Genius+Power+Magic

New Talk: Beware the Underdog, Ross Kimbarovsky & Mike Samson, crowdSpring

New Talk: Beware the Underdog, Ross Kimbarovsky & Mike Samson, crowdSpring First off, these guys are just great, their company...amazing.  If you don't know them, meet them.  They are on the Advisory Council for The Chicago Convergence and now winners of the 2008 WIRED Magazine Small Biz Program (pictured here). Their Talk, "Community Creatives" or "Beware the Underdog" was a big hit at the September 08 Chicago Convergence and our logo was created using the crowdSpring portal. "crowdSPRING is the community-driven marketplace for creative services, bringing the power of crowdsourcing to creative challenges worldwide. Whether you need a new logo, website, marketing materials or other creative content, you simply post what you need, when you need it and how much you'd like to pay. Once posted, creatives from around the world will work on your project and you'll begin to receive actual work - not bids or proposals - to review." PS - The Advisory Council has turned into a who's who with crowdSpring, OgilvyOne, Microsoft, NBC Universal, etc participating. Come play.

TCC empowers the crowd to create/select its new logo

The Chicago Convergence (TCC) has settled on it's new logo (Header), produced in a partnership with Chicago's CrowdSring (www.crowdspring.com).  CrowdSpring was a sponsor of the 2008 Chicago New Media Summit and one of its presenters.

Unsure what to expect, in 7 days, 90 submissions were made to our request for a new logo.  It opened our eyes to new ways to think about TCC and in the end, we had more choices than we could imagine.  We asked you to vote, our board and advisers reviewed and now we have a new and exciting logo produced through 'the power of the crowd'.

CrowdSpring sprung up in 2008 and has quickly become a powerful design solution for many individuals, organizations and agencies. 

Mike Sampson and Ross Kimbarovsky, CrowdSpring Founders said of the Convergence "We truly hope that Chicago can establish itself and a global hub for new media" and they have been working dillegently to contribute to this vision.  These guys are smart, community oriented and genuinely wonderful human beings.

The winning designer, username 'Elijah7', was an amazing support to the process, not only contributing the logo, but thinking of the brand mark for other uses for the brand mark.

I emailed 'Elijah7' him to ask him questions about working with us and his replies:

Is your name Elijah?
My name is Jerico, my username Elijah is my baby boy's name, a real bundle of joy for us :)

Who are you?
I'm Jerico Santos, a graphic artist.

Where do you live?
Manila, Philippines

How long have you been doing this?

I've been doing graphic design & layout for more than 9 yrs now, but the logo designing for just a year. Online logo & graphic designing really helped me lot in paying bills & stuff, so I try to learn more of the craft from contests like Crowdspring does.

What do you want people to know about you?
I really like the challenge of creating a mark or logo from a small description or brief, then coming up with a cool design that expresses what the clients wants. My real inspiration is of course my family, we have our baby Elijah who will turn 2 yrs old this January, a joyful baby, he always puts smile in everyone's heart & faces, here in our place.  Thanks again & hopefully we can do more works for you.

It put a smile on my face knowing the option to go this route helped someone in the Phillipines pay some extra bills to help raise a deely loved child named 'Elijah'.