As web designers, we are required to be project managers as well. With each client, we must plan, organize, manage resources, and develop a project independently. For some types of designers, managing subcontractors is needed as well. It takes great discipline to get a project done on time, and done well.
In this post we’re going [...]
Tags: client, deadline, Design, planning, project managers, revisions, time track, web designers
The thrill of not knowing what you’ll be doing tomorrow can be exhilarating, and a huge rush for your creativity — except when that unknowing feeling comes to your finances, work, and where you’re going to find your next client.
Being a freelancer puts a lot of unknowns into play, and the first several months of [...]
Tags: clients, Freelance, Networking, portfolio, Web Design Career
As web designers, we build new websites all the time from complete scratch, whether it is for a client or our own project. We know that the best websites take time to create, careful planning, and adequate detail. Yet, as creative people, we don’t like to do a lot of planning and often times jump [...]
Tags: color palette, Flowchart, planning, Sitemap, web designers, website, Wireframe
Winning over clients is about half the battle when it comes to web design. Of course, without them, we don’t have much of a career at all. Even the best freelancer, company, or web designer can try to get a hold of a client, and only be successful about 10% of the time. However, there [...]
Tags: application, clients, designers, job, resume, Web Design
Inspiration and even motivation can be a hard thing to come by, as long as you’re forced to design something every working day of your life. Working for clients only can also be a motivation killer, by not allowing oneself to express their own design style and talents. One way to kill that loss of [...]
Tags: inspiration, learning, motivation
In the large pool of web designers today, it can be difficult to stand out and get noticed. A recent Ask FreelanceSwitch post spoke of one individual who wanted to break into the industry, but had no connections or references. I then asked myself, how does that apply to my own field of web design? [...]
Tags: get noticed, marketing, stand out, Web Design
Sometimes we forget that web design is an incredibly new industry, only being a few decades old. With this comes fast changes in technology and the need to keep up. Constant learning is a must.
In this post we’ll look over 5 things a modern designer needs to know in order to be a successful professional. [...]
In my last post, I talked about a method of marketing many web designers, including myself, like to use: freebie marketing. It is an excellent method for marketing and gaining momentum for your work, but when it comes down to it — every designer still needs to get paid.
Marketing oneself is a task in itself, [...]
Tags: employment, freelancer, marketing, online jobs, web designer
Any designer must constantly be marketing themselves and their services for a steady flow of work, but marketing in itself can be time consuming; only taking away from a work day. To combat this issue, we as web professionals must become smart business people as well, which of course comes with smart marketing techniques. The [...]
Tags: Advertising, freebies, marketing, online marketing, promotion, self promotion, web designer
Being a designer means having to always have inspiration on hand to do great on projects, and to grow and develop as a creative. In the past I’ve written many articles on gaining inspiration in various ways, but many of the methods, while useful, are not always practical to keep up with every day.
For instance, [...]
Tags: articles, blog, Design, design source, freelacer, idea, inspiration, Web Design
Henrik Fiskar once said this quote, and while it isn’t always true, it is an excellent observation nonetheless. The freedom of art and creativity is exhilarating to say the least, but design is off in a separate tangent — one that solves business problems, and earns a hefty profit for doing so.
Still, though, many designers [...]
Tags: business, Design, income, profit, Web Design
The ever so daunting redesign of one’s own portfolio can be the trickiest project to come by. Despite us knowing ourselves best, and knowing the goals we have in mind for our careers or business, we as designers have the most trouble with only one client: ourselves.
Perhaps it’s the pressure of perfectionism, the ability to [...]
Tags: portfolio, redesign, Web Design
While it may happen more with freelancers than with firm workers, the feast or famine style still exists. When we can’t find clients, we cannot pay the bills, and perhaps may not be in a position to pick and choose our type of work. No matter how desperate, though, there are a number of times [...]
Tags: client, Design, designer, freelancer, project, Web Design
Web design is about more than just making things look nice on screen — it’s about creating interfaces that are functional, easy to use, as well as aesthetically pleasing. There are a number of visual techniques that can be used in web design to create the correct hierarchy, tell the user where to click, and [...]
Tags: detail, interface, polish, slick, UI, user interface, Web 2.0, Web Design