All right, so they’re not all gems, but there’s some really, really good stuff here. Plus, you gotta know these were done without the aid of machines other than a piece of Letraset, a Rapidograph and some good old india ink…
Fun stuff from the 70′s!
I’m really not a huge fan of building websites. I do like designing them – but the building can be a bit of a drag. Over the years, I’ve figured out how to design around the limitations of browsers and users, but it’s a fine art (not literally,) and it can be very tedious.
I also know there are a lot of designers out there that either don’t know how to code, or just don’t have the time to code. I’m hoping to move into the latter by having too much illustration and design work to never have the time to do the coding. One day!
But – I’ve found a place that takes the drudgery out of site design. PSD2HTML.com You send a PSD of your page design, they send you back the W3C valid XHTML site. Sweet!
They’re not all that cheap, at $153 for a single page – but if you think about the time that’ll save in the building and coding, it’s well worth it. You can always duplicate the page and tinker with the code on your own dime, too. They’ve got a lot of options (like WordPress/Blogger/Joomla integration) and it’s …
I’m in the process of setting up a free blogging community built specifically for freelance designers. It’ll be a simple WordPress-style setup, and it’ll be fully searchable and tied into a HUGE community of artists. Free blogs and websites (set up as subdomains) and a lot of great features that will help us all have a little bit of connectivity and another way of generating some passive income.
Which brings me to my point today. If you’re a freelance designer and you’re not blogging – WHY? It’s a great way to boost your visibility, and it’s a helluva lot more fun than message boards.
Plus, while the blog community might be a little saturated with weird and worthless sites, the opportunity to network with the few, the proud, the freelancers is real and really cool. I’ve gathered a lot of inspiration and some great tools that I use every day from blogs. There’s a tremendous amout of great content out there waiting to be discovered – and I know that there is even more out there just waiting to be published.
So – get out and do it!
As soon as the front end is ready, I’ll release …
I love to loathe Microsoft, so any way that I can stick it to ‘em, I take…
But, at the same time, you’ve got to admit that they make rather ubiquitous software, and as a freelance designer, I have to keep copies of everything that clients and potential clients might use. Don’t ask me about Publisher – I won’t answer.
Microsoft Office is NOT free – quite far from it – but there are a couple of really nice, really slick and totally compatible office suites out there.
First up is a Mac-only product – NeoOffice. It’s got pretty much anything you could possibly be looking for with the actual Office suite – word processor, spreadsheets, database and presentation software, plus it’s totally compatible with all of Microsoft’s products. You can open and save directly to Word files, PowerPoint files, Excel, etc. It doesn’t contain an email client, but there’s a million of those out there that are better than Entourage. Best of all, it’s free – and it keeps my beautiful brushed aluminum machine free of the scourge of Microsoft.
Secondly is a great free product – an open-source project called OpenOffice. It’s got versions …
I’ve decided that the weekends will be dedicated to something a little different than my normal daily banter. I know you’ll miss it, but…
Found this little nugget o’ fun.
Have a good one!
Software is expensive, and as a freelance graphic designer, the latest version of the big name software might be a little out of reach at times. So, I present you with a real – and FREE – alternative to some of the really expensive stuff.
ArtRage 2.5 is a really cool program. Very natural, nice tools, pressure sensitive if you have a tablet, and it works on all platforms. And it runs smoothly without a ton of ram or the latest processor. Works on laptops and little machines. Sweet! Free!
Well – the started edition is free. The full version is $25. But the starter edition is really pretty stinking cool. It’s not Photoshop – but then again, what is? It’s got lots of tools and feels pretty natural. If you’re into painting and illustration (like I am) you’ll appreciate the ability to be fluid. I think I’m going to pony up and get the full version – just to have a little bit of fun. It’s cheaper than canvas.
Here’s a screen grab of a self-portrait in progress – click for full resolution:
And here’s a little detail. There’s almost as many brush strokes as wrinkles:
…
There are a lot of great services for freelance graphic designers out there – and a lot of junk. I’ve worked with some of the best, and I’ve even dipped my toe into the pool of piranhas. Be careful of the services you align with, as you can spend a lot of dough on something that just won’t work – or worse yet – take up a lot of your time and actuall cost you more money than you make.
I’ll outline a couple here, and when I get the rest of this little site actually done, I’ll have a page with many. I’ve done a lot of footwork on a lot of sites, and I’ve fallen flat on my face on some of them. Now, you can learn from my bumps and bruises.
By the way – I don’t make a penny from endorsing or slamming any of these.
First up – my favorite – Guru.com. Really nice system that’s not over-saturated like some of the big boys. They’ve got it broken down into nice categories like graphic design, illustration, web design, copy writing, etc, and they break those categories down even further, so you …
I am, by admission, a little hard-hearted. Generally, I don’t see much outside my world and my client list. But, I was doing some research on Wolfgang Weingart, and I ran across this site – and it got me to thinking…
Check out “Design for the Other 90%.” Food for thought.
“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”
—Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises
The vast majority of what I do is done for the high-brows of the world – and that’s kind of sad. Why should the rich be the only ones who live with objects and products with thought and soul? Why must the poor be saddled with the purely utilitarian?
I don’t know. I’m not sure where I was going with this – but I know that we all deserve a little design in our lives. Something nice to look at. It doesn’t help all that much, but every little bit helps, right?
I’ve found that the freelance life requires me to laugh. A LOT.
I think I’ll create a list (lists are a good way to keep track of things – there, that’ll serve as my info for today) to keep track of the things I should do when stresses set in.
Cable Modem Dead: Read an Al Jaffee comic.
Bad Customer Interaction: Big Lebowski
Hard Drive Malfunction: The Young Ones Box set in it’s entirety.
Losing Out on a Bid: Seinfeld or Simpsons
Client Requesting Comic Sans:
Seriously, people – we’ve got to do away with Comic Sans. I wish we had one of those Men In Black memory eraser things so we could roam the globe and eliminate every copy of Comic Sans, then wipe free the memory of such an offending font.
Sadly, I have more than 5 copies installed. Just in case…
Hmm – maybe tomorrow we talk font management.
I’ve come to realize that making it as a freelance graphic designer is more about being calm than it is about being a good businessman and having a lot of work. You need both – but really, you need to be at peace more than anything. After all, worrying is counter-productive.
There have been times where I’ve lived fat, and there have been times that things have been very, very lean – but the one constant has been that I’ve always made it and that there has never really been a constant. There have been times when I’ve worked under market value, and times that I’ve made more money per hour than a lawyer.
As a freelancer, you have to get into the ebb and flow of the work and the lifestyle. You have to search, and you have to stretch – but you have to keep moving. If you’re flush with work, you have to squirrel away some dough for later down the line, and if you’ve got nothing to do, don’t go out and sleep on the interstate. When things are slow, work on your own business and your own abilities. Don’t stop moving, and don’t give up….
