Every day I read a new article about dealing with clients or how to best present your work, however the underlying principal of all of these articles is the creation of a process. This is one of a few things that long established firms have that freelancers and new business ventures most likely do not. I personally have been struggling with the creation and refinement of my personal process over the last year and have refined it to a point that I think is relatively successful. Every design process varies greatly, however they all share some common ground. A good design process should start by learning about the project and defining its goals. But why create a process, what... 

While I normally try to avoid work that is strictly SEO, it sure does seem like it is on client’s minds a lot lately. We have received a number of calls requesting proposals for SEO work, and the behavior seems to be consistent with a neighboring agency. Normally proposals like this would come our way every once now and again, but it seems like they have been pretty steady lately. After talking with these clients, what I have realized is that in all of the cases I could achieve what the client wanted however the results would never meet the expectations. PLAYING THE EXPECTATION BALANCING GAME As designers we manage expectations all the time. We do this in order to stay... 

Many of you may have noticed that I redesigned the site. I have been hinting at a redesign for a number of months now, and I am very happy to finally reveal it to you all. After what has been an almost endless number of hours (or so it seemed) I have a number of new features and what I consider to be a drastically improved design. I am using this article to describe my process and the goals I hoped to achieve through the redesign. THE ORIGINAL POSITIVE SPACE DESIGN I began blogging casually a couple of years ago one a basic blogger account but became bored with the system due to the lack of control the blogger system offers. I still wanted to blog though, so I made the commitment... 

My early experience in the design profession was unlike that of most of my peers and colleagues. I did not attend design school and did not enter the profession with the academic design training most receive. Instead of starting a design career in my early to mid twenties, I started when I was almost forty years old, after more than two decades in retail and corporate management while at the same time being an intermittent artist and craftsman. As a result, I was never offered design advice from mentors or professors. My training as a designer has been mostly derived from 30 years as a musician-composer and bonsai artist. Additionally, my design understanding has been greatly... 

Despite the mixed reviews amongst people working in design / advertising about Mad Men, I have become addicted. However it is the underlying struggles raised by the characters that stick with me the longest. For example, in this past week’s episode, Harry Crane opens Ken Cosgrove’s paycheck and sees that he makes 300 dollars a week. This is 100 dollars more than he makes, which to Harry begs the question, why? It is not until a discussion with Salvatore the Art Director that he realizes where he is lacking, and where this article will begin. VALUE IS CONTEXTUAL Salvatore asks Harry, “What do you do that makes you irreplaceable?” While Harry fumbles with a response,... 

When you are focusing on putting together an amazing book to land a great job, you will take any advice you can find. However, have you ever stopped to think about where that advice was coming from? Not all professionals are created equally, and the advice of some is not as valuable as that of others. I never really saw this as an issue when I was a student, until I witness first hand a situation that left me utterly disgusted. I was talking with some colleagues who use a common vendor to hear that they were out of the office for the day because they were performing senior portfolio reviews at a local college. This would seem like a charitable and worthwhile thing to do if... 

Collected for you a small TOP of incredible sites that do not have web 2.0 functionality. Inspired by exciting properties of commandshift3.com other designers created really amazing works which I will share with you. For more amazing websites check out the other four posts in the series that can be found here 1, 2, 3, 4. Notice: I am aware that the web 2.0 term was created to describe the advanced interaction between software and users. This article however addresses the aesthetic that has accompanied most web 2.0 applications and as a result filtered down into websites in general. bfish http://bfish.free.fr/   Industry of Imagineering http://www.monoblock.tv/   Iwit.nl http://www.iwit.nl/   Krolikov http://www.krolikov.net/   North... 

While trying to build out my online freelancing presence (which, as a side note, is still in progress), I’ve often been confronted to this obvious conscience case: What can I do to look appealing for the industry I’m working in? Once, while discussing about this with a friend, he simply told me “Why don’t you just be yourself?”. This advice may look obvious concerning our relationships and social life (we all know that trying to fit in schemes and groups without convictions is the best way to be misunderstood and not appreciated for what we are). MAKE A DIFFERENCE BY BEING YOURSELF But in the business jungle, we often forget the emotional part of our work. Are we... 

I am relatively certain that early on in my life I came to the conclusion that easy things are boring. I think my first memory of such an event has to be the Game Genie I owned for my Nintendo. Yes it made the seemingly impossible Metroid conquerable, however it also sucked the thrill out of the game. To the point that pausing to go grab a Sunny D was pointless, as I wouldn’t die even if the flying lava fish things hit me. NES flashbacks aside, I think there is something to be said for taking the harder route, gratification that would otherwise go unknown. HARDER DOESN’T NECESSARILY MEAN MORE STRESSFUL Many people avoid taking the more difficult path because they assume... 

Sometimes you have a client that in any other circumstance would be a perfect one, however they insist on putting every decision up to a committee. They are most likely only choosing to do so because they want the best possible outcome. Who can really blame them? Ok you can, but their need for a great outcome is exactly how you can get through this project and still produce some amazing work. Read on to see my tips for working with a committee. The answer is perfectly simple; multiple agendas. When dealing with multiple stakeholders each has something they wish to gain out of the project. If we can make sure that these agendas are not hidden and go addressed, it is actually...