Many of you that have followed me for a while will know that I’ve always combined my freelance work with full-time employment. It’s always been the plan to go it alone as a full time freelancer once I was satisfied that I was ready to take the plunge.
This state of readiness has always been a safe distance away - when I’d saved X amount of money; once I’d got X number of years industry experience under my belt. When I took on the role at Inbox this mythical moment in the future was safely put back another year… or two, or three…
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Inspired by David’s 33 logos in 33 minutes, I grabbed my camera looking for logos. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of brands that bombarded me, I took the lazy approach and completed this post without shifting my backside away from my desk.
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I’ve been using Mint, a self-hosted and extensible web analytics program for a few months now. Whilst Mint has been around for a few years and has slowly been building a strong reputation, I actually only came across it earlier this year when I was looking for an additional stats tool to run alongside Google Analytics.
I have come to use Mint extensively for monitoring the traffic on this site, so here is an honest and unpaid review of the product.
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A week from today, on Monday 2 June, my life will be taking a slightly new direction as I begin working for digital marketing agency, Inbox Digital.
Inbox are an award-winning digital marketing agency specialising in online advertising and viral marketing. They have an impressive list of clients including names such as Vodafone, BMW, Panasonic and AOL.
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Get Out the Vote is an initiative by AIGA, the professional association of design, to encourage the American public to participate in the electoral process and vote for a presidential candidate. Designers from across the United States are invited to submit nonpartisan posters aimed at encouraging the voting public (or non-voting public as the case may be) to shun apathy and participate.
The initiative began in 2000 and was repeated for the electoral campaign of 2004 where 50,000 posters were printed and displayed in public places in communities across the states. AIGA are accepting submissions for this years campaign and so far here are a few that have caught my eye.
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This is the second in a two part article. In the first part I looked at the perceived value of design and creative services by small businesses and tried to paint a picture of why it might make sense for a small business to consider using a cheap, untrained, non-professional designer.
In this second part I look more closely at bigger business and why getting in to bed with one of the big boys could not only be financially rewarding, but also help you avoid the feast or famine scenario many freelancers experience.
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This is the first in a two-part article examining the perceived value of design and creative services by small businesses, and what options there are for the frustrated freelancer trying to earn an honest wage.
Hi, I’d like a new website please
Exciting news, someone has asked you to quote for a project! You, being the conscientious professional that you are, spend an afternoon writing a detailed proposal and quote for the work involved. You then receive a response from your potential client explaining that your quote was considerably more expensive than they expected.
It turns out that their neighbour’s daughter’s 17 year old boyfriend (who is apparently quite good at Photoshop) has offered to do it for a fraction of your price. I’m afraid your potential client can’t afford to pay you any more than £150 for a brand new website, logo design and business cards.
Yes. Sounds very familiar doesn’t it? It’s a story I’m sure all freelance web and graphic designers have experienced.
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There is one obvious and very quick way to boost you online social media presence. Link to your various profiles and ask people to follow you.
So, here we go…
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Fellow blogger and designer, Florida-based Irishman Brian Yerkes recently invited bloggers to post images of their business cards. Here’s my contribution.
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Most online shop-fronts follow a tried and tested formula. Users expect to be able to browse the shop in exactly the same way as every other online shop they browse. But sometimes this can be a little bland. Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring online stores to life for a truly interactive and fun shopping experience?
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