Business - Page 18

Learn how to run your design business, work with clients, manage expectations, and handle your finances.

Business / 30 Nov 2015

Designing for Trust: How to Build a Relationship With Your Audience

Trust. How often do you think about this concept when working through a design project? Probably very often if you are associated with e-commerce, but what about other types of design?

Trust is a key component of user loyalty, and a reason why people come to your company or brand. While a lot of trust comes from past performance and a brand’s track-record, it also comes from the design. How a website, poster or package looks can impact how users feel about it and whether they take the leap from casual looker to brand loyalist.

Business / 24 Nov 2015

Women in Web Design: A Personal Essay

Look around the room where you are sitting right now. How many women are in your design meeting? How many women are on your design team? How many women are working on web design projects?

We have an industry problem. Web design, particularly, is a quite distinct boys club. But why? It doesn’t have to be. Today, I’m doing something a little different, and writing a personal essay about my feelings as a woman in this business. I hope you’ll read along and join the conversation.

Business / 28 Oct 2015

10 Tools for Collecting Your Design Inspiration

As a designer, you likely have a closet of finished projects and another equally massive digital file. What do you keep? And what do you do with all that stuff?

The answer is not easy but there are plenty of available tools that can help you manage your design files. Good work practices, multiple filing options and a little bit of keep and toss mentality can go a long way. Here, we are looking at a handful of tools that can help you collect, manage and store your design files.

Business / 16 Oct 2015

How to Hold a Meeting That Gets Everyone Excited About Design

The dreaded project kickoff meeting. It’s on your calendar. You can’t avoid it. But you can make it a more memorable event that helps generate creativity among the members of your team.

The start of every project should be marked with excitement and anticipation. It’s the time when you and your team get to learn about a new client or idea and really get to go back to the basics of brainstorming and idea generation. It can, and should, be one of the most important parts of a design project and it needs to be anything but boring.

Business / 7 Oct 2015

Reinventing Your Brand: 5 Ways to Get Started

Lately you have decided that your brand – and look – has gotten rather stale. It happens. But you are already on the right path by knowing you need a brand refresh. Brands, small and large, are rebranding all the time. (You can peek at some of those changes on the Brand New blog.)

While this can be a daunting task, it can be easier than you think with a little planning and forethought. Today, we’ll look at five ways you can start down the path to a fresher, more visual brand identity. (And with these tips you can do it on almost any budget!)

Business / 17 Sep 2015

Are You a Right-Brained or Left-Brained Designer?

Colors, pictures, creativity; designers are quite obviously a group of people that tend to gravitate towards using the right sides of their brains… right? Or is this simply a stereotype that doesn’t necessarily ring true?

Is design exclusively artistic talent put to productive use or is it possible that the industry is equally full of analytical problem solvers? Let’s take a look at how designers think, whether you’re a right brainer or a left brainer, and how I’ve struggled through being a left brainer in an industry of right brainers.

Business / 27 Aug 2015

10 Ways Designers Solve Problems

Designers, by nature, are problem-solvers. Every project is a problem or challenge that involves helping other people understand something. Designers have to see through all the fog and clutter to create a solution.

This creative type of problem solving comes naturally in part, but some of the actions are learned. Have you ever stopped to think about how you work to solve problems? Here we will examine 10 ways that designers do just that with a collection of abstract images to inspire some of that problem-solving thinking.

Business / 24 Aug 2015

vCard Websites: 15 Tips to Make Yours Stand Out

While you may not be exchanging actual paper business cards as much these days, chances are your digital business card, or vCard, can see a lot of traffic. A vCard-style website typically contains very little content other than a few professional details.

vCard websites are not the same as a portfolio. They tend to be more streamlined with a focus on point of contact, not showcase of professional accomplishment. This style of website can be useful to help users or potential customers find you online and help you promote your professional presence online. When it comes to designing a vCard website, think beyond the paper business card format, or email attachment style cards that have been around for years and make yours stand out.

CV & Resume Templates / 17 Aug 2015

Designing Your Resume: Create the Perfect First Impression

Resume design is as much about content design as aesthetics. It’s great to have a resume that stands out and makes a potential employer say “wow,” but that wow factor has to keep flowing as they read through the contents of your work history.

It’s a delicate balance between design and content. Treat developing your resume as you would any other design project. Start with the content first. Develop all the things that need to be on your resume and then let that drive the look of the words on the page. (And we all know resume design can be a challenge because there is so much text.)

Business / 6 Aug 2015

Adobe Stock: Shaking Up the Stock Content Market

Adobe Stock has introduced a stock content service that’s directly integrated into creative tools and workflows.

Approximately 85% of creatives who buy stock use Adobe tools, and over 90% of stock sellers use Adobe’s tools to create their images. Adobe is working with buyers and sellers to create a streamlined experience that makes the flow of content more efficient for buyers and increases the opportunities for sellers.

Business / 3 Aug 2015

Where Should You Work as a Designer? 10 Things to Consider

Knowing that a design career is what you want is just the first step in the path to finding your dream job. Add in a little training and expertise and you still have some big decisions to make, because there are so many different types of places to find design work.

How do you know what type of place will be the right fit? The answer may be different for you at different stages in your life. Young designers almost always need the support of a more structured environment so they can develop, work with a team and grow. But more experienced designers may find that a smaller shop is a better option with more flexibility and control over their projects. Here, we’ll help you determine where your dream job might be — with a startup, as a freelancer, at an in-house shop or with a big firm?

Business / 15 Jul 2015

How to Create a Twitter Header Photo: Examples and Best Practices

With more than 302 million monthly users and 500 million tweets per day, chances are you are using Twitter to promote yourself, brand or business. (And if you aren’t using the 140-character platform, what are you waiting for?)

Twitter customization is a big part of your social media strategy. As a designer, creating a great header photo is an important part of the puzzle. Here we’ll take a look at ways to create a header photo and overall profile that stand out among the millions of other Twitter personalities out there and showcase a few pages for design inspiration.