Graphic designers must master many visual disciplines in order to create work that will make an impact. Designers are students of form, composition, color, type, contrast, imagery, and pattern. A good designer knows how subtle effects of font choice, or image size, or color balance will impact their designs. Designers will labor over font sizes, […]
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The HeART of Design Business is a five-part series that addresses the tensions artists feel when they face the creativity-sapping realities of running a business. Part one dealt with matters of money and finances, part two with measuring time, part three with marketing, part four with managing growth, and in this final installment we’ll get […]
The HeART of Design Business is a five part series that addresses the tensions artists feel when they face the creativity sapping realities of running a business. Part one dealt with matters of money and finances, part two with measuring time, part three with marketing. In part four we’ll talk about managing growth and the […]
The HeART of Design Business is a five-part series addressing the inner tensions artists feel as they face the creativity-sapping realities of running a business. Part one dealt with matters of money and finances, part two with measuring time, and in this third installment we’ll dig deep as we face the universally despised tasks of […]
In Part One of this five-part series on the HeART of Design Business, I considered how a negative view of money, and of commercial enterprise in general, can demotivate a designer from the business aspects of their work. Our resistance to evaluating balance sheets and tracking our cash flow rises when we suspect that matters […]
When you, as an owner of a design practice, face business realities like finances, schedules, sales, and employee turnover—does the creative part of your soul start to shrivel? Does it feel like all the creativity gets sucked out of the room? As an artist or designer, you live with an uneasy tension between your creative […]
What’s your ideal hourly rate? I bet it’s higher that you’re charging today, right? You should start charging that ideal future rate today. Before I explain why and how first let me say that I strongly advise my clients against charging by the hour at all. For a variety of reasons, this is a self-defeating […]
If you don’t have time to read this post (or finish reading it since you’ve already started) you really should finish this one. When I consult design firms I use a methodology I call the 5M Assessment. It evaluates the firm, or the freelance practice, from five vital perspectives Money, Measurement, Marketing, Management and Motivation. […]
HOW Design published another of my articles. This one was about ineffective design firm blogs. What should be a compelling demonstration of a design firm’s valuable expertise tends to shift downward to Facebook like updates, which are fine as far as they go, but useless or juiceless when it comes to sales and marketing. But […]
Can you relate to this common story? While moonlighting as a freelance designer, burning the midnight oil, sacrificing weekends, you dreamt of one day freelancing full time. Then it happened. You picked up a couple good clients and it seemed like it was time to make the leap. You quit your day job and set […]