Creativeoverflow » Announcements

Merry Christmas Creativeoverflow Readers

Editorial Staff — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 07:17:57 +0000

Yet again we have come to the end of another amazing year. 2011 was filled with laughter, tears and many beers. We all had some ups and downs, yet we managed to turn around our frowns. This is us wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are taking things to the...

What Do You Want From Us? (Opinions Please)

Jacques van Heerden — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:11:19 +0000

This is something that I’ve been wanting to ask for quite some time now. At the end of the day a blog is only as strong as its readers and therefore there is no point in having a site with a 95% bounce rate. We would love to interact more with our readers and get to know you guys and girls through twitter and the comments. We would love to build a community behind Creativeoverflow and not just a following.

Now Creativeoverflow has come a long way in the last year and a half that site has been online and there has been some bumps and bruises along the way as well. I for one, would love to see Creativeoverflow grow much bigger than it currently is and influence the design world thoroughly on a day to day basis.

This obviously won’t just happen overnight and hard work will be needed along the way and that is why I am writing this post. I want to ask you as the readers, “What do you want from us?”

What type of posts do you want frequently? (Inspiration, Unique, Roundups, Tutorials?)
What should our posting schedule be? (1 Article a day | 2 Articles a day | 3 Articles a week)
Do we need a new commenting system? (Disqus or Facebook comments?)
Do we need to change anything in the design or update anything for you?
Do we need new social sharing buttons for ease of promotion?
Would you like us to lessen the adverts on the site and place them more strategically?
Would you like us to giveaway a lot more stuff? (Business Cards, Products, Flyers, Posters, Software?)
Have any other suggestions for us?

Please…Please…Please…

We would love to have your opinion and thoughts. Say what you want to say and don’t hold back. We love honesty and live by it as a policy.

Follow our RSS Feed and Twitter: @Creativeofblog

Winner Announced: Apple iPad 2

Editorial Staff — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:54:33 +0000

We have come to the close of yet another awesome giveaway on Creativeoverflow. We were giving away a Apple Ipad 2 64GB Wifi version or cash equivalent. I’m sure most of you want to know who the winner of the Ipad was right? Well I’ll get to that in a second. We had a total of 505 commented entries on the post, which was a decent amount, however next time I’m sure we will have a much larger number of entrants. Let’s see who won the Ipad 2.

The Prize

A all new Apple Ipad 2 or Cash Equivalent($699). We are giving away the 64GB Wi-Fi only Ipad 2. If you want to check out all the features that this iPad 2 has above its previous brother the iPad 1, then take a look at Apple’s Ipad Features Page.

The Winner is: James Stevenson

Congratulations to him for winning the contest on Creativeoverflow. We have already made contact with him and he will be taking the Ipad 2. Thank you to everyone who entered for the prize and be sure to keep checking out Creativeoverflow as we are planning on running these types of giveaways more often. If you want to run a giveaway on Creativeoverflow, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.

Thanks for all the support!

Creativeoverflow Launches Job Board for Freelancers

Jacques van Heerden — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:44:56 +0000

We have finally decided to launch a job board for creatives. We were going to launch the board more than a year ago, but decided against it as the time just wasn’t right; however today marks the day for the launch of Creativeoverflow Jobs. The job board is is easy to access at the url: http://jobs.creativeoverflow.net or at the top navigation of this site. We will be adding in easier access features soon.

Our goal with the job board is to provide more people with work and at the end of the day a better monthly income through jobs that were provided. We are always looking to expand and help others, so if you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to bring them forward.

Let’s check out the new job board and get you started right away. Remember to bookmark it, as there will be new jobs daily.

Head on over and jump right in. I’m sure there are numerous projects that you will find appealing!

Creativeoverflow 3.0 – Redesigned for a Better Experience

Jacques van Heerden — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:00:32 +0000

Creativeoverflow was initially launched in September 2009 where we started off with the Convergence Theme by Maximus. However we quickly outgrew that and launched our own custom WP theme. Now its more than a year and a half later and we are currently on Version 3.0 of Creativeoverflow. We designed this new layout with a few things in mind which was mainly: Speed, Readability, Experience and easier navigation. Hopefully we have achieved this with the new layout. Let’s run through the setup.

Navigation Bar

The navigation bar is something the old theme lacked. With this easy to use navigation bar, you are easily able to access pages, categories and more. The subscribers are listed on the right hand side too. This makes it easier for everyone to see how many people follow Creativeoverflow.

New Header

As you might have noticed in the old layout, we had a huge header area with a background that overflowed our actual layout. Sure this was a nice effect, but we wanted to constrain the craziness somehow and decided to push that effect into a solid header area where you can get the feel of the illustrations and objects.

Thumbnail in Posts

We didn’t display any thumbnail of the actual post within the single post in the old theme. The space was overthrown with ads. However we have brought back the thumbnail to show the readers exactly what they are reading and what the thumbnail looks like of the post. We decided to give all the images in posts some padding with a subtle border for identification. This basically neatens up the images posted within an article.

Subtle Sharing Buttons

In our previous versions of Creativeoverflow, we bombarded the users with sharing buttons. These were ranging from Twitter to Reddit and more. We cut back on the effect and installed only Twitter and Facebook buttons to share the article. A lot of people will disagree with our decisions, however we want to give the site a nice clean, easy to read feeling.

Comments

With our old theme, our comment section was horrifying. The text wasn’t really readable and everything was mixed and matched together. We decided to break it down to a simple form and rebuild it. The outcome was really simple too. We only allow the threaded comments 3 levels deep and everything flows together well.

404 Page

We decided to come up with a new 404 page. Some of you may like it and some of you may hate it. However, its there to help you stay out of trouble.

Ads Free

The site at the moment is ads free. There is no Google Adsense or Banner ads on the site. We are still looking into how we are going to monetize the site. We might join a Ad network like Carbon or Adpacks or Yoggrt etc. We haven’t totally decided yet. Whatever we decide though will be beneficial to the viewing nature of the site.

Themes of the Week

Weekly we will be choosing new themes from Themeforest that we like and host it in the sidebar as theme of the week. They will be updated weekly so be sure to check them out regularly.

Contribute a Article

We are always on the look out for guest authors. Whilst we aren’t currently paying our authors, we guarantee exposure. If you are interested in contributing please visit the contribute page.

Are you Subscribed or Following us?

Have you subscribed to our RSS FEED yet? Are you following us on twitter – @Creativeofblog. If not, we recommend you do. We are lining up some great content, which includes tutorials, resources, inspiration, articles and giveaways. You don’t want to miss out.

Do you like the new look?

Now we want to hear what your thoughts are on the new look. Do you prefer the old one? Are you enjoying the cleanliness of the site and the speed? We sure love the new look, however everyone has their own opinion, so let’s hear it.

It’s a New Year for Creativeoverflow

Jacques van Heerden — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:10:50 +0000

Hey everyone, I hope you had a wonderful festive season. Yes, I am aware that its already February, but better late than never right? I don’t know why, but I kind of let Creativeoverflow and all you readers out there down over December and January, I do however apologize for that. Alright, now that the tears have been wiped, its time to turn over a new page for Creativeoverflow. Starting today, Creativeoverflow is going to become a hub for more unique articles, resources, reviews on products and books, contests and a lot of freebies and tutorials. Yes, this is quite a goal I know, but I want to follow through with this for not only myself, but for you readers too.

I also want to simplify Creativeoverflow’s design a bit, take away unnecessary elements, ads, network banners and focus on delivering quality content to our readers. These changes will be made over the next month or so, as I will be hard at work writing and creating some content for Creativeoverflow.

Now for some thoughts and answers from your side:

Should I keep the sharing toolbar at the bottom or take it away and simplify it to just being able to tweet and like on Facebook?
Should I change the fonts on the site for better reading or is it fine as is?
Do you like the current layout or should I simplify it so that the navigation is at the top and it loads much faster?
Should I clean up the comment system on the site?
Do you have any other requests for me or Creativeoverflow?

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to give me a shout.
Just leave a comment below with all your requests.

Thanks guys and girls for supporting Creativeoverflow, let’s make 2011 a year to remember.
See you in the next post.

Thank You to our October Sponsors

Jacques van Heerden — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:25:30 +0000

Without our sponsors we won’t be able to keep the site running. We want to thank all our October sponsors that have been with through the past month. You can see the list of our sponsors below.

PixelCrayons

We hand-convert your designs to high quality, cross-browser compatible valid XHTML/CSS markup. As an established “PSD to HTML” provider, we understand the intricacies involved in the process and have proven our expertise over several years delivering thousands of projects on-time and in-budget.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is the largest subscription-based stock photo agency in the world. Every day we add thousands of photographs, illustrations, and vectors to our outstanding collection of premium, royalty-free images

FlippingBook

FlippingBook™ – software for creating online publications, magazines and photo albums with the real page turning effect.

DPD Shopping Cart

We Make it Quick and Easy to Sell Downloads

smallGod Hosting

Web Hosting for Artists, Designers and Other Creative Types

WebHostingRating

Welcome to the world’s largest independent web hosting directory featuring in-depth information on all major web hosting providers accompanied by unedited web hosting reviews and ratings by real customers.

Aquaffect

Aquaffect Inc Interactive Agency is a web site design company based in New York. The business was set up as a direct result of identifying a niche in the market for interactive web sites. The company has a contemporary and fresh approach to web site design whilst remaining client focused and professional.

Signazon

Vinyl banners grab attention and make a statement thanks to their impressive size, and full color banner printing. The key to advertising is to make a big statement, and what better way than to design custom vinyl banners specially made for your church function, retail sale, business announcement, or special event. Cheap banners can create a great impression for little cost, and can be used for any occasion.

RapidxHTML

RapidxHTML is a small team of designers and developers, with a wide range of skills and experience. Each of us know our strengths and weaknesses and how these fit into the big picture.

Inkchaser

nkchaser is a division of InnerWorkings (Nasdaq: INWK), the leader in managed print solutions and the largest independent buyer of print in the U.S. (more than $400M in 2009). Unlike other online print providers Inkchaser is able to deliver the same service levels, printing expertise and buying power that InnerWorkings provides for its Fortune 1000 clients.

SonicPrint

Full Color Printing | Direct Mail Marketing | Postcard Mailing

Function Themes

Customizable WordPress Themes

NextDayFlyers

Next Day Flyers is an online printing company that delivers top-quality printed marketing materials with one of the fastest turnaround times in the industry. We specialize in full color printing of custom business cards, brochures, greeting cards, postcards, as well as specialty die cuts and other marketing materials. We believe all businesses, no matter their size, deserve easy access to custom promotional and direct mail material.

Giveaway: 3 Standard Packages courtesy of ElegantBanners

Jacques van Heerden — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 07:00:40 +0000

Its time for yet another giveaway on Creativeoverflow. Today’s giveaway is sponsored by ElegantBanners in which you will stand a chance to win 1 of 3 standard packages to the value of $100 each. I am sure quite a lot of you would love some professionally designed banners for your websites, these banners are standard sizes for advertising purposes: 125×125, 234×60, 468×60, 728×90. Let’s find out more about ElegantBanners.

What is ElegantBanners?
We are the creators of incredibly beautiful, and effective custom banner advertisements. All our banner ads are sculpted to perfection and we pride ourselves on creating banner ads that get noticed from the crowd.

Examples of Work:

How to Win:

Entering the giveaway is really easy. All you have to do is enter by doing one of the two things listed below.

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Tweet about this giveaway and follow @Creativeofblog and @ElegantBanners on Twitter.

It is that simple. Good luck to everyone taking part in the giveaway. The giveaway will end on the 7th October 2010 and the winners will be announced on the 8th October 2010.

Good Luck

Winners Announced: 250 Business Cards from PrintRunner

Jacques van Heerden — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:03:14 +0000

We come to the closing of yet another successful giveaway on Creativeoverflow. This giveaway was sponsored by PrintRunner and they decided to give 4 lucky readers 250 business cards each. Well I am sure you are psyched to see who the winners are. Let’s have a look shall we.

Sponsored by:

PrintRunner.com is one of the top printing companies on the web. PrintRunner specializes in affordable high quality printing and offer a wide range of products including business cards, postcard printing, flyer printing and more. Check the website for all the latest PrintRunner coupon codes.

The Winners are:

Yamil Gonzales
Matt Williams
Yung Tsai
Krista

The winners have been contacted via Email.

Congratulations to the Winners

Creativeoverflow is on Facebook

Jacques van Heerden — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:21:10 +0000

I am sure you have noticed the Facebook Fan page box underneath our posts, but just in case you haven’t we thought we would let you know. Yes Creativeoverflow has a Facebook Fan page. We currently have 1800+ Fans on Facebook, but would love to expand our fan base on FB. If you aren’t a fan already then why don’t you become one? We deliver some nice content through our fan page.

BECOME A FAN