Logo and Identity Design blog by Jason Black Logo and Identity Design blog by Jason Black

I’ve been playing poker at my house every Friday night for about 2 years now. For some reason, soon after starting I got on this kick of wanting real poker chips. No, not the chips you find in all the stores that say, “Real Casino Poker Chips” on the box, but REAL casino poker chips.

A few months into playing, I got my first set of REAL chips, Nevada Jack’s Skulls ceramic chips. Now these are GREAT chips but I still wanted REAL CLAY chips. I found that I wasn’t the only one eather. There are forums with tons of people that collect chips like crazy. Well, after reading posts there, I wanted more.

Anyway, what I’m getting at is, two weeks ago I fell into an amazing find. Aquasino tounament chips. They are from a casino boat on South Beach, Miami, FL and for some reason these chips were never used. They are REAL casino grade clay chips made by Blue Chip Company. I’m guessing that there were about 9000 of them made and I bought about 4500 of them. That’s right, 4500 poker chips!!! No, not for myself. I turned around and sold them off, though I did keep a set for myself. After buying them, I realized that some of the chips were warped (not a good thing) but they were still casino grade chips from a casino. Anyway, I ended up selling them to a really nice guy for my cost and he was able to bake them (yes, bake them) and flatten them. So now he has perfect chips to use for his charity poker games he holds twice a year.

Why am I wrtting all of this? Well, not much more to say.

I did adopt a dog a couple weeks ago but that is a post by itself. Maybe next week.

For so long I’ve always been scared to lose my files. When I first started out, I would burn a new CD with all of my files every month and backup to a jump drive every day. Then I moved to an external hard drive once a week and a jump drive every day. That was such a pain but I did it to make sure I always had my clients files in case they ever needed them.

Then one day I thought, what if my house catches fire. Ok, at that point the least of my worries will be my files (though if I can grab my hard drive AFTER my family, I will) in a time like that. But, it is very important to me that I always have those files.

I started looking for an online back up service so that I knew my files were safe. I was fully prepared to pay whatever it cost but it ended up that it was free. I found a site called Mozy which has a free service and a pay service. Since my files aren’t that big (under a gig for the thousands of files I have) and the only difference is storage size, I went with the free service. After that I recommended a few people that signed up and ended up with 3gb now. Not bad!

Anyway, give it a try if you are looking for an online back up service. Oh, if you want me to get some more free space, use the referral code K53DVD.

I just wanted to give a quick plug to one of my favorite clients Isola Isabella. After we designed a great logo, we then went on to other identity pieces and magazine ads. She has been working so hard and doing everything she can to make a new business work in a slow economy that I thought she deserved a little plug.

If you are in the market for GREAT upscale beach cover ups, please check her out at www.isolaisabella.com.

I have a family member that needed a postcard designed and printed so he did what he always does and went to a local printer to have it all done.

You must be thinking, “why didn’t he come to you?” and “why are you writing about this?”. Well… Since my specialty is logo design I pretty much only market my self as a logo designer instead of a graphic designer. Even my family thinks I’m “just a logo designer”, LOL. We ended up having a talk and showed him some of my printed pieces that I had laying around from other clients and he said, “you have to do it!!”. So, for anyone that thinks that I am “just a logo designer”, nope, I do it all.

Why am I writing about it? I just wanted to make it clear, especially to any local companies in Coral Springs that yes, I can do any project needed.

Why did I add Coral Springs into this? Can you say SEO??

Wow!!! My 20 year high school reunion is coming up later this year.

Anyway… I just wanted to post a link to the official Council Rock 88 Reunion Site to give it a little help in being found. If anyone finds this from my class… Hi!!!

Jason

I was reading a recent blog post from my good friend Lori about people who steal copy from her website. I decided to do a search on the content from my site and guess what… It seems other’s have the same copy on their sites that I do. Hmmm.

Rome Advertising and **EDIT** have the same paragraph that I do on my index (front) page as a part of their sites.
(this was edited as the owner fixed the copy and was VERY nice and cooperative. It seems that it was a mistake made by a copywriter)

Your logo says everything about your business. Nothing beats a great, professionally designed logo to establish a brand. Without a great logo, you have no identity, no identity, no brand. Identity is everything in the world of business.

It took me a long time to come up with good, catchy copy for my site and it turns up on other sites. Gives you something to think about doesn’t it?

Now this was just a quick search so I’m curious to know if any other sites out there have similar copy to my site.

I guess I’m off to send out a couple cease and desist emails.

Ugh!!!

(I edited this blog later on in the day. Though I was very upset about the situation, I thought I was a little too harsh. That isn’t me and I was typing out of anger. The overall point still remains though and the post will remain as is.)

Every now and again I search for myself, Jason Black, on Google just to see where I am. Since I lost my blog, I’ve gone down a bit but still between #4 and #6. That’s not bad considering there are a couple famous people with the name Jason Black.

I also have a habit of searching “logo design coral springs” which I’ve spent a little time optimizing my index page for. Again, since losing my blog a while back it has gone down a bit, but still a respectable #3 (I was #1 for a long time).

The reason I bring this up is because there is now a paid advertisement on Google’s search page for “logo design coral springs” for a website called LogoDesignRatings.com. Of course I had to check it out! Here is the thing… They only have a “Top 10″ of which they say came from “client recommendations”. Ok, but why not include more then 10? Why not just list them as they come? Why not have 400 with emphasis on the “top 10″? Why advertise in “logo design coral springs”? Why not have a logo of your own? I don’t know… I guess the skeptical side of me questions the legitimacy of that “top 10″. If it is real, that is a great thing for all logo designers!! Fight to get into the “top 10″ of a site that spends the big bucks to advertise for you.

Hmmm.

Why is it that whenever my phone rings, either I can’t get to the phone or I am already on the phone?

Why is it that 99% of the time, whether my cell phone or business line, that if I cannot answer the phone, the person calling doesn’t leave a message?

When this happens, I have the option to call back (through the wonders of caller ID) VERY embarrassed asking who called and why or just wait for another call or email. Now, I will NOT call back if a message is not left because I don’t know who it was, why they called, from what extension they called from, etc. so I just sit back and wait for a call back or email.

I guess this is just a pet peeve of mine. If you call me, please leave me a message.

Catchy title to my first blog back, huh??

Though I’ve been really busy lately, I still try to find the time to check out other blogs and design sites to get inspiration.

One site that I tend to go to quite often is 38one.com. Not only do they have their own impressive work, but a blog with “Clever Logos” which I just love.

One design that I am so impressed with is Sinkit designed by smashLAB. It’s simplicity is just so amazing. The pencil sketches to final design IS what logo design is all about to me (I wish I could post my pencil sketches with my designs but unfortunately, my pencil sketches are a lot like my handwriting; Usually I am the only one to be able to decipher them). The final product, to me, is what a logo *should be*.

So there you have it. My first blog back and a little look into my into the right side of my brain.

Until next time.

Well, my blog is back online for all of you that have been dying to read what I have to say… Ok, I’m sure there aren’t many of you but it’s back anyway.

I’ll be posting again soon.