For real, I’m going to tell you all my freelance graphic design secrets starting today.
But why should that interest you? Continue reading this poorly constructed stream-of-consciousness post I’m not going to edit much to find out. I hope you will be intrigued, read it all, subscribe to my RSS, and watch the posts start pilling up. But I digress – why is it again that this blog should interest you?
Let’s start at random point and meander from there:
I have been freelancing in one form or another, on some level or another for 20 years now. I know a bit about every aspect of the freelance graphic design business and I have decided to share it all on an on going basis. I’m not going to hold anything back. I’m going to thoroughly spill the beans. Over the next umpteen zillion posts, I will cover everything I can think of and some things I can’t think of. What I can think of at the moment seems to be limited to the following topics:
- How to get freelance graphic design jobs
- What to charge clients – hourly or by the project?
- How often you should invoice clients
- Why being friendly with your clients is a good thing
- How to bill your clients for this and that
- How to market your freelance graphic design services
Those are just a few high level topics. We are going to cover it all – watch and see! How about these topics too?
- Secrets to tidy pre-press jobs
- How lose all of your hard work
- What not to buy at the bookstore
- What is the secret to learning to design like the great graphic design masters, and while you are it, become a master painter or master jazz guitarist?
- What is a good method to designing a logo from scratch
- How not to reinvent the wheel
- What are clients really seeing when they view your portfolio
- How many fonts do I need?
- What’s more important – a good outfit or a good portfolio?
- What’s more important – good kerning or good eye contact?
- What you are saying and what your clients are hearing (hint: they are not the same)
- Shortcuts for perfectionists
- Laser printing for fun
- CSS frameworks and your sanity
- Are freelance graphic design sites a waste of time?
- Are templates bad?
- How many fonts should I limit myself to0?
I also can’t wait to give away free tips on using all the major applications. Everyone has a few tricks up there sleeve with their favorite application if they have been doing this long enough. Also to be covered are tips on how to run your computer, deal with back ups, optimize your system, do more with less, etc. etc.I can’t even think of all the things I’m going to share in the coming months. All this info is just sitting in my noodle. All of us are looking for a good tip or looking to share a good tip. I’m sure that will happen here. We just need to get this rolling.
Now, about this blog. Why start a blog? I have a very, very good reason. My domain, www.bonfx.com, is about ten years old now. It has always had the term “freelance” and “graphic design” associated with it. It has undergone a few incarnations (check out the boring history at archive.org – WARNING! It is boring history, I kid you not.), but has always been about my freelance work. The site has never been more than a few pages. It has been exactly one page (see bonfx.com for proof) for the last several months. With all my glorious lack of content and heavy usage of almost no verbiage, my site currently ranks (as of writing this article) 17th for the terms “freelance graphic design” and “freelance graphic designer”. This is no mistake. So, why should you keep reading? This is simple. I know useful things about the freelance graphic design industry, having learned the hard way and supported my family as a freelance graphic designer for 20 years. Simply though, I understand one thing about this business: good information is valuable. Hence you will find the content of this site going forward valuable and worthy of continued return time and again. There will be a mutual benefit, I’m sure.
Graphic design is really about people.
Blogs, good ones any way, are at that same level. In the end, your graphic design clients have needs and they want you to fill them. You have needs as a graphic designer (relating to cashflow and time management) and you want your client to fill them. There is a way, somewhere in what we do everyday, to get these mutual needs worked out. And there are many good stories, tips, tricks, successes, and livings to be made all along the way! Here is to happy blogging about freelance graphic designing!
