Are you using stock photography for your projects regularly? If so, this little contest might interest you
123rf, one of the well-known royalty-free photo libraries has started the 123RF Search and Win contest on September 2008.
Here’s how the contest works:
All you have to do, is search for images on 123RF.com. While you do so, you might ‘accidentally’ found the ’special’ thumbnail.
The special thumbnail is displayed at random times every day. If you are lucky enough, you need to click on the thumbnail to access the prize claim form.
Successfully completing the form, you are instantly declared a winner and can take home a very, very cool Wacom Bamboo!
If you are less lucky, you can also win 20 123RF credits - not bad at all.
What’s more, you can win one for yourself when someone you referred through the 123RF referral program wins too!
The contest runs from September 22 to November 21, 2008. So, you better get going!
But, wait… what’s so special about Wacom Bamboo? If you are a graphic designer and never heard of it, you might missed one of the best tools in creating graphics with handwriting recognition tech.
Current Mood:
Cool
Here is another question for you - If you use your website to accept order and showcase your projects, should you monetise your site with advertisements and ads from ad network?
My answer - Yes, you should. But do it in an elegant way.
Partnership with similar or complementary services provider will actually add value to your site. However, having banner ads and ad network ads like Google Adsense for your design portfolio site is questionable, even damaging your site’s potential, in my opinion.
Why? Because people visiting your design portfolio sites to see the work you’ve done, with the possibility to win their project. If you put ads that are suppose to be visually attractive, on prominent places of your site, your site visitors will be ‘confused’ and distracted from their main focus - your portfolio.
Have your say by commenting on this post ![]()
Current Mood:
Flirtatious

This post is GEArtBlog.com’s 100th Post! Yay!
Thanks all for the visit and support - hopefully I can improve my posting quality from now on ![]()
Current Mood:
Ecstatic
Many told me that graphic designers are slackers. They are often seen sitting around in the park doing nothing, they say.
I’ll say, whatever you think of graphic designers, we are one of the hardest working people in the world
We are not only need talent and passion to be productive and successful, we also need creativity and inspiration. Those two are hard to come by, sometimes. We are also often find ourselves working for 2 days - 48 hours non-stop to work on a project.
Slackers don’t do that.
What’s your opinion?
Current Mood:
Mischievous
Designers who consider their work as the work of pure art might place money in lower priority than satisfaction, self-actualisation and peer’s positive review.
Some designers I know told me that money is distracting the fun and satisfying design works.
However, they admit that they need to master the balance between money and design - If they focused too much on money, they will lose passion in designing; If they focued too much on design, they will live in a bootstrapper world their entire life.
What’s your opinion?
Current Mood:
Happy