At the risk of stating the obvious, every designer should have a website or web presence of some kind. Websites serve as your marketing and self-promotional tool 24/7. Make sure you have a dedicated e-mail account and an email link on your site for people to contact you (and check your messages every day).

If you can’t afford a website/hosting services, etc, then start a blog (it’s free) and carve out some time to write about anything. You’ll be surprised at how many people will be interested in what you have to say. Contribute to discussion groups and design forums. Make yourself famous. (more…)

Interviews from the Edge, Epiphanies and Wake-up Calls that Beg You to Ask “How Did I Ever Make It Out Alive”.

I’m a little excited as I try to recall the most forgettable moments of my art career. It’s a bit like reminiscing late at night with friends and laughing over a few beers. Now that I work so much, I don’t have any more friends, so I’ll just share these gems with all of you.

I recall some very dark days searching for jobs and trying to make a living as a graphic designer. In light of current economic conditions, some of you may be having a difficult time finding full-time (or any-time) employment as a designer and will no doubt be discouraged; thinking you’re a no-talent wannabe. Well, I hope the following true accounts of my most depressing experiences might inspire you not to give up. Can you top these tales of woe? (more…)

I have been asked this question on several occasions: “Where is the best place to work: at an ad agency or an in-house design department?” So, I though it might be helpful to give a breakdown of what are generally considered benefits and drawbacks of both. For the sake of a broad comparison, I include design studios along with “Agency” because they have many similarities. (more…)

I’m probably a little crazy, but I’m trying to have it all and I’m sure I’m not alone. I have a full-time design position with salary, benefits and job security. However, in this current economic environment, you never know what’s going to happen, so I still maintain an active network of freelance clients just in case my day-job turns out not to be as secure as I thought. It can sometimes lead to an insane weekly schedule, but with a little prioritizing and self-discipline, working a day-job and a night-job can be very rewarding (if not a necessity) for a designer. (more…)

HOW magazine’s In-HOWse Design Awards issue arrived last month and I was excited to see what’s been happening in other corporate design departments. The award competitions initiated by publications such as HOW and GDUSA that specifically showcase in-house work are evidence that there is a growing interest in what this segment of the design community is creating. These awards honor some great design talent that has been traditionally overlooked and even dismissed. They also address the challenges in-house designers face, some of which I would like to examine further.

As a creative director for a national real estate company, I have a responsibility to uphold corporate design standards and consistent branding messaging for consumers throughout the New England region. The national headquarters and its ad agency dictate our brand’s image, but we still have a little room to customize pieces for our regional markets. To some degree, I need to “police” printed materials created by marketing coordinators in several local offices to make sure they conform to the brand…not an easy task. But, just the idea having to conform illustrates my challenge. How do I keep my design staff inspired when we need to primarily stay “in the box”? How do I personally stay in the game?

I keep reminding my staff and myself that we only have one client and the very nature of our job is to support that client and its associates (the company that pays our salary). We have some creative flexibility with a few choice projects like corporate event invitations, logo designs and new development brochures, but our primary responsibilities are to pump out large volumes of pre-designed or template-based marketing materials. Hey, at least we get to design the templates! When we do get a custom design assignment, we usually provide three comps for client approval. I’ll say to the designers “let’s give them two ideas that stick with the formula and one that is just ‘out there’…whatever you want to do”. I try to inspire them to create something crazy that will at least get the client’s attention and maybe help them consider choosing a design that takes some chances. This allows the designers to stretch a little and also helps the client see that the company’s own design staff is capable of much more than just average work. It seems that our best designs are the ones that never get approved, but on several occasions we are able to persuade the client to take a risk and a really cool design actually gets printed. That’s enough to keep us all going.

Another challenge is to convince our “non-designer” colleagues that the department is not just an “arts and crafts” shop where all the fun people hang out. Our design staff was recognized three years in a row by winning in several categories of the GDUSA American Inhouse Awards. These accomplishments did not go unnoticed by our top management, who honored us with national press releases and local recognition. I am very thankful that these types of competitions are growing in popularity because they give in-house designers a chance to compete in their own arena. (more…)

“Another recession could be just around the corner, but at least for now, malls and restaurants are full again, traffic is terrible and everything is back to normal.”

That’s what I wrote back in August, 2007. Since then, time-bomb mortgages have been blowing up all over the country, foreclosures have become a national crisis, major U.S. financial institutions are recoiling from billions of dollars in losses and just last week stock markets around the entire world plummeted. What a difference six months can make.

Now there is talk of a recession, jobs are being lost and Uncle Sam wants to give everybody more money, so we can spend ourselves out of the abyss once again. What is the current outlook? What does it mean for designers? Are we going to lose our jobs? Well, if the past is any guide, maybe there is still some good news out there, either way.

I have been a graphic designer and illustrator since 1979 and have worked through three recessions during that time. What I have noticed is that if you manage to keep your job, you are kept quite busy doing your own work and the work of your buddies that were just laid off. At one job, I was told to “keep my head low and look busy.” But if you do get laid-off, and can’t find full-time work, I think you will find that there are greater opportunities to find design work as a freelancer during tough times.

I was always a risk taker and toward the end of the 1980-83 recession, I actually quit my agency job to start freelancing. My business immediately boomed. There was so much work in South Florida at the time that I thought everyone should just quit their jobs. (I was young…irrational exuberance.) (more…)

I received HOW’s Business Annual a few days ago. It’s loaded with great material, including the results of a poll that asks, “…do you hope to start a business someday?” The poll made me think about starting my own business again (my wife always cringes when I mention this), but I think I have a good argument for both starting a design business and staying put at your current job. It really comes down to where you are in life and how you balance risks vs. rewards.

I am a completely different person now than I was when I started my own business almost twenty years ago. Back then, I was single and simply couldn’t stomach a nine to five job, especially a corporate one. I spent several years working in ad agencies and design shops, but I never lingered longer than 3 years. I was passionate about working for myself and labored full-time only to gain experience and contacts. When I finally decided to leave my agency job and set out on my own, I was taking a great risk. I had no clients, only a few contacts, and was borrowing money to get started. However, I simply had to do it because I was not happy working a nine to five job.

I would not recommend this approach to others, but it worked well for me. My first client was a large New England bank, and I paid off my loan in three months. I then acquired a few book publishing accounts and actually turned a profit in my first year. The rewards far outweighed the risks at that time in my life. (more…)

I’ll pick up where the Queen of Soul left off. What is it going to take for those of us in the design field to get some? From clients who think they are designers. From marketing directors who believe brown doesn’t sell. From employers who think we do nothing but arts and crafts all day. I think I’ve seen it all, yet I’m still in this business. What am I, a glutton for punishment? No, I think I’ve just learned how to get what little respect I need to keep me going.

I was once hired as a Designer by a small book publisher. My predecessor was an administrative employee, who occasionally did some design work on an old Mac Quadra system. Her setup included a 15” Radius monitor. Does anyone remember those? They swiveled from portrait to landscape view. Beautiful. Anyway, the equipment was pathetic. I needed more, but my employers did not understand why. “It worked for her,” they said.

During my first week on the job, I had to schedule a meeting with my new boss and the finance department so that I might make my case for the purchasing of a new design workstation. It was a Christian book publisher, so I decided to compare my plight to that of the Israelite slaves, who while constructing the ancient Egyptian cities, suffered greatly at the hands of the oppressive pharoahs. Much like the slaves, I too was being told to make “bricks without straw”. (more…)

Part Two of a Two-Part Series.

Earlier this year, I received an email from a woman who was impressed by specific samples she had seen on my website, and wanted to hire me for an illustration project. Her company was developing proprietary technologies and needed a drawing of a prototype village that showed how these technologies could be used to operate a self-sustaining community. I called her and she said my drawing style was perfect, but as she described the project to me, I got a sick feeling in my stomach because it reminded me so much of the Aspen job. It sounded very interesting, however, so I agreed to meet with her and discuss the details. I needed money to get my house painted and this job would just about cover the cost. (more…)

Lessons Learned from Jobs that Got Completely Out of Control:
Part One of a Two-Part Series.

I ran a full-page color ad of my illustration work in the Graphic Artists Guild’s Directory of Illustration #11. It set me back $3500, but I was convinced it would open all kinds of doors for me. Within two months I received a call from the owner of a puzzle company who saw my ad and wanted me to create a 30”x48” full-color map/illustration of Aspen Colorado for use on puzzles and postcards. The client happened to be only three hours away, so I arranged a personal meeting. We discussed the job and I worked up a quote for $4000. They also said the job requires me to fly to Aspen for three days to sample the bars and restaurants, take pictures and go shopping. Oh…and they would pay for everything on top of my illustration fee.

This all sounded great to me… could it get any better? The directory ad paid for itself and I was off to an all expenses paid trip to Hollywood’s Winter Playground (it was February). I finally hit the big-time. (more…)