To bring all the design freaks, graphic design blogs and people who subscribe to them a bit closer together, I am running a graphic design group writing project with $5000+ worth of prizes to give away. Please read this article top to bottom before submitting anything. Enjoy.

Deadline: Tuesday 4th of March.

Winners Announced Here

Please share this group writing project in anyway possible, you will get more entries into the draw (read on for details). Thanks.

Updates:

Monday 18th:

• We are already ranked #1 on Google for ‘Graphic Design Group Writing Project‘. Thanks Toon.
• On the front page at the very top on DesignFloat.
• New sponsor added (1 year Pro Account on Flickr) – Read bonus entries for more info.
• New sponsor added (2 months free advertising on MintyFerret) – Read bonus entries for more info.
• Already 160 Visitors from StumbleUpon on the first day 🙂 Keep Stumbling | Digging | Floating
• New sponsor added (Indepth Blog Critque and Review) – Read bonus entries for more info.
• 2 Articles Added – read and comment on them when you can (see bottom of post)

Tuesday 19th

• New Sponsor added (Three gold subscriptions good for one year at GetAbstract.com worth $299 each). GetAbstract contains over 4000 abstracts to business books. Thanks to Meryl.
• New Sponsor added (30 minute Skype type chat discussion on industrial design or product design consultation for graphic designers interested in designing/making/selling their own products) from Design Sojourn. Thanks.
• 3 New Articles Added.

Friday 22nd

• Receiving a huge influx of visitors from StumbleUpon 🙂 Thanks everyone. Stumble and Review if you wish.
• Hardly any entries have been submitted so that means chances FOR you to win. There are more sponsors there are prizes! There is over 20 prizes here and we haven’t received even that many entries so you are going to win something if you enter just 1 point!
• New sponsor added (3 months advertising)

Saturday 23rd

• 2 New Articles Added

Sunday 24th

• 1 New Article Added

Monday 25th

• 3 New Articles Added

Tuesday 26th

• 1 New Article Added

Wednesday 27th

• 2 New Articles Added
• Lots of entries (not articles) received after I reminded you all about the deadline on the 4th of March.

Thursday 28th

• 3 New Articles Added

Friday 29th

• 1 New Article Added

Sunday 2nd March

• 1 New Article Added

Monday 3rd March

• 2 New Articles Added

Wednesday 4th

• 2 New Articles Added from yesterday.
• Entries Closed. Winners announced.

Group Writing Project

Your task is to win prizes by writing a new post on the subject of graphic design (there are lots of bonus entry options too so read on.) Please don’t submit old posts you’ve written before today.

By ‘Graphic Design’ I mean some sort of a post that gives advice, tips, resources lists or a tutorial on how to do something. What it’s about is totally up to you.

I’ve chosen this broad term graphic design because it’s adaptable to most topics (ie. Logo Design, Web Design, Print Design, etc) and should be something you could do on almost any blog, be as creative as you like!

Even if you are not a designer, try writing an easy tutorial or something that a designer may find useful (eg. 10 reasons why I subscribe to these design blogs). Also check out the bonus entries at the bottom of this post.

I’m looking forward to seeing the wide array of topics that you all choose to cover.

Once you’ve written your graphic design post simply follow the process for participating that I’ve outlined below (please note – to be eligible for the gifts from our sponsors you need to follow the guidelines below).

Prizes

Below are the prizes you could win.

1st Prize Package – The Guitar Package

An Electric Guitar and all accessories – Rafie from mohdrafie.co.uk is our main prize sponsor, generously donating his electric guitar and accessories. Why? Because he wants to focus on his design skills and he wants it to be passed onto another designer.

The package includes:

Squier ® Strat ® by Fender ® Electric Guitar (California Series), Instructional DVD, Electric Tuner, Guitar Strap, Guitar Stand, Gig Bag (Guitar Bag) by Fender, Guitar Cable and Picks. + FREE WORLDWIDE POSTAGE for all items. All items are only a few months old and have only been used a handful of times.

Wow is all I can say. Please everyone check out Rafie’s graphic design (he did the .gif header above) website at mohdrafie.co.uk.

2nd Prize – The Stock Package

• Go Media Vector Packs – Ultimate Vector Collection 1 – 597 Vectors royalty free. (Worth $523) This was donated by myself for the project and comes direct from Go Media. You can view what’s in the packs here: Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5
• Adobe Photoshop Brush Pack – A collection 80 quality royalty free photoshop brushes.
• 55 iStock Photo Credits from PJ, who owns a Premium WordPress Theme showcase which shows attractive customisations of WordPress Premium Themes. A kind donation, thank you PJ.

3rd Prize – The ReDesign & Advertising Package #1

• Design Consultation with David Airey. David Airey is a well known blogging graphic and logo designer from Scotland and he is offering feedback on a corporate identity and how this is implemented on a respective website. David has recently opened a logo resource blog called Logo Design Love focused purely on logos so he knows his stuff!
• Logo design OR blog header design. Hopefully after the design consultation with David, I can improve your blog or logo. If you are unaware of my designs, you can check out my portfolio)
• One 131×63 advertising space on Estetica Design Forums which gets 25,000 visitors a month. A kind donation by Toon who runs the forums and who is a regular contributer with over 14,000 posts.
• 2 Months Free Advertising – Seven 16×16 pixel squares on Just Creative Design. Will go to only 1 person. Check out my advertising page for more details.

4th Prize – ReDesign & Advertising Package #2

• Logo Design by Vivien from InspirationBit who freelances as a Web & Graphic Designer based from Canada. A very kind donation, thank you.
• Web site or blog critique – also donated by Vivien. The winner can choose between Vivien’s review by email or on her blog Inspiration Bit, with a link back to the winner’s site.
• 1 hour consultation on WordPress’s Theme Customisation over Skype, or AIM, or MSN. This prize was also kindly donated by Vivien.
• One 131×63 advertising banner on Estetica Design Forums which gets 25,000 visitors a month. Another kind donation by Toon.

Bonus Prizes

Each singular prize will go to a unique person. ie. Blog review to one person, header design to another person.

• One hour blog optimization consultation with Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips. This consultation will cover design, SEO, monetization and blogging strategy, coming from the author of one of the most respected and useful resources in the blogosphere. Sure wish I was getting this!
• A Blog Header design by Audee from from Graphic Identity. A kind donation, from Audee who writes tutorials and reviews mostly around Adobe Photoshop & Ilustrator on her blog.
• A Blog Review from Bloggeries – A review from Bloggeries is a great opportunity to expose and advertise your blog to a wider audience. Bloggeries is PR5 and receives heavy traffic everyday so a blog review can help improve your traffic and feed subscribers. Rob, the blogger over at Bloggeries, will give you some useful tips and constructive criticisms to help you improve your blog as well.
• Two Months Free Advertising – One 16×16 pixel square on Just Creative Design. See our advertising page for more details. A small and sweet prize.
• Sandisk USB Multi Memory Card Reader for Mobiles – You have heard of multi memory card readers that read all types of memory cards, well this one is especially built for mobile phones or pdas. This memory card reader can read MicroSD Cards, All three types of MicroSD HC cards, all types of M2 Cards and SIM cards. A pretty nifty tool for anyone who has a lot of media on their mobile or pda. This prize was donated by myself, with free world wide postage.
• Save 39% off any magazine subscription from www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk – For a Christmas present this year I received a 12 month subscription to the Computer Arts magazine (I love it) and with it I received a ‘39% off any new magazine subscription’ voucher and I am giving this as a prize… Save 39% off your next magazine subscription.
• Ultimate WebMaster Pack – Building A Blog Empire eBook, Ultimate Super Tips eBook, Internet Marketing eBook, 114 Flash Banners, 100 Website Templates, 78 PHP and Perl CGI Scripts plus lots of other small goodies. This has been kindly donated by JasMate from Digital Point Forums.
• 260x120px banner for 1 month on Freelance Folder. Freelance Folder is a great resource for freelancing graphic designers. Freelance Folder has over 2000+ Subscribers so you are guaranteed a lot of visitors. A kind donation by Jon, owner of Freelance Folder.
• 160×240 advertising spot on the MintyFerret for the months of March+April (two months). The Minty Ferret (a design blog) has gotten about 20,000 visits in the last month, making up 35,000 page views. Thanks Jillian.
• One Year Flickr Pro account – A kind donation by Lauren from Creative Curio. Creative Curio is a blog focused around graphic design and has very resourceful articles ranging from tutorials to general discussions. Thanks again Lauren and hope your well 🙂
• Indepth Blog Critque and Review– Ruchir from Technomoney, which offers blogging tips is offering this blog critique for this prize draw. Thanks!
• Three gold subscriptions good for one year at GetAbstract.com – worth $299 each. GetAbstract contains over 4000 abstracts to business books. Thanks to Meryl for this kind donation.
• 30 minute Skype type chat discussion on industrial design or product design consultation for graphic designers interested in designing/making/selling their own products) from Design Sojourn. Thanks DT.
• Three months text link advertising on Chemist2dio Labs, a design blog by John Breo Reyes offering free vectors, tutorials and design tips. Thanks!
• Late prize sponsors will gladly be accepted up until the prize draw time on Tuesday the 4th and be added to the list of sponsors. The late prize sponsors will be listed under this ‘bonus prizes’ section. All sponsors will get a mention on all pages plus a random 9 will get a months 16×16 ad on Just Creative Design. These 9 free ads will be drawn in a separate draw.

How To Participate

Here’s how to participate and put yourself in the running for a gift (only one prize per person, not per blog (but you can submit articles from more than 1 blog for more entries) and please only submit NEW posts). Prizes will be drawn randomly using a random number generator. A published article will gain you 15 entries into the prize draw, you can write one article per blog. There are bonus entries too – read on. 🙂

1. Write a post on graphic design (Get 15 Entries)

• Be as creative as you’d like – take it in any direction you want – it can be on any topic on design in general (keep it clean and ‘family friendly’ please). It can be any length, it can be serious, funny, it can be a list post, a rant, an essay, a pictorial or video post: etc
• Give your post a good title. Once all the posts are listed it’ll only be your title that sets it apart from others.
• Feel free to write your post in your own first language
• Please consider putting a link back to this post on your post (or even better, write a separate article about this writing project) so that your readers know you’re participating. You don’t have to do this – but it’d be appreciated to help grow the project.

2. Let us Know about your post

• Once you’ve posted your article let me know about it by sending me an email via my contact page.
• Make sure you include your name (as you want it to appear in the final list), your post title and the URL to your post (not just to your blog’s front page).
• Submissions must be received by me by the the end of Tuesday 4th March (as long as it’s still Tuesday from where you send it from, I’ll accept it). If they come in after Tuesday they won’t be included in the list and will not be in the running for the gifts.

3. Get Bonus Entries

• Earn bonus entries by fulfilling other tasks. Please see Bonus Entries below.

4. I will post Links to your articles

• In the day or two after you let me know about your post I’ll post a link to it at the bottom of this post. I will also leave trackbacks to your article.
• I’ll post then post a new article with the final list of submissions on Wednesday 5th March and will announce those who receive the prizes then.

5. Link Love, Comment & Make Friends

• This is where the link love comes in… As I post the articles on this page, you should surf the submissions, leave comments and make connections with other fellow graphic designers and subscribers alike. Enjoy what others have to say.

6. Link Link Link

• There is no formal ‘judging’ as this is not a competition but rather a draw. Instead – I encourage you to surf through the submissions at the end of the project and announce your own winners on your own blog. Name a top 5 or so and share the link love 🙂 Find new blogs, interlink with one another and make new friends.

6. Prize Draw Details

• If you write an article you will get 15 entries into the draw. Bonus entry points are below.
• On Wednesday 5th of March I’ll randomly select the winners using a random number generator. The winners can boast in glory and the losers of us can muse over what could have been and sulk until the next group writing project.

Bonus Entries

I will be using the honour system for the bonus entries however if you are a main (1st,2nd,3rd) prize winner I will be checking all claimed entry points so its best to be honest… leave a comment in this post with the template below letting me know what entries you qualify for and total entries you get.

• Already Subscribed – If you are already a subscriber to Just Creative Design you will receive 3 free entry points. A free reward for you regular readers.
• New RSS Subscription – Subscribe to JCD by RSS and get 2 free entries.
• New Email Subscription – Subscribe to JCD by E-Mail and get 3 bonus entries.
• Link to Prize Sponsors – For every 4 sponsors you link to, you get 1 entry.
• Subscribe to blogs that have written an article – Gain 3 entries per blog. For this you will have to keep returning to this article to check out the new article submissions.
• Write a blog post about the competition – Gains you 4 entries. Provide The Link.
• Add sites to your blog roll – Add any of the author’s sites to your blog roll. 3 Entries per site added.
• Digg This Contest – Digg this article and receive 2 entries.
• Design Float This Contest – Design Float this contest and receive 2 entries.
• Save To Del.icio.us – Save to your del.icio.us favourites and receive 2 entries.
• Stumble and Review This Contest – Stumble this contest with a short review and receive 4 entries.

Checklist & Entry Submission

Don’t forget to tell me what you have done and how many entries you qualify for. Please use the template below and delete the ones you do not qualify for and then leave it in the comments below or email me. You can add new things as you do them, just leave another comment with the updated number of entries you should have.

• I have written, submitted and emailed Jacob a Graphic Design Article – 15 entries
• I was already subscribed to JCD – 3 entries
• I have a New RSS Subscription to JCD – 2 entries
• I have a New Email Subscription to JCD – 3 entries
• I have Linked to Prize Sponsors – I have linked to XXX sponsors. XXX entries.
• I have Subscribed to blogs that have written an article – I have subscribed to XXX blogs. XXX entries.
• I have written a blog post about the competition – 4 entries
• I have added sites to my blog roll – I have added XXX sites to my blog roll. XXX entries.
• I have Digged This Contest – 2 entries.
• I have Design Floated This Contest – 2 entries.
• I have added to My Del.icio.us – 2 entries
• I have Stumbled and reviewed This Contest – 4 entries.
• TOTAL ENTRIES TO DRAW: XXX

I said before, I will be checking all main prizes winners entry points to the best of my ability so please do not cheat the honour system.

Big Thank You To Our Sponsors

Another big thank you to all the sponsors on this project, those of you who responded to my call for sponsorship and those who contacted me by email. It would not have been possible without you!

Late sponsors will also be accepted up until the prize draw date. Please email me.

All sponsors will receive:

• A pack of 80 Photoshop Brushes (will email link at end of project)
• A mention on all pages regarding the project
• A random 9 sponsors will get a 16×16 ad for 1 month on Just Creative Design. These 9 free ads will be drawn in a separate draw.

Questions

If you have any questions or comments or need clarification on something please leave a comment 😀

Good luck!

The Graphic Design Articles

Below are the submitted graphic design articles from the project. Please have a look around, leave comments, make new friends and enjoy.

Designer Bits

• Creative Design by committee is OK, but who wants OK? – Submitted by Jason
• 3 Devastating Mistakes that every designer makes and how to avoid them – Submitted by Lauren
• The Lucky 7 Graphic Design Stretches – Submitted by Yonatan

Web Design

• Maybe Some Clients Are Just Not Ready for a Sophisticated Website – Submitted by Anthony
• 4 Must Have Firefox Extensions for Website Designers – Submitted by Firewalker
• Design Process of making a WordPress Theme – Submitted by Andrew
• Behind The Scenes of Exquisite Web Typography – Submitted by Vivien

HTML and CSS

• The Basics of (X)HTML Tags (Video Tutorial) – Submitted by Learning Nerd
• Using CSS Themes without Coding Knowledgee – Submitted by Erica

Logo Design

• All About Paul Rand – Submitted by David Airey (Logo Design Love Blog)

Social Network

• Design Forums and Social Design Niche Social Media sites you have always wanted – Submitted by Audee
• 5 Great Social Networks for you – Submitted by Mirko

Content and Review

• How Far Will Your Blog Graphic Design Bring You? – Submitted by Dexter.
• Are You Neglecting Good Looks in Favor of Great Content? – Submitted by James
• Real Life Examples of Why Content Reigns and Design Boosts – Submitted by Meryl
• 8 Things That Intimidate Me About Graphic Design – Submitted by Ronald on Viviens Blog.

Colour

• Color Branding: Geographic and Niche Targeting – Submitted by Ann Smarty
• The Ultimate Guide To Designing In Black – Submitted by Chris

Tutorial

• How To Use Photoshop to make notepad sketches (tutorial) – Submitted by Verne Ho
• How to Create Vector Wings (Tutorial) – Submitted by John Breo

Design Optimizing

• Vector vs Bitmap Graphics – Submitted by Cecile
• 9 Best Practices for Email Design – Submitted by Verne Ho
• The Basic Elements of Graphic Design – Submitted by PJ