However, not all growth is good growth; it is dangerous to expand in unsupported or erratic ways. By laying out a plan for your business’s future now, you will move forward with a stability that is built to last, and make a name that consumers can depend on.

As you plan, there are small things you can start doing now that will really pay off down the road — some of which you may already be doing with your marketing!

Here’s a list that will help you identify the good practices you’re already pursuing, along with some that it would be wise to implement:

• Always take time to brainstorm. Set a specific time each week to come up with new ideas for your business. An idea you need might be lurking at the back of your brain, waiting for a good brainstorming before it’ll jump out.
• Reach out to current customers about working with them on future projects.
• Play around with unfamiliar social networks. You might discover that a platform you’ve never heard of is actually a perfect fit for your design business.
• Advertise yourself more than a general “designer”. Include your specialties. Leave the explanation of your full range of abilities to face-to-face prospective client meetings (it’s less overwhelming that way).
• Talk with fellow designers — Don’t just dispense advice in an attempt to sell yourself as an authority figure in your field. Listen and take an interest in others. Get your name out there through as much online and offline interaction as you can.
• Write a piece on how businesses can use design in their self-promotion, and share it with local businesses. This establishes you as an authority and gives them someone obvious to call when they realize their current brand image is underperforming.
• Be prepared to pitch a short summary of your services whenever you strike up a conversation in public — commonly known as an “elevator speech.” Explain what you do and why you do it so well, without talking so much that you alienate your listeners.
• Keep your online portfolio updated and limited to only your best work. When you share the link, on your business card or other informational items, you want to be confident that what your prospects will find best represents the work you do.
• Learn something new. Coding, content writing, SEO, or another skill that ties in well with what you already do and enables you to offer more to your clients.

Little self-improvements here and there will make you a stronger company in the future.

Ways to Build Relationships that Strengthen Your Business

Your relationships with your clients — especially in the early days — will set the tone for your future business interactions. Those who come later, referred by your first clients, will already have an idea of what to expect. This means you must be proactive and personable when going on the hunt for new patrons.

According to industry veteran David C. Baker, you won’t get very far without four things: a unique statement of your own value, confidence in your abilities, strategically sought connections, and ongoing involvement in the client search. If you aren’t original, don’t nurture connections, and aren’t confident, you won’t get much business.

Even if you’ve nailed the uniqueness, confidence, and connectedness requirements, you can’t slack off from your responsibilities. You are the driving force behind your design company, especially in the beginning. Don’t let yourself fade out of usefulness as your team and business grow.

You may have been told “beggars can’t be choosers” when you’re looking for customers, but that isn’t always true. Undervaluing your services for the sake of making a quick profit can trap you in a rut of taking on projects from cheap, demanding clients. If you have a bad experience with a customer, don’t be afraid to turn them away.

It’s not only clients you need to consider, but employees. Unless you plan to remain small enough to handle everything on your own, you’ll probably need to bring in help to keep up with demand. Hire those who are excited about your vision and seek to give rather than take. Involve workers like this in higher-level decisions that benefit everyone rather than relegating them to drudge work.

Not building the right kinds of relationships can affect your profit. If you don’t hire strategically or bring in experts when you need to, you could find yourself overworked and in major debt.

Similarly, undervaluing your services with attractively low pricing may bring in a flood of initial business, but this low-profit margin will not be sustainable. To avoid this, focus on the areas that are most profitable for you and promote your work in those fields.

Long-Term Goals to Work toward Today

If you see your business as a potential career rather than a temporary gig, it’s never too early to start thinking about the future. Your first long-term consideration should be to build a brand that you’ll be happy with for years, rather than blindly latching onto the latest trends.

A brand is more than just a logo; it’s the story you tell prospective customers about yourself. If you produce halfhearted content (tweets, blog posts, etc.) instead of building a valuable and strong foundation with your clients, your sales will suffer in the long run.

Another way to grow well over time is to focus on moving forward and producing quality work. Let go of some decisions and trust your employees to handle them. At the same time, don’t be afraid to urge others forward even if they don’t see the need; letting complacency develop is the shortest route to bad, lazy decisions.

In addition, learn how to sell yourself in a way that feels natural to your temperament and the atmosphere of your business. People prefer to do business with someone who is persuasive because they know their own value. Know why your services are just that — and don’t be afraid to talk about it.

The post Building Your Design Business the Right Way appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Some don’t realize that slapping a default font onto a logo is like putting your money into savings instead of investing it: you’re playing it safe and you risk losing money by doing so.

Choose the Right Tone

Different fonts and colors express semi-universal tones that can be summed up in a few adjectives. Some fonts are seen as warm and friendly, others straightforward and serious. All affect how customers view companies. Many new businesses might not see the direct impact of font choice on their marketing successes, but some veteran brands who change the type in their logo see a strong backlash and sometimes even a drop in sales. The tone of a font has great power over how your brand is perceived.

Here are a few examples of various fonts and their tones:

1. Classic and Traditional

Classic and Traditional fonts, like serifs, can indicate professionalism or luxury depending on how they’re used. They can also indicate knowledge and authority within a brand.

Examples: Modum, Fenix STD, Museo and Novello.

2. Modern and Trendy

Modern sans serifs are trendy and simplistic. They are straightforward and functional because they don’t distract from the text.

Examples: Brandon Grotesque, Bebas, and Din.

3. Elegant, but Relatable

Thin or narrow fonts are more elegant, but are also very relatable and “human.” The rules change and vary with every new font that is created.

Examples: Kraftstoff, Simplifica, Neutraface and Glober.

4. Warm and Friendly

Bold fonts, such as the one used in the popular GAP logo, are more generic and friendly. They can also be seen as dramatic depending on the context they are used in.

Examples: Balto and Cubano.

5. Fun or Emotional

Fonts can also have a sassy or fun personality. Handwritten fonts can be fun and outgoing while scripted fonts are very emotional in nature. These would make bad choices for body text because they are at their most legible in a large size.

Examples: Barrio, Bad Script, Lobster and Blenda Script.

Select a Small Range of Fonts

Choose just a few fonts that can be incorporated well together regardless of the document. This will allow your brand image to appear honed and streamlined instead of all over the place. Here are the font categories your brand needs:

1. Logo font: Your logo font should absolutely NOT be a default font like Arial or Times New Roman. The logo represents each potential customer’s first encounter with your company as well as the image that comes to consumer’s minds when they think of you in the future — if they think of you in the future. It should encapsulate what makes your brand unique, whether you’re a freelance photographer or a CEO of a large corporation.
2. Heading and tagline font: If your logo font is legible in other formats, it can double as your heading and tagline font, but you can also choose something else. This font should be an eye-catching (though not obnoxious) display font since it’s meant to be used for headlines, subheadings and any other special text.
3. Body font: Select another font for your body text. This should be highly legible and neutral since it will most likely be small and used for long and mid-length blocks of text. While the serif vs. sans-serif rule isn’t set in stone, it is customary to use a serif font for printed body text and a sans-serif font for online text.

These fonts should hold you over unless the ones you choose don’t translate well to a different size or weight. In that case, choose something that complements them well. This should be extra simple if you have decided to choose all of your fonts from the same family.

One of the most crucial keys to making your font selections is ensuring readability. If the text you’ve chosen for body text doesn’t comfortable shrink to a small size, you’ve chosen the wrong one. If your display font is too decadent for readers to easily distinguish one letter from another, it will take them too long to grasp the message. Choose fonts with generous spaces between the letters so they can be read more fluidly.

Be Consistent

Finally, allow your audience a chance to become familiar with your brand’s visual style. From dense, informative literature to billboards, use the fonts you have already selected to represent you. If your visual components conflict from channel to channel or message to message, your audience will have trouble connecting encounters with your brand into one lasting impression.

If you feel that your fonts are out of style or that your logo no longer accurately reflects the qualities of the company, think before you make over. Don’t tweak your logo font without updating the other fonts to make sure they pair well. People become attached to the feel of certain brands and experience everything from distaste to a sense of betrayal when a reliable visual element changes.

We use typography to communicate, so let your font choices accomplish two major goals: connecting clearly with your customers and accurately reflecting the character of your brand.

The post How to Use Typography to Align Brand Identity appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Here is how to pique the public’s interest in a way that doesn’t lump you in a noisy self-promoting mess.

Promoting Your Name Online

Online marketing is a never-ending revolving door, with something new flying out at every turn. To stay relevant as a designer, especially an independent one, you can’t afford to let yourself get buried under all the other content coming at your audience from across the Internet. When you understand your business goals and your target demographic, you can start making yourself a fixture in your future clients’ lives. Some ways to achieve this include:

• Blogging regularly, at least once a week, with a unique take on relevant topics. Occasional fun posts are okay too — describing the awesome trip you just took with your family or sharing your thoughts on the latest big-screen adaptation of your favorite book.
• Linking to other design industry blogs, especially well-read ones, in your own posts. Connections with reputable sites not only builds relationships with those sites, but it also improves your online visibility.
• Being an active member of online forums and the member communities of design websites, strengthening your community connection with your presence and authoritative insights.
• Sharing your latest projects on visual-friendly social sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. (Facebook and Twitter are also good for promoting your blog updates.)
• Once you’ve established yourself as a voice in your field, asking other established sites if you can contribute to their website (articles, infographics, etc.). (Note that it helps if your content has received a lot of engagement, showing them they’ll receive similar results with an original contribution.)

In every promotional outreach, your brand image is key. If you look the same everywhere, thanks to your consistent profile pictures, business name, and writing style, the design community will begin to recognize you — which establishes your name among a well-sought after audience.

Engaging Potential Customers Offline

Never underestimate the power of good old print marketing to keep your top-of-mind awareness in your local community. Consumers feel a stronger connection to something they can hold in their hand than to anything that flashes by on a screen, evidenced by the fact that direct mail leads them to spend more. Print pieces such as locally posted flyers and oversized postcards put your work, your name, your logo, and hopefully your face in front of potential clients as they go about their daily activities.

These items should showcase not only your own skill but what others say about you, so throw in some good reviews you’ve received. If you don’t have many reviews to pick from yet, ask for recommendations from those who have praised your work in the past. Don’t be afraid to name-drop some of your well-known clients (with their permission, of course). After enough exposures, those who view your materials might just look you up online.

Offline marketing doesn’t have to be restricted to pieces of paper in various shapes, either. Here’s a list of ideas you can use to get people noticing your business as you go about your everyday life:

• Let clients know you’re thinking of them by sending them holiday cards that you design specifically for them. The personalization will stick out, allowing your service to become top-of-mind.
• Have a superb business card to hand out while networking. Good design on such a small medium is one of the most powerful ways you can demonstrate your skill to future clients.
• Hold a contest of your choice among local businesses, with the winner getting a free design service from you. This alerts potential clients to your existence and talents.
• Stick a branded car decal or magnet on your vehicle, for promotion that is both affordable and garners a high view rate.
• Consider running an ad or two in local print media, to reach a demographic that may not get online much, but enjoys unwinding with a magazine or newspaper. Anything you can do to expand your audience (without exceeding your ad budget) will help your visibility.

Most importantly, let people get to know you. Talk to them at business gatherings, at town events, in line at the coffee shop at lunch, wherever! If the conversation leads to what you do for a living, that’s a great opportunity; but if it doesn’t, don’t force it. Just establishing a pleasant connection between your face and your personal interactions may lead business later on.

Optimizing Both Strategies for Maximum Visibility

As always, your on- and offline efforts should work together. Being present and interacting in both fields is necessary for success. Design your promotional strategy around your intended clients. Prove that their business is worth your time and they’ll start to see you as being worth their time.

The optimum balance of print and digital marketing is different for every independent designer. Factors like the location, preferred media, and the level of market saturation will all have an impact on your marketing strategy. It may take you a few trial-and-error attempts to achieve the best return for your promotions, but even your small baby steps will help to make you more noticeable than you were before.

The post Some Easy Methods for Marketing Your Design Business appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The cost of self-employment in design is not too prohibitive. Money is, of course, a consideration, but your biggest investment will be the time you spend promoting yourself.

Building a Reputation Online

The first step to be taken seriously for your design skills is to show that you take your own skills seriously. Personal branding should be a high priority for you. Thanks to your graphic design expertise, you should have no trouble coming up with a personal logo, font, and color palette to use in all of your promotional efforts.

Next, join every online community where you have a chance of getting your name out in the market, such as news websites with active discussion boards. Use your logo as the avatar picture for your social media accounts, and fill them with carefully selected posts about relevant industry news, as well as your own personal projects. Design a portfolio to showcase your best work, with avenues for potential clients to contact you. The well-known Behance and Dribbble are just a couple of the many excellent portfolio hosting sites available to you.

Don’t undercharge, under-schedule, or under-network. You should have a good handle on what your services are worth and what you’re capable of accomplishing during the day, so you don’t sell yourself short on money or time.

As far as networking goes, becoming a fixture in your online community is a good strategy for gaining referrals and connections. It can also be a wealth of information on the best new tools and can inspire meetups where you build camaraderie with other designers.

Taking Your Message Offline

While all of these online methods go a long way toward building your reputation, don’t neglect offline advertising. “Isn’t it a little incongruous for someone who works solely online to waste time advertising offline?” you may ask.

Actually, it isn’t a waste of time at all. Physical promotions stick in people’s minds and make them more likely to remember you, as these engage the tactile and olfactory memory as well as the visual. Even if you don’t have a physical item on hand to give them, the fact that you talked face-to-face rather than through a screen makes you infinitely more memorable.

Some ways to make yourself stand out offline include finding a workplace that isn’t your home. If you can pull it off financially, your presence in the public space makes more people take notice of you. You can really play this up with bright, fun window decals or even lawn signs — any indication that you are ready for business. Even if passersbys don’t need your design services themselves, they may know someone who does.

Consider sending physical samples of your work as postcards to your desired potential clients. It’s easy to stick your web address and social media handles at the bottom of something like this, encouraging them to engage with you further online and see more evidence of your talent. When you feel a genuine connection with a new acquaintance, having a business card and/or a useful personally branded item to give away also increases your top-of-mind presence.

Optimizing Both Channels for Maximum Growth

Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of seeing your online and offline promotion as separate endeavors. They must work together for your best chance of success. The printed materials you give out or feature at your work space should point people online, so they can see more of your design in one place.

Your online presence should always have the goal of talking to people in person and getting your work into their hands, so they will be more likely to remember you favorably.

For a step-by-step business-launching journey that takes into account both the offline and online requirements of starting a business, check out Graphic Design Blender’s article for designers. The tips here will give you your best chance of success.

In addition to all of their great suggestions, the best piece of advice you can remember is not to be scared! You can definitely do this. It’s better to try to see what you’re capable of than to assume you’ll never succeed and stay put in a job you don’t love.

Finished

If you’re starting your own design business, what advice do you have to share? Tell us your personal experiences below!

The post Things to Remember when Starting a Design Business appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

So, if you’re considering a minimalist redesign, let’s take a look and see if it’s the best strategy for you and your site.

Why Minimalist Design is All the Rage

Modern minimalism has been around for over 80 years. Several decades of lavish design and skeuomorphic hyper-realism supplanted the postwar minimalist movement, but it has once again become a mainstream trend. The most common elements include:

• Letting a handful of visuals convey your larger message (“less is more”). Videographer Cedric Vella does this by featuring just his name and title, three informative links, and a calming background image above the cut of his one-page website.
  
• Cutting anything that distracts from your main point or purpose — only leave an element in place if your design makes no sense without it.
• Making every detail fit your theme in the way it communicates your message. Eleonora Zorzi’s digital design page has very few elements, but they each fit her personal brand — structured and creative at the same time.
  
• Using sparse, carefully selected colors. Minimalist design usually includes one or two highlight colors, which draws the viewer’s eye.
• Providing as much direction with your white space as with your words. Separate text into sentences or small paragraphs, and spread these out in the order and direction that you want them to be read.

All of these things lead to design that many users appreciate because it’s fundamentally easy to use. Additionally, so many user’s lives are full of clutter that a bare-minimum design aesthetic feels very refreshing.

Pros and Cons of Minimalism

As with any fad, minimalism has some inherent downfalls. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution; some businesses need more visual content or intricate design because of the nature of their work. A minimalist approach wouldn’t fit sites like Square Circle, the Hard Rock Hotel brand, or SensiSoft, for example.

Trimming all content down to bare bones would downplay the impact of Square Circle’s bold ad work, eliminate the lush details sought by Hard Rock Hotel guests, and fail to
illustrate the adaptability that SensiSoft brings to the advertising world. Minimalism can also make you unsure about whether you still have too much content, or be so austere that your message is unclear to visitors.

There are, however, well-documented advantages to using minimalism for the right endeavor:

• Faster load time — there aren’t multiple photo and video files that take forever to load.
• Ease of navigation — it’s hard to get lost when there aren’t many places to go.
• Lack of ads — highly appreciated by most visitors, especially those in a hurry.
• Less server strain.
• Centrality of content — all distracting elements are eliminated.
• Responsiveness — easier to optimize for mobile browsers.
• Aura of importance — not cluttering up the page lends your site an authoritative mystique.

Determining whether the pros and cons are of more weight depends largely on the kind of business your site represents. Beta testing on a core group of loyal users is one way to gauge how your customers are likely to receive a complete minimalist redesign of your site.

How Using Minimalist Design Can Affect Your Business

If you are in ecommerce, minimalism can definitely be a design asset. The loading and navigation speed of a streamlined site makes the casual shopper more likely to buy, whereas you can lose 4 out of 10 visitors because of a slow-loading page. Consistent design and an understated, professional appearance also make viewers feel better about doing business with you. With simple, intuitive use being important to 76 percent of surveyed web users, minimalism can be a safe default option.

Others argue that since leading companies like Apple have made minimalism the standard for design, many people forget that there are other, equally viable ways to make technology beautiful. Many consumers middle-aged and older find minimal design ugly — they appreciate well-placed details and cozy spaces with more than ‘two pieces of furniture’.

In addition, minimalism’s simple appearance belies the intense design process required to get it right. This makes for many badly designed “minimalist” sites.

Concluding

If you think minimalism will appeal to your target demographic and enhance the aesthetic of your business, go for it, as long as you consider the following:

• Run many tests before you fully commit to your site’s new look.
• Implement changes gradually; this can sometimes make people more comfortable with the updating process. (Include a notice in your blog or newsletter to avoid confusing your visitors.)
• Accept honest feedback. If you realize that your sleek redesign is less of a hit than you hoped, be willing to add back in a few of the older elements that your customers appreciated.
• Don’t use good design — minimal or otherwise — as a substitute for strong marketing and customer service.

How has minimalism figured into your business? Share your stories with us!

The post Is Minimal Design the Best Strategy for Your Site? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.