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Adobe’s Battle For The Band Contest: Design Something Cool, Win A Concert For Your School

I always like seeing things that have the potential to motivate students to start designing things and build a portfolio. That’s why I want to direct your attention to a contest that’s currently being put on by Adobe.

Dubbed the “Battle for the Band” contest, students can submit graphic design entries for a chance to win a full-blown concert for their school with All Time Low.

Now, I’d be pretty pumped to be known as the person who got All Time Low to play a show at my school. However, it’s the second-place prize that interests me more - $1,000 cash. Not to say that a concert isn’t cool or anything, but having a grand in your pocket could be pretty useful – you could easily put a big dent in your student loans, or get a better laptop, or something. Read More →

It’s A New School Year! Here’s What’s Next For College Info Geek!

Thomas Frank Announcements

Why did I use a picture of me wearing a fox mask and holding nun-chucks for this post? Just because.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to business!

I’ve Been Lazy as Hell Lately.

Yep, I’ll come out and whole-heartedly admit it. This summer was a bit of a lazy one for me. While I did do cool stuff like meet awesome bloggers in San Francisco, explore Japan, run a Warrior Dash, learn to surf, and jump out of an airplane, I didn’t do a huge amount of actual work this summer – and that’s a bad thing.

I learned something important over the last few months. I learned that you can actually have too much freedom, and that a healthy amount of structure and obligation in your life can be a reeeaaaaallllyyyy good thing.

For me, quitting all my scheduled commitments in order to free up my life for College Info Geek stuff seems to have backfired a bit. Read More →

Contest: Win One Of Four $30 Best Buy Gift Cards… And Maybe $50,000 Too.

Thomas Frank Announcements

So picture this: you’re sitting at your desk one day when, all the sudden, you’re stricken with the uncontrollable urge to go and purchase the movie Redline on Blu-ray.

Who could blame you? The movie’s ridiculously fluid and vibrant animation, dynamic characters, and edge-of-your seat plot make it one of the greatest anime spectacles ever released upon the unsuspecting throngs of humanity.

There’s just one problem: you don’t have the $15 to buy Redline.

It’s August. School is coming soon. You’ve tried to save money on textbooks and keep other nagging expenses from leaving you destitute, but your money seems to be leaving you like water out of cupped hands that suddenly developed tremors.

All is lost.

Or is it?

What if… what if you had a snazzy $30 Best Buy gift card in your pocket? What would you do with that epic buying power? You’d be out buying Redline, that’s what.

So yeah. Oddly-specific example aside, that’s what’s on the table today; Best Buy has teamed up with yours truly to offer up four $30 gift cards to my lovely readers.

However, these gift cards are just scraps of icing on a very large cake compared to what else is at stake here – and that’s what I really want to point you towards… Read More →

College Info Geek Is Two Years Old!

Thomas Frank Announcements

I almost can’t believe it, but College Info Geek has been around for two whole years. That’s pretty crazy to say, given that there are over 100 million blogs on the internet and most don’t last more than a few months.

However, this blog has seemed to stand the test of time. The weird part is – I never meant to start my own website in the first place!

I initially wanted to become a writer for another site, and I applied for a position during the summer after my freshman year. Evidently there were some other, more qualified candidates, because they ended up rejecting me. And you know what? I’m glad they did.

That rejection was what motivated me to build my own blog. For the first few months running it, I was still a little disappointed – I thought my opportunities would have been much greater as a staff member for a large blog than as an independent writer.

Two years later, however, I know for a fact that starting my own blog was the right decision. I’ve been afforded far more opportunities by building my own brand than I ever would have gotten writing for someone else. I’m also free to make my own decisions – I don’t have to censor myself, I can change the look and feel of the site to my heart’s content, and I can manage all aspects of the brand. It’s amazing to have that control.

Speaking of opportunities… Read More →

Contest: Win A Pair Of VEKTR Headphones And Look Like You’re Straight Outta Jet Grind Radio

Thomas Frank Announcements

Well now. Something interesting fell into my lap the other day… and I’ve decided to give it away!

That something is a pair of the just-released Diesel VEKTR headphones. I haven’t had the time to test them out for very long, but I can say they definitely look badass – I was instantly reminded of Jet Grind Radio, or maybe Porygon.

These headphones have some features that I really like, including:

a detachable headphone cable
an attachment on the cord with a ControlTalk button for picking up calls and playing/pausing music
a folding design that makes them easy to store

Did I mention they look badass? They really do. I absolutely love my current headphones, but these make them look like pillows for my head. You can check out all the spec’s n’ shit at the official website.

Anyway, as I said I’m giving these suckers away. Read More →

Time For An Epic Journey? Yeah, I Think So.

Thomas Frank Announcements

The day has finally come!

While I’ve made it no secret, I’ve somewhat lazily waited until now to reveal my plans for the next (almost) month. In short, I’ll be travelling. A lot.

The main focus of this blog is on doing remarkable things while still in college. I consider travelling the world to be a remarkable thing that everyone should do, so last semester I began planning an epic summer trip that would kick off my own summer travels. Instead of just going to one place, I’ll be going to three.

My first destination? Sunny San Francisco, of course. Read More →

Win A Trip To L.A. – Enter The Adobe Design Achievement Awards Competition

Thomas Frank Announcements

Heads up: Starting now, you’re going to see a good bit of Adobe-related content on College Info Geek for a little while. Why, you ask? Good question.

I just happen to be heading out to San Francisco on Wednesday for Adobe Days, which is a conference Adobe built specifically for student bloggers. I’ll not only get to meet a lot of the people who work at Adobe and tour their campus, but I’ll also finally meet some of my fellow student bloggers in person! This is an opportunity that I’ve been waiting a long time for.

BUT – that’s not the point of this post, and it’s definitely not the only cool thing happening in the coming month. I’ll have a post out either tomorrow or Wednesday to fill you in on all the details of how I’ll be spending the next month. Right now, I want to talk about the Adobe Design Achievement Awards.

Remember when I interviewed Andy Mangold about his project, Crowdstorms, that won the Browser-Based Design award at ADAA 2011? That’s just one of the categories, and your work can get the visibility it deserves just like Andy’s did.

Basically, the Adobe Design Achievement Awards celebrate student and faculty achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts since 2001.

The competition – which showcases individual and group projects created with Adobe software – honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from the world’s top institutions of higher education. Read More →

Contest! Win a 2012 iPad and a Kindle Touch

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Thomas Frank Announcements

Contest! Win a 2012 iPad and a Kindle Touch

Update: This contest is over! Check out the winners below and keep your eyes peeled for more epic giveaways coming soon

Alright, it’s time for another kick-ass contest here on College Info Geek!

To help promote the launch of the Photoshop CS6 beta, Adobe asked me if I wanted to do a contest. I got all wild and crazy-eyed, and was all like,

“Yes.”

So we got down to discussing prizes. They were like, “How about Ritz crackers?”, to which I countered, “One of the Hollywood sign’s letters.”

Eventually, we came to an agreement. As you can tell from the title of this post, I’m giving away one 16gb wi-fi iPad (the new 2012 one), and one wi-fi Kindle Touch. Which means… two of you will win. Read More →