Harmonic Jazz Festival

You’re going to want to break out your Jazz Hands when you hear about this exciting new festival coming to the UK! Harmonic is a new jazz festival will be taking place March 11th - 13th 2010 in Birmingham, UK. So if you’re in the area or want to make the trip out for it email info@harmonicfestival.co.uk to receive updates.  Our intern, Laura, was so excited about this project on our site that she started reading all the info in a British accent.

Chris Mapp, the founder of this festival, asked our fearless crowdSPRING designers to design the logo for this exciting event.

It’s quite an undertaking to start a new music festival, so we here at crowdSPRING were interested to find out some advice from Chris for other small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to ramp up their expertise:

1. Before crowdSPRING, what method did you use for creative service work?
We’re a new organisation and this logo is the first piece of design work we’ve commissioned.  It seemed like the best way to reach a lot of designers for our limited budget.  Previously I’ve only used word of mouth for any design work I’ve had done which often leaves you with far less choice.

2. What made you decide to use crowdSPRING?
We liked the concept of reaching a lot of different designers and felt this was the best way to get the most out of our budget.  I love the fact that you can reach people all round the world and get totally different concepts from your brief.  We had a look a few projects before we took the plunge and decided that we wanted to try it for ourselves.

3. What is your small business bible? As in, what is a must-read every day for all small business owners and employees?
The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton.  Not necessarily a business book but it’ll make you feel a whole lot better about yourself!

4. If your best friend told you they wanted to start a business and asked for your best piece of advice, what would it be?
Use crowdSPRING for your design work!

We swear Chris really did make that last comment himself…and we love him for it!

A few days ago, I was interviewed by Phil Dobbie from bnet Australia about social media marketing. The 17 minute interview is below.  Among other things, we talked about how to get the best from Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn, commenting, mobile social networks, monitoring, multimedia, brand management, and leveraging combinations of social media tools.

Don’t you want to be a winner?

I knew our creatives and buyers were a group of phenomenally humble people, who are on our site because they truly love us, but now it’s time for us to show YOU the love! Let us know what you and/or your friends, buyers, clients, designers have done for you this year through our site. How are you going to do that? By nominating your favorite buyer and/or creative for a SPRINGY AWARD! (PS you can totally nominate yourself too and we promise we won’t tell.)

crowdSPRING will be selecting the Most Winningest Designer or the Year and the Community Awards, but the other two are up to you. They are:

The Frenchie Award, named after our French customer service guru, Jerome. This is awarded to the designer that demonstrated their own customer service to their potential client - the designer that gave the most and best feedback.

Buyer of the Year Award, which is given to the buyer who you love working with the most.

Please submit your nominations no later than November 30, 2009 to springy@crowdspring.com

Simply email us the crowdSPRING username of your nominee and a quick reason why you believe they should win the award. Put the award you’re nominating for in the subject line of the email.

The Winners will get a special crowdSPRING winners package complete with award!

So come join the fun!  It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s super cool!

Sadly, our last Shakespearean sonnet day was this past May. If you’re wondering what Shakespearean sonnet day is - we made it up. We read Shakespearean sonnets to celebrate … ummm … Shakespearean sonnets.

In May, Kevin handily defeated all challengers and he’s been boasting about his prowess nonstop for months. Jeff Clark, our newest employee (designer/front end developer), not impressed at all by Kevin’s tattoos and fancy Elton John glasses, very simply said: I challenge thee to a duel!

Their video duel is below. YOU are the judge. Who wins this one? Leave a note in the comments…

Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

10 Ways for Designers to Boost Productivity - http://bit.ly/3LkRR2

The Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009 - http://bit.ly/1PfyI6

Three Big Mistakes that Can Make or Break Your Design Career -http://bit.ly/2ltVNR

8 Layout Solutions To Improve Your Designs - http://bit.ly/3f1nKa

13 Web-Safe Fonts at the Core of Web Typography - http://bit.ly/1tMX1I

How to avoid these common mistakes in blog design - http://bit.ly/34GGtr

50 Impressive Magazine and Newspaper Styled Web Designs - http://bit.ly/4iDYCL

35 Randomly Selected Beautiful Vector Illustrations – http://bit.ly/33EA6l

Online Image Editors – Why To Use Them And 5 Amazing Ones For Designers - http://bit.ly/3yClfU

20 New High Quality Free Fonts - http://bit.ly/RMM7t

20 Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Web Typography - http://bit.ly/1AWBfa

Print Design to Web Design: Comparative Analogies - http://bit.ly/PXVkm

Color: The Next Limited Resource? - http://bit.ly/4j6CJL

Mermaids in Fantasies of Various Artists - http://bit.ly/3gwRJO

Fix Padded Image Links with Negative Margins - http://bit.ly/2tPe7f

21 Awesome Pieces of Digital CMYK Art - http://bit.ly/43sU0N

5 Essential Document Templates for Freelance Designers - http://bit.ly/2UuLms

60+ Photoshop Tutorials For Icon Design - http://su.pr/3zzYT6

50+ Free High Resolution Textures - http://bit.ly/1pGoHb

24 Fresh & Useful Adobe #Illustrator Tutorials - http://bit.ly/2SAAd5

Web Design Trends: Testimonials Design - http://bit.ly/gI4aw

How to design log in or/and sign up form? - http://bit.ly/44UXv3

Art house: the private spaces of 8 great artists - http://is.gd/4XwJH

10 tips to create the perfect “advertise” page for your blog - http://bit.ly/1G9pkk

16 tutorials using #Photoshop to build a website - http://bit.ly/2X1W63

Best of the Web (Design) for the Week of November 8, 2009 - http://bit.ly/2jxpbb

Free Image Carousels for Web Developers - http://bit.ly/bLI2c

iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Disregard Of Context - http://bit.ly/2ZxGzh

5 Favorites Web Developer Cheat Sheets To Quickly Overview Code Syntax - http://bit.ly/3Vr0PI

200+ Creative Advertisement Ideas from Around the World - http://bit.ly/1v12p5

40 Beautifully-Designed Navigation Menus - http://bit.ly/gHp4i

70 influential designers that shaped the world - http://bit.ly/106yBl

Creative and Interesting Tea Bag Designs - http://bit.ly/25P08l

Tips To Bridge The Gap Between Clients & Designers - http://bit.ly/1awx17

10 Fantastic and Creative Web Design Styles - http://bit.ly/SyoN5

17 Wordpress Theme Design Tutorials - http://bit.ly/3jWEFq

Photoshop Tutorial: Create a Leather-Textured, Realistic Briefcase Icon - http://bit.ly/2WB4WB

Create a Rolling Stones Inspired Tongue Illustration - http://bit.ly/5UUop

35 Incredible Digital Painting Tutorials - http://bit.ly/qjTYJ

20 User Experience Books you should own - http://is.gd/4UjPN

Legal Contracts for Software Developers Who Hate Contracts (w/free contract template to use today) - http://bit.ly/1ySfi

Legal Contracts for Graphic Designers Who Hate Contracts (w/free contract template to use today) - http://bit.ly/XTLkS

LLC or C Corp For Startups? What type of entity is best and why? -http://bit.ly/4F26oW

Startup Tip: Don’t Believe Your Own Press Releases -http://bit.ly/3AaFxX

Myths Of Owning A Small Business and Entreprenership -http://bit.ly/WYBwU

How To Get Attention For Your Startup - http://bit.ly/4f3qA4

Startup Tip: What To Do About Office Space - http://bit.ly/4838P9

Seth Godin’s alternate funding strategy for startups, but you have to charge for products to use - http://bit.ly/2KxRyd

Startup Tips: 5 Thoughts About Risk - http://bit.ly/88Fk8

The technology to Run a Virtual Team - http://om.bit.ly/2h148

Are we developing a leadership gap (skills aren’t meeting needs)? New study suggests we are - http://bit.ly/3ZVGkX

LLC or C Corp For Startups? What type of entity is best and why? -http://bit.ly/4F26oW

Small Business Spotlight of the Week - http://bit.ly/4ki6iW

Invoice Like A Pro: Examples and Best Practices - http://bit.ly/1ehlQV

Myths Of Owning A Small Business and Entreprenership - http://bit.ly/WYBwU

Is Your Marketing Tail Wagging The Dog? - http://bit.ly/3AbVO0

Advice from Nixon and Peabody about legal pitfalls in social media - http://bit.ly/4ACECk

24 Things I Do When Launching a New Blog - http://ping.fm/TGnUd

Funny Print Ads - http://bit.ly/1LDqtL

Good Old Fashioned Personal Branding - http://bit.ly/3LuSG1

The Illusion of Brand Control - http://bit.ly/3B4Jvm

10 WordPress Plugins to Help Build Community - http://bit.ly/4AGLfb

Facebook’s Draconian (And Kind of Awesome) Business Plan - http://bit.ly/2En10q

The Rise Of Networks, The End Of Process - http://bit.ly/EoV4W

Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s? - http://bit.ly/322fb4

Google Experiments With Paid Inclusion & Does “Promoted” Meet FTC Guidelines? - http://bit.ly/3QjCLV

New Study Reveals Surprises In How People Share - http://bit.ly/2OQzqs

5 Tips for Getting More Exposure from Bloggers, Tweeters and Fans - http://bit.ly/3wMe3p

15 ways PR agencies can help companies with social media - http://bit.ly/u0BmE

Marketing en Redes Sociales para PYMES: 10 pasos al alcance de cualquiera - http://bit.ly/1zodVM

Changes in Media Over the Past 550 Years. Must read - http://j.mp/3cUuUv

Long-tail User Experience: how to cultivate (or dissolve) a community - http://bit.ly/3bkMEK

4 tips for buyers to post and manage their crowdSPRING projects - http://bit.ly/JxrUx

Can Tech Startups Discover the Next Springsteen? - http://bit.ly/vTWZD

The Google Story : 11 Years Animated - http://bit.ly/38hd9T

Typophiles get ready to freak - http://su.pr/2t6I1y

Typographic Word Clock Screensaver - http://bit.ly/LbE2k

Late fees suck - http://bit.ly/3Mc7Qm

Apparently, you can’t arrange icons on your desktop by “penis”. This is worth the 10 minutes - http://bit.ly/1adRRc

An iphone app that tells you when’s the best time to leave a movie to pee - http://bit.ly/FhSjF

I hope you enjoy these links! If you can spare a minute, please leave a comment and let me know what you liked/didn’t like.

It seems these days that it’s almost impossible to stay alive as a new shark diving into an ocean of bigger sharks unless you’re Kanye West or Lady Gaga. As I thought about that I realized they had one thing in common, they had branded themselves, which seems to be the only way to get people to remember you these days in a world of DVR where commercials and other advertising are almost obsolete. Kanye West prides himself on his catchy music, his style, and those crazy glasses with the slits in the lenses (I mean seriously how can people even see out of them?) but it works! When people see those glasses they think Kanye West and then they get “Love Lockdown” stuck in their head so they buy his ringtone and when someone calls them the other people around hear it and get that song stuck in their head and it’s just a never-ending chain.

So when an NBA superstar posts a project on our site for personal branding wanting to be as known as Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan, it grabs my attention. Not only is that good for the player but it draws more focus to the team he plays for and for the whole NBA for that matter.

This is exactly what every small business should be doing and if you need help come knock on crowdSPRING’s door we’d be glad to help. No industry or person is too big or small for branding because, after all, if it weren’t for “773-202-beep beep beep beep LUNA” Chicago and surrounding areas may never have known where to get their carpets from.

I’ll be very interested to see what other celebrities will post on cS for some good old fashioned personal branding.

p.s. Sorry if Kanye or Lady Gaga are now stuck in your head… all the more reason to take branding into consideration!

A few days ago, I listened to a radio interview of Andre Agassi - widely considered one of the greatest tennis players ever. When Agassi started playing professionally, he ran 5 miles every day to stay in peak condition. When Agassi hired a trainer, the trainer asked Agassi why Agassi ran 5 miles.

Agassi’s response: because it helps me get into condition and because others do the same thing.

Agassi’s trainer pointed out that Agassi didn’t run nonstop for 5 miles during a tennis match. A tennis match consistent of many quick starts and stops. Running 5 miles daily didn’t hurt Agassi, but it also didn’t help to focus the training on the specific things that Agassi needed to become better. From that moment, Agassi’s training routine completely changed and he went on to win many tournaments, including eight grand slams.

What does this have to do with marketing, tails and dogs?

After the interview, I kept thinking that most businesses make the same mistake Agassi made. Billions of dollars are spent to market products and services by companies around the world. Are the marketing efforts sufficiently focused on the core services and products? Is the money wisely spent? Are the marketing messages delivered using the best medium (television, radio, interactive) and using the best means? Or are most companies and agencies spending billions of dollars marketing simply because it can’t hurt and because others are doing the same thing?

Is your marketing tail wagging the dog?

Seven months ago I wrote a post and shared some data which I hoped would help crowdSPRING Buyers to find success and happiness with their projects on the site (well maybe not happiness, but you get my drift). Well, since then we have had more than 5,800 new Buyers registered, had over 336,000 more entries to projects, seen another 2,900+ projects completed, and paid out more than $1,653,000 in awards to Creatives!

We’ve learned a lot more about how things work around here and had some interesting insights about what works and what doesn’t. So, dear Buyer, please take a look at the information below and see if this will help you when posting your next project.

Remember how a few sentences ago I mentioned insights ? Well chief among them is what I am calling the “Rule of Four.” The Rule of Four is, simply enough, four basic things every Buyer should consider when posting and managing a project on crowdSPRING.  Here they are… ready? OK:

DeParis Redinger

At just two people, DeParis Redinger is a boutique investment banking firm doing a lot more than just investment banking. Naturally, when I came across their posted project for a website design on crowdSPRING I was intrigued and had to do some research and find out what they were all about and it’s extremely innovative.

Having background working with a huge company such as Microsoft, DPR offers two main services: mergers and acquisitions on the buying and selling side and strategic consulting. Recognizing the huge shift on the importance of online media DeParis Redinger sits down and discusses with you how important different aspects of new technology such as social networking and blogging can really benefit you and your company.

They understand the importance of small businesses and strive to help them in any way possible but they also focus on acquisition strategies and find effective ways for your company to expand in the right directions.

This was so innovative I had to contact Kyle Redinger at DeParis Redinger and ask him some important questions about his business so far and this is what he had to share:

1.    Before crowdSPRING, what method did you use for creative service work?

We used a freelance designer who did some great work for us.  She recently took a full-time job at a design firm and didn’t have the time to design for us outside of her work schedule.

2.    What made you decide to use crowdSPRING?

Given our focus on digital media, we’ve admired crowdSPRING for a while.  Adam Healey, CEO of Hotelicopter and a friend, recently used crowdSPRING it to redesign their logo.  They had a positive experience sourcing logo designs and he recommended it to us.  Compared with design firms, crowdSPRING delivers a lot more bang for the buck and gives you a whole lot more choice.

3.    What is your small business bible?  As in, what is a must-read every day for all small business owners and employees?

For us, we gain the most knowledge and experience from our advisors.  Our mentors guide us, offer us ideas, challenge our thoughts and help us think more clearly about how to make things happen.

4.    If your best friend told you they wanted to start a business and asked for your best piece of advice, what would it be?

In our line of work that’s a frequent request.  We tell them that Microsoft didn’t win the desktop wars because they made a really good OS; it was because they were the best salespeople.

Bethany’s post about the difference between ‘traditional PR chicks’ and ’startup PR chicks’ reminded me of two great quotes that (as a ’startup marketing dude’), I try to remind myself of daily.

The first is a tenent from Guy Kawasaki’s great The Art of the Start. He puts it pretty simply: don’t let the bozos grind you down.  There will always be someone there to remind you of how your idea won’t work, how your company is bound to fail (or your story won’t sell) and that you never should have tried in the first place.  Don’t listen.  Period.

The second is a quote from Seth Godin’s brilliant post about The Last Drip:

Marketing is never about a hammer hitting plate glass.

It is almost always about the accrued power of a thousand drips, drips that accrue, drop by drop until they overwhelm the status quo and break through, starting a flood.

The first drip is very exciting, of course. Everyone lines up to cheer.

It’s the last drip that’s lonely. Most of the time, everyone has long left the building, lost interest and moved on to celebrate some other first drip. The penultimate drip gets criticized… are you still working on that?… that’s not so great… is that it?… but then, the drip that comes next, the last drip, proves once and for all that you were doing the right thing all along.

So, hang in there Bethany (and all you startup chicks and dudes out there). Between the first drip and the last, someone has to man the hose.  For who will be there to greet the throngs when they come cheering the flood because they “knew it was great all along”…