Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category
Monday, March 17th, 2008
Your customers will always ask you, why is that so expensive? That’s the moment when you need to defend and stand up for your design, your job and it’s quality.Our profession, many times, tends to be underestimated and some even say “it’s something anybody can do” and this is a grand mistake! When we talk about the price remember this:
Work quality: this is the single most important item of your work. Without high quality, you’re not going far.
Deadlines: this is what all customers love, as long as you have the design done by the time they wanted it. To help out with this one, I always try to have my designs ready 1-2 days before my deadline, you never know what can happen.
Image costs: when the customers cannot provide you with pictures, this is an additional price.
Development of the design: this includes the time it took you to make the design itself, the research, ect.
The design: every designer is different, I always give a printed copy to my customer before the deadline. I’m paid for doing a job, a design that will not longer be mine, but theirs.
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Graphic Design | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
For anyone out there that has at least once been asked the question: But why so much money? I believe this is a very common thing that happens as a freelancer. It´s really important to get to know your product in order to stablish a fair price.
Note: Don’t lie, be 100% honest.
Posted in Articles, Freelance | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
When it’s Christmas time you know two things will happen: gift giveout and anual reports. Gtemplates has created a great template for Photoshop with Christmas designs PSD.
It can even be used for christmas cards.
Posted in Articles, Resources, Templates | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
If I could number the times I’ve heard the phrase “it’ just that am not creative today” or “am havin’ a low creativy day”. I would be in the millions. When you’re a graphic designer you need tons of creativity to develop all your works. It’s true that we cannot be “inspired” all the time, there are factors that affect us like: hours of sleep, lack of concentration, mental fatigue, etc.
It’s important to stay focused, in order to do this, let me give you a couple advices:
Look, look at everything: If you’re standing in front of a street light. If you’re waiting for a bus, check out the ads on it. Look at a magazine. Look at anything.
Go and take a walk: it’s not only healthy, you’ll also be able to relax your mind.
Take a nap: Trust me, sleeping just a couple hours will not make your imagination raise. You’ll lose a lot of time and you’ll be highly irritated, etc. The lack of sleep can turn people into monsters. Take at least a 15 minute nap and check out the difference!
Listen to music: Make sure it’s not a stressing music, make sure it helps you relax, not dance!
Go “Window Shopping”: See catalogues, stores, stands, magazines, ads, anything will be useful for your imagination. Malls are full of colors and ideas will flow right into your head, just bring pen and paper.
Posted in Articles, Creativity | No Comments »
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
I know that many graphic designers don’t like feedback, because customers can give both negative as well as possitive comments about a designer’s work. But it’s only a critic, it’s nothing personal.
If there’s something I always like to take my time explaining to my customer is the chosen color, a shape, an image, etc. Remember you’re the expert here, the one who should suggest to the customer what’s going to be the best for his/her project. I know there are picky customers, and they don’t know anything about designing. Breathe! Be patient and breathe!
I can tell you also that when the customer approves the draft, tell him/her that from this point on, you’ll take over the whole design. To avoid any “last minute changes.”
There will be other moments when the customer has a clearer vision or what he/she wants. Listen carefully, because you get good ideas out of this. Whatever happens, the customer is always right and he/she deserves to be listened!
Posted in Articles, Freelance | No Comments »
