Daily Resources for Web Designers & Developers by Andy Sowards » Design

300 Personalized Stickers for Free from 1800Postcards.com!

Andy Sowards — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:24:05 +0000

Are you in the need for some stickers, for your career or just for fun? 1800Postcards.com is offering you the opportunity to win 300 custom stickers!

Who is 1800Postcards?

1800Postcards.com is the retail branch of Circle Press, a high-end commercial printing firm with a roster of Fortune 100 clients that includes Dior, Tiffany, Disney, American Express and most of the world’s leading brands. These companies demand nothing but the best in quality. To be specific, a quality standard called “G7,” which is only granted to printing firms that meet a very strict set of best practices and production quality. These clients sit with pre-press, have color proofs printed for spot color matching, they come in when the job is printed to make color adjustments and watch it run on the press to see the final results, the whole nine yards. They also pay tens of thousands of dollars for this type of service level.

1800Postcards produces your print work in the same facilities, with the same press-men and production staff, and adheres to the same quality standards as high-end commercial jobs. The only difference is that your job is “gang printed” or run together with other 1800Postcard clients, which is the secret of every online printing company and why they can be so cheap in pricing. However, 1800Postcards.com just brought it up to an almost unreasonable level of quality

But what if you don’t need postcards? Well they’re capable of more than just postcard printing. They offer brochures, business cards, flyers, posters, banners, postcards and pretty much any custom work your creative mind can imagine.

Bottom line, the print results are unbelievable… no one in the online printing space comes even close to this quality and attention to detail. You can see it yourself by requesting free samples @ http://www.1800postcards.com/brochure_request.aspx

The Giveaway – Rules

We will be selecting TWO lucky winners and each will receive 300 custom stickers. All you have to do is click on the “Participate” widget below and leave a brief comment on this post telling us why you should win. Giveaway last for two weeks. Winners will be chosen on February 16 and announced on February 17.

Specifics

Size: 3×3”
Quantity: 300
Stock: #60 Gloss Sticker
Turnaround: 3 business days

How To Win

Step 1) Participate by Clicking on This Link and Entering Your Info

Click here to Participate

Step 2) Leave Comment On This Post Telling Us Why You Should Win (use a valid email for contact!)

It’s That Easy! Good luck everyone!

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Top Most Important & Crucial Points To Consider Before Becoming A Freelance Logo Designer

Lief — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:50:16 +0000

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You may have thought that you could just up and start freelancing any day, but there are some top most crucial points before becoming a freelance logo designer, that you must first consider. Freelancing is not as easy and comfortable as it sounds. In fact, it could be quite tough. Even though logo designing might be your passion, you could still find it a lot of hard work. Before taking up freelancing, people usually feel that it could not be any worse than working under others in a regular office job. But if you look closely, it can be worse. Actually, it could be much worse. So before you decide that working as a freelance logo designer is your life’s calling, it would be better if you learned what the top most important & crucial points before becoming a freelance logo designer are.

The Most Important Points Before Becoming a Freelance Logo Designer That You Should Question Yourself on:

Before you take up freelancing full time, these are some of the questions that you should definitely ask yourself. They might give you an idea about whether you are actually suited to this career.

Can You Run A Business?

Most people forget that when you become a freelancer, knowing how to simply design the best logos is not enough. Sure that is important. But you also have to manage the business part of freelancing now. Handling a business isn’t an easy task. People go to college and study for 4 years before they get a degree in Management or Business. So can you do it without that knowledge?

If you believe that you can, then you have to make sure that you also do the following things.

You just cannot give up learning. You have to keep reading up and gathering knowledge.
have to learn all the new designing techniques that are developed in order to make yourself seem attractive and knowledgeable to your clients.
Since the designing of a logo is greatly dependent on technologies, you must also keep track of the latest ones available in the market. Moreover, you must be aware of all the updated version of the old technologies. This way your work will always be accepted by any client.

Can You Be Your Own Boss & Make Your Own Hours?

You are definitely your own boss. You don’t have anyone telling you what to do and when to do. But, as good as that may sound, it has its downsides too. For instance, you don’t have anyone to tell you when to get up in the morning and rush to office. So, discipline is something you will have to have within you. If you are one of those people who only work when you have someone to give you a fixed deadline, wake you up and set you to work, then freelancing is probably not your cup of tea.

Here comes the worst part. Did you think your eight hours a day, 5 days a week job, was hectic? Then get ready to face something even worse. Since freelancing does not have any fixed hour, it also doesn’t remain restricted to the 8 hours every day mark. So, you must be ready to work more than forty hours every week and often, late into the night. Many a times, you will have no time to catch up with friends or go out especially, in the beginning of your freelancing job. Are you ready to deal with all this? If yes, then you definitely have a good shot at making it big, as a freelancer.

You Can Design A Logo, But Can You Handle Paperwork & Other Random Time Consuming Tasks?

You are your own manager now. So you can’t depend on others to handle the paperwork and register the business that you are starting. On top of that, it is your responsibility to look for your clients, handle all your emails and reply to them regularly, pay all the taxes etc. So, make sure you fulfil all the formalities right. You must not forget to consider this point, as it falls within the range of the topmost crucial points before becoming a freelance logo designer.

Can You Handle Stress?

The other very important question that any aspiring freelancing logo designer should ask himself is that can you handle the stress that comes with this job? Stress is something that you will have to deal with on a daily basis, so you would better start looking for ways to manage it.

You are going to have to work late into the night day after day. On top that, your clients pay for your services. So they are going to try and extract the maximum amount of work from you. This means that you would often have to fulfil a high number of demands involving re-doing, changing, altering etc. If you feel that you can’t deal with all this pressure, then it is better to give this career choice another much needed thought.

Can You Handle Criticism?

Are you able to deal with criticism well? You are going to get a lot of it. Many of your customers will have good things to say to you. Dealing with that is the easy part. Burt when someone points out our flaws and lays it all down in front of you, you must be able to take it positively. It must become a part of your growth process and help you to slowly overcome your inabilities and shortcomings.

Now that we have spoken about criticism, let us talk about abuse. No matter how unlikely it seems, you will always have certain customers who will scream at you and say demeaning things. This is because; there are a particular category of people who feel that they own you because they are paying you. Not only do you have to have a monumental amount of patience simply to deal with them, but also the confidence to defend yourself. Having said all this, your customers are the ones who will refer you to others in future and as a result, help you get more work. So you must always be on favourable terms with them.

These are only a few of the situations that you may have to face as a freelancer. However, it is not all bad news. Once you are able to deal with the initial hurdles well, you would start to get some regular amount of work. With time, you may even be able to make a good living purely out of freelancing as a logo designer. But before that happens, make sure you keep these top most crucial points before becoming a freelance logo designer in mind.

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40+ Amazing Examples of Music Inspired Design – Artwork, Concepts, Illustrations & Photography

Andy Sowards — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:48:57 +0000

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So we all know music rocks, literally (hehe herp derp ). Today we have some amazing examples of how music can influence a workflow or a design in a totally awesome way. Music can make anything more creative, or motivate you to do your best on any given task (great to listen to while designing or developing btw!). Drool over these awesome artworks, concepts and designs that were inspired by the true power and beauty of music!

Enjoy!

The audio above is the engine revs the Moog would produce. Once again, the theme of using something recognizable and something alien was combined to produce noise an electronic music inspired car would make. In this case the vehicle is sporty and specific to this genre of music, but this project was an exercise to demonstrate how inspirational music can be to the design process.

You need moar music inspired epic awesome designy-ness? Well Okay…

here ya go! check these out for your homework (jk homework sucks)

40 Amazing Music Inspired Artworks

30+ Music Inspired Logos in Logo Design

30+ MUSIC INSPIRED LOGO DESIGNS

What is your favorite music to listen to? I am a big fan of all music, mostly alternative and rock

You like this? Don’t forget to follow us on twitter @andysowards and like us on facebook @andysowardsfan! We are also on that new fangled G+ doohikey.

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Here There Be Dragons! Dealing with Nightmare Clients & Challenges As A Freelance Designer

Michael Dambold — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:25:23 +0000

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In the great fantastic world of design, professionals are like knights, claiming prizes and rewards while fighting fierce dragons and vanquishing evil foes.

At least, we think ourselves kin to the great knights of old. In many ways, we may be correct.

While we may not be Knights of the Round Table or regularly hold Court with King Arthur, we deal with many challenges as they would. The difference is our enemies are time and budget, and our dragons are challenges we face. The challenges are not only with producing an excellent product, but producing any product within the time allotted.

Most specifically though, many of our battles are fought with clients who hold little or no knowledge of what they want, or how to communicate it.

Many times we deal with clients who are ignorant of the way web or print works, and say so outright, negating the need for designers to find out the hard way.

However, there is always that small element that believes they know everything about design and web. These are the clients we fear to deal with, and the ones we avoid if we can.

Unfortunately we sometimes find ourselves caught in a web of deception and miscommunication, and it makes any project or assignment nearly impossible to either navigate or accomplish. There are five things we can use to keep from the webs and shed light upon any possible problems we might encounter with a client.

1. Explain in writing to any potential client how much you charge, and how you work.

If you charge hourly or by project element, make sure it’s easy to understand before any contract is made. It’s never recommended to begin hourly negotiations at this stage but to explain how you work in terms of available hours, and your current workload.

Being this translucent up front tends to intimidate those who are used to taking advantage of designers and by making a professional declarative stance on your work ethic and available hours. By doing this the tone for negotiations of the contract is set.

2. Don’t forsake your principles, and don’t compromise your basics.

Every once in a while a client will come along who is convinced they have the business market cornered, and will try to convince you that no matter how much time you’ve been in the business or who your clients have been, they are the most important thing that will ever happen to you.

They’ll explain that you can’t possibly see the scope of the project and will most likely try to either bully you into a lower rate or some sort of impossible concession that you cannot make. Don’t let it happen. There are concessions that can be made in any project, but working until 3am when you have a young child or are sick, working for a significant decrease in pay, or some other concession that will hurt you is never worth it, unless your client is a major corporation like Disney. Even in that case, they will understand your boundaries and won’t violate them.

In that case, the reference will outweigh any concession that needs to be made. But chances are, many small business owners will not carry such weight. But whether or not they have a significant advantage such as a reference can become clear in negotiations.

3. Make the contract yourself.

Never allow the client to make the contract unless it’s from a large corporation and you feel comfortable with the contract after reading every word. Every contract is a legal binding agreement, and if you don’t know what’s inside, you could be in for a world of misery.

4. Become best friends with other professionals, and a lawyer.

Other professionals are a wonderful way of gaging your experiences with clients and sharing them with others. So much can be learned from their good and bad experiences. Becoming friends with a lawyer is also helpful. Whether you hire one or have one as a friend, legal counsel is invaluable to navigate the potential problems with contracts and legal problems.

5. If 1-4 are violated, drop it like its hot.

If you’ve followed 1-4, and the professionals or lawyer gives you a warning about the client, they refuse to allow you to give any input on the contract, attempt to make you concede in ways you aren’t comfortable with and do not care for your work times or demand you violate your standards, it’s a given that you will leave the project with less sleep, more stress, and less money.

Those clients are usually not worth dealing with, and though they are a minute percentage of the clients we face, we owe it to ourselves to work with people in mutual respect and professional courtesy. Any business used to dealing with freelance designers is also used to dealing with the above 4 steps. Any business that sees fit to violate them is usually used to ripping off other people, and you aren’t the first and probably won’t be the last. Working with professional businesses who are respectful and deal with projects in a professional manner are the highest prize of all, and those are the battles against time and budget that are always worth fighting for.

Stick with the battles worth fighting, and the challenges worth facing. We have a great world out there to conquer, and many dragons to fight!

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Epic Giveway! – Win A $75 Printing Credit For FREE From Next Day Flyers

Andy Sowards — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:34:51 +0000

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Do your old business cards or marketing materials need a new look? Do you find yourself crossing off information from printed flyers and writing in the correct info? Time to update people! Here’s a chance to do it without spending a dime.

Next Day Flyers, the premier source for all of the printing services a business needs is offering 1 lucky winner a $75 credit toward anything on their site. Next Day Flyers has tons of products that just about anyone can find useful. They offer brochures, tickets, DVD inserts, menus and more. So if you need to update your business cards or even if you just want to send out a special themed postcard to family and friends, this contest is for you.

About Next Day Flyers

NextDayFlyers is fast and cheap and they are no newcomer to the print industry. They’ve been around for well over a decade and they aim to please. They understand the importance of quality printing delivered on time. Their quality control process includes 33 checkpoints to ensure the job gets printed, packaged, and out the door correctly. And they care about the planet too. They use environmentally conscious soy based inks and recycled card stock.

Their website allows for an easy upload of print ready files. However, if you’re new to design and haven’t quite mastered your skills, not to worry. They also have an Online Design Center where you can create your print layout right in your browser. It’s full of print templates which you can customize with your own photos, logos and text.

The Prize

One Lucky winner will receive a $75 credit toward products and/or shipping of anything offered by Next Day Flyers!

How To Win

1) Leave a Comment on this page and let us know what product you’d print if you are one of the lucky winners.

2) [Optional] – For a bonus entry Like Next Day Flyers and Andy Sowards on Facebook and leave a comment on the wall on Next Day Flyers fan page mentioning this giveaway.

3) That is it! Easy right?

One winner will be chosen at random from all the entries. Please enter a valid email address.

The contest ends on February 14th 2012. The winners will be contacted by email.

Good Luck!