Category: Uncategorized

Before there was Photoshop

 

This really opened my eyes up about how fortunate we are now to have photshop. Sheesh the process is crazy long and I could only imagine how many people would not call themselves graphic designers if they had to learn these skills.

Why showing up as a Graphic Designer actually works

 

You may have heard this saying before just show up. Well let me tell you it is working out for me. I have been posting daily to my instagram for over a year and I am almost at year 2. The many days that I felt like quitting has been more than I can count.

But you know what I stuck with it and I am going strong. The effects of it have been working out pretty well. I was able to be contacted based off of the work that I have been posting to do work for a client. Then the other day I was contacted to collaborate with someone.

Mind you this is based off of the lessons I learned from seanwes. A quote from seanwes when he said show up everyday for 2 years. I took that to heart and I said to myself I am going to do what he said and see what happens. Plus I am enjoying the Journey to get to where I envision myself to be.

Many people will not devote themselves to do such a task. We will get bored with something so fast and then move onto someone else and rinse and repeat. We’ll when you curate what you share you will attract the type of clients you want.

If you have an instagram or twitter and you post whatever you are not directly creating the impression of what you are interested in. You may just have an account to post whatever you want. If you look into my instagram you can see that I was not sure of how to use it correctly.

But overtime you tend to see how I shifted my focus and started showing up everyday. Lets be honest many of you are probably lazy. You probably just go to your day job and do your job and go home and are happy with that. Well there’s nothing wrong with any of that. I want to say all of this because if you are wanting to pursue something you have to put in the work and show up.

Even on the day’s you don’t feel like doing anything you have to put in the work. You have to set goals and take action. Because you have dreams but without goals they will just remain dreams. Plus think of how happy you would be if you started staying with something until it worked for you?

Stop giving up and stop giving excuses

Why as a graphic designer you should focus on the Quanity and the Quality

Being a creative individual you may have heard the saying focus on the quality not the quantity. Well focusing on the quantity it only allows you to go so far. Because when you are putting out more quantity you will eventually develop better quality.

Think of a person you know who when they first started their work was terrible. Now after them working hard and constantly putting out work they have improved. A good example is to look deep into my feed on instagram when I started taking calligraphy seriously.

You can see the progression from terrible to ok and now from ok to mediocre. I for one do not like to feel as if I have ever reached my plateu I want to continually keep improving. The same thing should be for you. You have to want to improve more than anything. If you are not wanting to improve your work will continue to be the same. As well as your life will continue to be the same.

Now If you are an individual who wants to improve then you have to put your head down and get to work. By get to work you have to get creating. Many people fall into the trap of “hows it going to make me money?” This is a repeated phrase from people focusing on the wrong thing. I am not saying money is a bad thing.

Just that with more experience you can increase price and quality. Do you think many companies who put out products who are terrible that if they did not put the products that were crap they would not have improved the quality.

But you have to be willing to experiment and fail. This is a process that is continuous throughout your whole life. Not giving up when you feel its not worth it anymore takes will and believing in yourself and your work.

Putting out a lot of work will allow you to improve the quality of your work. So you have to put your head down and get to work creating. If you are just sitting around waiting for inspiration it will not come to you. When you are working consistently and frequently you will put out a great quantity of work and therefore your skills will improve. But you should continually focus on improving your work when you are creating.

Dreams

Dreams without Goals Remain Dreams – Denzel Washington

How you can develop confidence and believe in your design work

This is one major thing that I always tend to say to myself. Because at times we can forget how far of a journey we have traveled to get to where we are currently. Another thing is to not change who we are as a person. When we remember where we came from the journey is worth it.

The other various things are to keep the fear of failing to avoid going back to where you were from. This is something that I constantly do with myself. Because I am not going to pretend as if I came from nothing because my father and step mother provided a great life for me. I just think in terms of if the city I lived in would allow me to achieve the things that I want to achieve.

I mean I know its possible but some people look at things differently. Also I wanted to have a challenge with succeeding. This could be looked at getting out of ones comfort zone. Because lets be honest if you are living in the same town you grew up in and not wanting more your just limiting yourself. But this could not be the case for you.

The main thing is that I am saying is to not pretend to be something or someone you are not. if you are a southerner no need to pretend you are not one. I used to hesitate with telling people where I am from when I moved south florida. But honestly why would it matter if I was from a place or not.

As this is said I want to tie this into your design work. You may be at the point where you are not confident at all. You may think ugh another crappy piece of design work. Well that’s ok to experience such a thing. Being a graphic designer you should want to constantly improve your work.

This is in relation to stepping out of your comfort zone. I for one was super comfortable working in illustrator compared to working in photoshop. When I freelanced at the ad agency for the time I did all we did was work in photoshop. Another thing was my current job we tend to use photoshop a lot.

In regards to all of this it helped me become a better and more confident designer and a more confident person. As well as trusting my design decisions. Because you will not have time to sit and sketch out ideas like you would in different situations. Which there is nothing wrong with sketching ideas out. Sketching is critical. But for some creative jobs that is not an option it just requires your creativity.

Remember to never forget where you came from and enjoy the journey. If you don’t believe in yourself who will?

Why motivation will not help you be a more creative Graphic Designer

We as humans like to experience many things that make us feel good. I for one know the power of how motivational material can change ones life. But the thing about motivational material is it can brainwash us to a certain aspect.

By brainwash I mean it can cloud our reality in front of us. Which can either be detrimental or beneficial. But I cannot see how it would benefit anyone in any way. I am not saying its a bad thing but you want to be honest with yourself.

Motivation or motivational material had me listening constantly to it but not taking action. So recently I was even more honest with myself and said ” You listen to so much motivational material and what did Gary vaynerchuk say? you are most likely not taking action you’re just listening.

Just listening think about that for a second. How many times do you read a book or hear a speech and just listen but you never act. If you are in a rut or down about being a graphic designer there is no one that can truly save you but yourself. There’s people who can motivate you and give you a boost. But none of that matters if you are not willing to take the first step.

You have to take action and stop wishful thinking and being afraid to work hard. The fear of why work that hard why do this, why do that. My thoughts are why not work hard? Why not give it my all. Why not go a little further with work for a client or whomever to see what I can do. But this type of motivation comes from within.

The only thing listening to motivational audio tapes, videos and etc will do is just give you a good feeling. You know the same as drinking at a bar or at home. The feeling is  good temporarily but in the morning you’ll think why did I drink so much and not control myself. I want you to realize that the wonderful lasting feeling is to take action and believe in yourself.

I will give you steps next week on how to began to believe in your work as a graphic designer it will be a three part series.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend.

How to hire a freelance Graphic Designer

When it comes to hiring a graphic designer it can be a brand new thing for many. You may have not idea how to even go about doing it. Also you may not know what to look for in a graphic designer. Well I will show you how to do it the proper way.

At first you are just searching freelance graphic designers in your area on google. Also you could even search Freelance graphic design and LinkedIn is another option for finding freelance graphic designers.

There is quite a bit of graphic designers on various social media. But you also have to be careful of the imposters. By that I mean of the people who pretend to be designers. The people such as whom will have amazing designs and seem amazing and so skilled but the work is not theirs. So do your research and even do a google image search of their work.

But if you notice they actually show process of their work then you can tell they are honest and who they say they are. So you are looking over their portfolio and seeing their skill-set. Which there should be no reason for you to do a quote on quote test project for a designer who you want hire.

When you give the ultimatum of doing a test project it gives the designer an impression of you are not sure if you want to hire them or not. Do you think you could go to a lawyer and say I have a situation and I want you to represent me in court and I will pay you depending on how it turns out. Or you would not go a doctor and say I need surgery but I want to test you out and see how you do. Stop with this nonsense and be serious with the goal you are trying to accomplish and have a designer solve.

Now communication is key with working efficiently with a designer. You want to always be in tune with whats going on and how the process is working. I personally tend to keep the client whom I am working with up to date with how the process is going. The reason for doing this is to let the client know they are getting their money’s worth and I am actually doing the work for them.If you’re designer is not an effective communicator this is something to be a wary of. Keep this as a main priority.

Paying your designer should not even be a question. You should be willing to pay the rate whatever the designer charges. There should be no negotiation and duel to milk the designer for a cheaper rate. Now when you negotiate the rate for a designer paying at least half up front as an initial deposit of what the entire project would cost. If the Graphic designer, web designer’s rates are too high for you then you will have to find someone who you can afford. Let the designer know if you cannot and the graphic designer or web designer may be willing to negotiate.

Contracts should be signed and in agreement with the project that is being completed. You want to protect yourself if there is any problems. The contracts are normally supplied from the graphic designer. But this would depend on the project and etc.

You do not want to try and take shortcuts on hiring a graphic designer,web designer, developer or basically any creative individual. Because you will not get the value you deserve. You do not want to get a copy of a copy. More or less you want something that is created specifically for you and not something throw into a bin and have people fight over what they could come up with to win the competition. Do yourself and avoid elance, 99designs, and the other run of the mill websites out there.

People run to these websites who do not want to invest in hiring creatives for their work. When honestly there are ton’s of graphic designers who are wanting to work with clients and will be willing to be a benefit to you and your organization.

Why hiring a cheap graphic designer hurts your brand

When you hire someone to do creative work for you and you want to pay them cheaply there is no benefits for you. Well it may be a financial benefit and that is short lived. Because you want to understand the value that Graphic designers can offer. I would immediately be suspect of someone who does not have a portfolio.

Since the day and age we live in now there are many people who pretend to be something they are not. Which is understandable because of the opportunities to make a quick buck. Sites such as 99designs, fiveer are just run of the mill websites with little respect of the client.

You honestly think that if you were to go to a doctors or lawyers office and had them all line up and told them you’re problem, then asked how much do they all charge you most likely will go with the most expensive one or the one who is near your spending limit.

See this is where society tends to fall short in regards to hiring designers whether its freelance or for a permanent position. This is repeated time and time again. The Graphic designer you hire for 25 and 50 dollar flyers or logos is something produced of poor quality. If you do not believe me just do a quick google search of cheap logos.

Honestly do you think the fortune 500 companies hire cheap designers. The answer would be no they hire people with experience and they understand the value of good design. Then you have your local restaurant or business whom they have one person who designs everything and it looks mediocre.

When you try to cut corners and not hire a designer and pay what they are worth your business will be looked at differently. For example if you have a menu with misspellings on it or pictures you’ve taken from google you should’ve or you need to have a designer.

One of the many risks you take when you hire a cheap graphic designer is getting a copy of a copy. You may want your logo to look like a certain type of logo. Well do you know if the font they have is widely available and do you have to get the rights to use it? Are the images you are using on your website royalty free? You see these are a few questions that you may have not taken into consideration.

Because honestly who would care? Well you should care for legal reasons. These two questions can do great harm to your business. I know there’s companies who take these matters very serious in regards to companies who want to not pay for items they are using.

So the next time you think paying for a cheap graphic designer is getting a great deal remember you get what you pay for and you could either have a unique custom design or you could just have a copy of a copy.