A brand identity designer with clients around the world.


A few of the more popular blog posts

Baskerville typography

With hundreds of posts to choose from, here’s a quick alternative to browsing the archives.

Popular topics

(Click a topic heading to jump to that section.)

  1. Designers & clients
  2. Identity design
  3. Graphic design
  4. Type and typography
  5. Web development
  6. The blog world
  7. Print management
  8. Advertising

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Designers & clients

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How to convince your clients they need a brand, not just a logo
The following advice has been excerpted from the May/June 2010 issue of Layers Magazine, and was written by brand identity designer Andrew Sabatier.

How 20 designers charge their clients
A select group of graphic designers answered three questions about their financial practices: How do you charge clients? How do you accept payment? Why do you recommend working this way? Here’s what they said.

Graphic design contracts — your advice
When I wrote a brief article about graphic design contracts you offered some excellent advice in the comments. Here I feature a select few of your contract tips.

Improve your portfolio with pro bono design
You’re a graphic design student with a portfolio full of fictitious projects. You want to work with clients to build your experience, but you need a more developed portfolio to attract the clients. A classic catch-22. That’s when working pro bono proves extremely useful.

Self-employment advice for designers
This month brought with it my five-year anniversary as a self-employed graphic designer, so I’m taking the opportunity to offer 15 pieces of advice to those thinking of “going it alone.”

My identity design process
It’s of benefit for prospective clients to know how I work, and here’s a brief overview of my design process.

Agency vs freelancer — your take
I asked my you what the difference is between hiring an agency and hiring a freelance graphic designer. Here I’ve picked out a few of the most appropriate answers.

10 things to expect from a designer
Choosing a designer can be a daunting decision for a client. Here are a few important attributes to expect from a graphic designer.


Valuable tips for preparing design briefs, kindly submitted as a guest post by Sharon Hayes of Round Box Design.

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Identity design

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What makes a good logo?
When it comes to seeing a logo that makes you wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” what is it about the design that gives that impression?

Identity design process for Berthier Associates
Dominique Berthier, Managing Director at Berthier Associates, approached me to redesign his company’s brand identity.


I’ve launched a new website to document information on the world’s most iconic logo designers. The site features inspirational creatives such as Herb Lubalin, Steff Geissbuhler and Paul Rand.

Colour resources for designers
Colour and emotion are very closely related, so it makes sense that designers need to pay particular attention to colour choice.

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Graphic design

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Designing through a recession
Here in the UK it’s all doom and gloom — at least that’s what the politicians would have you believe. As a self-employed designer, however, I’m in a great position to take advantage of the credit crunch, and with the right preparation, you can be too.


It’s not easy finding talented graphic designers, but it’s fair to say the best have a healthy online presence. Here are the design blogs currently occupying my feed reader.

15 graphic design interview tips
The following graphic design interview tips were written by Lee Newham.


I’m often asked what graphic design books I recommend, so to save a little time in future I’ve launched an Amazon-powered graphic design bookstore.

Getting your foot in the door
CV tips for graphic designers.

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Type and typography

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What typographic advice would you give a third year design student?

30 inspiring Flickr groups on typography
The following groups contain more than 50,000 images showcasing typography. Just about enough to quench your type desires.

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Web development

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I’m frequently asked for advice about starting a blog. Many of you will know I use the freely available service WordPress to power both davidairey.com and Logo Design Love, but very few of you will know what WordPress plugins I’ve installed to help make the most of the publishing platform.


In this article I share thoughts about my online appearance, feature blog designs that appeal to me, and detail the most important factors to consider for your own website design.


Join me on a journey through my past website designs, where I showcase what used to act as my online graphic design portfolio. Be warned, as it’s a bumpy ride through the wonders of MS FrontPage, too many tables, and the tale of one man marketing himself as a large corporation.

7 SEO blogs and 21 useful articles
Reliant on my website for most new business, it makes sense to learn how to improve Google rankings.


Your website opens doors to contacts you’d never imagine you’d meet. Now more than ever, millions of people have access to your online presence, and whether you like it or not, they’ll immediately judge you upon your site design.


More and more of us are doing business without ever meeting our customers face-to-face. There’s one common stumbling block that can hinder any deal, and that’s the issue of trust.


Google Analytics (the web statistics package) can tell you a lot about your website, and one of those things is where your visitors arrive from. This is where knowledge of your “referring sites” proves useful.

Online marketing for graphic designers
For you to focus all your SEO efforts on one search term is ruling out a vast amount of potential business.

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The blog world

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Blog mistakes to avoid
I’ve made quite a few mistakes since I started authoring a blog. By giving you a look at my errors hopefully you can avoid doing the same. Here are my top 7 blog mistakes.


There’s a whole psychology around publishing a blog, and here I highlight just a few of the thoughts that I’m prompted into thinking.


I believe a great blog post must follow these tips.

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Print management

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When it comes to a printed graphic design job, there are certain questions you should ask at the beginning to prevent costly errors and to make the most of your print budget.


Finding a reliable commercial printer can take some time. Here’s a head start — UK print companies recommended by a few of the UK’s top (and friendliest) designers and design studios.


Have you ever had a client ask you why their marketing material hasn’t printed the colour they requested?

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Advertising

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To a kid, everything’s better in a McDonald’s wrapper.


Many people believe that the fashion industry and the media cause a huge amount of pressure to be piled on the shoulders of young women.


Just how much do you value your own appearance? Would you give up on making a great first impression for a few extra dollars a month?

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Looking for something else?

If there’s something in particular that you’re looking for, try typing it in the search box at the top-left of this page. It’s really quite accurate. Alternatively, contact me with details, and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Top image credit: RellyAB

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