Driven Design
Why can’t people excel? Why do some designers stagnate and keep churning out the same design drivel? Why do some web administrators continue to let their websites decay into irrelevance?
Design
Some little life lessons
“Only a fool learns from his mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” – Otto von Bismarck
Aim to misbehave
It’s like this: you can spend your career doing only as you’re told, or you can do what you really think is right and what works
What you’re good at: do that.
A vitally important concept to understand about the design business…
CARF Accreditation Consultant
New Website Launched
The Simplest Email Marketing
I’m talking about how you market yourself in your personal emails — that’s the simplest email marketing.
Your signature text is a perfect place to say all those things we get tired of saying.
How many emails a day do you send? Dozens? Each of those emails are opportunities to tell clients more about yourself or reinforce answers [...]
Professional Design Tip: Quotes vs Proposal
Some clients email asking for a quote, but what they really want is a proposal. Those are two very different things for the designer and it’s important to know the difference.
A quote is given on a job with well defined specifications. For example: The website will contain 5 pages of content, feature a blog, and [...]
Just launched: AlmostViral.com
I do think that good web designers that raise the bar are a good thing. If we all do better work, it will increase the demand for good design.
Professional Design Tip: Don’t ask for a due date
Don’t ask questions about time, ask questions about logistics.
Have a point of view. Stop being bland.
Crisp. Standardized. Bland. Stop being the rice cakes of your profession.
Does your web designer hate you?
I am really tired of web design firms that have a slick personal website, but do crap work for their clients.
Good Design vs Bad Design
You might not know the difference, but your customers do.
Explaining higher education
Can designers help? Yes we can.
Why I freelance
A client recently asked “Why are you doing this?”
Five web mistakes that destroy trust for small businesses
If you gain their trust, you can gain their business.
No, I can’t use the logo from the website
This is a request that almost every designer has to address at some point, almost weekly, when you work directly with the public.
Working with groups
So much about doing business has to do with setting expectations up front so that assumptions don’t get in the way.
Avoid the Hazard of Assumptions
I’ve been part of solar race car teams. It’s an experimental process with each car’s construction and testing.
One of the things that happens with any race team is that things go wrong; AND when they go wrong, someone always says “Aggh, I knew that was going to happen.”
Why is that? What is the hint that [...]
Dead in the Water: Design Theory without Practical Experience
A “designer” without a 4 year degree in theory is just as lifeless as design theory without business experience.
Finances for the freelancer
Freelancing is great, but you have to plan your finances ahead of time. Doing so will make your work better and you’ll take better care of your clients.
Design Process
“Process is an important part of my work…” — everyone says that whether their work is adequate or not.
Social Media in the EDU
Social media has a lot of good things to offer, but let’s get one thing straight: If you don’t have your act together with your basic website, this subject is just not for you (yet).
