we’ll pick a random winner next week.

Contest will run from today, April 29th until Thursday, May 5th, 2011. A winner will be picked randomly from the comments and will receive a private, one-time-use code for either style case on imakemycase.com. As usual, you must be a COLOURlovers registered user to play, so sign-up if you need to!

You can find imakemycase.com (aka case-mate) on twitter and facebook as well.