You’ve probably heard the phrase, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” When it comes to being a graphic artist and using a program like Adobe Illustrator, that statement could not be any more truer. A lot designers seem intimidated by Illustrator: it’s definitely the most artistic and creative of the Adobe Creative Suite programs. It’s also the one that many designers shy away from as they flock in droves to Photoshop.

Why would you use Illustrator or even be concerned with learning this program? If you’re looking to create vector graphics, this is your go-to program. Logos, illustrations, icons – the list of design tasks you’ll accomplish with Illustrator is too long and wide to cover and not knowing how to maneuver around this program can really lessen your value as a designer. What’s the secret to being a master and expert in Adobe Illustrator? Really, it’s all about the pen tool. Sure, you can do a lot more with this program but many of your design tasks can be taken care of just by being familiar and comfortable with the pen tool. So, this tutorial is a crash course in how to use it.

What You Will Need:
1. Adobe Illustrator (Any version, even as early as CS2, is fine)
2. A photo
3. Time (this isn’t a tutorial you can wrap in five minutes. Depending on how far you want to take it, it could take a while but the end results will be worth it).

Your Mission (Should You Choose to Accept It): To take a real photograph and turn it into a vector illustration using Adobe Illustrator and the pen tool and nothing more.

First, choose your photo. For this tutorial I used one of my usual creative muses, Madonna. You can use whatever you want. The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to use a real photo reference to create a vector art in Illustrator for whatever your design purposes may be, so choose whatever strikes your fancy.

After you’ve chosen your photo, import into Illustrator by going to the menu bar and choosing File > Place and selecting the location of your photo. It should appear on your page/stage like below:

You will need to have color, layers, stroke and transparency palettes open and off to the side. If any of these aren’t visible, simply go to “Window” in the menu bar and select them from the pull down menu to make them visible.

In Illustrator, click on the photo that’s on the page. Make it slightly opaque/transparency by bringing it down to about 60 or 70% transparent. This will help when using the pen tool to trace around the image. After the image has been made a bit opaque (lighter), go over and lock the layer. Locking the layer means you won’t be able to draw or do anything on this layer which is fine; you want this layer as your tracing/reference and don’t want it moving or being editable. Create a new layer and it should appear above the first layer that contains your photo. In the layers pallet, simply click ‘new layer’ (the red box) and it should appear. You can also go through the main menu to do so. You should see something similar to the image below:

Now is where the hard work begins. Choose the pen tool. In the the tool bar it’s the icon that has a triangular head with a point to it and it looks like an old school fountainhead pen. You are going to use the pen tool to basically trace the image. Some may gawk at this time consuming task and argue that you can create a decent vector in Photoshop. Here’s why you’d want to do a vector illustration the hard way in Illustrator:

The pen tool is a very powerful tool. It can create curves; it can create crisper, cleaner lines than Live Trace or any Photoshop command could ever execute. The pen tool will give you something called anchor points with are where you start and stop a line segment: you can add anchor points to further manipulate a line or you can delete them if you’ve got too many and want to re-add or simply change a line. If you want to create crisp, clean vector graphics and illustrations with tons of detail and extra lines and give them a flair of personality and real artistry, bunker down and do it with Illustrator’s pen rather than looking for a Photoshop shortcut.

So, choose the basic tool from the toolbar. Choose a color; at the start of any illustration, the color isn’t really a huge issue. Basically, consider this first color nothing but a base paint or primer; the closer to the end of the illustration you get, you’ll just click on this layer or color and will change it to match what you really want. Right now, choose a color and start using the pen tool to go around the perimeter of the overall shape. I’ve found it’s best to get the overall shape down first and then go back and get in all the other shapes, details and features later.

After I start tracing anything with the pen tool, I like to make the color slightly opaque. The more anchor points you add and the larger the surface area you cover, the harder it will be to see where you need to trace or go. Making the color you’re tracing with a bit transparent will definitely help you come up with a better illustration in the end.

You’ll want to try to create smother lines. If there is a curve such as with the arms of the photo, create one anchor point and then spread the other out a bit and before letting go of the mouse (which will set the anchor point) slightly pull in or out and you’ll see that a curved line is created. The more curves you have rather than blocky straight lines between the anchor points, the better and more realistic your image will be.

After you get the overall outline down, now it’s time to start detailing the image. Notice that your image probably has varying degrees or shades of color. You’ll want to try to mimic this. Choose a darker color for the eyebrows and eyes; choose a lighter shade for the different shadows of the hair. The best vector illustrations are those packed with details. The more time you spend on “filling in” and recreating the image, the more impressive the end result will be. You can also choose a color and use different levels of opaqueness for the shadows. Consider this an old artsy trick of watering down a paint to make it either more of a wash or a bolder color.

As you detail and complete any vector illustration, it’s a good idea to stop and see the vector illustration itself without the real image being in the background. By creating two layers at the start, this is rather simple. Make the layer with the photo invisible by clicking on the “eye”. You can always make it reappear so that you can finish your work later on by re-clicking that eye space.

From here, the tutorial is all about how detailed you want to get. For some design tasks, all you may need is a good silhouette; in that case, you’ve now learned now to create a curvy, detailed silhouette using a real photo that would normally cost you a few dollars to purchase on one of the stock photo sites. Congratulations! If you want to take the illustration further, start filling in the spaces. Use the transparency feature to make the base/silhouette opaque and begin to fill in the different features of your image. The more details you include, from the shows or spaces in between the hands, glimmer in the eye, the better. Here’s a simple progression of how I did this illustration:

Whenever you’re done, it’s time to take out the reference and see the final product of all your hard work. Either make the photo layer invisible or delete it all together. You will have your very own vector illustration. The great thing about a vector illustration is that you can enlarge it or make it small and not lose quality; you can use Illustrator to color it in to make it look more realistic or come up with your own interesting color palette. Here’s what the final image looked liked as well as a comparison of the original photo and vector illustration:

You will not become a true master of the pen tool in one tutorial. It takes practice and learning how to create curves, where to set anchor points and how to create complex shapes with the pen tool. Trust me though; taking the time to learn the pen tool is worth it. If you want better results, really impressive finished illustrations that could earn you not only compliments and pats on the back but top dollar, learn and become comfortable with the pen tool!

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Ever seen a black and white photo where a shirt, a balloon or some other object appears in full color while the rest of the image is all black and white? Ever wonder how it’s done? You may think it’s a simple painting of that image. Wrong. That image where there’s one item or area of the photo in color while the rest remains in grayscale started off in most cases as a full color image. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the selective color tool in Photoshop to highlight one color in an image to create a stunning photograph.

What You’ll Need:
1. Photoshop (I used CS2 to do this tutorial and so you should be able to use everything from CS2 up to CS5 to do this tutorial)
2. A photo (The more colorful the photo, the better the results).

Here’s how to do it:

Start off with any image. This tutorial and effect works best with a colorful photo. Open the photo in Photoshop and immediately duplicate the image into a new layer. You should see something like this in the layers menu:

You’ll want to select the top (unlocked) layer. This is the first layer we’ll do work with. With this top layer selected go to the menu bar and under “Select” and choose “Color Range…”. This is where you will identify the color that will be highlighted in the final version of the photo.

The “Color Range” box will come up. In “Select” you’ll want to choose ‘Sampled Colors’; you’ll want to use the simplest eyedropper and for “Selection Preview” choose White Matte. The image will appear as a negative (black and white colors) in the “Select” box. Move your cursor over this negative image and the eyedropper tool will appear. This is where you play around and find out what works best for your particular photo. Click on different areas of the photo with the eyedropper and in the main photo off to the side you will see what colors are highlighted. If you wanted to pick up the green color in Cross’ dress rather than the red tones in her hair, you would click on different parts of her dress or even the floor to see what colors would be highlighted. You can also move the “Fuzziness” cursor to the left or right. I’ve found that the further right, the more intense the color. Move the cursor to the left if you want a more subtle, light treatment. Once you’ve gotten your color range chosen, click “Ok”.

After clicking OK you’ll see parts of the image surrounded by a dotted line or special selection area. You will want to change this selection area into a mask. To do this, in the layer panel you can choose the square with the circle in the middle. Or “Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal Selection/Hide Selection” will do the same thing. In the layers panel you should see the following:

You should now see a mask has been added to the top layer that you’ve been working with. The hard part of the tutorial is over. Now you need to knock out all of the distracting colors. Click on the bottom layer and in the menu bar choose “Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map”. The “Gradient Map” box will come up and you’ll want to choose the black/white gradient option. You’ll see that suddenly all of the color disappears from the image with the exception of that special mask you created in the last step. You should see something like this:

If you want to go crazy with the color and have a different gradient other than black & white, you can choose some of the other gradient options. However, if what you see is what you like, just click “OK” after choosing the black & white gradient. Now you should have a stunning, fashionable photo that will feature a very selective range of color:

Why would you want to use this Photoshop technique? It’s great for fashion layouts – fashion is mostly about the clothes so you can use this Photoshop tutorial to bring the attention to an item of clothing rather than having a photo that’s all color and where the clothes may not be the big focus of the image. Also, it’s just a fun tutorial to use to bring attention to one item or part of a photo. For this image, Marcia Cross is known for her firey red hair: while it stands out in the original photo, this effect helps to really bring the focus to her hair and beauty. This effect can also add a great dramatic effect to a photo. Take notice how the before and after shots have completely different moods: the before shot is rather pop-art inspired while the second is darker, moodier, more mysterious.

Here’s a before and after of an image. This will be your goal in this tutorial:

You’ll notice that in the original shot featuring ‘Desperate Housewives’ star Marcia Cross, the photo is saturated heavily in a teal blue or greenish overtone. In the after shot, that color is removed and the photo is mostly grayscale with the exception of the red tones that appear in her hair, skin and in some of the surrounding furniture.

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I’m really not a fan of Photoshop.

That statement probably sounds like blasphemy coming from someone who calls himself a graphic designer, but it’s the truth. People really go crazy over this program. It can do anything and everything – it can make a color photo black & white with one click; it can help you turn a cloudy sky into one filled with sun rays and blue skies; it can make a photo look as if it were painted. And that, among a list of other features, is why I really dislike Photoshop: it sucks the creativity right out of design.

People tend to think that technology is advancing design. A decade ago, who’d have thought every designer could have access to a host of programs that could turn them each into their own little art studio? Sure, Photoshop makes the life of a designer or a designer-wannabe very easy but it’s made “design” more of a technical process than it is an artistic one. Remember when graphic artists and designers had to actually posses some artistic skills? They had to be comfortable with using these archaic instruments known as pencils, erasers, pens, paint brushes and more to actually create their work? Nowadays, graphic designers really aren’t anything more than IT experts of Creative Suite. Ask a designer if he or she knows how to paint; sure, they’ll answer, as they point out the proper commands to press in Corel or Photoshop. Ask them to draw a line; their first instinct is probably to open up a computer program to do so rather than to take a pen to paper. When did designers lose sight in creativity?

I came across an article in How Design discussing lasting design. Is anything that we create these days truly lasting? Some may argue the point that most things designed aren’t meant to have a long-lasting shelf life. We designers are given the task of creating something to help promote an event coming up; we’re told that effective design will drive an audience to an event or business, that design helps sell the product. Sure, that’s all true, but why aren’t we striving to create and design things that have lasting value? It feels like the more technically-inclined we become, the less impact our design has. Think about that President Obama poster/art created by Shepard Fairey. What made it have lasting impact? It looked crafted, handmade, personalized. Sure, there’s now a Photoshop tutorial on how to do the same to any photo but when that piece of design work first came out, people took notice because of how man-made it was. It looked like someone actually took time out of their lives to put it together, choose the colors, consider all of the elements of what makes a good artistic composition.

I feel that Ric Grefe, executive director of AIGA, hit the nail on the head in a 2007 issue of How Magazine when he described what he feels makes a design have lasting value:

“I guess lasting to me is design that is able to continue to do three things. No. 1: It’s true attribute is clarity. Even today it communicates something clearly. Secondly, design can also be emotional – it can trigger an emotional response. The third is context. It captures the moment. Any of those three elements can make a lasting impact and still feel intriguing.”

I think we need to stop worrying about designing for the moment and become more concerned with designing something that’s going to tell a story and have life years, if not decades, from now. Why waste your time stressing over creating something if you have no desire to see it live on past its usefulness? Imagine creating an ad that clearly promotes an event or product but is timeless and will have people continuously revisiting it for years to come? Why not consider what emotional impact and reaction a piece of work will have as you would consider the colors, composition and other basic elements of good art?

I think we all need to step away from the computer. We need to stop relying on programs like Photoshop to do all of the creative work for us and instead take creativity and the design into our own hands. Sure, we all design for a living and do other creative work that we get paid for at the end of the day but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun and produce work that we’re proud of, feel an emotional connection to and work that goes beyond the original intent and aim.

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Here are two posters I created for a class project back in 2005 for a Book & Stuff Swap run by GlaxoSmithKline. In case you missed it, the Gone With the Wind poster posted a few weeks back was part of this assignment as well.

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I recently picked up How magazine’s latest issue that’s all about self-promotion. I was looking forward to some inspiration because self promotion is an area of interest of mine and if you’re in a creative field including (but not limited to) graphic design, art, photography and even writing, it should be among your interests as well. Here’s the heart of the issue: self promotion isn’t about boasting, it’s about pushing yourself to the front of the line of your field and keeping yourself relevant and known. Creative professionals have a lot of competition from others in their fields. What sets them apart isn’t so much talent but how well one promotes his or her talents and skills over the next person.

Here’s another big problem with self-promotion: no one really knows how to do it properly. First, we aren’t taught much about the necessity of promoting our talents in school. Second, we’re often made to feel guilty about boasting about how great they are at design, photography, web design or whatever their talent may be. And last, some people do promote themselves but they fail to do it properly or frequently enough. Self promotion is something you should be doing on a regular basis, every year, almost every month.

I turn to sources like How magazine, an industry standard for designers, for ideas on how I can switch up my promotion efforts. The problem with the self-promotion ideas in How is that a lot of what they seem to consider “good” promotion seems to also be costly promotion. Sure, you have to spend money to make money but I just have a hard time believing the only way a creative professional can properly promote their talents and work is to spends hundreds of dollars and hours of their time. A lot of the designs featured in How or other websites seem to feature one-shot promotions: after they’re out there, they have no life or usefulness. So, how can a creative professional remedy this?

Let’s face the hard facts: everyone is a bit tight on the money thanks to this economy and recession. Even those who have the money don’t want to (and rightfully so) spend it all on self-promotion. Here’s a secret: self-promotion doesn’t have to be expensive. If you approach it wisely, a little investment can quickly turn into a load of money in your pocket from an increase is business or freelance opportunities. So, are you ready to start promoting yourself on a budget while not breaking the bank? Here’s some ideas:

1. Create Your Own Website: I know, for some it’s very “duh” and seems like a no-brainer but you’d be shocked by how many creative professionals are without a website. A website is like a store in a crowded block: it’s your space and sure you have a lot of competition but if what’s inside is worth seeing and worth someone’s time, you’ll make a return on your investment quick.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs a website. You should strive to have a site that carries your name in the domain (check out mine at www.antoinereid.com). It should be your goal to promote the heck out of your site. Why? You want it to become popular. You want it to climb up Google and eventually if someone looks you up, they find your website. What should you put on your website? Treat it like your portfolio: you want 9-10 samples of your BEST work. This is your one shot to make a great impression. If someone is looking for an awesome illustrator, you need to have what you consider to be your best drawings on display for them to view in an easy, quick 10-30 second manner. Are you a writer or copywriter? Websites could be valuable for you as well. Put up a few writing samples, description of you and your area of interest, who you’ve written for or have edited for.

There are tons of web hosts out there but I’ve found that Yahoo! Small Business to be the best option. You can expect to pay about $130 if not lower based on the plan you buy. You’ll get your domain name, everything is easy to access, you’ll have FTP access. If you aren’t a web designer, that’s okay! Team up with a web designer and let them know what you need. Web designers, in return, you should have your own website promoting your skills along with a list of the best sites you’ve designed. Presentation is everything – stop just E-mailing out a long list of sites to potential clients and make a great first impression.

My website is my main form of on-going self promotion. I update it regularly with new work and pieces that I feel show off my talents better. Already the work I’ve done and have gotten due to my website has basically paid for the site fees so it’s been well worth the investment this year especially (yes, even in a recession!).

2. Create and Pass Out Your Own Business Card: In the digital age, it seems like business cards have been pushed to the side and replaced by E-mail addresses jotted down on scrap pieces of paper or Twitter accounts. A business card is a valuable piece of self promotion. There are tons of printers now that can print 500 or so cards for UNDER $100 (my favorite being 4over4.com). A lot of printers now offer full-color printing on business cards. Some even go so far as to offer full color, both sides printing. So what should you do?

If you’re a photographer or artist, choose your best piece of work and stick it on one side of the card. On the other side, include your contact information. I’m wary of putting your full address but all in favor of including your name, what you do (photographer, graphic designer, writer, etc.) phone/cell number, E-mail address, website url and if you have a Twitter account that wouldn’t be embarrassing for a professional type you don’t know to read, stick that on there.

The thing about business cards is that they’re like mini billboards: they can show off your talents quickly and they can travel and reach people that you can’t. Give them out to your friends, family, co-workers; have some on hand when you’re traveling or going to network. You’d be surprised how your little card can land in the hands of someone you don’t know who’d be interested in having you use your talents to help them.

3. Create A Postcard: In the age of digital, print is even more powerful and effective. Think about your own life: can you count how many E-mails you’ve received in the past 24 hours? Now, can you recall what you gotten via snail mail? Even if it was junk mail, you probably can. Why? Because the stuff you get in snail mail was something you had to flip through, peruse, quickly read. It’s more effective and personal than E-mail, Tweets and your opportunity to show off your talents and reach a new audience.

Here’s what you do. Promote your talents. It’s that easy. If you’re a painter, you create a painting that’s just for this postcard- something truly amazing, eye-catching, breathtaking. On the other side you include your contact information and a call to action. Write, “let’s work together – contact me today about my services” or something more attention grabbing (just keep it appropriate and non-creepy). This idea can be used for anyone in any creative field. Copywriter? On the face of the card include some text where you’ve marked through, corrected, written in the margins and when they flip it over to the address side just create a funny, memorable message like “I can make you look good.” and circle that in read. Just put below it that you’re a copywriter, editor, whatever. You see, postcards don’t have to be dull and like business cards can travel and generate business. Unlike E-mail or Tweets, you’re creating something that can easily be saved for later reference. Oh, and just note that postcard stamps are currently just 28 cents – not much of an investment.

4. Create your own holiday cards: Want to stay at the forefront of people’s minds (them and potential clients, that is)? Then create your own holiday-themed cards by creating your own artwork and sending them out to potential clients or past associations to remind them of your talents. Not an artist? Team up and collaborate with a graphic designer or artist! It could be fun and an easy way for both of you to benefit from the same project. Imagine an illustrated Santa riding a sleigh made out of a large serif ‘a’: the perfect clash of the design world and the copywriter, editor or writer worlds. And please, even if you come up with a generic message inside the card for everyone, personalize each with a hand written message.

5. Offer Your Talents As A Gift: Need an easy way to self-promote your talents while helping others? Give your talents away to friends and family as a gift. People get married, they need announcement cards and other stuff designed. Offer to design it for them (I’m thinking for a reduced price if not for free). There are tons of other opportunities that come up with your friends and family or people they know that could call for your help and talents. Sometimes people need their reports proofread: perfect chance for a copywriter or editor to step in. People are always throwing parties or gatherings: step in and design the invite cards for them. Non-profits and charities often are in need of creative professionals who are willing to work for nearly nothing – it’s your chance to show off your social awareness You may think that giving your talents away for a cheap price or for free has no value to it. Imagine all of the different people, professionals, industry insiders your work will spread to. Be sure to, in some way, note in the design that you were the artist. Or have your friends ready to refer any inquiring business your way.

6. Get Friends, Family and Colleagues To Refer You: It’s really simple. You need to communicate to your friends and those you work with or know what exactly it is you do. Tell them about your career, what you want out of it, your interest in freelancing or adding new things to your portfolio. Then simply ask, “Hey, if you know of anyone, can you refer them to me?” It usually just takes asking and your friends can turn into a new way of promoting your services.

These are just a few ideas you can try to self promote yourself. I didn’t mention some obvious ones like Tweeting about your work, creating a blog where you display your work (and Tweeting links to it to drive traffic to your blog or website), creating a Facebook fan page. I also didn’t mention other ideas that could work like creating your own swag (pens, notepads, t-shirts with your logo, an image, your name on it) because that can go beyond the “cheap” realm, but could still be quite profitable. The overall point? Promote yourself and your talents. In today’s job market and economy, everyone needs to be able to not only promote what they do proudly and easily but they need to be able to see results. If you do something to promote yourself and get no feedback – it’s ok. You need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to either improve it or have another plan on deck to implement.

What are some of your favorite self-promotion ideas (done cheaply)? Leave a comment and let others know!

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You hear it a lot these days with the economy being in a continual state of suckage – you need to be prepared for a layoff, for your business to shut down, for pay cuts or even just to quit when a better opportunity comes up. This is especially true for designers and creative types. Unfortunately, we’re usually the first management look at as expendable because they think we’re easily replaceable or that they can outsource design and creative work to a freelancer for half the cost they may pay a full-time person. The question is, are you prepared for the worse case scenario?

Let’s face it – no one wants to really dwell on bad situations. Like the Beyonce song, we’d like to think we’re irreplaceable. Things happen – the economy happens – you could very well find yourself going from a high paying job in a nice firm with a plush office chair and financial security to your couch watching Regis & Kelly wondering where your next paycheck is going to come from. That’s why you need to prepare for the inevitable end of your job. Few jobs last forever these days. A better opportunity will arise with better pay and benefits; you could be laid off; your business could be bought out and your department downsized. The doomsday scenarios and varied but the bottom line is all the same – are you prepared?

I’ve found that designers and creative professionals often are not as well equipped for a lay-off or the end of a job than most. We’re a very focused bunch and sometimes get in such a groove with our work that stopping to work on things like our resumes, portfolios and networking all seem like distractions rather than necessities. Here are a few things you need to do now, even if you are happily employed, to prepare for the next best thing to come to you employment wise:

1. Never let your resume get out of date: When you have a job, all is well. When you’re suddenly out of work, the first thing you say you need to do is update your resume. Designers and creative professionals should regularly be updating their resume based on their latest experiences. A great resume tells a potential employer what you’ve been doing, not just what you were responsible for or expected to do. Scrap the idea of the old days of listing out all of your duties – no one cares about that. Use action verbs to describe your actions! Use words with a bit of a zing and impact to accent that resume, not just passive phrases. Here’s an example:

[Boring] Responsible for the design and layout of marketing material for a concert.
[Interesting] Entrusted with the complex task of designing the promotional pieces for a high profile concert artist and overseeing the pricing, ordering and arrival of the final pieces.

The boring way of handling your resume will just be a list of responsibilities and duties someone gave you. Many designers and creative types have long lists of duties they carried out – and that’s good, but save it for the interview. Your resume could be the first and only thing an employer looks at before he or she gives you an interview. Keep them interested by turning your resume into a action-packed recap of your working life. Here’s a great list of action verbs to use on resume to give it that extra boost of interesting.

2. Put yourself on display: If you’re a creative professional, you shouldn’t be shy about showing off your talents and what makes you stand apart from the crowd. If you’re a designer, then why would you send out a dull resume that’s formatted and designed as if you’ve just graduated from college? Why not play (within reason) with the style a little? Doing so would make you quickly stand out from the crowd as someone who truly is interested in design and visual communication. Are you a photographer? Then why not show off your work via a nice web gallery, or create a postcard with some of your images? In the world of exercise, this would be called cross-training: rather than just doing the same exercise day in and day out, you workout more muscle by doing a variety of workouts that hit different body groups. Photographers should think like graphic designers sometimes and advertise themselves through postcards or a nice page layout or even a poster of their best photos; graphic designers comfortable with print should consider showing off their work online in some way. Never rely on just one means of promoting and showcasing your talents.

3. The Write Stuff: Artists, designers, photographers and creative types aren’t always the best writers. When it comes time to apply for a new job, that can kill your chances of getting that dream position. Just because your job involves the arts doesn’t give you the excuse not to be a good writer. Go through job listings and look at their requirements and pre-requisites: how would you respond to those bullet points? I suggest everyone take a little time out of each week to perform a writing exercise. Even if you have no intentions of leaving your job, just prepare for the future by honing your writing skills. This will even help you in your current position. Learn to respond to each of the job criteria: use your own experiences to come up with a response that’s no longer than a paragraph long and see how you’d describe yourself. This helps tremendously when someone comes along to ask you to describe yourself, your experiences and qualifications. People are often caught off guard because they haven’t given it much thought due to the fact of being in a comfortable working position. However, as said, that could easily change. Best to be prepared for the event of being unemployed than live in ignorance and bliss.

4. Network!: When things are good, creatives can easily get lost in their work. When you find yourself out of a job or at the end of a contracted position, oh my, how things change. The Internet makes it so easy for people to network and keep in touch with their friends and colleagues so use it! Get on LinkedIn, connect with your co-workers and mentors and regularly drop them a note just to say hello. One thing that tends to happen is that we rarely use our network of friends and colleagues until something bad happens. Then we feel a bit guilty about coming to them with our problems or asking them for referrals. Through LinkedIn or even basic E-mail and an address book, make it a necessity to contact a few people each week just to let them know what you’re working on and ask them how they are doing. Why? This creates a collaborative environment and you never know what will come out of just talking to people. Plus, if you do need a new job due to whatever reason, your job search will be easier if you already have a network of friends and support ready to help you get back on your feet.

5. Have a back-up plan: Are you working? What would you do if the job you spend the most time at suddenly wasn’t there? It’s a simple, yet scary, question that you need to have a response for. If you’re in the creative field you’re actually lucky: your skills could easily translate into freelance work. Creative professionals should all consider doing freelance, even if you are working full-time. Creating some business and line of revenue outside of your usual 9-to-5 could be fun and offer you a much needed outlet from whatever it is you do full-time. It will also help you network, show off your talents and give you pieces you can add to your portfolio. If you aren’t hip to the idea of moonlighting on the side, you still need a back-up plan. Creative types sometimes rely on just one job to keep them afloat. If that job suddenly wasn’t there, how would you support yourself? Don’t let a lay off or unemployment answer that question for you. Already have something else waiting in the wings to takeover if one job falls through.

These are just five very basic ways for creative professionals (photographers, graphic designers, artists, copywriters, etc.) to keep themselves working through the worse case scenarios. If the past few years have taught us anything it’s that jobs come and go. You’re in a great profession if you’re a creative type: you have skills and the ability to keep yourself working in a recession or when the economy is booming. Still, it’s a great idea to keep your resume ready for disbursement, promote your talents on a regular basis, work on your writing skills, network with other professionals and to have a back-up plan ready just in case there’s a change in your employment.

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Perhaps you remember the Queen in Shakespeare’s Macbeth saying, “More substance less art.” When it comes to being a graphic designer or even a Web designer, the opposite is true. I’ve noticed something over the past few years out in the field of being a professional graphic designer: we really are losing ground. Like Rodney Dangerfield would say, “No respect, no respect at all!” There was a time when being a graphic designer earned you gasps and excited questions of how you did it. Graphic designers  were these heavyweights who created the things we relied so much on like books, movie posters and magazines. Fast forward from the 20th to the 21st century and you’ll see how the graphic designer in today’s society has taken quite a tumble: people really have no idea what graphic designers are, what we do and why we’re still important.

I blame, like any child of the 2oth century, technology. The more advanced technology is and more accessible it is to the general public, the less special something like graphic design feels to the everyday man. I mean, look at it: in the olden days, graphic designer set type by hands – now that seems archaic and laughable because all a person has to do is scroll through the font menu and slap something down without much consideration at all. In the past, people had to actually draw things because manipulating a photo was damn near impossible. Now with few simple commands and flicks of a button or brush in Photoshop, a photo can go from ordinary to looking as if it was (poorly) drawn out to look cartoonish or sketched by pencil. No wonder graphic designers have to spend so much of their time justifying why we’re worthy of full-time positions with competitive salaries!

Some will say the only way one can become a good graphic designer in today’s job market would be to learn how to become good at web design. Huh? I’ve never understood that because as someone who’s had to switch back and forth between being a “graphic” designer and being a “web” designer, I know that these two fields are two different beasts. Telling a good graphic designer that he or she needs to be, or is expected to be, an exceptionally good web designer is like telling a police officer that he or she needs to be a good firefighter – sure, both professions concern saving people from peril but c’mon, you’re talking about two very different professions with different requirements.

I don’t think graphic designers should be pressured into “peer” pressure and give up the design part of their jobs to become good Web programmers and coders. I don’t think Web designers are all capable of being effective graphic designers. What I do think both could benefit from is becoming more artistic. Let me explain:

Old school graphic design called for a special skill set more akin to being a good artist: composition, color theory, the ability to sketch out ideas clearly, perspective and being able to do a lot of design tasks by hand. Nowadays, I see more designers flooding the career field who have a horrible sense of color and have no idea how to use it effective, who slap together a layout without much consideration for communication and composition and designers who’d scoff at the idea of drawing anything by hand. Yet, they think, and their employers believe, that just because they know a little HTML and are willing to do a billion tasks that have nothing to do with design and more to do with computer science and programming, they’re “decent” graphic designers. Give me a break.

Do you want to be a good graphic designer? Do you want to be a great photographer or good Web designer? Start perfecting your artistic skills. Yes, knowing how to maneuver yourself around some CSS, XHTML, PHP and Java will get you employed but having an artistic background will truly make you an exceptional designer of any sort. You can’t be a great photographer if you have no sense of composition and don’t know how to frame your subject in the composition. You are going to be a lame designer if you have no idea what emotional responses certain colors will spark in the viewer or if you’re simply afraid to use color (which many designers are). If you’re a Web designer, you need to be able to sketch out the ideas and layout for your Web page or be able to use a grid to figure out how to vary-up the design of your page so that it stands out from the crowd.

Graphic designers and creatives of the past were valued more because they did something the common person couldn’t: they really designed, as in, they used their artistic skills to create something no one else could. We’ve become far too reliant on technology and think that being a graphic designer means you know how to use Photoshop. That’s not the case – anyone can use Photoshop. There was an old title for designers that’s become nearly extinct thanks to technological advances: graphic artists. We need more people to rise to the challenge and become graphic artists rather than designers. Graphic artists are the ones that aren’t afraid of using handmade art in design work meant for mass consumption; they aren’t afraid to sketch or draw, even when they aren’t the best artists; they boldly use colors and they create something that goes beyond the simple special effects palette in Photoshop. Being a graphic artist is far more exciting than being your basic graphic designer – everyday you’re setting out to create something new and a piece of artwork worth holding onto. I’ve found that with a lot of “graphic design” today it’s mostly working within limits, doing template designs, following the rules or prerequisites set by others for you. That’s no fun. And shouldn’t design of any sort always be fun?

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Many businesses, music artists, television shows, celebrities and even creative types now have Facebook fan pages. The problem? Not many of them are customized and look like any other Facebook profile. It’s time to stand apart from the crowd and make your Facebook fan page look like a big deal. People think that customizing a fan page is really difficult. Some poor saps are even willing to fork over hundreds of well-earned dollars to companies who will customize your page for you. Well, save your money and do it yourself! Yes, customizing your Facebook fan page is no harder than creating a simple HTML page and in fact, I’m going to make it even easier for you by leading you through the process. So are you ready to pimp out your Facebook Fan page? Let’s get started.

What You’ll Need:
1. A Facebook Fan Page (Different from a basic profile, but still free)
2. Elementary HTML knowledge
3. Photo Editing/Creating Program (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, etc.)

What we’re going to set out to do is create a new landing splash page. This simple addition to your fan page will easily set it apart from all the other simple fan pages out there. To begin, you’ll want to create an image that’s no larger than 520 pixels wide. How long it is really isn’t important but remember the old school rule of thumb of web design: 800 x 600. You’ll want to keep the height of the image somewhat short – you don’t want those users still using small monitors to have to scroll forever to view all of the image and content. Get creative with your image – it’s going to serve as the “cover” to your page. If you’re a media personality, go ahead and put up your best head shot, modeling photo, contact info, etc. If your page is for a business, put up an image of your product or basically create a miniaturized ad that’ll sell your product and image. This is going to be the first image someone will see when coming to your page on Facebook so make that first impression count.

Setting up FBML
Now that you’ve gotten your image that’s no wider than 520 pixels created, it’s time to get technical. Go to Facebook and in the search bar input “Static FBML” or just click here. Once you’ve located it, click “Add to My Page” underneath the (usually) missing profile image at the top of the page. A box will come up and you should see your fan page come up. Click the “Add to Page” box next to the fan page you want to customize.

Creating a New Welcome/Landing Page Using FBML
Remember that image (no wider than 520 pixels) you created earlier? Have up on your website or on a photo sharing/hosting service (I use PhotoBucket but you can use whatever strikes your fancy). Now, venture over to your actual fan page on Facebook and click the “Edit Page” tab underneath your profile picture.

This will take you to your page’s settings. Scroll down until you locate the FBML application. Click on “edit” within this box.

Clicking on “edit” will bring up a new box with two input areas: one will be “Box Title” and the other will be “FBML”.

“Box Title” is the name you want for your this new tab you will be adding to your fan page. I recommend keeping it short and simple such as “Welcome” or maybe the name of your business/product. “FBML” is where the HTML codes will come in. If you have a website, you’ll probably want to link your image to your site so people can easily navigate from your Facebook fan page to your actual website (this is just good marketing practice). In the “FBML” box input the following code:

<a href=”http://www.yourwebsiteaddress.com” target=”_blank”>
<img src=”http://www.photohostingsite.com/yourimage.jpg” width=”520″ height=”X” border=”0″ alt=”Image Title” />
</a>

Code explained: The “a href” address is your website’s address (if you have one). This is the address that if the Facebook user clicks on the image you will want them directed to. The “img src” address is the location of the host of your photo. If you’re hosting the photo on your own site, it’ll be your website’s address. If you’re hosting it elsewhere such as on PhotoBucket, it’ll be that address. You should also include this exact code because it will automatically size your image to fit the space. If you don’t specify your image’s size it could come out looking too large. This code will take care of that issue for you. Your image needs to be 520 in width but the height will vary; input whatever your image’s height is and be sure to name your photo after the “alt” tag at the end – that’s just standard and good Web design practice.

If you aren’t linking your image to another site and just want a plain, static image, use this code in the “FBML” box:

<img src=”http://www.photohostingsite.com/yourimage.jpg” width=”520″ height=”X” border=”0″ alt=”Image Title” />

Once you’ve put in the necessary HTML codes and have made the needed changes to it, click “save changes”.

Final Touches and the Big Reveal
Believe it or not, the hard work is really over. You should have saved your changes to the FBML edits in the last step if not, click “save changes” now. When ready, navigate back to your fan page and look amongst the tabs at the top. You should see that you now have a new tab and it should be named whatever you entered into “Box Title” in the last step. The next step is to make this new tab the first thing visitors to your page see. Why? Otherwise, they will automatically land on your fan page’s wall and your work to customize and create an exciting, beautiful new welcome and splash page would have been wasted.

Go back and click on “Edit Page” again (the tab right under the profile image. Scroll down to “Wall Settings”. In this section you will see “View Settings” and in those options you’ll see “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else.” Click on that and in the pull down menu, choose the new welcome/splash page you just created. Click save and from here on, new visitors to your Facebook page will see the creative new page you’ve just created. In just a few minutes, you’ve set your fan page apart from many others on the crowded Facebook block.

Don’t Stop There …
This little FBML app allows you to do so much more than just create a snazzy landing page. Do you blog or have a newsletter? Get more subscribers by creating a new FBML tab/page and imputing the right HTML to create an easy “subscribe” tab right on your Facebook fan page. Do you sell things? FBML will allow you to sell your product via your Facebook fan page. Are you a Flash designer or want to add more dynamic content to your Facebook fan page so that it really looks professionally done and stands out? FBML and HTML will allow your page to support Flash files. Really, the list is endless and here are just a few sources of inspiration for you to look into:

7 FBML Examples to Rock Your Facebook Fan Page
Customize Your Facebook Fan Page: Tips, Trick and Application
How to Put a Contact Form on your Facebook Fan Page

Follow me on Twitter @antoinereid
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Visit my Web site www.antoinereid.com/contact.html

You’ve heard the lecture and spill – you need to network, you need to be connected, so on, so forth. If you’re in the creative field, meaning a graphic designer, an artist, freelancer or simply a professional who is always chained to a computer, you probably aren’t networking as you should be. Networking in today’s economy is crucial: whether you’re trying to moonlight as a freelancer, grow your business, build your professional network or keep in touch with colleagues and clients, there are some sites out there to help you. Here are 10 sites I think you should be on and how you can use them to your advantage:

1. SlideShare: Let’s say you have a presentation you’re working on or an important document you need to share with a group of people. The old school way of sharing would be to create a PDF and E-mail it out to everyone. Well, it’s time you step up your game when it comes to presentation. SlideShare is a great site that allows you to upload your documents and share them via a slick flash presentation. If you’re familiar with PowerPoint, it’s basically a fancier version of it where you can upload a word, pdf and list of other document types and SlideShare will automatically convert it into a flash presentation that you share via E-mail with a personalized link.
How to Use It: Presentation is everything in today’s work force. Using SlideShare is easy and painless and creates an impressive presentation. Are you a graphic designer trying to show off your portfolio online to potential employers or future clients? Simply create a PDF of samples of your work and it can be presented like this. Even if you’re not a creative type, you can upload other things such as your resume and it’ll convert it into a flash presentation that you can share via a web link, by embedding on your website or sharing on Twitter and Facebook. What would impress a hiring manager more – the typical E-mail resume or this? Thought so. Best part? SlideShare also allows for the viewer to download what they’re looking at.

2. Box.net: Ever heard of a drop box? Box.net basically gives you a free digital drop box to host important files.
How to Use It: Think of those documents that you’re always in need of but sometimes can’t always carry with you.  Box.net is your solution. Upload your files (word documents, excel files, pdfs) to your account and not only does it host your file but it enables you and others to download them with ease. Stick your resume, design portfolio or important contact excel document on here and you’ll be able to access it anytime for anywhere.

3. Yelp: This site enables everyday people to review anything. If you freelance, own your own design agency, provide any type of service, build up your credibility by getting your customers, friends and family to rate your business or service.
How to Use It: If you haven’t yet learned the value of a glowing recommendation, get hip to it quick. In the digital age, people are likely to Google you or your business before they even approach you to do anything work for them. A glowing review from a list of people on a site like Yelp associated with your name or your business/service will bring in new business and give you major bonus points in the eyes of prospective clients.

4. LinkedIn: Do you have a professional network in place? Do you have the contact information for people you’ve worked with in the past, or recommendations collected from past clients in one place on display for all to see? If not, get on LinkedIn. In today’s world, having a resume simply isn’t enough. Many employers are interested in seeing your digital presence and want to be able to find out what kind of person you are before they even decide to call you for an interview.
How to Use It: Get on LinkedIn and start connecting with friends and colleagues. You’ll find LinkedIn invaluable if you’re ever searching for a new job, want to keep up with people you’ve worked with in the past or need a recommendation. Not only do you need to get on LinkedIn but you need to optimize your profile: make connections; write recommendations for people and ask for recommendations in return; link your SlideShare and Box.net accounts so that you’re able to display your resume, portfolio and other important information directly on your profile. As future employers review your LinkedIn profile, they’ll be able to get a better picture of what sort of professional you are and will be more inclined to work with you or hire you for that new job you’ve been waiting for.

5. Talent Zoo: If you’re in any creative field whether it be advertising, marketing, design or interactive, you should be familiar with Talent Zoo. This site attracts an impressive list of creative companies, agencies and businesses who are looking to hire creative talent. These are companies that aren’t likely to post on other job sites so you could easily find out about a new opportunity that isn’t highly publicized.
How to Use It: Talent Zoo offers a free e-newsletter that you absolutely need to join and receive. The e-newsletter comes equipped with useful, helpful articles about braving the current economy and job market if you’re a creative type. It also gives you a mini list of some of the jobs offered. Stop relying on Craigslist for the scoop on the latest job offerings and aim higher with Talent Zoo’s impressive selection.

6. Google Analytics: Do you have your own website? If not, you should definitely look into investing in one. Going on the assumption that you do, how are you keeping up with how successful your Web site is? If someone were to ask you about the unique visitors your site attracted during a set time frame, or what parts of your site attracted the most visitors, or they wanted to know how much time people were spending on your site, could you confidently tell them any of this? For most, the answer is no. Google Analytics, in that case, is your best friend. It’s FREE and it helps you track the traffic and how people are coming to, spending time on, and leaving your site.
How to Use It: You don’t need to know a thing about Web design or programming to use Google Analytics. This is something everyone in every field should be aware of. You can easily become the “It” Guy or Girl by becoming savvy on how effective your web presence is. Advertisers especially want to know how many unique visitors come to the site and how much time they’re spending on it and what pages are the most popular. Sign up your site and start tracking its progress. This service will help you fine-tune your site and its advertising efforts.

7. WordPress: What are you good at? What’s your area of expertise? What industry are you trying to break into? Whatever your response is, blogging is the key to success. There are a host of blogs out there but few professionals are savvy enough to turn blogging into another part of the job. Show off to new clients, colleagues and your boss that you’re truly interested in your field by starting a professional blog centered around your profession or the job you wish you had.
How to Use It: Into photography? Take a picture a day and post it to your blog with some thoughts – or highlight photographers you admire. Do you like mentoring people but feel like you don’t have the time to physically do it? Create a blog that teaches people how to do something – offer Adobe Creative Suite tutorials, Web design tips, copywriting guidelines. Blogging is a chance for you to show off your expertise and is a great way to improve your communication skills. Just remember – keep it business like and professional if you’re blogging to gain credibility, clients and business (or a job). WordPress is the most popular blogging platform but there are of course other options for you to choose from as well.

8. Facebook “Fan Page”: Too often people rely on Facebook to just post pictures, goof around and interact with past acquaintances you barely know. Did you know you can actually make Facebook work for you and use it as a professional tool? Create a fan page. If you are a creative and are wary about investing in a full-fledged website, start off with your own “fan page” that promotes your area of interest. Invite your friends and Facebook associations to join the group.
How to Use It: This is your professional sanctuary on Facebook – use this area to promote your creative side, show off your work, connect with other creative types and build a bigger network. Also, personalize your page. You can create a “fan” page that looks like any other profile or you can turn it into a professional, shock and awe presentation by creating a personalized welcome landing page and making tabs that better fit your goals. The key to learn about FBML (facebook markup language) which allows you to customize your page. Check out my page – it wasn’t hard at all to do and cost absolutely no money to make it look like it does.

9. Twitter: It goes without saying – Twitter is the place to be when it comes to networking and chatting online these days. It’s free, it’s easy to use and for creatives it can be an easy way to market yourself to a huge market and audience for absolutely free.
How to Use It: I think all businesses should be on Twitter. It’s just become expected. We’re slowly getting away from the era of E-mail and entering into the era of the Tweet. Some think Twitter is mundane – who wants to hear about Aunt Sally baking cookies or that the weird guy down the hall from you is geeking out over the latest Star Wars role playing game being released? Use Twitter to promote your business, your service, your blog, even to help spread your resume! My advice though is to know your audience. Do you want to stay anonymous and know you’ll post ridiculous things that could get you in trouble? Then create an account just to interact with your friends, family, etc. that doesn’t bare your name. Then, create an account with your name so that people can easily find you, follow you and won’t gasp in shock and horror at what you post. Yes, I’m advocating people have two Twitter accounts – one for fun, one for business. One little mis-tweet could easily hurt your professional credibility. (Shameless plug – follow me @antoinereid).

10. Skype: The digital age is changing how we communicate and even how we work. More people are working from home; some only work part of the day; others are working with people in different states or different countries. In the olden days, people would gather together in a stuffy room and for hours on end would listen to one or two people drone on about the company and this or that issue affecting it. Well, meeting in one place isn’t always possible and hanging on the telephone for two or three hours for a conference call isn’t all that reasonable. The solution? Video conferencing! Skype is free and all you need is a computer with a built-in microphone, webcam and an Internet connection.
How to Use It: Need to meet with a client whose in San Diego but you’re in Miami? Easy – you both will need a Skype account (again, it’s free) and both will need to be online at the same time (that’s a given) and presto, you can chat in real time without having to physically be in the same room. Skype also allows you to transfer files, have a video conference between three people at once, share screens and instant message. For creative types trying to run their own business, this could be an invaluable tool and add credibility to those who feel E-mails are too impersonal or that face time is more valuable than playing phone tag. Also, if you simply want to chat with your mom, family, friends or significant other and are miles away, then hey, do it via video rather than just hearing their voice!

Is there a web service that you use that you feel is invaluable and want others to get hip to? Leave a comment and share your favorite site or service that we all should be using!

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There’s a huge debate among many freelancers: how you go about figuring out the price of your services and then how to go about translating that price to your potential clients. There’s one group who feels the best way to charge is by the hour. Basically, you figure out how much you need to make and how much work you expect to do and break down that large price into a per hour rate. Then, there are some who come up with an overall total price and will present that to the client. So really, which is best? In my opinion, a combination of both. Each has its pros and cons and it comes down to you and your business model.

Charging an hourly rate
This is probably the popular, old standard of freelancing. Many designers will tell you that their hourly rate is something like $30 and whenever someone approaches them about starting a new project and inquires about the price, rather than telling them what the total charge will be, they will tell them their hourly rate. The good thing about having or knowing your hourly rate is that it means you’ve gone through the process of assessing your own business and money needs and know the absolute minimum you will need to charge to make ends meat. The problem? In today’s economy, an hourly rate can seem a bit disarming. Imagine someone outside of the design industry (or whatever your industry is) calling a professional to help them solve a problem and asking the golden question, “How much will I be charged?” Then imagine your reaction if he or she responded, “Well, I charge $50 per hour.” It doesn’t really seem like an adequate response.

Many today are put off by the hourly rate because it feels a bit ambiguous. If they have not dealt with you in the past then certain concerns will come to mind: 1) Is this person going to drag his/her heels so that I’m charged out the wazoo? 2) What is a per hour rate? Why can’t they tell me exactly what it will cost? 3) This hourly rate seems really expensive. I think I’ll look elsewhere …

When I first started freelancing, I saw that the standard was an hourly rate. I calculated what I’d need to charge per hour and whenever I was approached to do work, I’d give out the hourly rate. What happened? I didn’t get much business and the business I did get wasn’t very profitable. In my opinion, hourly rates can cheat the freelancer out of well-earned money. It’s an easy way of telling your clients that you feel your work is only worth whatever your rate is or that you have no idea of the value of your work and self. Yes, everyone should have an hourly rate but not to give out – keep it as a guideline. You need to know how much you need to make to survive so when you’re approached to do a freelance job, simply divide that quoted amount or estimate by your hourly rate to figure out how many hours of work you’re agreeing to do. Is that sum the amount of hours you’d reasonably expect to put into the work? If you know it’ll take more hours than what you’re agreeing to, that’s when you negotiate with the client. If you know it’ll take fewer hours then hey, that’s when you’re making a real profit!

Charging based on Pre-established Prices
Take a stroll on Craigslist.com and stop by the art/media/design area of the job postings. Look through some of those ads and you’ll find what many people expect to pay you for your design services these days. Don’t gawk at the $10/$14 per hour expectation – often times this number comes from people just having no sense of what a real graphic design expert is. The economy we’re in today has sent our profession into a bit of a tumble. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, people did not question the worth of a design. We were known for having the capabilities to do things that no one else could, thus, we were paid fairly. Nowadays as technology grows and takes over various areas of our lives, we’re faced with people thinking that graphic designers are nothing really special. Why pay someone tons of money when you’re little nephew is learning how to use Photoshop in his 6th grade computer class?

Get tough, become more confident, and know you’re worth. When I found that charging by an hourly rate wasn’t getting me anywhere, I sat down and made a list of all of the things I’m willing to design as a freelancer. This is the first key – like any business, figure out ahead of time what you’re services and offerings will be. You’re a freelancer and unless you work with a team of people, you can only do so much so stop trying to do it all. Figure out what you’re good at, what you can profit from and then go about figuring out what to charge for each of those things. Having spent a few years as an intern designing and a year in the real work force, I had a good idea how long it would take to complete certain tasks. This is when your hourly rate comes into play. Simply multiply your hourly rate by the number of hours you figure it will take you to complete a task and that’s the price to present to someone if they ask about your charges and prices.

This, of course, is not perfect: some design tasks will take longer than others. Your price is, overall, an estimate so be prepared to be off by an hour or two. You also want to make sure you aren’t setting your prices so high that you aren’t going to be taken seriously. For most of my clients, they seem wary of the overall total price I present to them for a project but I’m quick to follow up the quote with an outline of the project: I tell them how long I expect to the project to last, how I will communicate with them, the final file formats, discuss the style/expectations from them. Once you communicate and learn to back up your prices with a true sense of business, that total price won’t seem so daunting. Also, be prepared for some clients to walk away.  For some, they have it in their minds that graphic design, in this economy, is no more than a digital form of fast food. They want it done quickly, they want to be able to pick and choose who they work with and they want it done cheaply. They don’t understand that the services you’re offering them is of a great value and something that you spent time going to school for – just as they spent time earning (and paying for) a degree for whatever it is they’re trying to get you to help them promote and look good. If you encounter a client who wants to only pay you $50 for a logo that’ll promote their business for life, or $10 for a media kit that will in turn bring in ten times that amount of advertising and business, WALK. Don’t look back, don’t regret it.

Stay the Course
Forget what you hear – there’s money to be made in freelancing, even in today’s economy. With businesses cutting their full-time designers and creative departments, they are in search of temporary solutions and for those of us willing to moonlight and freelance, we’ll be the ones to profit. Freelancing is not a hobby – it’s a business. You’re setting out to make money, to build your brand and to create a base of clients that view you as a valuable asset and ally that they can come to, spend their money on, and will give them what they want. Know your worth – if you have no idea what to charge for your services, do some research and figure it out. Have a business plan in place and be tough when you’re approached to do freelance work.

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Check out this video I recently made as a YouTube promotion for my freelancing work. I used iMovie to make the video. This was my first video project and I thought it came out decently well. See, I’m learning all sorts of new things while I search for a new full-time job!

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“If you only knew what the future holds – after the hurricane comes a rainbow. Maybe the reason why all the doors are closed so you could you open one that leads you to the perfect road.” — Katy Perry, “Firework”

A couple days ago I posted on how I, like many others these days, received my pink slip/walking papers from my now former place of employment after putting in a good four years, two months worth of service. And I’ve received some nice comments and feedback from people I’ve encountered, gone to school with, have worked with over the years and complete strangers. I’m currently seeking a full-time graphic design position in the Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill area of North Carolina and any leads or recommendations you may have, please send them my way! I would greatly appreciate any help as well as general feedback from others similar to me who’ve gotten the axe but have made it through all right.

People seem curious on how I’m remaining calm and collected during this ordeal. The thing is that I was laid off due to the economy like so many others. I didn’t get fired; my design work and contributions to my post and job only continued to increase and improve over the years. I’m glad to have been able to say that I left my position and the work I was doing on a high note. I looked back at the last issue I designed [I worked for a magazine as an art director] and really did feel confident and dare I say proud of the work I did. So really, what is there to be sad or upset over? There were a few things that had been on my mind over the past year or two, including how I’d really gone as far as I could with the job and position I was in, how my salary wasn’t moving but decreasing (a very bad thing indeed), and how I just wasn’t feeling fulfilled with what I was doing. I want to be challenged and am looking forward to a new full-time position that will present new challenges and learning experiences. In other words, I’m keeping my head up and am already hard at work looking for my next opportunity.

I’ve taken this current bad situation and have definitely used it as a chance to improve and recharge. While I’m asking around and searching for a new job, I’ve done a few freelance projects, I’ve given my freelance Facebook page (check out Antoine Reid Designs) a much needed design upgrade, I’ve re-designed my resume, have been going back through my past work and putting it on display and just have kept myself busy, period. For those going through being laid off or finding themselves without work, I encourage you to see it as an opportunity. You’ve been given a great chance to re-invent yourself and take on something new. I have to say, even though I hate not having the financial security that a full-time job brings with it, I do like the promise and expectations of something new and exciting to deal with. I think change is good. With all of the work I’ve done, from building up my social network to simple things like updating my Website and doing some self promotion, I realized that I’d really become too complacent and comfortable. Always be on the lookout for a new opportunity, adventure and take a chance.

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This was a logo design I did for a business called Estate Liquidators. Unfortunately, the client flaked out and not only chose not to use any of the logos but decided not to pay for the work done. So here’s what I ended up doing pro bono:

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This was a direct mail piece I designed for Carolina Gardener Magazine. This brochure was the first 4/4 tri-fold brochure the magazine used to gain new subscribers. The bright colors and change in design got more attention than previous efforts and improved upon past direct mail campaigns.

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This is a 4 panel bi-fold brochure I designed for the Carolina Gardeners 2008 Symposium & Tour in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was a 4 over 1 design but the first time the front and back of the brochure featured 4-colors.

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This is a postcard I designed for Garden Discovery Tours back in 2007. I was inspired by the opening title credits for the 1980s primetime soap “Dynasty”. And yes, though I’m just 26 I consider “Dynasty” to be one of the all-time greatest television shows of all time!

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Here is a Gone With the Wind-inspired poster design I did for a GlaxoSmithKline Book & Stuff Swap event.

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This is part of the 68-page Carolina Gardener Almanac I designed during my time at Carolina Gardener magazine. To increase the usefulness of the almanac from the previous years’ design, I changed the calendar format to provide more room for notes. And though it’s a bit more straight laced than my preferred style, I did do an illustration for each month to add a personal touch to the product.

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As I embark into a new chapter of my design career I decided to delve back into the resume to give it a refreshing makeover. As you know, the resume of a graphic designer must communicate his or her style and approach to design. It is very similar to the story of the three bears: something too static and ordinary won’t do; something too busy and complicated will confuse and land the resume in the trash bin; a design that’s captivating, clean and balanced however could at least land you an interview. Below are different stages of my resume from stale and boring to my latest version that’s inspired by Miami Art Deco design. The text is slightly askew to bring attention to the resume itself and the written words of the resume have gone from passive descriptions of duties performed to aggressive, action verbs that describe how different stages of my career were impacted by my unique approach to graphic design. Let’s hope the revitalized resume lands me a new full-time position soon!

You can download a PDF version of my latest resume here.

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This illustration was more of a drawing/illustration exercise. I came across this image by istockphoto.com user chihhang and re-created it using Adobe Illustrator. Then I spun it off into different versions, hairstyles, etc. to create different characters. See how I used them on my health/fitness site “Gym Bodies”.

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I recently designed the menu boards (and characters) for a new restaurant opening in Morrisville, N.C. It’s called Teriyakin’. Check out its website www.teriyakin.com and the artwork I created for them:

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Proposed, and unused, logo for a clothing company called Mi Nu Revolver.

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Sketches taken from my actual sketch book. The many moods I tend to go through during a typical day at work:

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The logo I designed for Secret Identity Media:

Proposed (But not used):

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This is the first vector illustration I did back in 2006. What better subject for it than myself?

Self portrait I did back in 2008. I used it in my first self promotion piece – a postcard (the last image).

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Logo for Marshall’s Sports & Celebrities, LLC. Client had me design the logo, approved it and then his wife talked him out of using it. So here it is!

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