Self promotion is very important for freelance designers. If you want to get clients, you need to let them know you exist, you need to tell them what you can do, and, most of all, you need to show it to them. To that end having a portfolio is not an option, and it is the only tool that will actually tell the tale about your ability to design. Even if you don’t plan to work as a freelancer, you still have to show your work to the companies that will hire you.

Jacci Howard Bear has written a 6 day course that will give you guidelines, tips and directions that will help you put together a portfolio which will speak for itself. As she puts it:

“Desktop publishing or graphic design portfolios should be more than just a few samples thrown into any old folder. Potential employers or clients use examples of your work to help determine whether they want to hire you. The samples you choose for graphic design portfolios and how you present them can affect whether or not you get the job.”

This is an email course with lessons sent to you daily, however you can do the course at your own pace.

Remember that if you can’t present a good image of yourself, others won’t be compelled to put theirs in your hands.

Having a degree can be important in the design business, especially for people who look for firms to employ them. Let’s not forget what having a degree means, that is having the knowledge to use whatever communication channel to effectively deliver a message, whether it be through a flyer, a poster, a website or anything else you can think of.

Fear not, however, because BoDo (Business of Design Online) has just launched. This is one of the most brilliant ideas I have seen. I’ll let the people behind BoDo tell you what this new blog is about.

Many designers setting up shop have searched for answers and assistance by posting questions on various design forums, emailing pros for advice, reading everything on offer and googling when it’s not.

Forums, books and blog postings are helping to address this issue, but from our vantage point, concentrated help was needed. Help that would bring it all together, in one place. Easy to find.

As a Creative Latitude response, the Business of Design online (BoDo) was created.

Conceived and developed by Catherine (cat) Wentworth, Neil (nt) Tortorella and Jeanette (jay) Wickham (the BoDo team), BoDo’s aim is to provide a focused wealth of information, tools and techniques for successfully managing and marketing a design practice.

That’s right, there won’t be a Photoshop tutorial in sight.

On BoDo you’ll find continuously updated resources for running a design shop, including select e-books, business forms, excellent articles and more.

Although the team will contribute regular blog posts and the occasional series, we feel a big part of our strength will be the growing list of visiting authors.

On the design side, BoDo’s visiting author line-up includes Creative Latitude’s Graphic Make-overs host Alina Hagen of Alina Design. At Alina’s In-sights, Alina will post about life in-house. At Erin’s Review, studious Erin Harris of Sanguine Theory will share thoughts on various business of design books. As they happen, at Bean’s Biz, Stefan Bean of Pulse Creative Partners, Inc., will mull over the experiences of a new(ish) business start-up. Sometimes weekly, always monthly, Thomas (Tom) Stephan will have us grinning away in the work place at Dyer Straits.

As designers do not run their businesses in a vacuum, rounding out the discussion will be non-design authors such as writer and blogger ME “Liz” Strauss of Successful Blog, Letting Liz Be, Liz Strauss.com, The Blog Herald, and Performancing.com. Liz will talk about all things business writing at Write with ME. At Creative Conversations, Dr. Tammy Lenski of I Can’t Say That! and Lenski Strategic will share wisdom about conversations and conflict on the client and colleague front. At Creative Coaching, trained psychotherapist and creative coach Mark McGuinness from Wishful Thinking will instruct on the subject of creative thinking, communication and collaboration.

To get things started, we’ll begin with a bite, a nibble, a BoDo Niblet if you will, the “Starting Out and Setting Up” series. The two week series, pulling in advice from Abhijit Nadgouda, Alina Hagen, Chris Tomlinson, Danita Reynolds, Tammy Lenski Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua, ME “Liz” Strauss, Mark McGuinness, Stefan Bean and of course Cat, Neil and Jay, will tackle knowing when you’re ready, managing money, equipment, location, etc.

Coming after will be two series running side by side – “Top 10 Marketing Missteps” (by Neil), covering marketing faux pas. And “Designer’s Working With” (by Cat). The “Working With” series talks about how to effectively work with other creatives such as writers, photographers, marketing professionals, illustrators, programmers, printers and pre press specialists.

In between will be Podcast Humpdays (wink, wink for all you Australians and Europeans out there), Resourceful Fridays, Weekly Recaps, Sunday Stressbusters, and a poll. Jay will come in with, what else, Ask jay, to answer individual business questions.

Starting out with a full schedule, the team looks forward to your comments and input on BoDo. It’s a win-win offer actually, as it’s our goal to help others wade through the new design business quagmire.

So come on down,
The BoDo Team
cat – nt – jay

I was peacefully surfing the internet, in a moment of cyber relaxation. Suddenly I realize my Firefox has an open tab with some site waiting to be looked at and, wondering whether lack of coffee was getting to my head or my touchpad decided I clicked on some Google link, I clicked on the tab.

There it was: an automated logo creation site! It’s called “Make My Own Logo.”

The idea is that a client fills out a form with their company name and their industry and the logo is created. No creative mind behind it, just a bunch of automated logos, which look like the same logos someone else trying the same site will get. Several designers tried it out just for kicks and they were getting pretty much the same logos as everyone else.

It just doesn’t work that way.

Logos have to be unique and have to be based on marketing studies. They have to represent a company, they have to communicate instantly and have to be simple. They are not clipart. And what about the graphic format? MMOL (whose logo is ugly) says it will be instantly mailed. As a JPEG? As a TIF? What if the logo needs to be bigger? A raster format won’t work.

These are the sites that devalue the graphic design profession. Someone decides to make a few bucks by putting up a totally automated site, where the owner has to only make sure the money goes onto their bank account, and there you have it: a site that is damaging not only the graphic design profession but also the clients using it—they get a service that isn’t worth even the $99 advertised on MMOL. All they get is an amateurish logo, with detailed cliparts that don’t look good when the logos are small and don’t look good when they have to be made big, since the file format emailed will be raster.

It’s important that designers spot these things and make them know as examples of what SHOULD NOT be done. These sites say to clients that spec work is the way to go, that they can just get tons of drafts from designers and then go to their uncle who knows how to use Photoshop and will execute the idea for free, infringing the designer’s rights, as well as making sure they won’t get further help from professionals who could be very valuable to them, and who have the know-how to help them as they deserve.

The other day I was sitting in a restaurant with my colleagues, happy to put my teeth onto some Italian gnocchi with tomato and basilico (basil.) We just had a meeting, but there were questions I couldn’t ask in that meeting as they were not pertinent.

I thought—let’s see what these other designers think about spec work, so there was my question, “What do you do with a client who asks you to make changes to a design concept? How many times do you allow them to do it, and do you even have something in the contract about this?”

The discussion was pretty much one sided, “We just make the changes, whatever they are, and regardless of the number of times.”

I argued back, “But don’t you at least charge something for them?”

Guess what the answer was. “No.” So here is an entire graphic design studio, its designers, its salesmen and editors all saying, “We don’t charge for extra work because we keep the client. Of course there are the extreme cases…”

I could go into the ins and outs of the conversation, but something just came home to me—don’t forget you are there for the client, and that “extra” work might save you the time and effort you’d have to put into finding a new client. It’s true that some people might just walk away with 5 proposals, which they will then give to brother Joe to finish off with his MS Publisher, but if you have a contract, your clients are bound to pay for the whole project. So why would they go away? You can get fixated about getting paid for that one draft, but then you earn 30 while you could have earned 200 for the whole project, if you just did that additional draft. And just to reiterate, I am talking about a job you have a contract for.

Then there are the special cases. Those who keep coming back and monopolize your time. Well, I won’t blame you if you decide to let those clients go or charge them extra. Some clients are best when they are lost. Many are nice people who just want you to do some work for them.

So when do you do that little extra work? You have got to use your judgement. Whatever you do, a contract will save your back. It depends on how you get paid too, is it by project or by hour? And do you actually have clients you are setting aside because of this one customer? Are you making the client believe he can just come and monopolize your time? Have you actually educated the client about your profession? Are you forgetting you are giving a service? Did you understand the client’s brief and did you do your research?

There are a few things you have to consider before you make the decision of doing that extra design concept or before you decline it. Cover your back with a contract, make clear who has the rights for the design and then evaluate the situation.

Even though you are supposed to run out the fire escape when the building burns, make sure the fire isn’t waiting for you on the other side. There is no standard answer you can give a client. Make sure both you and the client know well what spec work is and then make your decisions.

The truth is that a designer without clients doesn’t eat. Designers need clients. It is up to us to make clients understand that they need us, the professionals, and that as such we hold a professional conduct.

The NO!SPEC crusade has recently launched its web site in an effort to educate both creatives and those who buy their services about the dangers and damaging effects caused by speculative work and contests. The initiative was developed by a group of visual communication designers across the globe who share a common passion for their industry, ethical business practices and wanted to take a firm stand on the issue of speculative (“spec”) work requests. The site can be found at www.no-spec.com.

Over the past several years, there has been a disturbing increase in the number of spec-based “contests,” particularly in the area of logo design. In addition, more and more companies are requesting that creative projects be done on a speculative basis. Spec projects are those that provide no guarantee of payment for those submitting work. In essence, a creative (graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, writer, etc.) is asked to invest both time and resources into the project with the client only paying for the design they prefer. In many cases all intellectual property rights to the work by the creative are also forfeited to the client.

Contests, or creative competitions, are a particular concern as they offer the allure of notoriety and potential cash prizes. The trend has even moved into the corporate world where large companies, with more than adequate resources to pay fair market value, are holding competitions to procure their creative needs. Typically, the winner receives a prize that is below market value for their design. In many cases the contest sponsor takes ownership and all rights to all submissions.

Through its site, NO!SPEC provides resources and information for creatives about the nature of spec work, how to identify it and how to take a stand against it. In addition, the site provides businesses with information about why making speculative work requests is both harmful to the creative community and potentially dangerous for their business. NO!SPEC also provides information about how buyers of creative services can ethically procure creative services.

The NO!SPEC initiative includes contacting designers, educators, businesses and organizations, creating NO!SPEC promotional materials, protest letters, and developing petitions. In the future there will be NO!SPEC material for educators to use in classrooms, and more.

With the international support of NO!SPEC, we ask that you please join us in promoting professional, ethical business practices by saying NO! to spec.

NO!SPEC crusade
www.no-spec.com
Contact NO!SPEC

[tags]design, business, graphic design, desktop publishing, web design, creative, communications, visual, photography, illustration[/tags]

So, what is a Case Study?

A case study demonstrates how a specific situation was initially identified, which solution was selected to resolve the issue, and a summary of the final results.

In the IT world, case studies tend to be short; somewhere between 300-500 words.

In general, aim for three pages, and include one graphic per page at most. Anything more and it looks like ‘hard sell’; case studies typically adopt a ‘soft-sell’ approach.

How to structure your case study

There are three sections to a case study.

• • Problem
• • Implementation
• • Results

The opening ‘problem’ section must carry a punch. In other words, it has to mean something to the reader – something that they can relate to.

Always write about an issue that has significant business impact for the reader. Demonstrate how your product resolved a critical business issue—what you’re implying in this section is that if they choose your service, you can also resolve their issues…

Indeed, the more specific the case study, the more effective it will be. Case Studies that propose to ‘solve all problems’ are not taken seriously.

Highlight the Benefits

Instead, concentrate on how the solution, or service, addresses a very specific issue. Be very careful here, as the entire case study is built around this single issue.

Don’t dilute the case study by addressing more the one issue – stick to one area and explain how you can solve the problem in measurable and quantifiable terms. For example:

• • Support your case study with statistics, figures and tables where appropriate.
• • Return On Investment — explain how the investment in your product/service pays for itself. For example, it increases productivity by 50% within 2 months.
• • Demonstrate how you can substantiate this; otherwise, your argument loses credibility.
• • Cost Containment – how does the solution help contain costs? This area is very important, as budgets are always a sensitive issue. If you can illustrate how a similar company saved a certain amount of money by adopting your product—i.e. real proof—you’ll certainly captures the reader’s attention.
• • Reducing Barriers — demonstrate how your solution improves operations. For example, how does it fit into their business process? This is a good area to mention how your system plugs into other applications or expensive business critical applications.
• • Use your judgment when compiling the final case study document. Avoid making it too technical or overloading it with excessive statistics.
• • Make the statistics stand out so that the reader can easily digest them — and then remember them later on.

Long Term Rewards

Impressive case studies stand out; decision-makers will use them as a source of reference and cite you as a credible, trustworthy and reliable source of information — the type of company people want to do business with.

PS

Include a benefit in the title of your case study.

Instead of writing “Aerospace Case Study”, say “Case study on How Product X Improved Sales by 300%”.

Grab their attention from the start — and then keep it!

Article by Ivan Walsh, who runs Klariti.com and specializes in Professional Writing Services.

[tags]writing, business, promotion, case study, marketing[/tags]

Jacci Howard Bear, on About Desktop Publishing, writes about an interesting report on the Desktop Publishing job’s current situation. The report is by The Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, and states an expected growth in the field.

They also report how desktop publishers often required to know web design and I can tell that the report holds true also in Italy and probably in other countries. Looking through job ads, I see many requests for designers who basically have to be able to do print design and web design, while bigger companies tend to leave the two separate.

Print and web design are very different and bigger companies seems to either understand this more or to have more resources to hire professionals who are specialized in those two fields.

There are also other interesting points in the report, but I’ll let you read Jacci’s article on it as she has done a really good job in summarizing it already.

[tags]DTP, Desktop Publishing, design, web design, jobs, business[/tags]

From Be a Design Group:

On the Almost-Tenth Be A Design Cast we welcome fellow Be A Design Group author and AIGA Nebraska President Drew Davies to the show, filling in mightily for Mr. Nemitz. We dive into the treacherous waters of spec work, Olympic design, and design competitions. Also, Drew shatters my faith in House Industries. (But hey, we all did dumb things when we were younger, right?)

Right click to download Be A Design Cast 9 to your computer, (7mb) or subscribe directly from iTunes.

[tags]business, design, graphic design[/tags]

I was travelling by train yesterday and I was a little surprised to see the trainman remaining seated reading his… whatever it was, without even asking to see my ticket.

I sat down thinking “Oh well, who cares, I know I have it and he’ll probably stand up soon and check out the whole compartment.”

Next station a new railway staff boarded the train; he happily started talking to the other crew member. By the time I stepped off the train there were 4 of them discussing workshifts. I thought, “Well, if I didn’t have a ticket they wouldn’t have found out.” Then I thought that if no one buys a ticket there wouldn’t be trains and the reason why I was buying a ticket wasn’t to avoid to be caught.

It really is a matter of exchange. Money for the sake of it doesn’t have value. Money is something that allows one to get something for something he gave. If you use a service, such a public transport in this case, you need to give something in exchange so that the service continues to exist. This seems easy enough, however there are people who do not respect that and you need railway staff to demand it.

So why would a client ask you to do spec work? Because you do not demand, however politely, that this simple rule of exchange is respected with you.

Some clients understand this and do not ask you to do something for nothing. Other clients do not understand that spec work is getting something for nothing and need to be educated.

There is no railway crew in the graphic design profession. There is just you and the client. There is nobody who enforces your right to proper exchange aside from yourself. So how do you protect yourself from spec work? Educate your client while politely saying “no.”

Your work has value, your time spent in learning your profession, your expertise, your design should get the exchange they deserve. Don’t do projects before the client pays you at least a deposit and use a contract spelling clearly your rights and the client’s on any of the artwork and files used in the project. Not doing so could potentially end up in a rip off of your work, as the client might give your artwork to someone else who will “finish it for free” leaving you with no compensation.

Aside from what you can do with your clients, there are other ways to make sure people understand what spec work is and how it damages designers and clients, as they don’t get the best service they could get—you can join the NO!SPEC campaign, which me and 20 more designers have proudly started. More and more people are joining in and we are making a difference. The NO!SPEC site offers many resources not only about the anatomy of spec work but also about the correct way to conduct a design business.

You can contribute to the NO!SPEC campaign in several ways:

1. Don’t do spec work
2. Put a NO!SPEC logo on your site
3. Contribute articles about the bad and the ugly of spec work to the NO!SPEC site
4. Write an article on your own site and notify NO!SPEC so you will be featured on NO!SPEC
5. Make a whole NO!SPEC page and let NO!SPEC know
6. Help translate the NO!SPEC site in other languages

There are other ways too, so I advise you to check out the site to find out.
[tags]spec work, business[/tags]

Today’s tip is inspired by something that is happening to me with a design job I am doing and that is frustrating me. I am in a situation where both me and my client are the printer’s client.

I couldn’t get an answer from the printer to the simple question: “What format do you want the logo in?” (the logo is for a sign) I had to suggest to him which format would have been better for that kind of job.

Another question I couldn’t get an answer to is: “Do you want the artwork to be RGB or CMYK?” Not knowing what method of printing they were going to use I had to ask. Days passed by and I didn’t yet get an answer, which so far I have asked three times.

So what’s the moral?

Know your stuff and answer the client’s questions with precision. Do it fast, too.

[tags]business, client relationships, printing, prepress, desktop publishing[/tags]