Jason Black Logo and Graphic Design in Coral Springs Florida

I was fortunate enough to spend this past weekend watching the taping of American Ninja Warrior in Miami. It was the most fun I’ve had of the three I’ve been to (and no, no spoilers so don’t ask 😉 ). If you’ve never seen the show, I suggest watching it!

Onto the logo stuff…

Along the lines of American Ninja Warrior, it was really nice getting to see the logos I designed for Drew Drechsel and David “Flip” Rodriguez being worn by fans.

Drew Drechel’s logo

David “Flip” Rodriguez’s logo

I even wore my “Real Life Ninja” Drew Drechsel shirt (my wife and son as well) to support a my friend!

I CANNOT WAIT until we get to do it all again next year!!

I get quote requests every week and try best to answer every one as as personally as I can (though I copy paste a little).  Unfortunately some of them seem to get no response from potential clients. I can understand that I (as well as most other designers) will not pick up every client that submits a quote but I would love to hear back from all of these potential clients with comments so that I can better service future potential clients. I wouldn’t even mind a “thanks for taking the time to respond but since you have no photos of yourself on your website, I can only assume that you are ugly and I can’t work with ugly people” or “you seem to be beyond my budget, thanks but no thanks”.
That would at least give me the opportunity to respond like, “I’m not THAT ugly but a little overweight if that helps (and there is a link to a photo of me if you look hard enough 😉 )” or “during these bad economic times I understand that budgets are lower and I am more than willing to work with clients to help meet their needs”.

If you are shopping designers, and I DO think that it is a good idea to shop designers before jumping into a contract with the first designer you find, do yourself and them a favor and respond to them. Who knows, maybe your response to them will tell you if that person is the one that you REALLY want to work with. Even if they are beyond your budget, tell them your budget… I would bet that they would be willing to negotiate their rates.

Working with a designer that “gets you” is MUCH better than finding someone to draw you a pretty picture for $50 on their pirated copy of Photoshop. As with all things, you get what you pay for!

Other stuff

Over the next few days/weeks, I am going to be working on my website to include a postcard design page, a business card design page and brochure design page with examples of my work. I know I’ve made it obvious that my specialty is logo design but (as an FYI) I design pretty much everything that can/will be printed.

Also, I have submitted logo designs to two books which are both in the judging process. Since these are the only two books that I’ve ever submitted to, my fingers and toes are crossed!

Until next time (which I’m already working on my next blog post)…

Just as I was wishing this day would come to a close, I recieved and email from Master Alvas, the owner of my son’s karate school. Normally, the emails are just updates that I will open and glance at making sure I remember everything I need to remember.

This time was different. I opened the email, saw their logo NICE AND BIG (I like that part because I designed it 😉 ) and then noticed the title, “Weekly Tune Up”. I don’t remember ever seeing anything like that so I continued to read. It was just what I needed on a day like today. Inspiration needed? Please read…

Weekly Tune Up

What Are You Asking For?

By Master David Alvas, Director, USK Karate Academy

What you look for in life is what you get.  I have known or met a lot of successful people in my life, and the single quality that seems to thread the successful people together is intention towards positive action.  Yes, even the most successful struggle from time to time, but it is their intention to never back down that keeps them moving forward.  More importantly, successful people embrace the idea that whatever challenge is happening to them is happening because it needs to happen.  Actually, some of the most successful people that I have met have told me that they ask for hardship!  They need the opportunity to grow.  They embrace the challenge and all of the potential growth that it has to offer.

It is in the struggle that we find our way.  We find out who we really are and what we are really made of.  Without a challenge, we have no opportunity to overcome, and overcoming a challenge is where all the joy is.  The more joy in your life, the more you will be ready to handle the next challenge.  It’s a beautiful cycle.

So this week I ask, what are you asking for?  If things are not going so well, find the opportunity.  I promise you, there is something there to make you better, to move you forward.  You just have to want to find it.  Don’t focus on the problem, focus on the solution.  If things are going great, then great!  Ask for some challenge to keep you moving forward so you don’t stagnate.

It’s all about growth and movement forward.  Don’t be afraid of the challenge, you have everything you need to face it and win.

All the best,

David Alvas
USK Karate Academy

I just thought I’d share. Thank you Master Alvas!

I’ve been proud of my website design since I designed it (and Lori implemented it) around three years ago. The problem is, it just isn’t me anymore. I’m not this dark. I think I need something fun or at least alive!

Ok, so now that I have decided to redesign my website, I now have to design myself a website. I’m a designer, that’s easy right??? I HATE DESIGNING FOR MYSELF!! My logo took about 4 years. I wouldn’t have a business card but I had a meeting a few years ago and needed one so I threw one together within 5 minutes (that was the deadline for my printer to have it done in time) and left out my email address. I have yet to replace it!

The one idea that I have is to use a photo that my wife took to base my design from. She is an amateur photographer and she has some pretty good work. Then, since her name starts with a “J” also, I can give her a part of my site to display some of her work.

Hmmm.

I just noticed that I haven’t updated my logo design portfolio for a LOOOONG time!

I had a client ask me, about a year ago to add his logo to my portfolio and I told him that I absolutely would. I remember updating the page locally but I just looked at it and, nothing. I guess I never updated it (or saved it before uploading). So now I need to update it again, but this time for real!

I have a bunch of new logos that need to be displayed in my portfolio. It’s been pretty stagnant for a while but I’m going to try and update it more often in the future.

My blog too… Going to try and post at least once a week from now on!

Oh… You don’t need to register to leave a comment in my blog anymore. I still have to approve the comment (to avoid spam) but a lot of people emailed me with blog comments instead of registering so I decided to remove that. So bring on the comments!! 🙂

Well, after 10+ years, I’ve finally given in and submitted a few designs to a logo design book. For some reason, I’ve never submitted anything. Maybe I’ve been scared that I wasn’t “good enough”, I don’t know. But I guess I’ll find out now. I’ve always wanted to be published but I guess I just always waited around to have the authors banging on my door.

I sent an email to one author a couple years ago just to thank him for his books and he returned my email ASKING me to submit some designs for his upcoming book. For some reason I never sent them to him.

Ok, I had an author banging on my door and still didn’t do anything about it. Hmmm. No excuses now. I’ve submitted 4 entries to the upcoming book “Mini Book of Great Logos”. Now it is out in the open for all to see. I’m REALLY hoping I make it now, LOL.

I’ve been spending A LOT of time on Facebook lately. I’ve reconnected with family and friends that I haven’t seen in close to 20 years. I’m really loving it! I also started spending a little time with Twitter.  For some reason I just can’t get into Twitter. To me, it is lacking something. Like eating a sandwich made from 2 slices of bread an nothing in between.

For those people out there that have never spent time with me, I have been a smoker since I was 16 (though I did quit once for a year in 2006). That is until March 1st, 2009!!! I made up my mind in February that I had enough, set the date for March 1st and had my last cigarette on February 28th before I went to bed. Ok, I cheated on the 1st and had about 6 drags (puffs, whatever, LOL) throughout the day but that was it.

So that’s pretty much everything I’ve been up to lately. Hopefully I can find some time to start updating this a little more often.

After sending the person I spoke about in my last blog an email to remove my design and copy, I’ve decided to “out” him/her. In my original email sent directly from “his” (I’ll use “his” so I don’t have to type as much, LOL) website and asked that he remove everything “borrowed” without permission within 24 hours. After 24 hours nothing was done. Ok, sometimes I don’t get an email, things happen, so I did a little digging and found out some more stuff, as well as his email address.
It turns out that not only did he “borrow” my design and copy from my index page, but he “borrowed” his Philosophy page from David Roundsley. I sent David and email letting him know what has happened and guess what? Not only is David a REALLY nice guy who does some really nice work, but he is also a musician like me. Though he wasn’t very happy with being “borrowed” from, we’ve actually had a good series of conversations through email. If nothing else comes from this, at least I was able to “meet” David.
Anyway, back to the story…
So this person from identitydesign.in never got back to me so I looked up the whois for his site and came up with this (a pdf file) which contains his email address so I sent him a direct email. That was a week ago and still nothing has changed.

Just wanted to let everyone know what type of “designer” (with no portfolio mind you) this person is.

You know, it’s amazing that some people cannot do anything for themselves. Try searching some of the copy from my site:

Your logo says everything about your business. Nothing beats a great, professionally designed logo to establish a brand

or even:

Without a great logo, you have no identity, no identity, no brand. Identity is everything in the world of business

After you do that, you’ll find more people not only “borrowing” my copy, but one person “borrowing” my entire site design AND copy!

For now I will leave the site links out of this. I sent out a cease and disist to the one person that “borrowed” everything so I will leave it to you to find the people. Once found, I’m sure you will know just how creative these “designers” truely are.

Amazing!

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.