Your questions answered #4
In this round of Q&A I talk about the transition from employment to self-employment, what details to include on your business card, web hosting issues, and corporate identity.
Richard, of Peacock Carter, asks:
…is it ‘just’ logo design you offer, or do you also offer corporate identity to your clients?
Some of you may think logo design and corporate identity are one and the same. From Wikipedia, corporate identity is composed of three parts:
- Corporate design (logos, uniforms, etc.)
- Corporate communication (advertising, public relations, information, etc.)
- Corporate behavior (internal values, norms, etc.)
From these three facets, my services include both design and communication, but I do study corporate values and behaviour on the way to an effective design outcome. I find such research to be an essential part of the logo design process.
Whilst I’ve decided to specialise in logos, I also help with company stationery, such as business cards and letterhead design. People ask me about web development, and in these cases I refer them to a select group of talented designers I’ve come to trust.
Chip Carey asks:
I noticed you don’t have an address listed on your business card and I was wondering what led to that decision. I’m making new business cards for myself and I have heard arguments for and against listing an address. Could you enlighten me?
I choose to keep my personal business card as clean and minimal as possible. There was, however, a little more behind the decision to omit my physical address. Since that initial print-run, I’ve moved home twice — first when I moved into another Edinburgh flat so I could share with my girlfriend, Catherine, and second when I recently left Edinburgh for Northern Ireland, where most of my family live. Needless to say, I’ve saved considerable expense by excluding my address.
You must consider what information your card recipients need to know. The majority of my clients are based overseas, so contact details of most value are my telephone number, email and web addresses. If, unlike me, you offer a product rather than a service, your physical location can affect shipping costs, amongst other things, and therefore takes on greater importance.
Chaitanya, of BrandPirate, asks:
How do you manage the transition from a full-time job to a freelance career? Do you know anyone who did that successfully? What are the possible challenges that might be faced during the transition?
I wouldn’t be self-employed if I didn’t start out with a large retainer client. By that, I’m referring to a former employer, Myeloma UK, who never filled the gap left when I embarked on some world travels. Upon my return, I contacted the chief executive explaining my desire to ‘go it alone,’ and asked if he’d like to hire me as a contractor. Thankfully, he did, and for the next 18 months I spent three days per week designing Myeloma UK’s print promotions. We no longer work together — the increasing workload made it more cost-effective for to bring back an in-house designer — but that initial 18 months of steady income enabled me to work on self-promotion and build my client base.
Two others who are successfully self-employed within the design industry include the good guys Chris Spooner and Alex Peterson (I’ve previously been on holiday in Prague with Alex and a number of other friends).
There are many challenges faced during the transition, and I’ve written on the subject here: the pros and cons of freelancing.
George Hodgkins, of GEH Consulting asks:
I have my current (rudimentary) site hosted with ICDSoft. I notice that davidairey.com is hosted with ICDSoft, but that you changed to Crucial Web Hosting for LogoDesignLove.com. Since I have two, possibly three, blogs in production, I’m wondering if the change to a new host was due to problems with ICDSoft’s performance.
That’s very observant of you, George. I find the service of both ICDSoft and Crucial Web Hosting to be great. The reason behind my switch for the newer Logo Design Love website is because Kyle — one of the people behind Crucial — kindly offered a services trade. I helped one of his clients with a logo design project, and he gave me web hosting. Both my host providers come with my personal recommendation. ICDSoft helped greatly when my domain name was stolen, and Kyle has been a big help with my numerous coding questions (I created this site design myself, and have made many mistakes).
Do you have a question you’d like me to answer?
Thanks very much to Richard, Chip, Chaitanya and George for taking an interest and asking the above questions.
Should you have any questions of your own, by all means leave them here in the comments, and thanks in advance for wanting to know more.
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24 appreciated comments on “Your questions answered #4”
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Thanks for answering those questions – it’s always interesting to hear successful designer stories and details in Your workflow.
My pleasure, Dainis.
I’m enjoying your blog articles at 1stwebdesigner. Keep it up!
Thanks for the feature/answer; a good start to the week, seeing our logo at the top of the page! Interesting background on how you started in freelance; we too started with a large website maintenance client, who we still do quite a bit of work for.
@Dainis enjoying your blog too, read it for the first time today, and I think you have a new regular reader.
Ha, David, great timing with my post for today! I’m glad you answered the question about transitioning to full-time freelance. It’s something I’ve definitely been considering. I’m not sure if my work would be willing to hire me as a freelancer though; the whole reason I have a job is because it was getting way too expensive for them to always use freelancers when there was too much to do for their one designer!
I’m assuming you wouldn’t want to go back to full time work? How long did you work with Myeloma UK before switching to freelance? Was that your first design-related job? I just realized I don’t know a whole lot about your design background!
Here’s a good question, maybe for your next Reader Question post: How do you promote yourself now (find new clients) vs. when you started out? What have you found to be the most effective means of self-promotion?
P.S. Oooo, I love your business card! I think you must’ve written that before I started reading your blog regularly. Was it expensive to print? Foil and fancy Plike… I tried doing foil on a job one time but the cost ended up being too prohibitive :(
Oh… hey, that’s not my latest post. I’ve noticed CommentLuv isn’t grabbing the latest, but the one before that. Well, since I made reference to my latest post here it is: In-House, Studio or Freelance Designer?
Great feature this David, its nice to hear designers background stories
Great post! Great clarification between corporate identity and logo design
I am ann 11 year old boy interested in becoming a logo designer. What education and training is required to become one? Thank you fin advance for your answer.
David, thanks for your response to my question about ICDSoft Hosting. Your experience with them mirrors my own. While they are not as high profile as many other hosting companies, their claim of stellar customer service is — at least for me — on the mark. I’ve gotten specific, flawless responses via email from ICDSoft in less time than it’s taken me to get unsatisfactory or downright bad responses by phone from other, more well-know vendors.
I’m also impressed with your own “customer service” — which is what responding to your readers’ questions amounts to. I asked three questions in my email to you, and you’ve answered all three in detail: one directly to me (since it involved specifics), one in the response I’m commenting on, and one in a response to another readers’s question.
Thank you. I’m sure your clients, as well as your blog readers, appreciate your courtesy, professionalism and thoroughness as much as I do.
Richard,
You’re very welcome, and it’s a pleasure to offer a little mention of your logo / website.
Lauren,
Good questions there. I’ve mentioned some of my interviews on other blogs that offer insight into my background, but having just looked them over, none go into great detail on my work experience. I worked within Myeloma UK for 18 months prior to my freelance move, and before that I was at The Scotsman (Scotland’s national newspaper) working in advertising sales. So yep, the cancer charity was my first appointed position in a design role. I’d done some freelance projects beforehand, but not enough to sustain a career.
By going back to full-time work, I guess you mean working for someone else. I’ve no plans to, and enjoy my current role, but I’d never rule anything out entirely. I’ll keep your question on self-promotion for an upcoming Q&A. Thanks for that.
Glad you like my business card! I’m pretty happy with it myself. I also noticed the CommentLuv plugin not parsing the latest post after commenting on your site. Perhaps just a temporary FeedBurner glitch.
Gareth,
Good of you to say so.
Henry,
Just 11? You’d certainly get a head start on the competition were you to prepare that early! Good on you for taking an interest. I’ll come back to relevant preparation soon. Feel free to send me an email anytime you think I can help.
George,
Thank you very much for the compliment about my own customer service, and I’m glad all your questions have been answered.
I’ve just updated this blog post with a link and banner for your website. I hope it brings one or two extra visitors your way.
David,
Great series!!! Truly inspired!!!
Thanks so much for sharing that important “key” to success in transitioning from traditional employment to self employment: landing your former employer as your first client. It definitely makes the “transition” easier!
I know that my previous employer was my first client and I’m not surprised to read that is your experience too. Unfortunately, it took this post to remind me that my current business is built on the shoulders of my former employer. I need to send my old boss a bouquet to say thanks!
Ooo, oops, yes, I meant being full time employed by someone else–I totally did not mean to imply that you don’t work full time now! Yikes!
I actually figured out what the CommentLuv problem is (it’s not totally the plugin, it’s partly feedburner, too). See the comments on this post from the plugin’s author. I’ll have to try registering for CommentLuv.com so it has access to my latest feed. Rather annoying as it has worked before!
BTW, what techniques in your opinion are most efficient for networking?
I actually had the same discussion about business cards the other day. I ended up at the same conclusion – my physical address isn’t at all important, but the email and phone number need to be there.
Good read – I always look forward to these posts :)
Thanks for the mention david.
The ‘transition’ way is very informative, I hope it would be helpful when I come to that stage.
A good tip on business cards I must follow till I get my own house.
I think that is a very good point to have made about the business card address. I created my first business card featuring my business address but I much prefer the simple layout of my latest card that does not have so much information on it, also I have added the web address so most people would go there if they really wanted to know the address. I guess if you have a shop or business that requires people to visit to make sales then adding the address would definitely be a good idea but if you provide a service where you can meet the client at their premises then the address is not so necessary although adding an address may help to build a little more trust between you and a client especially if you are only going to provide a hotmail e-mail address and a mobile number. Clients / customers want to know that they can find you if they need to.
Kathy,
Very nice idea (sending that bouquet). My previous employer would probably prefer a large coffee and a slice of cake, so I’ll see what I can do. ;)
Lauren,
Hehe, no worries about the full-time comment. I’d prefer to work less hours than I used to, but I enjoy my job, so don’t mind putting in the extra time that often comes with self-employment.
Thanks for the link to Andy’s recent post. The comments were of interest, as I never know about the ability to register.
Michael,
Cheers for adding a question, which I’ll store for later.
Marc,
I’m glad you look forward to these posts. I’m always keen to know what content readers prefer to see.
Chaitanya,
My pleasure. Thanks again for taking an interest in me.
firebubble,
You mentioned using a Hotmail address on business cards, which I’d strongly advise against. It can cost very little to set-up your own domain extension for emails, especially if you’re spending money for business card printing. What’s your name, by the way? I couldn’t find it on your website, and it’s nice to address commenters personally.
@ David, just like George Hodgkins stated, thanks for your personal responses, it’s quite refreshing. Myself, and other commentors on other blogs are sometimes ignored by seemingly ‘high-profile’ bloggers if our comments aren’t written like essays, or contain information that is too simple for them.
Keep up the the good work, I see your subscriber count is going over 7000!
Andrew,
You’re more than welcome. I’ve always maintained that if you take the time to comment or ask a question, it’s the least I can do to respond. Thanks for the encouragement, and yes, it’s pleasing to see so many people subscribing. Who’d have thought?!
hi david,
i am glad i found your website. i think its wonderful, not only that you show your final logo design, the thought process and steps before. which i think its every important. especially for me, a person who is trying to learn logo design by myself using the resources found on the net. My question, is what advice can you give some one like me, who is new to logo design to improve. I have made up dummy companies and i have tried to make logos for them. I am not very good as yet and sometimes it gets frustration. How do you get your ideas to flow or what do you do to stimulate ideas for your logo concepts?
Thanks and keep up the good work.
You’re more than welcome, Kelton.
Perhaps this blog post will be of interest to you, following your question about inspiration:
What inspires you?
All the best.
Hi David, I don’t know if you’ve got another one of these planned, but I was reading the articles on IdentityWorks recently and found out that the ‘big guys’ charge huge sums for an identity design:
“But for ballpark purposes, in America in 2008 the above range of $210,000 to $455,000 sounds about right, for planning and designing a moderately complex institutional rebranding, by qualified specialists.” – http://identityworks.com/issues/issues7.htm
Not to mention that the London Olympics logo cost £400,000… So what do you get for your money at this level? What’s the difference between what you do, and what these guys offer for the big bucks?
Hi Jonathan,
In the case of the London Olympics logo, the price would incorporate a complete branding package, with usage in a wide variety of applications, and what is probably a hugely detailed manual. I did a little ad-setting work involving that logo, for Scottish Widows. It was dull, with no room for creativity whatsoever.
I’m learning more about pricing, and how I’m undercharging for some of the jobs I’m working on. To be honest, I think it can only come with experience — knowing what your work is truly worth.
Good question.
In respect to the 2012 olympics logo – the design is not “out of this world”, which any member of the public would expect for the price, it was suggested that a competition for schoolkids to design the logo. In this money cucial time this might be the future.