I’ve always wondered why the web, which is a medium perfectly tailored to be perfectly targeted, so often carries advertising that is not. True, people don’t like to be spied on, and rarely leave the true information about what they earn in a year on some form they have to fill out – if they even bother filling it...
Promote Yourself Another great way to get the clients you want is to let them come to you. The best way to do this is make sure your work is in their face everyday. This means writing press releases on a monthly basis to showcase your recent projects, updating your website consistently with your new work, writing articles for...
I just read a great interview with illustrator/animator Kao Lee Thao. Kao mentions that the one theme that resonates in her work is the swirl, ‘…the swirl is a symbol of proportional perfection but what I’m drawn to more is the visual appearance of having no beginning or end is could easily travel on forever. A swirl has an...
As designers we often have a hard time putting on our sales cap and going out to get new clients. The harsh reality is that if you are a freelancer or own your own studio then you need to make sales an important part of your daily activities. When trying to get a new client it isn’t just about...
Step’s Best of Web Design 2007 competition is open. The winner gets interviewed in Step (very cool) and the competition jury includes Hillman Curtis, Kelly Goto, and Joe Pemberton (not too shabby). Deadline is April 2. Categories include website, interactive advertising, and motion graphics. Learn more.
Dynamic Graphics Magazine’s Re:Design competition invites you to submit before and after designs. If you have saved a client’s bad ad, logo, website, etc., then enter your rescue effort into this competition. Learn more here
Lew Baldwin Lew Baldwin is a creative art director for web, film, sound, broadcast and motion graphic design projects. He works out of his Los Angeles-based studio team agency, which just recently located from New York. Lew recently shot and directed a series of video for Nike Soccer, including a music video starring Clint Dempsey from the...
Outfoxing the Small Business Owner: Crafty Techniques for Creating a Profitable Relationship, by Gene Marks (2005, ISBN 1-59337-157-8) is worth reading if you’re thinking of freelancing. Small businesses make up the vast majority of potential clients, and the approaches you’ll take to work with them profitably are different from those you’ll take with large corporate clients. I’ve worked with...
People quite often ask me “How did you know that?” I usually answer “I don’t know.” (Not wanting to get into a long conversation!) However, as any successful designer will attest, you must know everything there is to know about a subject before you can create successful designs for it. The problem usually arises in this quest for knowledge...
A look at the launch of Tab’s new Tab Energy Drink prompts an interesting comparison between the designers’ approach to the branding and advertising for this product versus the old Tab Diet Cola you may remember from the days when Disco was the rage. Tab Diet Cola ads from the 1960s and 70s feature imagery that would probably give...
