Stop being afraid to ask for money

You may be thinking asking for money that is not a hard problem for me to do. When we as designers no matter what profession people will think they can get us to do whatever for free. Honestly if you are upfront with them about payment you can find out who is serious and who is not.

Because you should be feeling as if your work is good enough to have people pay for it. This is one of the things that has to be learned through trial and error. The other thing is to be able to sell your work to a client. If you have a client and they say they like your work and are trying to get you to work for free be honest with them but not an asshole about it. You are a professional so start acting like one.

Another thing is asking for more for the amount of work you are doing. If you are low balling yourself and not being able to continuously make a living and even more then you have to start knowing how to ask for more money for your time. Of course over time your skill set will improve. Then you increase your prices a bit. So stop being afraid to ask for money when your doing work with a client or whomever.

Elle Luna on Finding Your Must

Last night to be exact I watched this while having fun using my dip pen. Elle she touches on something that I feel we all should be doing and that is going on an artist date. Which she described as doing whatever you feel like doing artistically. For example whenever I am lettering I feel like using a dip pen instead of a cartridge pen while doing calligraphy.

The continued amount of play with work will allow you to enjoy the process even more. Whenever you are working on a project and you get the urge to draw or maybe not even draw you get the urge to drink lemonade while designing do it. Learn to listen to your inner self and to not kill it by ignoring what it says to you.

Happy ThanksGiving

Now Chapter Music

For this project was to redesign a logo for a music company. The overall look and feel was to have something more contemporary and up to date with the times. Also a mark that would be useful in many different genres of music.

Goals: create branding for a music company that captures the different types of music that can be produced from a music company.

Solution: Using a clean Sans Serif typeface combined with a well known illustration of a natural occurence from nature

See more here

GLOBALL

Its going to be interesting to see how this turns out. I really like the concept of it as well.

The Art of Sign Painting with Nicolai Sclater – Ornamental Conifer

Its remarkable to see how everything ties itself together no matter what profession it may be.

My First Real Graphic Design Job Interview and Tips

This past week I had my first real Graphic Design interview. The position was for a graphic design/web designer position. I will admit I was a little nervous and happy at first to even have an interview. The workspace was great and I could have really seen myself working with those guys.

What I learned was that I need to have more web experience. As you all know I am doing Code Academy classes. You have to remember that now everyone who has a computer and downloads photoshop or another editing program believes they can be a designer. So learn more then just being a graphic designer.

I was told my Design work is very strong now I just have to focus on learning web design. Also to grow my portfolio with more pieces. Which both are things I have started to do with more intensity. Now let me tell you some tips to have a great presentation for your Graphic design Job interview.

Its ok to be nervous that is human nature and you should be worried when you are not nervous
Use the bathroom before you go into your interview
Dress to impress meaning wear dress clothes ( I wore a dress shirt with a Tie and dress shoes) and remember you never get a second chance to make a first impression
Be yourself
Present your work with confidence and show it in use
Have business cards to give and bring at least 5 or more
Shake their hand and give a firm squeeze and introduce yourself (when you introduce each other)
Arrive at least 15 minutes early
If you wear cologne/perfume make sure its a light version and no more then 2 sprays.
After the interview is over thank them for taking the time to interview with you and hand them your business card and ask them for theirs.
Send them a thank you email and say thank you for taking the time to interview me for the position (add more then just a thank you) and be honest in the email.
If you get the position then congratulations and if you did not ask them what you could improve on and what would’ve given you a better chance.

Well I hope these tips will help you get the Graphic Design position that you have been always wanting to have. So keep designing and thanks for reading.

What are some interview tips you can give for going for Graphic Design Job interview?

One Coin for All of Your Cards

This is actually pretty interesting to see something like this exists. I for one don’t think I could trust something like this no matter what. Because the safety of having all of your cards on one card. Basically to me seems as if you lose it then your basically screwed. But I know Coin has thought of those possibilities. What I do like about it is the simplicity of having less to carry. Also the app that notifies you when you’ve left your card behind which makes this even more awesome.

Are you going to order one? What are your thoughts about it? Let me know in the comments below

How to make typography

Developing typography is really pretty simple. The difficult part is the details of the letters and many other things. Depending upon what you plan to do with the typography will determine the type design. Then you will want to figure out what is the most important part of your typography.

For one you want to determine what type of typography you were going to be making. The different types are hand drawn typography and digital type to keep it simple. Which honestly hand drawn typography which is normally what the digital typography comes from. Which will depend upon whether or not its going to be used as a font.

The steps to take to make typography

Determine what the font will be used for
Determine whether or not this will be a hand drawn quote or font
Fix the details
Fix the details some more
Fix the details even more
Digitize (scan onto your computer) or outline with microns or fineliners to give it a finished look
Clean up everything and smooth out your typography
Go back over each little detail
Finish

Making typography is such a fun and relaxing thing. But you may or not understand the amount of detail that is involved with creating a font. Also hand lettering can be such a time consuming task. Which will utterly depend on you if you are wanting to make it look beautiful or just to finish it. So go and have fun with typography.

Lil Kim Steals Art work and Gives No Credit

So I came across a reddit thread about none other then little kim stealing someones art work and giving no credit for it. Someone like little Kim you would expect her to do the right thing being an artist. Because if someone got caught downloading her music they would be sued like no other.

I can only imagine how much more things like this happen to many artists across the world. The girl that produced this work her name is Samantha Ravndahl of Batalashbeauty. Her instagram is here and little kims is here and I wish the best for samantha in this case. The art is supposedly for a mixtape and that absolutely makes no difference. The artist should be paid.

So for example lets take this into consideration on how many people will listen to Kims song, People who know of Lil Kim, How many people follow her on twitter over 1 million people do. This utterly disgusts me that a musician would do such a thing and here’s a link to the full thread on reddit.

So remember this even if someone steals your artwork and gives you no credit people will eventually find out about it. Because now more people are going to know about Samantha Ravndahl and what she does. I am very interested in how this turns out in the coming weeks.

One thing I forgot to mention

Lil Kim took the photo and put her watermark over it which you can see on her instagram.

What are your thoughts about Lil kim doing such a thing?

If you have a vision follow it

Whenever we have a vision I know that it can be hard for some people to take action. Then a month or so later they still have not made any change. The same thing can be said for someone wanting to be a freelancer and never contacting clients. When honestly its easy and also easy not to do.

You may sit at work or in class and have ideas for products to create. The question I’m wondering is why have you not made them? Now this day in age its so easy to start a business or learn something you do not know quickly. There is also no problem that you are having that someone else has not had. Stop being a consumer and start being a producer.

There may be at times people that want you to do the normal thing. Which is getting a Job and then live a normal life. Not saying doing so is bad but you have to be honest with yourself. This is not for everyone to do because honestly not everyone could deal with what comes of this.

So from now on if you have a vision of something that you want to create stop wishful thinking and take action. Taking action simply starts with setting goals that will push you in the direction you want to go. You can do it if you believe.