Freelance Designer or Design Business?

business man

Are you a freelancer or an entrepreneur? This question occurred to me while talking to Alex Mathers from the RedLemonClub a site that offers advice for the freelance creative. There was a time when I called myself a “freelance graphic designer” and had that as the title of this site. I wrote plenty of articles [...]

DMP 007: Marketing for Freelance Creatives with Alex Mathers

alex mathers

I’m really excited to welcome Alex Mathers to the Design and Marketing Podcast. Alex is a freelance illustrator who has been on my radar for many years primarily because of his excellent RedLemonClub site for freelance creatives. I joined his mailing list back in 2009 (I don’t think I’ve been on any other list for [...]

When and How to Outsource – 4 Essential Questions

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I am often asked about the role outsourcing plays as part of my graphic design business. Do you take on a job from a European or American client, employ an Asian freelancer to do it and sit back and take the profits? Er, no! I have been outsourcing projects for years now and there’s definitely [...]

Freelance graphic design advice

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Whether you’re a rock star creative in a top-ten agency or a freelancer running a business from home on a shoestring, graphic design is an absorbing, all-encompassing practice. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and therefore disagreements occur and criticism can be hard to take. But it’s a great job because you spend [...]

How to get freelance graphic design jobs

apple-macbook-pro-job-please

One thing I am often asked by designers – old and new alike – is: “how do you get work” or “how do you get clients”. Here are the principles and practices that I have used and found successful over the years. Put most of your effort into developing your own site Building and maintaining [...]

What you need to be a freelance graphic designer

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I wasn’t always a freelance graphic designer. I used to teach English to Brazilian businessmen but that’s another story. I started by working for newspapers and magazines so my background is in print. By a mixture of application and good fortune I taught myself how to create usable, aesthetic, standards-compliant websites and discovered how to [...]

Free stock photography for a graphic designer

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All graphic designers and people trying to create eye-catching imagery for print or web with have at some point used stock photography. Stock photography negates the need for hiring expensive photographers can license individual photos for specific uses. The two largest traditional stock photography agencies are Getty Images and Corbis. They offer mostly photographs that [...]

Design and marketing in a recession

Recession needn't give us an uncertain future

Recession, credit crunch, slowdown – these are bywords of the moment and you would be forgiven for thinking that we’ve got to tighten out belts and prepare for hard times ahead. The natural inclination for some businesses might be to scale back on marketing activities in an effort to save money. But, last week it [...]

Freelance graphic designers’ blogs

designer-blogs

Here are my favourite three blogs of people who, like me, are graphic designers and write about it on the internet. Firstly, from Romania, I really like webee design blog. Webee has really helped me out with his tips and encouragement. Also a beautiful creative design blog by David Airey who has blogging help as [...]

Price quotes and estimates for graphic design

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One of the most asked questions on graphic design forums is: “How much I should charge?” Well, the answer is, I don’t know! But here is a list of my most recent price quotes. These design estimates include image sourcing and copy editing but assume images and most text have already been supplied or paid [...]

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How to get clients online and advice on starting up online!

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