Pinch is featured on Contra! 🎉

It started as a free afternoon and a brief to myself: a salt brand you'd actually leave out on the counter. Five flavors, five tins, one very sassy voice.

Thank you Contra !!

Designers, do you make concept projects in between client work? How do you pick what to make?

It was really a unique salt brand 🎉🎉❤️❤️

Two months later: 141 → 158. Still top 5%.

Last time I posted, my Contra Discovery Score was 141.

Today it’s 158, and I’m still in the top 5% of creatives.

A few things changed since then.

I became a Lummi Expert, which gave me an expert badge, featured placement, and more visibility inside Contra.

I also stopped treating my portfolio like a gallery and started treating it more like proof.

Recently I added a full Aegir Aqua case study series:

Brand identity, packaging & 3D

Presentation design

Website design & development

Same client, but split into separate case studies so each type of work is easier for clients to understand.

That has probably been the biggest portfolio improvement for me lately.

I’m also still sending proposals consistently.

That part hasn’t changed.

My last post was basically saying: if your profile is already strong, the problem is often not the profile it’s volume.

I still believe that.

But now I’d add one thing:

Volume gets you seen. Proof gets you taken seriously.

A strong proposal gets the click.

A strong case study gives the client a reason to stay.

And having both working together is where things start compounding.

So the progress since August:

141 → 158 Discovery Score Still top 5% Lummi Expert badge More complete case studies Better positioning across brand, packaging, 3D and web

Still refining. Still applying. Still learning what actually moves the needle.

If anyone is working on their Contra profile, case studies, or proposals, happy to share what’s been working for me.

Hey Asad congratulations on your growth. 😍 I am new to contra and I am still learning and your post was very informative for me. Could you plese guide me more on how I can grow here?