PsPrint Blog » Freelance

Do You Feel Lucky? Well, Do Ya?

Jennifer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:34:14 +0000

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Are you wearing green? Have you had a Shamrock Shake? Or, better yet, a shot of Jameson? St. Patrick’s Day is a whimsical holiday – you’re not pressured to spend a lot of money showering your loved ones with gifts. Heck, you’re not really expected to do anything except join your friends for Irish bar hopping and chow down on some corned beef and cabbage. But maybe take a moment to reflect on your luck.

I’ve always believed in karma more than luck – I follow the simple Buddhist theory that if I’m a good person, good things will happen to me. Indeed, there’s a belief that good luck is something people create for themselves by being optimists, therefore creating their own fortune.

A lot of PsPrint customers are freelancers or are employed by small businesses, so we’re all aware of how cutthroat competition can be. But in order to survive and even grow your company, you need more than luck – you need gumption and drive. You need to make the effort by developing a solid marketing plan. Rather than pout that you lost another customer to your nemesis, think about why that happened. Was it bad luck, or did you not offer a good-enough value to the prospect?

Going back to karma – it really is a beneficial practice to consider for your business. Join groups, clubs and charitable organizations. Network. Make referrals. All of those things help your community as well as get your name out there. People will remember you when it comes time to making a business decision. The cliché “what goes around comes around” is true, as luck would have it.

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

Last-Minute St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Tips

Jennifer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:03:17 +0000

Has St. Patrick’s Day snuck up on you? Yup, it’s tomorrow. But before you drown your missed business opportunity in a pint o’ Guinness or an Irish Car Bomb cupcake, skim these marketing ideas intended for procrastinators like yourself.

1. Offer a green discount

The beauty of the Internet is you can post news quickly and take it down just as easily. If you advertise a sale on your company’s website today and then promote it immediately via social networking such as Twitter or Facebook, you still have time to catch people’s attention. Come up with something that will attract search engines, since “St. Patrick’s Day” is always popular this time of year. One idea is to offer a “green” discount – let your customers know that you’ll take a dollar off their purchase for each green item they wear on Wednesday.

2. Play up your greenness

The color green symbolizes St. Patrick’s Day as well as the environment. Combine those two for one promotion that casts attention on your business in a positive light. On your website, mention your eco-conscious efforts. Perhaps you’ve swapped out light bulbs or chosen an environmentally friendly printer. Let your customers know they can be comfortable spending their hard-earned green with you!

3. Know the reason for the season

Other companies might throw shamrocks and leprechauns all over their marketing collateral and store, but you can be different. Do a little research on the history of St. Patrick’s Day and then pass it on to your customers via the company website or in the shop. You can create a box on your site with St. Patrick’s Day facts, such as the origin of the shamrock and the pot of gold, or you can have an in-store contest with trivia questions.

So let this be a lesson to you: Even though you’re now armed with some quick marketing tips, don’t dawdle on future holiday promotions! Now is the time to plan for upcoming special occasions, such as Easter, Earth Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Then promote the heck out of it!

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!

Are photo cards addictive?

Brian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:20:33 +0000

Photo cards are a great way to share with family and friends.

Are photo cards addictive? I’m just wondering because I see them everywhere anymore. Every Christmas our mailbox is full of photo cards of family and friends. Every time one of her four children takes a new school photo or joins a sport, my cousin sends us a photo card commemorating the event.

Not that I’m complaining. I love photo cards. They’re so much better than off-the-rack greeting cards, especially since I can tack them on the fridge and build my own wall of family and friend portraits with little effort whatsoever.

My grandma loves receiving them, too, and it’s a cheap way to send out new family photos that can be used in frames and on fridges alike. My mother has a curio cabinet that she sticks received photo cards in; my sister-in-law frames them in a large display on her kitchen wall. My son tacks them to his bulletin board.

Ten years ago, photo cards were virtually non-existent. But today it seems as though we receive a photo card every other week. I’m considering sending one of my own every year – Grandma would probably like to get one of the kids – but I’m a little concerned. With the proliferation of photo cards (they’re obviously extremely popular), I don’t want to get hooked into something I can’t get out of.

I mean, I already have hobbies – like aimlessly surfing through television stations when nothing is on – so I’m a little afraid that if I start sending photo cards I won’t be able to stop. I could get hooked, unable to do anything else until I get my photo. It’s already has a hold on nearly everyone in my family!

So, are photo cards addictive? Either that, or… they’re simply fun.

Image use Creative Commons license via Flickr.

Spring-Clean Your Workplace

Jennifer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:51:06 +0000

Spring is just around the corner! The changing of the seasons often signals a sense of renewal and with that comes a reminder to clean up your life, whether it’s your workplace, your personal life or your garage. Here are six spring-cleaning tasks that will lead to an organized environment, which often leads to a clearing of the brain, which leaves you wide open for inspiration. How’s that for a rebirth?

Sweep out the old!

1. Clean up your desktop.

Does your desktop look like someone planted icons all over it? Are all the abbreviated mumbo-jumbo titles running together? If so, it’s time to organize. Get rid of that Illustrator file you were playing around with that never became more than a few lines, file similar documents into one folder, and click on the images that are unfamiliar to you. You might discover a new piece of inspiration or remind yourself of an unfinished task.

2. Change the battery on your smoke alarm.

It’s recommended to change this battery twice a year when you also change your clocks. Sunday is Daylight Savings, which means we spring forward! Also check the battery on your carbon monoxide detector.

3. Back up your files.

I cannot stress this enough: As a graphic designer, a freelancer or some other work-at-home person, you are responsible for backing up your work. All it takes is one fried hard drive to erase hundreds of hours of painstaking work. And how will you explain that to your clients?

4. Check your inventory.

Do you have outdated supplies? I’m talking toner for a printer you no longer have or envelopes with your old address. Chuck those into recycling or the trash. Meanwhile, make sure you’re stocked up on all other office supplies. Here’s a supply checklist to get you started.

5. Recycle old magazines and newspapers.

Don’t let your office turn into a fire hazard – get rid of the clutter by clearing out old periodicals. No, don’t even bother to flip through them to find that one article you always thought you’d get to. If you haven’t read it by now, you never will.

6. Clean the coffeepot.

Seriously, it’s gross.