Winner Of The Free Professional Logo Competition
Written by Jacob Cass on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 – 8:00 am
Well the time has come to announce the winner of the free professional logo design competition. After reading through 53 entries I have finally narrowed it down to just one and let me tell you, it was no easy task.
Surprise Bonus!
Before I announce the winner of the free logo design I want to let you know that there is also a surprise bonus to everyone that commented on the original post…
For those who did comment I am offering you a professional logo design for only AUD$300. This is an extremely generous price because of what is involved in my Logo Design Process. For $300 I will include 2 logo design concepts and 2 revisions, along with all files and copyright. If interested, please fill out this logo design questionnaire (PDF) and send it back to me.
I thought that a huge drop in price like this may finally get some of those people needing a logo, to finally invest in one. I hope you take advantage of this opportunity!
Congratulations!
And the moment you have been waiting for… the winner of the free professional logo design goes to…
Janette Toral from Influential Blogger who wrote:
“I’m joining! I want a free logo (or badge) that the top 10 emerging influential blogs 2008 winners can post in their site.
Cheers to your blog success!” - Janette Toral
This short and simple sentence really got me intrigued because the logo could be used by many bloggers rather than just one individual. Now even more can share the logo design love.
Congratulations Janette and also the top 10 emerging bloggers of 2008 (to be announced July 26th) who will be able to grace the badge on their own blog in the short future.
Thank you everyone else for your entries - it was not easy to choose just one!
PS. Want to know how to create a PDF form like the one I mentioned above? David Airey wrote a great post on how to create a pdf form.
Why logo design does not cost $5.00
Written by Jacob Cass on Thursday, May 22, 2008 – 2:05 pm
Logo design in today’s world is totally under rated. People do not understand how important a good logo is and how valuable it is to their business and this is why I am going to outline some very important facts telling you exactly why logo design should not cost $5 and why your logo is not something you should take lightly.
In broad terms, I will do this by comparing “cheap logo design” to “professional logo design” and I will outline the reasons why professional logo designers do not charge such low fees and why you should invest in a professional logo design.
What Is A Logo?
To understand what a logo is meant to do, we first must know what a logo is. Wikipedia explains that “a logo’s design is for immediate recognition, inspiring trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied superiority. The logo is one aspect of a company’s commercial brand, or economic entity, and its shapes, colours, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organisations and other non-commercial entities.”
It makes me wonder why people have no logo or why they would even bother with a cheap logo design if a logo is meant to do all of these things?
Spec Work & Logo Design Contests
Before I get onto comparing cheap VS professional logo design I want to talk to you a bit about SPEC work. “Spec” has become the short form for any work done on a speculative basis. ie. You design this for me, and I will pay you if I like it.
To clarify, let’s create a scenario in another industry where SPEC work does NOT exist.
“I went for a dental check-up yesterday. After the dentist inspected my teeth, she suggested some work to prevent further tooth decay. I told her to go ahead, and if the dental work was satisfactory, I’d be more than happy to pay. She responded that she wouldn’t be able to do that, because she normally provides a service when a fee is agreed upon up-front. I said I’d let her know after I checked in with other local dentists.”
This scenario happens in the design industry every day and is seen as very unethical as it is ruining the design industry. A designer should not have to invest time and resources with no guarantee of payment much alike a dentist or any other professional.
I do not want to go into this any further as much has been written about it but I would like to say please avoid design contests at all costs - these are the true epitome of SPEC work. Logo Design Contests are bad for your business. Period.
For further reading on the damage of spec work I suggest these articles below.
- Spec Work can damage your business
- Spec Work in the internet age
- The Dark Side of Designing on Spec
- 99Designs: Bullshit 2.0
- 99 Designs Stoops To A New Low
There have even been comics made about the damage of Spec Work.
$5.00 (Cheap Logo Design)
Now that we have taken a look at the damage of Spec Work, let us now take a look at what quality you can expect from a logo in between the $5 to $200 bracket. The particular case I am looking at today is from a $35 logo design contest that was held on Digital Point Forums.
The “brief” for the logo design project was
“Make a logo for the site ‘Spela Piano’. The meaning of that is Play Piano. This is a site where our members can learn to play piano online.”
Below you can see the responses from the contest, which one do you think won?
You will notice that nearly all of the logos above use free fonts and don’t assign to the rules of what makes a good logo. Ie. describable, memorable, effective without colour and scalable.
Ask yourself these questions in regards to the logos above:
- How many of the logos can you describe or remember?
- Are these logos effective without colour?
- Are they scalable?
- Do they gain immediate recognition?
- Convey the company’s personality, character or attitude?
- Relate to your clients by conveying a feeling of familiarity and credibility?
- Have association with quality and satisfaction?
I will leave these questions for you to decide.
Professional Logo Design
Now compare these professionally designed logos and answer the same questions as above….
See the difference?
Why are they so different? As outlined in the logo design process of top graphic designers, professional logo designers have an actual design process that involves research, sketching, conceptualising, and reflection and this is why they do not charge $5.00.
The design process of a professional logo designer usually consists of:
- The Design Brief: They conduct a questionnaire or interview with the client to get the design brief.
- Research: They conduct research focused on the industry itself, on its history, and on its competitors.
- Reference: They conduct research into logo designs that have been successful and current styles and trends that are related to the design brief.
- Sketching & Conceptualising: They develop the logo design concept(s) around the brief and research. They use creativity and know how to design a logo.
- Reflection: They take breaks throughout their design process. This lets their ideas mature and lets them get renewed enthusiasm and receive feedback.
- Presentation: They then choose whether to present only a select few logos to the client or a whole collection.
- Celebration: They then drink beer or eat chocolate or sleep or start on next logo design. Or a combination.
Do you believe doing all of that costs $5.00?
On that note, did you know that the software to make the logo is USD$600 in itself… Let alone the computer that it has to be installed onto.
Here are some more responses from other designers on reasons why logo design does not cost $5.00.
Tara from Graphic Design Blog outlines in her 6 reasons why a logo should cost more than your lunch that
- A logo is the very first impression people get of your company
- A logo needs longevity
- A logo needs to be original
- A logo should look professional
- A logo should reflect the time and thought gone in to designing it
- A logo is the starting point of your whole corporate image
Now look back at those $5.00 logo designs or your even own logo to see if adheres to the above points.
Isn’t it about time you invested in a professional logo design?
Do you agree? Does logo design cost more than $5.00? What have you paid for a logo design?
Win A Free Logo Contest + Our Achievements So Far
Written by Jacob Cass on Friday, May 16, 2008 – 5:41 pm
On June 6th, Just Creative Design is turning 7 months old, ie. 7 months since my first ever blog post and to celebrate I am holding a little contest. I know 7 months is a random number but I actually thought we were 6 months old (a bit more appropriate) but when I checked our archives to find my first ever blog post I realised we were actually 7 months old - Doh!
Oh and if you don’t get the joke in the geek cake picture above, I suggest you read about the 2001 Internet phenomenon All Your Base Are Belong To Us.
The Prize? A free logo design!
If you hadn’t already guessed it, a free logo design is up for grabs to one lucky winner. You can check out my logo design work in my portfolio.
How to win?
Easy. Leave a comment below with the reasons why you deserve / need / should win the logo - it may be as short or long as you like - try to tell me what the logo will be for if you can. I will pick the winner based on who has the best reasoning.
I will take entries up until 3rd of June and will announce the winner on June 4th AEST and I will design the logo after I get back from my planned holiday - aka middle of July.
You can comment now or you can read on to see how we got to where we are today.
Just Creative Design’s Journey So Far
Back in November I found out that blogging was more than just a personal journal and after finding that out I just had to start my own blog and I am SO happy I did. I have learned more about design from the blogosphere than I ever could in 4 years at University.
My main inspiration to start blogging was David Airey who started his graphic design blog much like me, without any knowledge of blogging. He now has over 4500+ loyal subscribers and his blog is a great promotional tool for his business. I believe Just Creative Design is following in his footsteps.
After only 7 months of blogging (of which I was on holidays for 2 months) we have grown to around 2300+ subscribers and I have generated upwards of $5000 from the blog so far through advertising (want to advertise?) and design work coming through the blog, gaining clients locally as well as clients in Malaysia, America and Canada. I am still available for hire.
Some Stats
Everyone loves a bit of stats so here we go.
- 10.5 new subscribers per day on average. My goal was to get 2.5 per day back in January so very happy with our growth.
- We average 8,000 unique visits per day.
- Alexa Ranking Of 62,540.
- 120 Posts (20 of them Side Blog Posts).
- Google PR of 3. Used to be 5 though.
- Currently ranked #1 on Google for “Logo Design Newcastle”.
- Technorati Ranking of 9,468 (Favourite Us).
- Average of 20 comments per blog post.
- 190 Followers on Twitter. (Follow Me).
- 80% of my visitors come from USA, Australia, UK and Canada together.
- Main traffic is from Google Organic, Stumble Upon and Design Float.
Achievements
- Interview with well known logo designer, Jeff Fisher.
- Just Creative Design wins Logo Design Love Award
- Jacob Cass Named #8 Top Young Blogger Under 21
- How Magazine - Listed in How Magazines Top 10 Websites For Designers
- Fox News, USA - Recommend on Fox News Website.
- The Herald Newspaper, Scotland - Article featured in Scotland’s leading daily newspaper.
- Layers Magazine, UK - Linked multiple times from the leading magazine on everything Adobe related.
- All Graphic Design - Many articles linked from the world’s largest graphic design related site.
- About.com - Featured on About which is a website sourced by hundreds of helpful experts, eager to share their wealth of knowledge with visitors. Quite hard to get onto here.
- Communication Arts Magazine - The largest creative resource on earth has linked to us numerous times.
Showcases
My work has appeared in many galleries across the net and below is a sample of some of the ones that I am aware of.
- Most Inspired
- CSS Collection
- Daily Slurp
- CSS Based
- LoopPress
- Logo Pond
- Design Related
- W3C Sites
- CSS Leak
- CSS Clip
- BlogPond
- CSS Creme
- Design Flavr
And there we have it, a small summary of our achievements thus far.
Want To Write For Just Creative Design?
Earlier this week I called for some guest articles to be written for Just Creative Design as I am going away for 6 weeks. So far I have only received 2 articles so if you want to get onto JCD please send them before May 21st either in a html or word document!
Don’t forget to comment why you should earn the free logo design.
Logo Design Tips & A Not-So-Ordinary Interview with Famous Celebrity Logo Designer, Jeff Fisher
Written by Jacob Cass on Saturday, May 3, 2008 – 1:33 am
Just Creative Design has recently had the pleasure to interview Jeff Fisher but not in the normal ‘tell us about your life’ style interview… This interview walks us through Jeff’s logo design process as well providing invaluable logo design tips on the side.
I highly recommend you to read this article if you have the faintest interest in logo design and if you don’t have time to read it now, print it off for the weekend. You won’t regret it. I have also made bold the key parts of the article for easy scanning as it is 4800 words long.
If you want to print the article at the bottom of this post look for the text “Print This Page”. Read more »
Discover RSS: May 1st is RSS Awareness Day + The Official Logo I Designed For It
Written by Jacob Cass on Sunday, April 27, 2008 – 8:10 pm
On May 1st it is the first RSS Awareness Day. The objective of RSS Awareness Day is to get as many people as possible talking about RSS and its benefits and for them to educate the not-so-tech public about the benefits of RSS.
- Have you heard about RSS? If not, check out What Is RSS?
- If you already know about RSS, spread the word, write a blog post about it and try telling a friend or family member about RSS too. At least digg the official rss day page.
Logo Design
Below you can see the official logo I designed for RSS Day. You will notice the original RSS logo plus the number 1 to remind users of May 1st. You can check out more of my logo designs in my just updated portfolio. You can even read my new testimonials page. This is what Daniel (the man behind RSS Day) had to say about the logo.
Jacob did outstanding work with the logo for our RSS Day initiative. Not only was it beautiful, but it was also meaningful for the project.
Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.
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