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How to register your business name with your state

Valerie — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:00:39 +0000

OK, you’ve graduated from design school or decided to step out on your own and become a legitimate freelance designer. You’ve come up with a catchy name for you company and are excited about the new opportunities you’ll encounter and clients that you’ll attract. But before making up those business cards and sending out those promotional items, you want to register your business name.

A major part of being legitimate is registering your business name with the state. This is important for filing your taxes, going into contractual agreements and starting bank accounts. Think about your business in the long term. You might one day acquire employees, which means creating a payroll. You could one day rent or own an office space. Whatever you do with your business, your business name is going to be involved somehow. Making sure that it is officially listed as a registered business with your Secretary of State’s office is a necessary step toward being a legitimate business owner.

The first step is to go to your Secretary of State’s office. A quick Google search will direct you to their website. I live in Ohio, so I would do a Google search for “Ohio Secretary of State”. After finding the website, you want to look for the section of the site that focuses on businesses. A business filing or name registration tab is normally on the home page. During the process, you’ll be able to do a search for your business name to see if anyone else is using the name you’ve chosen. This is why it’s important to do this step before purchasing those business cards!

After verifying that no other business has your name, you want to fill out a registration form. Remember, just because the name you’ve chosen doesn’t come up (or does come up) doesn’t mean that it’s available (or not available). There are regulations on having a business name, but if someone’s chosen the same name in a different industry, it may still be available for you. The same goes for a business name showing as available. Someone might be in the process of registering the same name in the same industry, so filling out the form and applying is the only way to know if the name you’ve chosen can be registered by you.

The form is normally one that you’ll have to print off and mail back to your Secretary of State. It involves signatures and a filing fee. The fee for Ohio is $125, but you should check your specific state to see how much they charge. If your application is approved, you will receive a certificate showing your official registration with your state. Your Secretary of State’s office will also notify you if there is a problem with your application, or if your business name is not available.

5 blogs that pay designers to post

Valerie — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:00:22 +0000

As a freelance graphic designer with experience, you’re considered an expert — especially to those just starting out in the design world or those with no design education. If you’ve ever had to explain to someone why they should choose one color instead of another or why you’ve made the text in your project right justified instead of left, you may be a great blogger. Companies recognize the talent and expertise that graphic designers like you can bring to the table, and they’re willing to pay you good money to share it with the world.

Blogging is easy because your subject matter comes from your own education and experience. As a graphic artist your everyday business life is the inspiration for your writing. If you constantly design flyers and rack cards, you can blog about rack card printing tips or places that offer deals on printing flyers. If you grew your client base through networking, you can blog about events that you’ve attended to build your network base or topics on how to strike up conversations and promote your services upon just meeting a potential client.

Here are five great websites that pay designers for blog posts. Most of them pay per post after an approval of your post by their staff. It’s a great way to make some extra money and promote your business at the same time!

• Design Reviver.com
• SmashingMagazine.com
• ProBlogdesign.com
• CrazyLeafdesign.com
• Gomediazine.com

Book cover design checklist

Valerie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:08 +0000

A common service that graphic artists are called on to complete is a book cover or book jacket design. For a graphic artist just starting out, this might not be a project that you’re used to doing.

When I first started designing, one of my first big clients was a publishing company. Pretending to know what I was doing, I fumbled through my first book cover design and humbly made the list of adjustments that needed to be done due to my amateur mistakes. If I knew several important rules about book cover printing, it would have saved a lot of time and headache.

Here is a checklist of the basic things to remember when designing a book cover:

Use bleeds
As designers, we deal with bleeds all of the time. The bleeds on a book are normally no different: One-eighth or .125 inches around all sides of the book is standard.

Know your spine width
A book’s spine width is determined by its page count. The equation for determining spine width is dividing the number of pages in your book by the text paper’s pages per inch or PPI. The PPI is a number that you will need to find out from the printer of the book because it is based on the type of paper the printer will use. For example, for a 300-page book with a PPI of 400, the equation would be 300/400 = .75. Your spine width would be .75 or three-fourths of an inch.

Keep the barcode clear
The barcode might be one of the most important parts of a book. It holds so much necessary information, such as the book’s International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and price of the book, so making sure it can easily be scanned is critical. The background of any book’s barcode should be completely white. The actual barcode should be 100 percent black and should not be altered in any way.

Include standard content
On the front of your cover, you want to make sure that there are two key pieces of information: the book’s title and the book’s author. Remember, most authors and publishing companies are concerned with sales, so the easier it is for a potential buyer to recognize the book title and author, the better.

On the spine, the same information applies as the front cover. The title of the book should be clear and at the top of the spine. The author of the book should follow below the title, and normally the publisher’s name or logo will go at the bottom of the spine.

The back cover will normally include the book’s title again, a brief synopsis of the book and the barcode. You could also include the address or contact information of the publisher and any favorable reviews of the book.

A book cover has many of the same design rules as other printed material, so there is no need to shy away from these projects. It’s always a good idea to speak to the book printer beforehand and get their specifications as some printer’s regulations may vary. You might also want to suggest a custom bookmark design to help promote the book, boost sales and put even more money in your pocket!

10 cool movie posters

Valerie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:00:27 +0000

There have been some great movies that have come out during the past few years, and the movie posters aren’t so bad either! In fact, movie posters are a great way to get inspiration for your next poster idea. I find movie posters particularly interesting because of the story that must be told within a single image. Not only must a movie poster encompass the characters and/or surroundings seen in the movie, but they must also encompass the feeling, attitude and mood of the film. In short, the poster is a summary of the movie and its intent to the viewer.

Here are some extremely interesting movie poster designs. Hopefully they will help you with your next poster project.

Unusual St. Patrick’s Day tributes

Valerie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:49 +0000

When you hear the words St. Patrick’s Day, you probably think of emerald green shamrocks, corned beef and leprechauns. All are staples of this popular holiday, but as artists we’re always interested in the unconventional.

Creating a party invitation for a St. Patrick’s Day bash is a good way to let people know you’re celebrating the holiday, but here are some examples of people making a unique statement when paying tribute to St. Patrick.

10 great website button tutorials

Valerie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:00:38 +0000

Navigation is an extremely important, maybe even the most important aspect of any website. Most of us have been trained to look for a button to push when we want to move forward into a website. That button should be easily recognizable as well as good looking. If you were on a website to create a custom invitation, and you couldn’t find the portion of the site that allows you to add your own text, upload a design or price your order, more than likely you would give up in frustration and move on to another more user-friendly site.

A great way to make that oh-so-important navigation easy on the eyes as well as the mouse is by creating clear eye-catching buttons. Here are 10 great tutorials on creating website buttons.

veerle.duoh.com – Creating Flexible Buttons Using Photoshop Shapes and Styles

devwebpro.com – Industrial Style Navigation Buttons

toxiclab.org – Button Tutorial

photoshopstar.com – Professional Glossy Download Button

designnewz.com – Shut Down Icon

designtutorials.info – Volume Control Widget

tutorialized.com – Creative Menu Bar

tutorialized.com – Action Button Design in Photoshop

tutorialized.com – Pearl Download Icon

tutorialized.com – Create a pixel perfect social media icon