Just Creative Design

5 Days To Go! - $11,000 In Prizes! You Must Enter!

Written by Jacob Cass on Monday, November 17, 2008 – 8:29 pm

If you haven’t already heard, there are 67 prizes up for grabs including a digital camera worth $1200. To enter all you have to do is donate at least $5.00 to charity and / or write an article!

There has been only 50 entries so far and there is 67 prizes so chances are you ARE going to win a prize!

For entry info and prizes please visit the annoucement post.

12 Comments »

$11,000 Prize Giveaway - Design Group Writing Project For Charity

Written by Jacob Cass on Friday, November 7, 2008 – 1:36 am

To celebrate my blog’s 1st birthday (November 7th) I have been working hard to put together this massive project for my readers, the design community and charity.

There is a total of 66 different prizes worth exactly $11,000 all up so there will be 66 lucky winners.

100% of all proceeds will go to the Blog Action Day Poverty Fund.

To Enter… Please Read Very Carefully

There are two ways you can enter and you can do both for a maximum of two entries per person. All entries will be checked before any prizes are given.

Entry 1: Donate To Charity

To enter the competition you may donate to charity…. All money goes to the global fund that helps fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - some of the leading causes of poverty.

Instructions:

There are two options - via Change.org or via PayPal.

I have been told that sometimes a ’server error’ message is being displayed on Change.org, please be patient and try again at another time or use PayPal instead, the donate button is below.

Change.Org

If you choose to go through change.org money will go straight into the global fund account and will not touch my hands. If you do not have a credit card, you may choose to use PayPal. If you choose to use change.org the instructions are below.

1. Go to the Just Creative Design Blog Action Day Fundraiser Page.
2. Click the blue ‘Donate Now’ button.
3. Fill out the page, please donate a minimum of $5. (Heh, it’s only a coffee!) Ensure you leave a donation comment so your entry counts. You can donate from any country as long as you have a credit card, don’t get fooled by the billing address being US states.

PayPal

By request I have also set up a PayPal donation page. You can donate by clicking the donate button below. I will collect the donations here and then donate the funds to the global fund at the end of the project.

Entry 2: Write An Article (even without a blog)

For those of you who do not have a credit card or are limited in funds, there is another alternative, you can write an article - hence the design group writing project! I will compile all the entries at the end of the competition.

Instructions:

1. Write an article related to design. Even if you are not a designer, you could make a list of your favourite designs or list your favourite websites, books, photos? There are no boundaries… just relate the article some how back to design… be creative.
   
2. If you don’t have a blog go to step 3, if you have a blog, continue reading. When you post your article on your blog, ensure you leave a trackback to this post so I can track your article or preferably, link back to this article / home page in the first paragraph. Please make the post at least 500 words.
   
3. If you don’t have a blog, send me an article in a Word or HTML document to my email address. Ensure it is at least 500 words, with no slang and with your best spelling. I will post some of the best entries on this blog.

Deadline & How To Win

Entries will close November 22nd GMT+11. There will be 1 prize per person.

A list of all the people who have donated and all the people who have written an article will be compiled and then submitted into random.org where it will output a persons name with a prize number. This makes the selection totally random. Winners will be announced the same week.

Share The Love

• Stumble This Post
• Digg This Post
• Blog About This Fundraiser
• Add A Banner: I have made a 125×125 banner for you to place on your blog if you wish. If you do use the banner, please just link back to this article.

Prizes

Another HUGE thank you to all the sponsors on this project, it would not have been possible without you!

Anyway, these are all the prizes up for grabs! Ensure you browse the sponsor’s sites!

Olympus Evolt E250 Digital Camera from GetPrice.com.au
This digital camera is courtesy of GetPrice.com.au - the place to compare before you buy.
Value: $1200

Photoshop World Tickets, Scott Kelby Book Bundle, Layers Subscription, NAPP Membership
Courtesy of RC Concepcion, Host of Layers TV, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, and Kelby Training.
Value: $720 (Tickets & NAPP membership $600, Books $90, Layers Subscription $30)

7x Books (each to different person) - Photoshop CS4 For Dummies, Aperture 2, Photoshop CS4 Digital Classroom
Courtesy of Natalie Lin from Wiley. A HUGE thanks to Natalie for getting these prizes to give away to 7 lucky readers. You too can get these books by going to the links below!

• 3x Copies of Photoshop CS4 For Dummies ($29.99 value per book)
• 3x Copies of Aperture 2 Portable Genius by David Schloss ($25 value per book)
• 1x Copy of Photoshop CS4 Digital Classroom ($49.99 value per book)

Total Value: $215

Your Logo Cut Into HUGE Perspex Letters 80cm Wide (Wow)
Courtesy of Sander Baumann from Geveletters. To get what we mean by huge, check out their site!
Value: $600

Total Blog Makeover
Courtesy of the very kind and talented Joni Mueller from Pixelita, a design studio based in Houston, Texas. The blog makeover can be for a WordPress, TextPattern, Blogger or Movable Type Blog.
Value: $650

A Unique Web Theme for Either WordPress, PixelPost or a Straight XHTML page.
Courtesy of the very kind Kristarella, who runs a personal / design blog over at the very aptly named Kristarella. If you don’t want to change your site, customisation/optimisation of your current page can also be done.
Value: $300.

Sumo Omni Chair + Lounge + Love Seat + Floor Pillow (Girl Not Included)
Courtesy of Andrew Milligan from Sumo Lounge, a website offering seriously awesome urban lounge gear. Andrew has been marketing his Sumo range by contacting blog authors and offering them a free Omni Chair in exchange for a review (over 500 reviews so far) … and let’s face it, who wouldn’t want one of these? There is a sale on now and on top of that there is free shipping too. Check out Sumo!
Value: $150
NB: This is not part of the prize pool.

2 PSD to XHTML / CSS Conversions
Courtesy of Jay of Creative Cranes, a new intuitive design studio. You can follow Jay on Twitter too.
Value: $45/h up to $1000.

$100 Gift Voucher For Threadless Tshirts
Courtesy of Bob Nanna from Threadless, an awesome designer submission t-shirt shop.
Value: $100

Blog / Site Review with Design Critique by Vivien
Courtesy of Vivien from Inspiration Bit, a unique & inspirational design blog. Vivien’s reviews are not the normal type of review, she really gets under the hood of your design. See what I mean here.
Value: $400

1 Year Shuttle-Bus Subscription to Freshbooks Invoicing
Courtesy of Mitch Solway from Freshbooks, an online invoicing application, and our site sponsor.
Value: $168

Bgears b-Enspirer Theatre Quality 7.1 Channel Sound Card
Courtesy of Angie Bowen from Arbenting, a blog on creativity and design.
Value: $120

300 Premium Textures from ColorBurned
Courtesy of Grant Friedman from ColorBurned, a great design resources blog and shop.
Value: $70

Custom Logo Design by NetBramha Studios

Courtesty of Aashish Solanki from NetBramha Studios, a design studio based out of Bangalore, India.

Value: $300

2x Design Prints from 3 Lambs Design (via Etsy)

Courtesy of Amy of 3 Lambs Designs. You can get any two 8″ x 8″ or 8″ x 10″ prints, including shipping.
Value: $75.00

1x FlickR Pro Account For One Year
Courtesy of the very kind Joni Mueller from Pixelita, a design studio based in Houston, Texas
Value: $25

LoveClub Coupon
Courtesy also of James Deer, from ThemeLovers, a new site offering great themes. The Loveclub coupon gives you unlimited access to every theme on offer on ThemeLovers.
Value: $499

$25 Gift Voucher For Amazon
Courtesy of the talented Meryl K Evans from Meryl.net. Meryl really is a ‘Content Maven’, just read her about page.
Value: $25

2x Designer T-shirts from Design By Humans (Split Into 2 Prizes)

Courtesy of Design By Humans, an awesome designer tshirt submission site and affiliate sponsor of this site. Check out some of my favourites here.
Value: $60

1000 Business Cards from UPrinting
Courtesy of Gino Orlandi from Uprinting, a quality online printing service based in the USA that prints business cards among many other things. Shipping free only in USA and Canada.
Value: $50

5x Anistock Yearly Subscriptions
Courtesy of Brian O’Connell from Anistock, a multimedia haven… Anistock has 7.8 million photos, clip art, fonts, graphics and more. You can win access to all this for one year!
Value: $500 ($99 each)

1 Year Website Hosting from URLuscious
Courtesy of Faryl Zaklin from URLuscious, a website hosting service for small businesses.
Value: $80

26 iStockPhoto Credits
Courtesy of Olga Mizrahi from ohso! design, a web design and graphic design studio based in Long Beach California.
Value: $35

125×126 Advertising on LogoDesign.org for 6 Months

Courtesy of the generous George Ryan from Logo Design.Org

Value: $600

30 Minute Coaching Consultation on Organisation & Productivity
Courtesy of Kris Rowlands, a Professional Organisation and Productivity Consultant.
Value: $50

10x T-Shirts from Advertees
Courtesty of Steve from Advertees, a promotional clothing company. You may choose any make or style from the site (preferably organic) printed in water based inks with a design of the winners choice in up to 3 colours and sizes. Shipped to wherever in the world.
Value: $280

25 High Resolution Exclusive Custom Made Textures

Courtesy of Alexander Hommel from High Resolution Textures, a website offering high resolution textures. The winner can choose the category and will receive 25 custom made hi-res images in return.

Value: $75

$40 Voucher to Spend at DealExtreme

Courtesy of Marco Kuiper, who also freelances as a graphic designer. This voucher you can spend on any gadget at Deal Extreme, which let me tell you is a lot!
Value: $40

$150 to spend on ThemeForest / FlashDen / AudioJungle
Courtesy of Collis T’aeed, the man behind many, many websites.

• FlashDen - The best place to get awesome Flash components.
• AudioJungle - A new audio marketplace.
• ThemeForest - WordPress and Template marketplace.

Value: $150

12 Large Woodgrain Photoshop Brushes
Courtesy of Curtis McHale. Each brush is around 2000px square at 300ppi and is only available through Just Creative Design.
Value: $24

4x Single License $79 Theme Coupons for ThemeLovers
Courtesy of James Deer, from ThemeLovers, a new site offering great themes. Period.
Value: $316

30min Design Consultation with Logo Designer, David Airey
Courtesy of David Airey… you should know him by now, if you don’t, fly over to his blog now!
Value: $50

1x FlickR Pro Account For One Year
Courtesy of the very kind and talented Lauren Krause from the awesome design blog Creative Curio.
Value: $25

Static Banner Ad Design by iDesign Studios
Courtesy of the kind Selene Bowlby from iDesign Studios, a very talented designer with a studio & blog based in Florida.

Value: $100

Islamic Design Package & Tour
Courtesy of Mohd Rafie, the man who donated an electric guitar last competition.

1. Book - Title: Islamic Design: A Genius for Geometry by Daud Sutton.
2. A3 poster. Title: “Pedulikah Kita” Do we care?
3. Mini poster by ISAC Studio.
4. 3 Islamic design stock photos.
5. Free admission to the Design Museum, London
6. 10% off any merchandise at the Design Museum shop.

Value: $50

1x T-Shirt from TurnNocturnal
Courtesy of the kind Matt McInerney, who runs the store Turn Nocturnal. I have one of their shirts and the service was awesome, highly recommended. The winner may choose any shirt and size up to $20. Postage is included up to $10.
Value: $20

234×60 Advertising on Lost & Taken for 3 Months
Courtesy of Caleb Kimbrough from Lost & Taken a blog with many high resolution textures.
Value: $90

Choice of 1 Premium Wordpress Theme from ANYWHERE
Courtesy of the generous Penny from WP Premiums. Your choice is from any premium shop on the internet up to the value of $100.
Value: $100

$25 Amazon Gift Voucher
Courtesy of River Girl (Bari) from Ask The Boater. You can follow River Girl on Twitter too!
Value: $25

1 Hour of Website Updates
Courtesy of Eric Benoit from Ebenoit, where he freelances as a graphic and web designer.
Value: $100

89 Comments »

FREE Books For You + Me As A Featured Designer

Written by Jacob Cass on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 – 12:01 am

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to be a featured artist for the Wiley Book Cover Challenge and for my efforts I was rewarded with 14 various books that I got to choose from a quite varied list and guess what? I’m giving them away for free (inc. postage) here on Just Creative Design.

My Book Cover Design

You can view my cover design below or on the actual featured artists page here - please ignore the orange border that they have placed around my design on that page. The concept of my cover was to stand out from the other Photoshop books that were so busy and crowded… I went with a nice simplistic approach that reflected the name of the book and would look great in print.

I also emphasised the ‘right-brainers’ theme of the book by making the text sideways so as to make the reader turn their head to the right to read the text of the book - subtle, I know. There is also a subtle exclamation mark made with the word Photoshop. Did you see that one? The font I used was Meta, which is one of the best 30 fonts that every designer should know / own.

Anyway, you may be wondering, how do I get my free books? Well over the next few months I will be having various small ‘challenges’ or ‘tasks’ in separate blog posts starting with the first one now.

The first book I am giving away is Teach Your Self Visually: Photoshop CS3 and that comes with free postage to anywhere in the world.

Your Task: Facebook

1. Befriend me on Facebook.
2. Join The Just Creative Design Facebook Group.
3. Leave a comment on this article stating why you want the book.
4. Come back to this post to see if you have won. I will leave this thread open until Thursday 8.30am GMT+11

2x Teach Yourself Visually: Photoshop CS3
2x Teach Yourself Visually: HMTL & CSS
1x Digital Photography Workbook For Dummies
1x Color Confidence: Digital Photographers Guide To Color Management
1x Color Correction for Digital Photographers Only

This isn’t the only giveaway that is coming… I have got another $6000+ worth of prizes for my 1 year blog birthday bash coming up soon. Watch out!

64 Comments »

How Giving Away A Free Logo Design Benefited The Whole Community

Written by Jacob Cass on Thursday, August 21, 2008 – 12:36 pm

Back in May I ran a competition where I asked JCD readers to comment why they should be the winner of a free logo design, designed by myself. In total there were 65 entries however I ended up choosing Janette Toral from Influential Blogger as the final winner of the free logo design.

I chose Janette to be the winner based purely on the fact that the new logo / badge could be used by many people rather than by just one individual, thus benefiting the whole community. I am now briefly going to go through the process of creating Janette’s logo and also show you the logo in use.

Background Information

Before I explain the logo design concept I shall give you a bit of background information… The  purpose of Janette’s website Influential Blogger is to get people all over the world to vote for the most influential blogs that are emerging each year and to narrow it down to the top 10 most influential emerging blogs for the current year.

This year there were a total of 177 entries and the winners were announced on August 11th at a dinner function held in Manila, Philippines. You will find the photos from the dinner below.

The Brief

Naturally, I start my logo design process in the usual way and get all the information I need off the client before I begin designing but to cut a long story short, after all our discussions and emails, Janette and myself concluded that a unique, simple logo somehow incorporating a ’spotlight’ was the direction that we would go in.

There would be two versions of the logo; one version for the header of her blog, and another ‘badge’ version that would be placed in the sidebars of the 10 winner’s blogs. This meant that the logo had to work at small and large sizes - this also being one of the principles of good logo design.

Janette also stated that the badge version of the logo had to have the words ‘Emerging Influential Blog for 2008′ and that it had to convey to people to “watch out for this blog”.

You can see the logo (badge version) below and the header version at the top of this article.

The Concept

The concept behind the final logo was to portray a crown shaped out of 5 rays of light. The crown is a symbol of power, legitimacy, strength, righteousness, victory, triumph, resurrection, honour and glory… all traits that an influential blogger has. The ray of light is a symbol of ‘being in the spotlight’ and also of being searched, (ie. a torch) which relates back to the actual purpose of Influential Blogger… to search out the most influential blogs.

The Challenges

The Semiotics

The challenge in creating this logo was not creating a crown or spotlight itself but bringing both of these icons together to form one identifiable logo. This took a lot of sketching on paper and also a lot of experimentation with gradients and transparency in Illustrator. Janette and myself finally decided on the simple transparent / gradient concept which you can see in the final logo above.

The Effects

I purposely made the logo not look too much like a crown, nor too much like a spotlight so as not to put too much light on each one (excuse the pun) rather, have the the image as one identifiable logo that could be seen as two separate objects. I achieved the this through the use of gradients and transparency which effectively shows that the rays of light are not solid objects.

This technique of using two objects / icons is also very much alike my personal JCD logo seen at the top of this blog… the logo can be seen as a pencil, as well as the initials JCD.

The Text

Another challenge was the actual amount of text that had to be included in the badge version of the logo. As previously mentioned, the logo had to work both at large sizes and small sizes, such as when people placed the badge on their own blog. For this reason, I was limited to placing only 1 or 2 words per line.

To help counter this limitation I used different sized text and shading to give hierarchy to what is read first. On first notice you will read the word Influential Blogger, then later read “Emerging, For 2008″.

The Colour

The colour blue was chosen based on surveys that I conducted of what colour people associated with the word ‘potential’ and also the personal choice of Janette herself. Below you can see some colour variations on an earlier concept of the logo.

Below you can see the final logo to be used on the header of Influential Blogger.

Below you can see the final badges again that were used on the blogs of the top 10 influential blogs.

Photos From Award Ceremony

Below you can see some photos from the Influential Blogger award ceremony that was held in Manila.

The dinner turn out in Manila.

Receiving Recognition

Certificate of Recognition Award. Notice the badge logo?

The Function Room

There are a lot more photos of the event at the links below.

• Markku
• Edward Arevalo
• Poyt
• AJ Matela
• Azrael’s Multiply Land
• One shot at a time
• King Hearthur’s Court
• Jehzeel

Write-ups

Not only did the logo make its way to the dinner at Manilla, onto all of the Influential Blogger Certificates and videos, it also found its way onto many of the bloggers websites who were involved in the ‘competition’ of which you can see some of the write ups below…

• Winners of Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008
• Sinuwerte ako sa Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2008
• 2008 Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs
• Yucks and yeys
• Congratulations to the 2008 Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs
• Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008
• The ten most influential bloggers 2008
• Blogging is serious business
• Bloggers who went to Dinner
• 2nd And 3rd? Not Bad, I guess - The Post-Mortem On The Ten Emerging Influential Blogs 2008
• Bloggers as Illuminators
• Blogging in the Land of “Free” Wi-Fi
• On influential blogs
• Top 10 Emerging Influential blogs of 2008 revealed!
• Extending My Congratulations And Gratitude To These Excellent Bloggers
• The Acceptance Speech : Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008 Journey
• The ten most influential bloggers 2008
• Photos: Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008
• Photos: Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008
• I Won a Hundred Bucks
• Winners of the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008
• fritzified.com: Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008
• The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008
• FilipinoVoices voted as one of Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008
• Mar Roxas 2010 Blog is one of the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2008
• Congratulations to the Top 10 Imerging Influential Blogs for 2008!
• Top 10 Influential Emerging Bloggers 2008 Awards
• Thank you!
• Winners of the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008 announced
• Thank You!
• Top 10
• Bariles Republic awarded one of the TOP 10 Most Influential Emerging Blogs for 2008
• Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs Conclusion
• Dinner with the influential
• A Greater Responsibility: An Acceptance Speech
• FilipinoVoices Takes a Bow
• Sago’s First Public Event
• The Top 10 Emerging Influential Bloggers of year 2008
• My Top 10 List to congratulate and thank for the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs EB
• Music Picks Blog, One of the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008
• Top 10 Emerging Influential Blog 2008 Winners
• UP Students’ Food Blog Tops 2008’s Emerging Influential List
• Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008 Winners
• The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs 2008 Awards Night

The Benefits Of Giving

As you can see, by offering your services for free you can get a lot of exposure for your work along with benefiting the community as a whole.

It hasn’t been the first time that JCD has given something away for free either… We have given away over $5000 worth of prizes away in a Graphic Design Group Writing Project and we have also given away prizes here and here and here and here and here and here and we also offer a free type classification ebook. What are you offering for free?

As always constructive criticism, questions and feedback is welcome.

21 Comments »

FREE Lucky Dip Draw - Comment and Win

Written by Jacob Cass on Monday, July 14, 2008 – 10:22 pm

Time to give back to JCD readers! All you have to do is comment on this post saying what you DO NOT like about this website and why AND/OR you could suggest something you would like to see on JCD. I am doing this so I can improve JCD.

What can you win?

There will be one winner chosen randomly and the prize is also drawn randomly, hence the lucky dip. If the winner does not want their prize let me know and I will pass it on to another person.

You could win any one of these things:

• $100 from PayPal
• $50 from Paypal
• $20 from Paypal
• Professional Logo Design
• Blog / Website / Product Review
• Blog Header Redesign
• Go Media Vector Pack - Ultimate Vector Collection 1 - 597 Vectors royalty free. (Worth $523). You can view what’s in the packs here: Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
• One month 125×125 advertising on JCD.

I will announce the winner around July 20th in THIS post so you must come back to this post to claim your prize.

Winner!

Congratulations to Harley of BaffleInc who has won one month 125×125 advertising on JCD! The winner and prize was chosen randomly by Random.org.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this post, I really do want to improve JCD and over the next few months I will take what you have said into consideration and make some changes. Thanks once again.

109 Comments »