TOOT TOOT: JCD Logo Wins ‘Best of Continent’ AND ‘Best of Australia’
Written by Jacob Cass on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 – 9:00 am
It was only a few weeks ago when I was tooting my own horn but here I am again… I couldn’t keep it a secret.
Just Creative Design Logo Wins ‘Best of Continent’ AND ‘Best of Nation’ Wolda Logo Design Award
Wolda is the innovative graphic design awards scheme that rewards the best logos and trademarks designed throughout the world and the only award scheme endorsed by ICOGRADA and more than 100 other international design associations and schools.
Thanks to its originality and design excellence, the “Just Creative Design” logotype (as seen at the top of this blog) has been selected for the “Best of Continent ‘08” and “Best of Nation ‘08″ talent award and will be included in the Wolda ‘08 printed annual, plus an honourable mention on the Wolda website.
To select the winners, an innovative international three-tier jury consisting of 10 top design professionals, 10 major international Clients and finally of 10 members of the public, reviewed all the logos submitted following a unique process which reflects the actual process that turns any logo into a successful logo: the designers decide what to present to the clients, the clients decide what to present to the public, but in the end it is always the public that decides if a brand is successful.
The 30 judges have been selected respectively from ICOGRADA (International Council of Graphic Design Associations), AQUENT and CONSUMERS INTERNATIONAL.
All winning entries for Wolda ’08 are displayed online at www.wolda.org and will be published towards the end of December in the 2008 annual, a substantial hard bound volume of exceptional quality printed on SAPPI acclaimed papers by FONTEGRAFICA.
For those of you interested I can get the book for 50% off but it probably wouldn’t be worth it if you live outside of Australia. Email me if you are interested.
This is the second award won for this logo, the first being the Logo Design Love award. This logo also appears in the book ‘Logo 2′ (ISBN: 978-3-939998-17-4) which will be available in 2009.
Member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals)
On another note, I have also just been awarded a year membership at NAPP, which is a trade association serving as a resource for Adobe Photoshop education, training, and news. They have some great tutorials, magazines and lots more, I recommend you to check them out - it really is worth it!
Featured Writer in Layers Magazine
I will also be appearing as a featured writer in the January / February edition of Layers Magazine so watch out for that one. I will post about it once everything has been printed.
Well there we have it, my horn has been tooted yet again!
Please note that I am away on vaction visiting Ayers Rock (Uluru) and will return on October 14th.
Tooting My Own Horn: My Latest Personal Achievements
Written by Jacob Cass on Thursday, September 11, 2008 – 11:00 pm
As the identity designer Jeff Fisher says, “If I don’t toot my own horn, no one else will“, so in this article I am going to toot my own horn and show some of the achievements I have achieved recently. It just goes to show what you can achieve in just 9 months of being a design blogger.
The Best of Logo Lounge 5
Earlier this year I was contacted by Logo Lounge, offering me a free membership (usually $100) to their website, so of course I signed up and when I did, I also submitted some of my logo designs to their database. I never really thought anything of it until last week I got contacted by Logo Lounge letting me know that 2 of my logos are going to be published in their next book The Best of Logo Lounge 5. You can see these two logos above.
Featured Artist for Nokia
I have just been asked by Nokia to design a pair of headphones (the styling, not the actual product) for a new music site being launched by Nokia called Music Almighty however details are on the down low at the moment but stay tuned.
Enviro Shopping Bag For Walgreen’s Pharmacy
Walgreens is a massive pharmaceutical chain in the USA with over 7000 stores and I was recently commissioned to create a design for one of their ‘enviro’ bags. I am still awaiting word if it is going to be used on the Walgreen’s bags or with another similar but smaller company… exciting none the less where ever it gets printed.
Design Graphics Magazine Design Competition Commendation
Earlier this year as part of our university course we had to enter the Design Graphics Magazine Cover Design Competition. The results were released a couple of weeks ago and I made it onto the commendation list which means my work is now published in the Art & Design Education Resource Guide 2008 which gets distributed around Australia to every design college and university and goes on sale in newsagents. You can see my cover design to the left and the book on the right.
My Work Appearing In These Books
I have been contacted a few times over this year asking to submit some of my designs into graphic design books so I thought I may as well and what do you know, it paid off. You can check out some of my work in these books coming in 2009:
- Graphic Design Down Under (ISBN: 978-3939998099) - Euro 14.95
- Logo 2 (ISBN: 978-3-939998-17-4) - Euro 19.95
- Best Package Design (ISBN: 978-3939998099) - Euro 19.95
- Graphic Design 2 (ISBN: 978-3939998099) - Euro 19.95
- Label Design (ISBN: 978-3939998099) - Euro 19.95
- Art & Design Education Resource Guide 2008 - $19.95 (out now)
PhotoshopUserTV, Kelby Training & Layers Magazine
Just last week I got a recommendation from PhotoshopUserTV (mentioned at 36m 40s) which is a an internet based TV program which is sponsored by such big names as NAPP, iStockPhoto, Epson and Adobe. From that little spot, I got the job of doing a logo design class for Kelby Training and also the opportunity to write an article for Layers Magazine or PhotoshopUserTV (my choice), so stay tuned for that also.
Interviews
I can not count the number of interviews I have given over the past few months, both to students via email and also on other blogs but these are some interviews I have had over the past few months.
The top 3 links below were only published this week so they are tingling with freshness.
- Creative Blogger Interview with Alex CharChar from RetinArt. Alex also did the creative pencil shavings image above.
- Jacob Cass Interview: “Design really comes down to passion.” on Design Interviews
- Interview with Jacob Cass on Adubzeedo (posting in the next few days)
- Graphic Design Interview with Jacob Cass on JCD
- Interview with Jacob Cass on InkBlog
- How I Raised $5000 in Sponsorship on Group Writing Projects
- Web / Graphic Designer Group Interview on Vandelay Design
Live University Lecture to India
Last week I did a live lecture to a graphic design University class in India via webcam. I spoke about logo design, branding and blogging and I also answered questions from the students (mainly aged 18-19). I actually tried recording the lecture however it was very disjointed as we had to swap from Skype to MSN twice due to connection problems, so unfortunately I can not show you the video but it went well none the less. They even want me back again.
Photoshop For Right Brainers Book Cover Design
I was asked by by John Wiley & Sons if I would like to be a featured designer for their design contest trying to come up with a front cover design for their new book Photoshop For Right Brainers by Al Ward.
Even though I am against spec work, I was offered 4 books worth up to a maximum of $600 to be one of the featured designers. I would like to know what people think of me being a featured artist, condoning a design competition - keeping in mind that $600 worth of books is on the line. I am still yet to confirm if I will participate.
Subscribers / Stats
Just Creative Design now has a total of 167 posts, 19 pages and 4600 comments. On average each article has 27 comments.
We have received over 1,200,000 Unique Visitors, and over 17,000,000 hits using up 3900GB of data since we started.
I suppose getting 7000+ subscribers in 9 months is a worthy achievement also, even if it just a number.
Future Plans
As you may know, I love travelling and adventure and have been to over 30 countries already but this time I am going to see more of Australia. In a few weeks, me and a few university mates are hiring a camper van to travel to the middle of of Australia to see Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) which should be a good 2700km road trip. I am looking for a few guest articles for my time away so if you are keen, please contact me.
I also plan to go back to Canada in 2010 for 4 months for a working holiday skiing the slopes which I am looking forward to also (and saving for).
A Big Thank You
A big thank you to all of the generous people who have donated $6000+ worth of prizes to Just Creative Design and myself over the past 9 months. Donations have included such things as an electric guitar, logo designs, memberships and so fourth. I will be having another huge competition soon, so keep your eyes peeled and if you want to get a prize donation in early, you know where to contact me.
I also want to thank all of the commentators and readers that make up Just Creative Design as it is those that make Just Creative Design a better place.
Well there you have it, my horn has been tooted.
Celebrating 5000+ Subscribers
Written by Jacob Cass on Friday, August 1, 2008 – 9:00 am
Yesterday, Just Creative Design hit 5000+ subscribers for the first time so I thought it was time for a little celebration and to celebrate I am giving away two great prizes.
You can win $50 to spend on any design related goods at Creatives Outfitter. This prize is courtesy of the kind Jon Phillips of Spryre Studios - a small design studio that focuses mainly on blog design (among other things). I highly recommend him!
The other prize is a 30 minute design consultation via Skype or Email with David Airey, the much respected designer and blogger from Edinburgh, Scotland. David was actually one of the reasons I first started blogging.
To get the prize all you have to do is comment below giving us your best tip (or trick) about graphic design, or if this does not apply to you, your best tip about freelancing or business or something similar. The best two answers will receive the two prizes as chosen by Jon and myself.
While you’re here, why don’t you add me to Twitter and Facebook too?
Milestones
Above you can see the last 7 months of JCD’s subscriber count - it has been a pretty steady rise. The hardest months were the first 3 - I had less than 500 subscribers for those 3 months but I stuck it out and it paid off.
These first 3 months were when I learnt about blogging - before that I didn’t even know what a blog was! Now, seven months on, JCD has over 150 posts with over 2700 comments - that makes on average, about 18 comments per post so a big thank you to all who have had their say here on JCD. On that topic, when was the last time you thanked your readers?
Other Highlights
Some other highlights over the past 7 months were when I had the opportunity to interview the logo designer Jeff Fisher as well as when I won the Logo Design Love Award (as voted by you) for this blogs logo.
Other achievements were when I was named #8 blogger in the world under 21 in May as well as when JCD was named the #12 Blog in all of Australia. We were also listed in How Magazines Top 10 Sites For Designers back in March and just recently was recommended by Layers Magazine in their weekly video cast.
Another big highlight was our $5000 Prize Giveaway Graphic Design Group Writing Project where we gave away an electric guitar and many other prizes. That was not the only time JCD has given away prizes… We have given away prizes here and here and here and here and here and here and again on this post!
Another highlight that comes to mind was our April Fools joke where I announced I was changing our font to MS Comic Sans. Oh the hilarity.
Just Creative Design and our design related articles have also been linked to by over 8000 websites worldwide.
Guest Articles
Over the past months I have also written for many other quality blogs and below are some of them.
- How to get paid freelance work while you are design student - on Freelance Folder - Thanks Jon.
- Must Know Shortcut Keys for Bloggers & Designers - on YouTheDesigner - Thanks Gino.
- How to Design your own Unique Photoshop Brushes. - on Creative Curio - Thanks Lauren.
- Is Your Blog C.R.A.P? - on DailyBlogTips - Thanks Daniel.
- 5 Vital Logo Design Tips - on David Airey - Thanks David.
- Top 10 Places to work in the USA as a graphic designer - on Outlaw Design Blog - Thanks Danny.
- How To Talk To Non-Tech Savvy Clients on Freelance Switch - Thanks Skellie.
Who knows where JCD will be in another 7 months time?
Once again, thank you to all JCD readers and commentators. If you are not a reader, why not subscribe?
Update: Winners will be announced Thursday 7th AEST in another post.
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.
Blogging Goals & Achievements of JCD
Written by Jacob Cass on Sunday, January 6, 2008 – 3:40 pm
I have only been blogging for just over 2 months now and I believe I have done quite well considering I have never blogged before so I thought I would sum up my achievements over the past 2 months and set new goals while I am at it - Have you thought about doing this?
Since my first post on WordPress Plugins You Must Have I have written 35 great articles on a variety of topics (see categories) namely graphic design and some have been quite popular so first I’ll present to you…
My Most Popular Articles
- 101 Places To Get Design Inspiration
- 13 Signs Your A Bad Graphic Designer
- What is Graphic Design?
- How To Be Creative
- Top 5 Typography Resources
- How Much Does A Graphic Designer earn?
- Do you use your left or right brain more?
- What to get a designer for Christmas?
- Poster Design Tips (& Experiences)
- How To Choose A Font
- FUNNY Graphic Design Jokes & Humour
Websites Who Feature / Recommend Me
I have just recently been listed on HOW magazines top 10 graphic design resources web links page which is quite an honour (and sends quite a lot of traffic) so this is probably my best achievement so far.
Other websites (of many) I have been listed on include
Most Inspired - Showcases popular & well designed css websites
Daily Slurp - A Daily list of beautiful Sites (sends quite a bit of traffic)
134.com - I was featured in their Great Top 13 Links and their Top 13 Commentators list
LoopPress - A showcase of beautiful CSS Designs.
Successful Blog - Listed in their hall of fame of successful blogs & best in thinking articles.
BlogPond - Listed in the best of the Australian Blog Community
Visitors & Subscribers
At this time I am quite surprised to see how many visitors I am actually getting but as I am new to the blogosphere I won’t put up my actual numbers until I get to my new goal of getting 150 new subscribers by the end of this month. I haven’t paid for any links as of yet however I can say that 81% of my traffic comes from referring sites so that is a good sign and that the average time spent on my site per visit is 4 mins and 40 seconds. 
Goals
Unfortunately, when I first started this blog I never set out any goals for myself (which I regret) however I did do a lot of research into blogging before I began so that did give me bit of a head start. But putting that behind myself I am going to set some new short and long term goals for myself to give me some vision of where I want to be.
1. Consistent Quality Posting
I will write a quality post every 2 to 3 days and I will not post 3 times a day as not to annoy my readers. I will also try to cut down on the length of my posts as I realise that I always write way to much!
2. Guest Posting
I have had a couple of requests while I was away from other blogs wishing for me to write guest articles so I think I will take up this opportunity as this way I can receive some feedback on my writing and gain more readers and traffic for my blog. Also, if you are interested in writing a guest article for this blog, just drop me an email..
3. Build & Develop My Communities & Make Good Friends
I have joined a number of communities since I started blogging however I haven’t really been active in them so I will choose a couple that I will be heavily active in, most probably StumbleUpon, BlogCatalog, Digg and DesignFloat. Links to my profile in each community is below. You also may find this article interesting written by Muhammad Saleem, about why we participate in social community sites sites.
- StumbleUpon - My stumble profile
- MyBlogLog - Blogging Community
- BlogCatalog - Blogging Community
- LinkedIn - A business networking website.
- Del.icio.us - My bookmarks.
- Digg - Websites I find useful and great.
- DesignFloat - A digg like website but only on design.
- Technorati - The Blogosphere
- SpicyPage - Share your favorite sites or blogs.
4. ReOccuring Posts
Have reoccuring weekly and monthly posts such as summaries, logo of the month, picture of the week, etc - I will need to think about this one.
5. Know and Practice all these tips
This article is a good summary of all the things you should be aware of if you own a blog. I will study this list and make sure that I do all these things to make my blog even more successful.
6. Get 1500+ Subscribers by the end of the year.
I really don’t know if this is too low or too high but we will see. Assuming I had 0 subscribers this would mean I would have to get 125 new subscribers each month which is a mean feat - about 18 a week and about 2.5 a day.
Anyway I hope this list has been useful and inspirational for you - now get going and make your own goals for 2008.
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