Jason Black Logo and Graphic Design in Coral Springs Florida

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)…

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’ve been playing poker with my friends for about 2 years on Friday nights. It’s been a great, fun way to to have everyone get together a couple times a month.

Since starting to play at home, I’ve really gotten into collecting poker chips, both singles and sets. I think it’s the design that got to me. It’s also the design that made me design my own custom poker chip set for my home games. They are ceramic chips instead of the traditional clay chips which a lot of casinos are moving toward  instead of clay chips, I guess because of price. If they are good enough for casinos, who am I to argue, LOL? As a bonus, I was able to design on the entire chip, including the edges, instead of only the the inlay (face).

It was really a fun experience to put design on something that is only 1.5″ around.

Since designing them, I haven’t had the chance to use them but I am really looking forward to it.

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!

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. 🙂