Your Creative Magazine: 10 Excellent Advice for Designers

artevital:

 Today we’d love to share with you guys some really helpful advice. Helpful not only for designers who are just starting out in the industry, but also for experienced designers with an open mind to new things that could boost your career and take advantage of your skills.

1. Make a working portfolio site

There are creative platforms like Behance, but don’t let them be your main portfolio site. Don’t put too much effort into your site design, make it clean and make sure that your designs get the most attention rather than the text. If your layout is beautiful, it’ll get more attention than your actual work, so clean and minimalistic will do the trick.

2. Join social networking sites

A lot of people underestimate the power of them and how they can benefit you. But really, join Twitter, Flickr, Linkedin and you’ll see how much it can promote you, your work and keep you in touch with other artists. Make sure that you stay professional on Twitter: don’t swear, don’t have a big ego, don’t @reply all the time and don’t tell too much about your personal life. 

Not only clients will see your tweets but agencies as well. If you behave like a child they would rather not hire you. And don’t forget to follow interesting blogs and art magazines to keep you updated!

3. Don’t think too much in levels

There are a lot of young artists who aim to be the best, think they know everything, have more experience, etc. And also the opposite: artists who think others know much more than them and want to be left in the background instead. 

The thing is that you shouldn’t think in levels at all. Everyone has his/her own way of designing and their own taste. You’re not better, and you’re not lower either. You have your own creative path just like everyone else. Respect and appreciate each other.

4. Don’t think too much in rules, it will show and won’t make your work unique

Did van Gogh, Andy Warhol think in rules?

5. Join an agency

Before you become a freelancer, it’s good to join an agency for your resume/work experience. You’ll learn a lot from working in an agency like the pressure, programs and working in a creative team.

6. Magazines

A lot of people wonder how they can get their work featured in magazines. Honestly, it’s usually just about sending them an email along with your portfolio and ask if they’d be interested in featuring your work. They love receiving emails with work because they need to feature people in every issue anyway, so this makes it easier on them.

7. Variety in your portfolio

Variety is something that’s very important in a designer’s portfolio. Most of us forget this and instead focus only on one specific style. But variety is also a style in itself, and one that can attract more clients. You can reintroduce the same elements in your work but it doesn’t have to look the same. Don’t stick to just photo manipulations if you can do so much more than that. Try making a font instead. If you have a creative talent, why limit yourself?

8. Don’t be lazy, just do it

So many people I know don’t take the time to put effort in promoting their work by emailing agencies, making more work, doing interviews, etc.

You’re a designer. If you’d rather be lazy then this is not the job for you. In this world you need to show a lot of motivation and effort to make things work. Clients and agencies don’t want someone that’s unmotivated and doesn’t take the time to get things done.

9. Know the basics about your programs and printing

Enough said. Know how masks work, how to render, what the pen tool is, etc. And of course every designer needs to know that the best way to print is CMYK, 300 dpi, pdf, high quality with bleeds from 3 mm.

10. Always take feedback/critique

You won’t see everything with two eyes and one mind. Only take feedback/critique that is clearly constructive. Feedback like ‘this sucks’ won’t give you much, don’t take it seriously.

Final Words

Never give up and believe in your work. This means you cannot be shy and sit back thinking that people will notice you among all the designers out there. A good designer needs to have marketing skills. Let people know you are here and what you’re all about.

(via mkga-deactivated20120804)

Six Effective & Free Virtual Marketing Techniques

Written by Nick Roberts

In a recession, most businesses cut back on their marketing (assuming they are doing much in the first place) which is just plain crazy. A recession is just the time you need more customers or your existing customers to come back more often (or spend more with you). Of course, many business owners wrongly think that marketing is advertising, which of course they may not be able to afford.

In fact, a lot of good marketing is actually free and just not taken advantage of. Here are six effective but free virtual marketing techniques:

  1. Linked-In can be used very effectively to build up a network of connections. You can also use it to share your views and opinions to position yourself as an expert in your field as well as publicising your biography, skills and experience not counting getting clients and peers to endorse you
    Cost: none!
  2. Facebook. A non-business Facebook page can be used as a great tool to publicise your business. If you post interesting snippets or comments or a link to elsewhere, get your Facebook friends to click on the Like button which means your comments etc will appear on all their friends’ Facebook pages too – how good is that?
    Cost: zilch!
  3. Google Places is really fabulous! Not only can set-up a mini-website with photos, information on your business and even a video but in addition, being on Google Places sends your website soaring up the search rankings on Google without paying for Adwords or spending hour after hour typing in the optimum search words on each of your web pages.
    Cost: big fat zero!
  4. Twitter is not just the place to find out what your favourite celebrity’s latest tattoo is all about. If you can fight through people telling you how far they ran the previous night and build up your followers you can usefully publicise your Blog Posts, newsletter, website and special deals etc
    Cost: absolutely naff all!
  5. Blog Posts are a great way to present case studies and success stories. It’s far easier to get your message over by providing practical examples of how you’ve gone beyond the norm to help your customers get out of sticky situations and demonstrate how your expertise has made a difference to your customer’s lives. They do not have to be long, just keep them short and succinct – what did Mark Twain say – “if I had more time I’d write less”.
    Cost: not a cent!
  6. Free Website Publicity. Your local Chamber of Commerce probably reserves a page on their web-site for members to publicise special offers for fellow Chamber members who can be a useful source of new prospects. In addition, some local councils offer a free business directory, many of the commercial business directories are free, and you can always set-up deals with other businesses to put links on each other’s websites.
    Cost: nothing whatsoever!

Once you’ve set all these up you can cross-promote and cross-publicise all your virtual marketing activities to really get your message out there. If nothing else, people will be impressed by your marketing activities and think you are a switched-on businessperson. How much easier will it be for them to refer you if they can talk enthusiastically about your all-round business acumen?


Infographic: Basic Structure of Social Media
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Infographic: Basic Structure of Social Media

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