Better Than an SAT Prep Course?

We know we shouldn't get big heads and that overt proudness is unbecoming, but sometimes it's easy to feel pretty pleased with ourselves around here, particularly when we get letters like this one from Mason Sklar:

"I know it's been way too long, but I really want to thank you guys for inventing Jewelboxing. Unfortunately, I only made one copy of my disk, which a college admissions guy may or may not still have and while the contents of the disk are at my site, I have no documentation of it actually existing."

"But! The good new is that said college admissions guy was impressed with my portfolio, especially the presentation of it (that's you guys). I got an acceptance letter from this school (which was my first choice) two weeks later, as well as a scholarship, and I'm sitting in their dorms procrastinating right now. So thanks for being awesome. High fives all around."

So can we therefor infer that use of Jewelboxing is a sure-fire way of getting into your top pick for college? Well, it's verifiably worked at least once before, so maybe that's enough to start including in any promotional materials we print up.

Big thanks and congrats all around to Mason. And here's to hoping palaces of higher learning are taking a close look at our customers in Minneapolis, New York, Boston, Columbus, Costa Mesa, Petaluma, Santa Monica, Vestal, Birmingham, Fortville, Loveland, Honolulu, Roy, Sunbury, Danbury, Kirtland, Brooklyn, and White Rock.

Smooth Moves

Is there any job cooler than that of a steadicam operator? If so, we haven't heard of it. Add "cinematographer" as a co-title in there and you've got about the best job in the world, in our books at least. So while we're always happy to hear from Jewelboxing users, we were particularly giddy when we got to talk to Ed Moore, who is both an extremely gifted cinematographer and a talented steadicam operator who travels all over the UK and across the world. We found that he was packaging both his latest reels using Jewelboxing so we dropped him a line and asked him why he decided to go with our cases:

"As a cinematographer and steadicam operator, I want my prospective clients to associate me with super smooth imagery and presentation right from the first thing that crosses their desk. With so many great cinematographers out there, I wanted to make sure my reel stood out enough to get straight to client's DVD players. Jewelboxing's superb templates and insanely-accurate paper parts make it almost embarrassingly easy (don't tell my rivals!) to produce on-spec DVDs that look and feel like a million dollars."

"Before finding Jewelboxing, I got a print house in the UK to price me up the trendy 'digipak' packaging. For the quantities I needed (under 100), they wanted anything from £4 to £8 per item. With Jewelboxing, I get the same quality for a fraction of the price, plus it's simple to customize each one I print for the recipient, if I really want to add a personal touch. My only regret is that I've never thought of something appropriate and cool enough to put into the spine..."

Thanks very much to Ed for sharing with us and here's to hoping there's lots of people out there with professions we can live vicariously through in Chester, New York, Calgary, Oakland, Santa Monica, Cincinnati, Albany, Chicago, Elk Grove Village, Anaheim, Stillwater, Eyota, Davis, San Ramon, Newton, Sartell, Camberley, Lemon Grove, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Solana Beach, Cambridge Springs, and Providence.

Pressed Promotion

We have put a lot of effort into trying to make the Jewelboxing system a breeze to use, from our design templates to the pre-perforated paper., but we have to say that we love it when users go off on their own directions and make things more complicated. Such is the case with designer James Mabery, who, while creating his portfolio using our King cases, very well could have just laid out his logo in Illustrator or Photoshop and quickly sent it on its way through his printer -- instead, he decided to hand print each case with a carved block. To that we say bravo. Here's from James:

"I’m currently a student at Savannah College of Art and Design double majoring in Motion Graphics and Animation. At SCAD, I’m a sophomore and interning as a motion designer at Blue Sky Agency in downtown Atlanta, working on a vast assortment of great projects."

"The work I have in my promotional package is a wide range including print, motion, and web design, and a lot of it is experimental or conceptual, which allowed me to flow freely and somewhat reckless."

"The disc packaging that I designed and spent many hours on was assembled with the easy-to-use templates provided by Jewelboxing. The look of the overall design was hand-rendered type formed into an organic mass of lines and textures. I hand carved a block of my 'Everyday' identifier that was printed on the DVD case's paper inserts. It was my first time to ever try the printed and carved technique, but it really worked with the overall style in the end. To help get my work seen, the Jewelboxing was a perfect fit for my budget. The quality of the case compliments my work and greatly enhances the image of myself as a professional designer at the same time."

Thanks to James for sharing his great work with us, and here's to hoping that the ink is landing in all the right spots in Sydney, Helensburgh, Ann Arbor, Ellenton, Celbridge, Manchester, Amsterdam, Tralee, Glasgow, Rozelle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Hollywood, Clinton, Mexico City, San Francisco, Bedford, Boca Raton, New York, Culver City, Santa Monica, London, and Greenville.

Unstoppable

We love seeing a young designer who just gets it and Liam Vasey definitely fits into that category. Not only is his work clever and confident, not plagued with heavy handed tricks or overcompensation for having just recently graduated, but he also understands the importance of getting out there and immediately impressing anyone and everyone who receives his great self-promo portfolio kit. Entitled "Liam Vasey Creates Design + Motion Graphics Under the Alias halfPlane and There is Nothing You Can Do to Stop Him," it's a handsome, bound book that shows off Liam's work in print while a disc, beautifully packaged in one of our King cases, highlights his motion and web work. It's a fantastic package, we're sure he'll be swimming in work because of it, and we feel very fortunate that he chose us to be a part of it. Here's from Liam:

"I'm a 23-year old designer from Alberta, Canada. After graduation, I knew right away that I wanted to work as a freelancer and that I needed to shatter any notions potential clients might have that my age and relative inexperience could prevent me from creating memorable work. Using the Jewelboxing system, I created a tongue-in-cheek DVD presentation of my portfolio work and an accompanying book that suited this requirement perfectly (mixing vintage 70's-era colours with modern, stark typography throughout to parallel my passion for a wide range of design). Using the system was amazingly easy and allowed me to custom die-cut and pattern each case uniquely, something that -- as a designer just starting out with a limited budget -- would've been out of reach normally."

Thanks again to Liam for sharing his work with us and here's to hoping there's some great promotion of selves in Rockford, Sarasota, New York, Venice, Chestertown, Long Island City, Champaign, Dallas, St. Louis, Santa Monica, Boston, Fair Lawn, Springfield, San Diego, Sausalito, Ottawa, Highland, Bellomonte, Laurel, Chicago, Naperville, Chester, Idaho Springs, and Waco.

Drawn to Jewelboxing

We've often seen our cases used as showpieces to help compliment the work kept inside, but rare is the day that Jewelboxing gets a modeling job of its very own. So it was as we found this sketch created by the very talented Laurent Baumann. Here's a little info about how one of our Standards ended up in pencil and paper form and a scan of the image itself:

"The sketch was a preliminary icon design for the application "Coversutra," an iTunes controller for OS X I had the original concept for. I did the icon for Sophiestication (a German, one-person company) since I contacted Sophia Teutschler (who leads this company) to code the application."

It should be known that Jewelboxing is always available for any and modeling gigs, just as long as they're tasteful and dignified (distasteful and undignified will cost extra). We figure the same goes for the handsome people in Middle Park, New York City, Atlanta, Pinole, Stockton, Milwaukee, Bozeman, Brookline, Savannah, Pittsburgh, Austin, Barrington, Mt. Prospect, Sacramento, Ridgefield, Gray, Princeton, London, Ballyclare, Syracuse, Santa Cruz, Stanford, Brandon, and Somerville.

Making a Good Last Impression

On our blog, it seems like many of our posts about promotional work tend to focus more on that first meeting, that attempt at landing a job. But we ran into an interesting discussion today about the other side of that equation over at the Freelance Switch Forums. The topic was "Packaging of Deliverables" and the initial post was about using Jewelboxing to turn in that final copy to your client of whatever it is you've just finished up for them:

Seems like an interesting way to leave a definite, tangible impression with clients. Has anyone else tried this? How did it turn out?

Personally speaking, it's what we've always done here at Jewelboxing and over at Coudal, trying to make a good last impression, and we've found that it's been a success thus far. Though there are, of course, some detractors:

Impressing your clients AFTER the project is complete seems to be a tad backward.

Granted, among those couple of "why would you want to do that?" responses there were some good points, largely stemming from the idea that not all businesses operate in the same way and sometimes a client just needs a file passed along by e-mail or FTP and that's it. Impressing them at the beginning and sticking to their guidelines at the end might be just enough.

But the vast majority of the replies seemed to see this as a very good idea, continuing that commitment to the project even after the last invoice has gone out. If it's right for your business and your marketing budget will allow for it, why not make an effort to keep those clients you've enjoyed working with coming back and possibly sticking solely with you for the long haul? That seems to be the verdict in the end, that while doing this might not make an instant financial difference to your business, putting the notion that "you're a class act" in your client's mind is never a bad idea and has the potential to lead to a lot of positives.

Just something we found interesting on a Friday afternoon and it's always nice to see our cases discussed from another angle. Here's to hoping for a great weekend and many happy returns in Fairfax, Austin, Bethesda, Villa Park, Shaker Heights, Media, Greenville, Brookline, Philadelphia, Oberlin, Mississauga, Sycamore, Chicago, South Grafton, Savannah, London, Winter Park, New York City, Vancouver, La Mirada, and Knoxville.

Winning Over Brands By Branding Better

People use Jewelboxing in order to stand out from the crowd for a lot of reasons, like trying to land that job or wanting to impress that certain someone with a mix disc of your favorite songs. Sometimes it's professional, sometimes it's just wanting to feel good about whatever it is you put together. When you're a brand-focused design firm at a trade show or prepping for a massive mailing, it's absolutely essential. Among a veritable sea of competition, it's important to be able to wow potential clients with your work before they've even stepped foot in your booth or popped that disc into their computer. Jewelboxing-user and firm principal Shawn Borsky understands this completely and dropped us a line to let us know about his latest project:

"My firm, Anthem Design Group, is a brand and website design firm specializing in brand fidelity (new solutions that flow with your current brand), as well as new development, micro sites, product highlights, etc. We used about 1,000 Jewelboxing cases for a direct mail and trade show media kit campaign. The media kits were a showcase and FAQ for our firm’s Q1 and Q2 of 2008, for prospective clients. We actually mailed them with red/violet ribbons that matched the cover ribbon, which also worked with our tag, 'Brand solutions that flow.'"

"We used Jewelboxing because it allows us much more customization, a better, neater looking package, and durable for direct mail. We had done a print run of 100 before and it worked great. This last time around, we actually had ours custom printed and die cut for the mold, so it looks really fantastic and was very painless. Plus we got screen printed discs. At trade shows, 8 out of 10 people ask if they are free, which is always nice. I recommend Jewelboxing to every other business owner and we use them for all of our client media kits."

Thanks much to Shawn for writing in and sharing his work with us, and here's to hoping that 8 out of 10 people are hiring or admiring those in Twickenham, Marietta, Beckenham, Tallahassee, Canterbury, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Columbus, Reading Berkshire, Baltimore, Chatham, Sylvania, Washington DC, Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Downey, Cambridge, and Gloucester.

Well-Polished Promotion

Sometimes, when that extra special project comes around, you have decisions to make along the way. You can either do it proficiently and professionally, or you can chose to push it a little further and create something remarkable that will completely floor your clients (and most importantly, make you proud to show it off, too). Such is the case with Harpreet Padam and his design firm Unlike, who decided to go all out in creating a recent job for a client by including our Standard cases within their fantastic presentation kit. Here's the whole story from Harpreet:

"We're a small design firm of two in Bangalore, India called Unlike and we work mostly with fashion and lifestyle brands in the domain of packaging, graphics, and accessory design. The picture I sent you was part of a project for Carbon Accessories, a fashion jewellery brand that sells across India through a shop-in-shop sales module and was looking at expanding into exclusive stores. To enable this through a planned and consistent design identity, Carbon reached out to carefully selected designers/architects across the world, inviting them to associate with the brand."

"At Unlike, we designed a brand presentation (in Flash), a brochure that provided detailed information about the brand, and a design brief to entice and invite these designers and architects. This was arranged inside an acrylic box that was then personalised to each addressee through coloured DYMO embossing tape. A Jewelboxing-packaged CD contained the Flash presentation and a digitally-printed CD label themed on 'elevating style,' the brand mantra and also the theme of this project."

"Before we decided on Jewelboxing (which I was familiar with for such a long time that I don't even remember how or when, maybe some design magazine?), we were considering buying single-cased Sony DVDs, discarding the DVDs, and using their jewel case. It's much cheaper that way since a Jewelboxing case costs about 75 Indian rupees (with postage), and the Sony DVD case works out to 35 Indian rupees with a blank DVD to spare. However, we decided on the more professional and in a way 'elevating style' with the Jewelboxing case because of its highly reflective nature (maybe due to its internal form, structure, and gloss). This reflection was also relevant, as most of our client's products are diamond-studded and shine like crazy. So we let the CD inside show through, encased in all that clarity."

"About the Jewelboxing experience, well it was quick, fast, and convenient. We originally had some doubts, but Dawson cleared them up in a jiffy. I visited your site again recently because we're planning to use Jewelboxing for another brand presentation for a new client, a silk furnishings retailer, though this time we plan to silkscreen the case, quite like a Marc Newson DVD we have. I'll order as soon as I get my proposal approved!"

Thanks to Harpreet and the Unlike Design Company for sharing their work with us and here's to hoping client socks are being knocked off in Machelen, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Grayslake, Washington DC, Anacortes, Tuscaloosa, Seattle, Layham, Whistler, Norwich, Trujillo Alto, Long Beach, Indianapolis, Zurich, Oakland, and Glen Carbon.

Getting Hands On with Dragons' Truth

Here's an interesting project we just ran into. It's a short video promoting writer Teel McClanahan III's new novel, Dragons' Truth, which is now available as an audiobook. Teel wanted to show off that the audio version was "presented in a premium jewelbox" (see: our Standard-sized case), so he clearly took a page from Dawson's hand modeling debut and put together his own unique moves to make the following:

Thanks to Teel for posting his video and here's to hoping there's soon to be a whole series of similar Jewelboxing-centric hand modeling clips coming from Little Rock, London, Alexandria, Chicago, Brooklyn, Evanston, Phoenix, North Bay Billage, Savannah, Shanghai, Long Beach, Portland, Lakewood, Foothill Ranch, Lancaster, Washington, West Henrietta, New York City, and Atlanta

A Successful Audition

Maybe it stems from some residual childhood memory of being at the dinner table, but we're firm believers of the "Try it, you'll like it!" mantra. Around Jewelboxing HQ, we try and keep to that mindset outside of just what lands on our plates, giving the benefit of the doubt to everything from that new web app everyone's talking about to seeing films we ordinarily wouldn't be watching. So we were happy to hear from Jon Hall, who had a similar, "Try it, you'll like it" experience with Jewelboxing. Here's from Jon:

"I'm a graphic designer from Pittsburgh, PA. I operate JDH Ideas, a small design firm that works with web, print, and logos specifically. I have been using the Jewelboxing package system for a while now and I can't believe how great they work. I'd been using old school, flat-black CD cases before and they were unsightly, flimsy, and generally just bad for business. I had a friend tell me about the Jewelboxing system, but I hesitated, thinking that the system was too good to be true. I finally ordered a pack, printed my CD, and never looked back at the old flimsy packages I had used before (well, actually, I use them as frisbees now). I really like how the packaging system gives my designs a permanent presence. It definitely ensures the materials don't go unnoticed. One of the things I like most about them is how they start up so much conversation; it's amazing. Everyone has been wowed by the design of the cases and so now I use them for all my new JDH Ideas clients, and for myself. They are just great for job hunting because they give you that extra edge that no one else has."

Thanks much to Jon for taking the plunge and becoming a Jewelboxing believer. And here's to hoping there are loads of new converts in Philadelphia, New York, Tulsa, Grandville, Wake Forest, Yardley, Palo Alto, Westlake Village, Aliso Viejo, Belton, Chicago, Washington DC, Sioux Falls, Venice, and Hong Kong.

Full-Time Perfectionists

If you're a musician or a filmmaker, you can maybe slip by on the design side of things by doing something simple, figuring that the Jewelboxing case alone will do enough initial impressing to encourage people to pop in the disc and get into whatever it is that your real bread-and-butter expertise is. But when you're V12 Studios, a full-service design firm that does a whole lot of everything, from print work to packaging design to any and all in between, not only does the included reel have to be sharp, but the Jewelboxing case itself has to be nothing short of perfect. Because, who knows, maybe after looking at the way V12 handled their reel, that client they're pitching to could turn around and decide they need to have their own project or product packaged up using Jewelboxing too. Kiran RajBhandary, the president of V12, was kind enough to drop us a line, letting us know why they decided to use our cases, and here's what he had to say:

"We looked for a system that was first and above all, of absolute total quality. When you sell creative services, the presentation of the work is a critical attribute. I found only one system that met our needs: Jewelboxing. Jewelboxing provides a presentation platform that allows not only for superb reproduction, but ease of use. We get inquiries worldwide, and having the ability to provide a visual and physically tangible example of our thinking and the quality we strive for quickly and with ease is of great benefit."

Thanks very much to Kiran and the crew at V12 for getting in touch with us and here's to hoping it's quality galore in Arlington, Evanston, Slidell, Kingsport, Newcastle, Lenexa, San Jose, Athens, Morton Grove, Fairfax, Altamonte Springs, Marietta, Dallas, Murphysboro, Hyde Park, Chicago, Seattle, Middletown, New York, Hamilton, Philadelphia, South Pasadena, Singapore, Virginia Beach, Kenosha, Savannah, Newton, Coral Gables, Brunswick and Brooklyn.

A Nice Conversation With An Angry Bovine

We heard from Jewelboxing user Jay Ferracane this week when he sent us a message saying:

"I ordered some kings from you guys a while back and finally got a chance to use them. I've been sharing a lot of recent work with these very memorable pieces. Everyone asked, 'Did you do all this from scratch?' to which I replied, 'Well, with a little help...(insert Jewelboxing plug here).' Anyway I was able to get a very custom look with off the shelf templates and parts. Thanks!"

Well, we thought that was about as great an e-mail from a user we were ever going to get, so we wrote back to Jay right away and asked if he could send over some info on himself. Here was his response:

"I'm a creative director in Los Altos, California and Angry+Bovine is my portfolio site. Bovine, specializes in helping companies create brands that take complicated ideas and make them tangible, engaging and understood. It's truly multi-media, as the work is reflective of environment, print, web and brand strategies. The Jewelboxing system allowed me to make a custom high impact piece that I can leave behind with every client. They love the fact that what gets shown in the portfolio is now left with them to troll through at their own speed."

Here's to hoping we have more conversations like this one with the people in Warsaw, Olive Branch, Chicago, Edison, Old Lyme, San Diego, Spotslyvania, Denver, Vancouver, New York, Morgan Hill, Burbank, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, Winston-Salem, Toronto, Skokie, Gresham, Elmhurst, Ithaca, and Rockville.

A Page Turn Never Looked So Good

Chalk it up to another "first" for us. Chris Okamoto, head of the terrific firm Illumen Studios, just a few miles away from us out in Evanston, sent in a sample this week of the firm's promos materials, packaged in a Jewelboxing King case. Of course the design terrific, but Chris also passed along a link to a site they'd built, an online version of what's included on the disc. At the very top, there's an animated copy of their Jewelboxing cover insert, opening and closing. Sure, we've all seen Flash at work before, but how often do you open a page and find that it relates to you? So needless to say, we were thoroughly impressed and very pleased that Chris and his team at Illumen enjoyed Jewelboxing enough to, well, animate it. Here's a little about their company and this project:

"Illumen Studios is a design company that creates interactive marketing, training, and eLearning solutions. We wanted a clean and simple solution for Illumen's marketing materials that would leave a memorable impression. Illumen produces interactive work for the medical, hi-tech, and architectural industries so it was important that the piece speak to a variety of audiences. Chris Okamoto designed the piece as an extension of the company's website, strengthening the overall brand while integrating the visual experience and touchpoints. The Jewelboxing solution proved to be an excellent choice, one that has left a lasting impact with clients."

Influenced by Illumen's work, we're currently in the process of building interactive sites and animations about the people in Montclair, New York, Broomfield, Vancouver, Montreal, Arden Hills, Tunkhannock, Winnepeg, Dallas, Rockford, Culver City, West Hollywood, Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Oceanside, Pasadena, La Grange, Reisterstown, and Poughkeepsie.

Unabashed Hedonism, Really Cool Design

When poking around on Technorati one day, looking to see if we could find out if someone was talking about using Jewelboxing in some interesting project, we ran across Squad Studios. Although the mention was vague ("We are thrilled to be using new jewel boxes for this project"), based off the work showcased on their site, and a client list with everyone from Madonna to Warner Brothers, we knew whatever it was would be cool.

And right we were. The gang at Squad chatted with us and filled us in that they had been hired to help get the word out about this year's AKA Rally, a seven day auto rally from Philadelphia to Key West. Featuring over one hundred high performance cars and huge parties at each stop, the AKA is one huge, adrenaline-fueled orgy of fun. The rally has grown significantly over the past few years, thanks to terrific publicity, from coverage in car culture magazines to features by giant mainstream outlets like MTV.

To further heighten the excitement about this year's AKA, and to help win over new sponsors, Jordan, Andy, Dan, Phil, and the rest of the team at Squad, were given the task to put out a DVD filled with info about the rally, footage from previous years, and contact information. Beautifully designed from inside and out, with repeating logo and city names plastered everywhere in all their two color glory, their finished product is undeniably attractive; a sight to be seen. Packaged using Jewelboxing made it all the sweeter. And apparently, even though they had to assemble hundreds of these cases, they were still thrilled enough to take a batch of photos of the process:

(click for a directory of images)

If we owned flashy cars and were entered in the AKA, you bet we'd want our driving partners to be from Long Beach, Boston, Chicago, St. Clair Shores, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Franklin, Schamburg, Tulsa, Irvine, Mill Valley, Clerkenwell, Columbus, Wenham, and Port Townsend.

The Winter of Our Complete Content

Every so often, we get in a great letter singing the praises of our Jewelboxing system. Usually the letters come from users who have been thrilled with the outcome of their projects, or how great they look and the reaction they've received. Rare is it when we get a letter like this one from Christian Hery with the Parks and Protected Areas division of the Alberta Community Development Center. Christian was so happy with the project, including the use our cases, he decided to walk us through the whole process, from rough start to glorious finish:

"When our Environmental Education Coordinator came to me with her new program, I was not so enthusiastic about it. It was designed as a draft in Pagemaker, and wasn't so "cutting-edge." Plus, it needed to be printed on paper, or, alternately, maybe also as a downloadable PDF. So after a few days trying to get excited about it, thinking of other solutions, I turned around and made my proposition. 'Let's make it multimedia, burnt on a CD, completely paperless!' I thought. 'Who said government agencies have to make things boring?'

My goal was to turn a dull project into something more exciting. So I re-designed the whole thing, adding some pizzazz here and there, and made a customized Flash interface. But what about the package? Should it be one of these boring jewel cases? No! But what else could I use? Well, as I am also a busy freelance designer, I remembered a while back having seen these cute jewelboxes from your company.

Now it was just a matter of persuading my hierarchy to get the budget, which can be tough. But I had on my side the fact that this Winter Ecology Program is supposed to be the template for the other forty or so environmental education programs we've got. Well, I must've been persuasive enough because we eventually ordered something like a thousand of them. My argument was that we'd be getting the most of the WOW factor from beginning to end with the project, and for a lot less money (no printing cost, and therefore environment-friendly as well!).

Now that people have seen the final product, I can tell you I am getting a lot of emails, not only from teachers (asking when the series will be completed the same way), but also from other government agencies! It's all turned out great!"

We're constantly being affected by the wow factor by those in Kyoto, South Haven, Vancouver, Southbury, Phoenix, Beaverton, Orlando, Jarvisburg, Swarthmore, Chicago, Savannah, and Fort Lauderdale.

Creative Anarchy

We've just added MassDistraction's Press Kit to our Examples and Inspirations page.

A CP/Jewelboxing Infrequent Mailing is going out next week and we're going to try something new. We have an idea for a contest that ought to be pretty fun, but it's only going to be available to subscribers, so if you're not on the list, sign up at the bottom of the JB home page.

OK, Salt Lake City, Plymouth, Liberty, Chicago, Hamilton, Venice, Leominster, Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco, Buffalo, Boston, Bonita Springs, Cambridge, Staten Island, Santa Monica, Kenai, Malden, San Diego and Modesto, let's see what you're making with your systems. We'd like to hook you up.