Dear freelancer, Design is serious business

I started my creative career as freelancer, really those days where interesting, but then the need to open a creative studio became inevitable. My experience as a freelancer has taught me that though money sometimes does not drive the best ideas, good design is also not free. Running your business as a freelancer attracts overheads as well, you have internet bills to pay (being in design business without good internet is a sign of no business), transportation and promotional costs, electricity bills and in an environment like Nigeria, you have to fuel a generator with unsubsidized fuel, so while you are thinking of that great idea, It is important to understand basic tips to keep the Naira flowing in, or perhaps, the Dollars.



• There's no free in freelance. While you will be ready to free projects your works out there, it is important that to let the client understand the value of what you are giving them even if they are not paying for it. Free projects are inevitable as sometimes they could turn out to be the most rewarding, but it is also important to communicate the worth of your skill.
• Don't cheapen yourself by jumping at every paying project. The truth is that the project is paying doesn't mean it is worth your skill. Taking project strictly for money instead of creative opportunity turn out to be bad experiences.
• Good design is not cheap, cheap design is not good.
• Be proffesional, know your onions and perhaps, your tomatoes if needs be, put yourself in the position of the client, no one is ready to pay a premium for a poor servive.

Save more money, get a printer friend.

There is no doubt about it, when it comes to saving and making more money as a graphic artist, the printer is your friend. While you can do your best creating outstanding branding and marketing materials, the final output of print projects depends wholly on the printer handling them for you.

No matter how great your design, if the printing doesn't bring it to life, all your creative brilliance is for naught. The best way to ensure the final product is as good as you imagined is to create a proffesional relationship with a printer who cares about your projects as you do. Beyond producing good prints, a good printer can offer advice that can help you minimise cost of production right from the design stage thereby helping your clients save more money.

What makes a good printer?

• Attention to details, expecially on issues finishing.
• Making suggestions as to best paper stock to print with and how to reduce cost and still achieve outstanding results.
• Willingness to sit down and discuss with you when all you have is your brief, not just grabbing print ready finished artworks and running with it.
• He treats you well when you visit his press. My printer knows the best source of correct Amala and Ewedu in Lagos and i can tell you i always look forward to visiting his press to discuss print projects.

 

Twelve logos in five minutes

A couple of months ago, I read David Airey's LOGO DESIGN LOVE, in which he illustrated our interaction with logos by taking photographs of logos he interacts with daily, and to his surprise, he photographed 33 logos in 33 minutes. So I decided to do the same on a Monday morning but this time, restricted my photographs to my office, I decided to take photographs of as many logos I can notice around me. 

I started  with the Honda calendar on the wall, the LG air-conditioning unit, my Zenith bank cheque book, the MTN  and Etisalat recharge cards i bought on my way to the office, a wine gift from a client, my Blackberry phone and to my amusement, I photographed twelve logos in five minutes. Logos are all over our lives, they bombard us every second. What this simply means is that a logoless business is a faceless business, but beyond creating logos, our work as graphic designers is not to create decorative logos, but rather to create logos that tells stories, logos that connects with the emotion of the client's target audience.

So next time you are creating a logo for a client, look beyond the client's competitor's logo, undertand that your logo will compete with other logos as they will all fight for relevance.

...Pardon me for the poor photo quality, the shots were taken with my phones 2.0 MP camera.