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.

Japan & New Zealand Holiday Photos

Throughout June and July I was on vacation travelling through Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam and New Zealand and as usual, with any major trip, I share the photos and stories with you.

I posted the Cambodia & Vietnam photos a few weeks back and now I’ve finally had the chance to go through the Japan & New Zealand photos.

The Japan leg of my Asian themed holiday was spent with my mother and was a gift for my 21st birthday. It was great to spend some quality time with her while experiencing the Japanese culture and it also gave me a chance to do things that I wouldn’t have done if I was traveling with my mates.

In Japan we went to Tokyo, Shinagawa, Yokohama, Shizuoka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hikone, Miyajima, Okayama, Hiroshima and Takayama. Click the map for a larger view of where we travelled.

Enjoy the happy snaps and sorry for not being more descriptive, I’ve forgotten a lot of the names since the trip back in July. Read more »

Vietnam Holiday Photos

Throughout June and July I was on vacation travelling through Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam and New Zealand and as usual with any major trip, I share the photos and stories with you.

I posted the Cambodia photos a few weeks back and now I’ve finally had the chance to go through the Vietnam photos.

Circled in green below, you can see the places travelled to in Vietnam: Mekong Delta, Ho Chi Minh City, Cu Chi, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa along with Siem Riep & Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Read more »

Kingdom of Cambodia

Over the past month I have been on vacation traveling across Asia (Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam) and as usual, when I return from any major trip I share some of the stories & photos with you.

Below you will find a select few photos from about 400 taken while in the Kingdom of Cambodia (Siem Riep & Phnom Penh). I will upload the Japan and Vietnam photos when I get a chance to go through them - I still have 1500 more photos to go through. Read more »

Aussie goes NYC

Back in April I was approached (via Twitter believe it or not) by Mike Germano, the president & creative director of Carrot Creative, a new media marketing agency located in Dumbo, New York City. Mike was seeing if I would be interested in working for Carrot Creative.

At first I didn’t take it as a serious job offer (seriously, who offers a job via Twitter?) however I thought I should follow it up. I had a look through the Carrot Creative website and then realised why they had contacted me via Twitter - they are a company that specialises in social media marketing. After looking through their rather creative website (check out their contact page) I replied to Mike via Twitter letting him know of my interest in the job.

Three days later, I still had no reply. I sent Mike an email. Nine days later, still no reply. I thought I would try one more time; I emailed Mike again. Two days later I had finally received a reply. We organised a time to speak via Skype (which was rather difficult seeing though we had a 12 hour time difference) and it went from there.

Forty emails later, and a few more Skype interviews I was ready to sign the contract… which I did in late June. I am happy, humbled and privileged to announce that I am now apart of the Carrot Creative team, starting January 2010.

I will be moving my whole life to live and work in NYC early 2010 - a huge but exciting move. At this stage, the move will be for at least one year.

Update 24/7/09:

Carrot Creative has just written a kind welcoming post on their blog.

Update: 21/8/09 - It’s official!

My US working Visa has been approved and my flights booked for January 2010.

About Carrot Creative

Carrot Creative is a new media marketing agency that “specialises in social media, application development, and user experience, all in the name of brand development”.

Some of their clients include: Weber Shandwick, Saatchi and Saatchi, Major League Baseball, JCPenney, The Onion, Pepsi, Unilever, Crayola and MTV.

One of the main reasons I chose to sign with CC was because of their fun, not-too-serious vibe. It’s obvious via their website and corporate communication that they are bunch of friendly and fun individuals - all of whom I look forward to meeting.

Carrot Creative also specialise in the areas that I am most interested in; social media, branding & new media so Carrot Creative seemed like the perfect fit.

The Plan

As for this blog and the other blogs, I do plan to keep them updated as much as I can while over in NYC, but for now I can not predict how often - I am hoping at least once a fortnight.

I still plan to freelance while over in NYC however on a much smaller scale and with much more focus on logo & identity design. My goal is to have fewer, but larger clients.

Also, if any of you are based in the NYC area, please do let me know… it would be nice to meet up with a few like minded individuals especially since I will be leaving my whole life behind in Australia.

Also, if you have any questions, comments or helpful advice I would love to hear from you. Thanks to everyone who has helped me get to this point, it’s been a blessing.

Update: 25/7/09 - Thank you everyone who has emailed, messaged or Twittered their congratulations, tips and friendly advice. I really have been overwhelmed, I really do appreciate it! Thank you.

Instant Inspiration + Student Mobiles

In each issue of Layers Magazine they run a spot called Instant Inspiration which is where they “showcase an established commercial designer and pick their brain in an effort to gain insights on the creative process and inspiration in general.”

I was fortunate enough to be chosen for the May / June edition of the magazine and below you can find the short interview along with some quick pictures of the mag. You can also view a PDF version of the 3 page spread here.

At the bottom of this article you will find some student mobiles - curious?

What’s the “method to your madness?”

I have a 2.4-GHz Dual Core PC, dual monitor setup, cordless keyboard, Logitech MX Revolution mouse, and I use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver. I also do some 3D work in Cinema 4D and Xara3D. The rest is basically pen and paper.

What inspires you?

I never have just one source of inspiration. Every project has different needs so I go to different sources depending on what is needed. For example, for a Web Design I would look for inspiration online; however, if I were after some print design inspiration I would look offline. I also make use of the website www.delicious.com - a search engine that many designers use for bookmarking. I’ve also compiled a list of my own inspirational resources that I share on my blog.

On Layers magazine:

I think the diversification of Layers is what makes it stand out. It really does cater to everyone, which is needed these days. Designers need a large range of skills to be able to work across a variety of mediums.

What are you working on now?

At present, I am working on five logo designs, two websites, an environmentally friendly glass water bottle design, two vodka bottle designs, a liquor bottle design, a 60-page logo design ebook, and a comic book illustration (in collaboration). I am also constantly working on my three personal websites/blogs: Just Creative Design, Logo of the Day, and Logo Designer Blog .

What has been your crowning achievement so far?

I believe my blog Just Creative Design would have to be my biggest achievement. To have a subscriber base of over 16,000+ readers who want to read what I have to say is, to me, quite astonishing. I send out a big thank you to all of my readers — you really do inspire and drive me to learn more and more! Thank you again!

Any advice?

Don’t undervalue your work. Seek criticism, not praise. Always keep learning—do this by reading books, magazines, blogs, and by practising. Collect and share things. Teach others. Never give up. Keep practising. Again, keep practising!

Mugshot

My mugshot also appeared for a second time on their “Instant Inspiration” page which is a page near the back of the mag that gets people to subscribe to Layers mag.

In the same issue of Layers magazine, you will also find the tutorial How To Make Your Next Website Design POP that I posted about earlier this week. I also wrote the Layers cover article; Negative Space back in April.

Stay tuned for more because I will be appearing in the next two editions of Layers with some Illustrator tutorials.

Student Mobiles

Moving on from magazines to mobiles… not mobile phones - mobiles - the old fashioned ones. You know the ones you stared at for hours when you were a baby?

Well, first year design students at my University had to create a creative mobile based on the design process of a logo. I actually remember doing this assignment two years ago when I was in first year (in my final year now) so it was quite surreal to come back and see my own logos being used for the assignment.

In total there were three of my own logos being used for the assignment (2 of my JCD logo and 1 of the Ultimate Potential logo). I also noticed Chris Spooner’s Vivid Ways logo being used.

Below you can see a few amateur snaps from the the exhibition. The first picture is a shot of the exhibition with all of the student’s mobiles hanging from the roof.

Below you can see a student’s interpretation of my Just Creative Design logo design process.

Below you can see a close-up shot of how the student has depicted the design process (using icons).

Below you can see a student’s interpretation of Chris Spooner’s Vivid Ways Logo. Spooner’s logo was also awarded Logo Of The Day earlier this month.

Below you can see a student’s interpretation of my Ultimate Potential logo. It is made out of wooden boxes, which is a rather creative way of representing the process.

Below you can see a not-so-creative interpretation of the infamous I Heart NY Logo. The mobile doesn’t depict the process (ie. the purpose of the assignment) but anyway, thought it was worth showing.

Your comments are welcome, as always.

Check me out in these magazines!

Back in January I wrote the cover article for Layers Magazine on the topic of ‘Negative Space’ and now I am back again, but this time in the form of a poster boy - well not that kind of poster boy.

If you have a quick look though the April/May edition of Layers Magazine you will find my little mugshot on one of their advertisements along with some of my CD artwork. See the image below.

You may also be interested to know you can test drive Layers magazine by grabbing a free copy over at their site or you could look through their last issue online.

Also, check me out in next months edition of the mag, I will be appearing in their “Instant Inspiration” section with an interview and a showcase of my work.

I will also be appearing in the Photoshop and Illustrator tutorial sections over the next few months of which I will post on here once they are available. Stay tuned!

Computer Arts Projects Magazine (Issue 122)

After posting this article, I was told by Chris Spooner (big thank you) that I’ve also been featured in Issue 122 of the Computer Arts Projects Magazine -  three times!

A big thanks to Chris Spooner for sending me the pics below.

The front cover of the magazine.

The inspiration directory page.

Tips for marketing yourself page.

Personal recommendation from Paul Wyatt! Thank you!

DG Magazine Portfolio

Update #3 - Just got word that my logo got approved for the “DG Portfolio 8″ magazine. See the pics below!

Front Cover

The page that I am on.

Close up of my logo.