It’s 2022 and here I am re-making my portfolio again. Not to get a new job, but to try out the latest WordPress block editor and theme. It’s great. I love it so far. I’m a nerd now. I’m a little older and (I like to think) a little wiser than last time I posted.…

Alright kids, circle ‘round, it’s story time. Once upon a time, there was a young, early-twentysomething designer, setting off on his long journey to becoming an art director and maybe someday, if he worked really hard and made some cool stuff, a creative director. He was excited about the world of design, and wanted to…

A while ago, I wrote a blog based on a phrase I’ve heard and find to be particularly apt for creative work: “Pay Peanuts, Get Monkeys.” While it’s been surprisingly well-received, there has been the occasional obstinate internet user who tells me, quite matter-of-factly, that elephants also enjoy peanuts. I mean, like, monkeys eat bananas…

Today, we’re going to talk about how much a logo is worth and how much you should pay for one.   First, let us dispel of the notion of a cheap logo. No logo is cheap. If you buy a logo for $250, you’re likely to end up replacing it in a year or less.…

Here we are. You need something designed – a logo, a t-shirt, a website, an app, whatever – and you don’t know where to go. So you do a quick Google search and sites like 99designs come up. You’ve heard of those contest sites and know to keep away from them. But that still leaves…

So you’re a budding designer looking caught in the classic catch-22 of freelance work: you need to show work to get work, but you need to get work in order to show it. The typical thinking is to lower your costs and advertise until someone takes you up on that offer. The line is usually…

Every designer has experienced this problem before: a potential client contacts you about making something for them. It sounds like a nice opportunity, quick work, good deal, right? Except that the client has, for whatever reason, big plans with a tiny budget. They’re offering “exposure” for your work. Exposure is for cameras and I’ve got…

Have you had trouble in the past working with designers? Expensive, irritable, and flaky, right? Not necessarily. Here are six insider tips to make your next creative project go smoother and to get the best work out of the creative you hired. Spoiler alert: it all involves being reasonable and keeping them happy! 1. Make…

“Hey, can you whip this logo up for me real quick? It’ll only take like fifteen minutes, so I’ll pay you like twenty bucks on PayPal.” Have you ever heard a more uneducated and unattractive proposal for work? I used to work as a pizza cook at a bar for ten dollars an hour and…