Celebrating 5000+ Subscribers

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.

Discover RSS: May 1st is RSS Awareness Day + The Official Logo I Designed For It

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.

Daniel Scocco

Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.

What is RSS?

So what is this RSS thing you speak of?

Please watch this very simple video below that describes RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to see how you can benefit from RSS subscriptions. By watching this video you will literally save hours of your time in the weeks (years) to come.

If you would prefer a written description please visit What is RSS?

If you haven’t already you can subscribe for free to Just Creative Design via our RSS feed or by email.