Signage, stationary and forms, oh my! Businesses can easily create enough visual material to fill up an ark. There’s a logo, of course, and everything it gets applied to, such as: brochures, catalogs, websites, print and e-newsletters, Facebook pages, ads, uniforms, vehicle graphics, and more.

When a company is successful, it grows and expands. As it moves from infancy to adulthood, its visual armaments grow as well. One location becomes three, then twenty and so on. Each one brings with it more of everything. More signs. More stationery. More forms. This can avalanche out of control. Hopefully, someone is keeping an eye on things. But, that’s often not quite the case.

Enter the design audit. “Audit” might be a word that puts the fear of the taxman into you, but don’t sweat it. This kind of audit is a good thing. And it’s an opportunity for freelance designers to expand their service offering. Continue Reading

A career in Freelance Illustration is much more than drawing pretty pictures. As much as you’d like to spend the entire day sitting in front of Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you’ll also need to learn about selling yourself, keeping your portfolio fresh and, all the admin work we love to hate. It’s this work we love to hate that will define your success as an illustrator.

There are many different things you may wish to consider when thinking about entering into professional illustration, such as:

• The purpose of your illustration: Illustration itself covers many different areas. While drawing pretty pictures maybe one aspect, you need to be specific in your objectives.

  Are you wanting to illustrate for advertising campaigns? What about book covers? Maybe graphics to accompany news and magazine articles? Maybe graphics for a cocktail menu? How about diagrams for medical journals? And there are also illustrations for packaging? These are just the tip of the iceberg of the many avenues you could go down in finding a niche illustration market.

• The medium of your artwork: Sometimes the purpose of your illustration can depend on what medium your artwork will be rendered in. For instance, is the work going to be displayed on a CD cover? If so, maybe an illustration within Photoshop/raster based work will be fine. However if the work is going to be displayed on a billboard and you’re going to need a high resolution graphic, perhaps looking at vector work in Illustrator is what you need. If you’re unsure of the key differences of these mediums, check out this article on What is Vexel Art?, which goes into what raster and vector art is.

• Client vs Stock: There are several ways you could earn money as a freelance illustrator. The most obvious is via clients who commission you to create a tailored piece of artwork to their specifications. However there is another way you can earn money with illustration and that’s selling your illustrations via stock websites. There is a huge benefit of creating illustration stock and that is that you don’t have to deal direct with clients. So if selling yourself and hunting out clients isn’t your thing, then maybe this route is something you may want to consider.

  To find out more about this check out these articles on How I Make $2,000 Every Year Without Doing Very Much and the follow up article 9 Tips for Creating and Maximizing a Steady Income Stream by Selling Stock.

• Agency Representation: Illustration agencies act as a third party. They market your work through the relevant channels and are great for getting those household name clients. Bigger companies tend to target agencies due to the variety of talent on their books, experience and convenience.

  The benefits of being represented is that they will can handle contracts with clients and can help negotiate larger fees. However, they don’t do this for nothing and they will take a commission percentage from your fees. They may also ask you to cover costs for promoting your works to directories and marketing opportunities. For more, check out the article on Computer Arts: Finding an agent.

Advice from Talented Freelance Illustrators

I’m going to introduce you to five talented Freelance Illustrators. They’ll tell you how they got into freelancing and what advice they can give you on getting started in a career in Freelance Illustration.

Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is. presented by graphic designer Chip Kidd. In this video we learn about the art of book cover design. Chip Kidd creates book covers that embody the book — and he does it with a wicked sense of humor. In one of the funniest talks from TED2012, he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs. Continue Reading

In this day and age it’s not uncommon to hear bold statements such as “The business card is dead, it’s all about wireless vCard” or “I’ll email my contact details over after the conference”.

The truth is business cards are as prominent as ever, especially with the ever advancing methods that printing allows, such as: unusual shapes, textures, thicknesses, and sizes.

Business cards provide a platform to express your workmanship and creativity, allowing you to nudge aside the tech obsessed that are trying to bump their phones together to exchange details. You can attract the attention of potential clients or partners with a compact and handy card. What do you think is going to make more of an impact, an electronic vCard you forget about the moment you receive it, or a sturdy and beautifully designed business card?

We have compiled a list of common mistakes people make when designing their business cards, which will help you to create a compelling business card design.

1. Low Quality Images and Graphics

Nothing ruins a business card design more than blurry or pixelated images. You wouldn’t put one on your website, so why make an exception for your business card. Remember that just because something looks good on your screen, doesn’t mean it will print fine.

A good guide if you are using photographs is to make sure that they are at least 300dpi. Also, if you are using a logo ensure that it is vector based. Vector files will easily scale up (or down) without any loss of quality.

2. Cheap Quality Card

Think about what your card “says” as you hand it over. Is it strong, sturdy and solid or is it weak and flimsy like a limp handshake? Nearly all online printers offer free sample packs these days, so request one and try them out! Continue Reading

The graphic designer leave behind has, ironically, been left behind in recent years. Its something that is heavily focused on in design school, but rarely is it put into practice in the real world. I think that’s a shame.

If you made a good impression on your potential client or interviewer, the leave-behind is such a great opportunity to make that impression last. When done right, leaving something tangible behind will help keep you top-of-mind, which will increase your chances of landing the job. Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at What to do if a Client Hates Your Design (and more!) by spoongraphics. In this video learn what you can do if your client dislikes your design work, what you can try to avoid back pain while working at your computer and whether it’s a good idea to label yourself as a Freelance Designer.. Continue Reading

Do you need to carry your freelance brand into print? If so, you can hire a professional designer to assist you with creating your identity. There is another option though. If your budget is tight and time is limited, there is no better solution than grabbing a high quality stationery brand template. You can present your business with a professional style, at minimal cost.

Continue Reading

I am not a web designer, and nor are you. Or a developer. Or a writer. Or whatever it is you think you are. You’re not – not in any meaningful way.

Full disclosure: I am actually a web designer, probably, but stick with me here.

I thought I was – for a long time. There I went, opening Fireworks, pushing pixels, and then getting my funky code on … breaking out text editors, CSS editors, learning jQuery, HTML5 – boy, you name it, if it moved, I’d web design it. Yup, I was a web designer. That’s what I was.

Except, that is, unless you asked my clients. Talk to them and I was the ‘internet guy’, ‘the marketing guy’, ‘our web support guy’. A whole bunch of things that didn’t once mention design. Vague descriptions of my role that I didn’t really recognise.

The crux of it was that to my clients I was a service provider … someone who provided a thing they needed. They needed a website, I’d help with that. They needed somewhere to host it, sure I’d sort that out. They needed some email marketing done, a little SEO work, or a Facebook page. No problem.

“Sure”, you’re thinking, “clients just want you to do everything for them – that’s okay, but I am a web designer. I am.”

No, you’re not. And the sooner you realise this, the quicker you’ll start offering better services and getting more clients.

Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Ways of Seeing by Rob Forbes. This weekend we’re sharing an interesting talk by, Rob Forbes, who shares a gallery of snapshots that inform his way of seeing the world. Charming juxtapositions, found art, urban patterns. Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Philippe Starck Thinks Deep on Design by Philippe Starck. In this video Philippe Starck, With no pretty slides to show — Stark spends 18 minutes reaching for the very roots of the question “Why design?” Listen carefully for one perfect mantra for all of us, genius or not. Continue Reading

Desktop publishing has become a critical business skill today, and the use of the Internet means that creation of print content is no longer the only consideration.

Now the documents you create likely have to be displayed in both print and on the web.

This article looks at how to determine the right tools for the job, as well as resources for getting the best possible desktop publishing results (such as where to find the best free desktop publishing fonts).

No matter what the final format, never forget that quality content is the primary goal, and following a proven desktop publishing process will result in higher quality results.

It’s easy to get distracted with the technical side of desktop publishing layouts. The real key is to communicate your information effectively. No matter how well-designed, how great the layout, and how clever the typography selection — if you don’t get the important information to the right people, nothing else matters.

Jump into this article and learn desktop publishing tips that will give your work the professional edge.

Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Our Brains are Mis-wired by Al Seckel. In this talk, Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it. Continue Reading