Just Creative Design

Taking Time Off & Other News

After two strong years of blogging, I’ve decided to take two months off to go traveling. I will be monitoring my three sites while I am gone but there will be very limited posts throughout this time.

I am off for a road trip across 22 states of USA for 6 weeks then back to Australia for a 2 week family holiday / Christmas. I then fly back to New York to start full time work at Carrot Creative of which, I hope to continue to blog on a fortnightly basis. I also plan to keep running Logo Of The Day and to a lesser extent, Logo Designer Blog.

Birthday, Graduation & Moving Out

I’ll also be turning 22 years old during my time away, graduating from University, moving out of home (and country) and making the switch from PC to Mac, so it’s all happening! This blog also just had it’s 2nd birthday last week, which admittedly, I forgot about.

Judging Roles

I’ve also just been selected to be a part of the judging panel for the 2010 Annual Design Awards along side David Carson, Matthew Walker (ESPN Art Director) and more. More info on that next year. I’ve also been chosen to be on the judging panel for the 2nd year running for the Project Never competition, a competition that judges the “best rejected designs”. I am also judging “the best websites of the world” over on The CSS Awards and continue to judge logos for my other site, Logo Of The Day.

Computer Arts Articles

Keep an eye out for Issue 171 of Computer Arts magazine as I’ve written two typography related articles that will be appearing in there.

Free Logo Copyright Poster

In my recently completed work post, I mentioned I was going to release a free A3 PDF of my Logo Copyright Poster… you can now preview & download it here.

Interview

I’ve also had the pleasure of being interviewed for the website Your Hidden Potential, a website that showcases entrepreneurs under 27 years of age. You can read the interview here. On the topic of interviews, I recently read one with Stefan Sagmeister and I highly recommend having a look.

Happy Festive Season!

I’ll take this time to wish you all a festive holiday season and a Happy New Year!

The Value Of Taking Time Off

I’ll leave you with this video by Stefan Sagmeister about the value of taking time off. Make sure you check out the last minute for a good laugh.

Thanks for your continued support and Bon Voyage!

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Recently Completed Work

I’ve been pretty busy of late so I thought I should show you what I have been up to. Here a small showcase of my most recent freelance design work along with a brief description of each. Read more »

10 Twitter Design Lists You Must Follow

Twitter just recently introduced Twitter lists, a helpful way to better organise the tweets of those you follow. Twitter lists also allow you to find interesting groups of people to keep track of via the use of others recommendations.

After much research looking into other Twitterer’s lists and via the use of Listorious, I’ve compiled these ten design twitter lists that are definitely worth following.

No Blab, Just Design Links

A list of Twitter profiles that only post high quality design links and have very little to no other ‘daily life’ tweets. An alternative to your RSS feed reader.

Top Design Blogs

Lists the twitter profiles of all of the top design blogs. Includes such blogs as Smashing Mag, Web Designer Depot, Logo Design Love, I Love Typography and many more. This is a list curated by @behoff who has some other high quality lists worth checking out.

Must Follow Web Designers

Lists the most socially active best web designers in the industry. Includes such names as Paul Boag, Cameron Moll, Fabio Sasso, Vinh Le, Jo Phillips, Johnathan Snook, Jason Santa Maria and many more.

Typography

Follows all the typography related heros, apps and resources that you will need. Also be sure to check out @ilovetypography’s typography lists.

Ad Agencies

The top ad agencies of the world compiled into one big list. Includes names such as OGILVY, Big Spaceship, BBH Labs, Ogilvy Worldwide, Leo Burnett, TBWA\Worldwide, McCann Erickson NY, Draftfcb, Critical Mass, Scholz und Friends, etc.

Logo Design & Branding

This lists the top branding agencies and twitter users that post links to high quality logo & branding resources. A must for logo design lovers. Also be sure to check out this twitter list of freelance logo designers.

Illustration & Illustrators

Lists the leading illustrators in the industry. List curated by @grainedit who also has some other great lists worth checking out.

Agencies & Studios

Lists many of the leading agencies and studios on twitter. Includes names such as Critical Mass, The Duffy Agency, BBH New York, Saatchi Design, Fantasy Interactive, booneoakley,InterbrandNY, firstborn, The Martin Agency, Richard Lent and many more.

Creatives To Watch

This is a list put together by @Behance which compiles a great list of high quality designers & illustrators from around the world.

Designers

If you just want to follow a general range of designers & creatives, this twitter list is for you. A lot of rubbish talk but hey, they all like design. Be sure to check out the rest of @freelancefolder’s lists.

You can view all the lists I follow in my profile. Also check out this massive list of designers to follow on Twitter.

Do you have a twitter list recommendation?

A quick copywriting tip to get more subscribers

I recently wrote an article for Freelance Folder about how to get more subscribers by adding an email subscription box and within the comments, Troy Peterson left a great tip on how to optimise the copywriting to maximize subscription signups and I thought it was worth sharing…

One thing that will improve your signups as well, is to replace “Subscribe” with “Get Updates”.

Many people tend to associate “Subscribe” with some type of commitment. This is typically carried over from the old days of Magazine subscriptions, where people had to commit for a year and pay a price.

Even with the name “free” on it, people are still hesitant.

I recommend trying “Get Updates by Email” or “Get Updates by RSS”.

Of course, it’s always good practice to do a before and after testing to find the best results… but, it’s well worth the small effort to make the changes.

Below you can see how I have worded my new subscription box, along with a few other minor adjustments.

Update 6/11/09: I’ve slightly updated the copy to what is seen above.

Could it do better? What’s your opinion?

Tutorial: How To Create An Iconic Logo Design

Logo design is arguably one of the hardest parts of graphic design though with a little insider knowledge, you may find it’s not so difficult after all. By understanding what makes a “good” logo and the principles behind effective logo design you will be on the right track in no time. In this tutorial you will be guided through the logo design process, from initial brief right through to delivery while being given vital logo design tips along the way.

For the sake of this tutorial we will be creating a fictional logo - for now I’ve gone with a logo that reflects the first and last letters of my name - J & C. Through the use of negative space and a few nifty Illustrator tricks we will combine these characters (J & C) to create an iconic logo design. At the end of the tutorial, you may find that your own initials can be used too.

Read more »