Graphic Design
Graphic Design Trends for 2012
While there are key classic practices that should make your designs safe every year in terms of projection and content, you will not be able to guarantee its effectiveness if it stays static. The key to continuous success with your work, is for you to always develop them with the current trends in mind. In this special guide, we will go through some of the most important trends that you will want to include in your custom designs this New Year 2012. If you can integrate this properly enough, there should be little issues and more success.
Design trends for this year are bold and aim to grab audience attention.
Logos: Create streamlined logos and graphics – For 2012, all designers are upgrading their logos and graphics to more streamlined variations.
Simplicity rules: Simple designs are in right now, and the reason for that is, well… simple.
Type can be design: In the absence of complicated visuals, typography is playing a larger role in design. Those designers who know how to put typefaces to work to their best advantage will come out on top.
As we move together into a new year, we are promised some amazing advances in the world of technology and design. Evolving your brand through web design, print design and even architectural design are ways that you can stay ahead of the competition and encounter new demographics in your market.
All Posts, Web Design
It doesn’t take years of being a designer before you can complain about “designer’s block”, or lack of inspiration to work on the projects you’ve got to get finished or started on. We’ve all been there. Browsing other designer sites trying to get inspired or ideas for elements, layouts, and color patterns. Gripping our hair in our hands as we hold our faces in our palms staring at the fresh wide-screen monitor you swore would never cease to inspire. Don’t beat yourself up about it, it’s totally ok, I know exactly how you feel.
Do you remember the last time you had that burst of creativity? You know, where you could easily work through the night with nothing more than a few glasses of water, grilled cheese sandwich, and maybe a banana. Harming your bladder because you don’t want to pull away to use the lavatory. You’re on top of the world in those moments. Everything you think of, your hands can draw, or your mouse can trace. For me, its like that huge victory moment close to the end of a movie. Redemption for all the hard work in the previous scenes are now paying off.
But what about when the pixy dust runs out? What do you do then to get yourself going? Well for me it comes down to a few things.
- Atmosphere and Surroundings. I mainly work from home. The same home with my wife and kids. And sometimes I just can’t get motivated to work, or when I do I have to work extra hard to flush out the distractions. It helps to leave from time to time to a coffee-house or public place with wi-fi.
- Time of Day. This is a bit crucial because I truly feel like it could be ingrained in my psyche that either early morning or really late at night are my most productive or best times for inspiration.
- Music. This one is common among all my design friends. I’ve got a few choice playlists that instantly get me going. On the times I can’t get in the zone I spend about 30min getting new music via Grooveshark, Spotify, or iTunes. (Though when I say new, I mean new to my library for old school hits)
- Get in Good Company. Get a hold of some of your associates and fellow designers. Organize a quick #TweetUp at someone’s house, order some food, and everyone pick a corner and get working or collaborating.
So these are my top things that help get me in the design mood to get my projects done when I really don’t feel like it. I think it goes without saying that checking your bank account usually will create a mood to work if all else fails. Hehe. So what do you do? I’d like to hear and I’m sure others may appreciate the diverse tips. Let us all know in the comments below.
All Posts, Web Design
I’ve been in business for over 10 years as a freelancer and start-up owner. My first business was computer repair and maintenance. I learned early off with that business that the key to being successful was how I interacted with my clients. I’d get calls with questions about how they got a virus to why was their computer working fine the day before but not today. The one thing that had to remain the same was my level of patience to explain to them in layman’s terms, what the problem really is. This tactic didn’t change when I moved into designing web pages and graphics.
I had to say this, but most people who say they want a website, really have no idea what type of website they’re looking for. I’m not even going to get into the argument on whether or not they need one. Lets just focus on some key elements that may save you some headache in the terms off your website project as it progresses.
- Explaining all the elements and content you need from the client for their project to be started and completed. This usually starts out as a “no problem” from the client. Somehow it turns into a 3 month volcano because they’re dragging their feet yet pressing you for a launch date.
- Have them understand exactly how many times they can order a redesign without being charged, and what a “re-design” actually means. In most contracts that I’ve seen, a client is only allowed 2 revisions. Once they cross that, they’re supposed to be charged. However they don’t fully understand what a revision may be. Asking for a font change and color change in one email constitutes a revision.
- Fees and payment schedules. If you have a signed agreement for how your project is going to go, stick with it and constantly remind the client of upcoming fees. Otherwise they may resent you for the unseen charges, even though they clearly signed in 3 different sections of your agreement.
- Problems and setbacks. They don’t need to hear techno-babble. Explaining to them that the images they gave you were too large to fit due to pixels or file types makes no sense to them. And trying to explain why your coding looks great in Firefox but won’t accurately line up in IE or a mobile browser has to be explained with care.
- What exactly YOU do. If you’re just a graphic designer, don’t get wrapped into a project that started out as a logo project that turned into a website redesign project – and you’re not a web designer. Main reason is because you won’t be paid for what you’re doing extra, and second you could risk damaging some other work that in the end will cost you your own time and money to restore.
For me, my very first client was this post’s learning experience. I went through just about all the examples above, got paid very little, and frustrated a heck of a lot. I’d love to hear your experiences!
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Recently I visited a corner cafe in my neighborhood and couldn’t help but notice all the business cards and flyers on their main counter. Now I came into the cafe with intentions of buying lunch, but totally distracted by all of these eager businesses looking for my attention. Really they want my business, though when I say business I mean my services.
I can’t tell you how many people may pick up these cards and brochures in this cafe or any other storefront, but small businesses have been doing this type of marketing for years. Now let me tell you my strategy. I looked through every single stack of cards to see which ones did NOT have email addresses to their web domain and which ones didn’t even have a website listed. Why? Because they’re my target clients. They want more exposure, don’t have too much money for a bigger firm when it comes to design, and they’d be happy to hear their phone ring – even if its someone local looking to meet them.
How to approach the call: This part is a bit easy. Even for those of you who may not like cold calling. When you call their listed number from the card or brochure, address them by their name. “Hello, John” then tell them honestly how you found their information. Complement their card design and briefly explain what your design skills are and how you’d like to meet them for coffee. Chances are they will accept your offer for a brief meetup because you also will seem like a potential client for them. Though that’s possible, just be sure to maintain control when you actually do meet up. Be sure to schedule something either for that same day or the next. Never delay it for days or weeks because they’ll lose interest. You might too.
Sell them when you meet them: Arrive a few minutes before they do and have your laptop out and connected to the internet. This is so that you can quickly show them your work. Or have a rotating slide show of your work casually displaying to the side of the table and your own brochure or flyer on the table. When they show up just act natural and woo them with charm. Ask them first about what they do, how long they’ve been doing it.
The Goal: All you need to be sure to do is leave a good impression with these meetups from the cold calls. They’ll have your flyer or business card and if they don’t sign with you for business that day follow-up with them in a week via email. If nothing after that just shelf their information. If you have an ongoing mailing list, add them to it so that they see your work and updates.
Let me know what you think on this cold call approach in the comments below. I’d like to know how many of you try it and your results. Hopefully they’ll be like mine, success!
All Posts, Web Design
There is something to be said about the designers that have been around for more than 10 years. They’ve been through the dot com burst and the bust, but a lot of them are still around to this day. Still creating new user experiences great cutting edge designs to this day. How do they do it? How do the newbies to the scene learn and understand the old school ways to then gravitate to the new school tactics? In a word; growth. Or I should say constant growth.
I think year ago there was a defined line between web designers, developers, and graphic designers. Projects were done in a sort of assembly line of steps where a project was piped through stages. Now a days you may find a graphic designer turned web designer, or software developer turned web developer in the same person. As time changed, the economy changed, and the requirements changed. So they adapted.
Staying inspired:
This is a good one because if you can find inspiration while working on a project, chances are you’ll be able to lay everything out in good enough detail that you’ll easily be able to plug in the necessary work in a short period of time. At times, inspiration may come at the rarest times of day or night. If you’ve been around long enough, these bursts of influence aren’t to be taken lightly!
Creating and sticking to a habit:
A seasoned freelancer will have their typical day scheduled out in advance. They know what their doing or planning to do hours or days prior to that day. Phone calls, email checking, researching, book reading, coffee breaks, lunch, etc. Each part of their day is productive and in some ways scripted. Otherwise they run the risk of falling behind on projects, losing clients, and eventually loosing business.
Challenging your expertise:
Pushing some of your personal or comfort boundaries is a must. If you spend too much time doing the casual and normal projects you’ve been doing for the past few years and haven’t embarked on anything new in terms of skill or technology, you run the risk of falling behind. There may be easier or simpler ways of drafting your designs, or coding your work that could save you time and effort.
Gauging your past projects:
You should be able to look back on your previous work from a year ago, and now and see a big difference of improvement. It’s a great feeling by the way. To say to yourself; “Wow, I came a long way from that old project!” If you’re not, spend some time reading some newer books within your trade. Network with some other freelancers in your trade both locally and online. Also purchase a few subscriptions to some trade magazines; they’re worth the few minutes of reading in your downtime.
Do you have some tactics that you use(d) in your professional career that you’d like to add? We’d love to hear it, so type your comments below.
