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How to Get More Design Referrals

January 24, 2011

Freelancers and small design companies do not have large marketing budgets. There may be a few dollars here or there to spend on Google AdWords, Facebook ads or perhaps a small print campaign, but by and large we survive on one things: referrals.

How to Get More Design Referrals

When someone begins his/her freelance design career, all we have are referrals: from our friends, schoolmates, even our parents and family. As we land our first clients and complete our first design jobs, it’s important to realize the importance of referrals and think about how to maximize them. The more clients we get, the more opportunity for referrals, which brings in more clients, and so on. It grows exponentially and, if you take steps to ensure you get more referrals, you may not have to spend a cent on advertising. Ever. Read the whole article >

Selling Identity Design vs. Selling Logo Design

January 17, 2011

Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about logo design versus identity design, the difference between each, and what each means to a small business. Paper Leaf works primarily with small businesses, and we complete a variety of work: one-off logo designs, websites, and entire identity packages (logo, print, web all at the same time). With this experience, we’ve seen the difference between selling identity design to a client and selling logo design to a client. If you’re not already, you should be selling identity design to your client, not just logo design. Let me explain.

Right now, logo design seems to be exploding in popularity and availability. There are tons of logo design galleries out there, and the oft-bashed logo design competitions as well. If you’re a freelance designer or a small design firm, chances are you’ve received quite a few inquiries from potential clients regarding designing a logo, and only a logo. The reasons logo design is requested vary: perhaps the budget is small; perhaps the client doesn’t know the benefits to developing a cohesive identity; perhaps the client feels everything outside of the logo, design-wise, is fine; or maybe the client wants to dip their toes in the waters of working with you instead of jumping right in. Regardless of the reason, designers are often asked to complete logo design projects. This is fine, but it is not ideal for you or the client.

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What They Don’t Teach You in Design School

January 10, 2011

Formal design education is great. You learn all about design fundamentals, like contrast and balance and white space and so forth. You learn about design history & heroes like Paul Rand. You learn about color theory; you learn the tools of the trade. Plus, you touch on some intangibles like time management (both how to be bad at it and how to be good at it) and working with groups. Yes, formal design education is a great thing.

What They Don't Teach You in Design School

Then, you get your first job and realize you have virtually no idea what’s going on – because all of a sudden you’re in a business, not a school. Uh-oh. Thus begins the real learning – what you didn’t learn in design school, and what you need to know to be a successful designer in the real world. Hit the jump to let the learning begin! Read the whole article >

How to Lower Your Bounce Rate by 64%

November 29, 2010

Bounce rate is an important metric for website designers, developers and owners to know. Bounce rate, according to Wikipedia, “essentially represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site. The formula used to calculate bounce rate is: Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing Only One Page / Total Number of Visits“. Based on this explanation, you can see how important having a low bounce rate is. The lower the bounce rate, the more people are staying on your site and clicking around: increasing pageviews, learning more about your business, and perhaps leading to more follow-through (if that’s your goal).

But how do you lower your bounce rate? Keep reading to find out.

How to Lower Your Bounce Rate by 64% Read the whole article >

The Designer’s Most Important Skill

November 15, 2010

A graphic designer in today’s day and age has to have a wide-ranging skill set. Along with the obvious grasp of design principles like contrast, balance, color and such and the knowledge of how to use the industry-standard software, many clients also expect designers to be developers, illustrators, strategists and more. I agree with most of these expectations (so long as they’re realistic); however, there is one specific skill that can and does, in my opinion, mark the difference between a good designer and a great designer: the art of clear communication.

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