1. Don’t ever EVER bring your freelance work to your day job. This even goes for your freelance business calls. Keep them offsite, and on your own time.

2. Don’t EVER accept any work that will compete with the work your full-time employer does.

3. Make sure that there’s no clause against taking on side-jobs in your employee handbook or your employment contract.

If you have any questions about any of this stuff, just ask your boss. They’ll probably appreciate your openness and willingness to include them and play by their rules.

Also, if you’re between jobs and want to keep the freelance work coming in after you’ve found a new day job- be sure to study all of the terms of employment closely. If there’s something in them that’s going to prevent you from keeping your side-gigs, then you may want to bring it up at the next pre-hire meeting and try to get those policies amended in your contract. All of my employers have allowed me to do this when I explained to them that I didn’t want to lose my clients once I started working for them.

What kind of experiences have you had? Drop a comment.

So, you’ve got a great day job in a very professional environment. You worked hard to get it and it pays the bills (and more.) You’d hate to lose it. Still, the fact that you consider it your “day” job means that you’re pursuing something else at the same time, probably something creative. But how to balance the two? Can you go after your true calling while not giving your day job bosses the impression that you’re not committed?

I worked for five years as an attorney at a high-pressure law firm in New York City. At the same time, I wrote… a lot, including a novel, and performed regularly with my band. It wasn’t always easy to pull off. The firm paid top dollar, and expected their attorneys to relegate all non-work aspects of their lives to second place. Still, I was serious about working towards a career in music/writing, and I didn’t want to stop. I had to devise a few strategies to make it work, which I’ve outlined below.

First and foremost, you’ll notice that I write about working towards a creative career while maintaining a professional day job as if it’s a stigma, something to hide. The sad fact is many bosses do see things that way. Employees are judged on productivity and their impact the company’s bottom line, not how many tickets their one-man show sells. Your “hobbies” compete (even if only indirectly) with the work they pay you to do, and so it’s important that you present them the right way.

Do what you’re paid to do! You may not love your day job, but you still have to do your day job. Even if on occasion it means not taking a gig, or staying up until 4 AM to finish a freelance drawing job. People at the office will resent any slacking that much more if they know you have things going on outside work that you’d rather be doing.

Who can you trust? Not to be paranoid, but if you’re working a job that’s truly “professional,” telling your co-workers, and especially your boss, that you’re seriously pursuing a creative career at the same time is one of the fastest ways for them to decide that you’re not serious about working hard in your day job. A few approaches to this issue:

Secret Identity
Be Clark Kent in your day job, and Superman outside it. Frankly, how you spend your personal time isn’t their business, as long as it doesn’t affect your work performance (remember, “Do what you’re paid to do!”) Be careful about blogs, websites and other forms of self-promotion that a co-worker might stumble upon. This is probably the safest path, except that it creates a situation where you’re being false with the people with whom you spend a large chunk of each day, which creates its own stresses. Plus, it cuts you off from a potential fanbase – your co-workers.

Choose Wisely
Once you’ve been working in a job for a little while, you might feel that you’ve made some pretty good friends, and you’ll want them to hear your demo, come to your art show, whatever. Tell them, but preface the invite by letting them know that you’d prefer that what you do in your free time doesn’t become common knowledge in the office. Chances are that the news will get out eventually, but hopefully it will take long enough that you’ve been able to sufficiently impress your colleagues with your professionalism and it will matter much less than it would if it had come out on day one.

Fly Your Freak Flag High!
Eventually, you might decide to let it all hang out. Invite the whole office to the premiere of your independent film, mail your band’s website around, etc. It’s liberating to be able to speak freely about the things you love, but be prepared for a change in how you are perceived. Your superiors will expect to see lower quality work from you than your colleagues who don’t have the same sort of “distractions” you do, and may see it whether it’s there or not. This can be an incredibly frustrating situation, so be careful. Once the cat’s out of the bag, it’s not going back in.

So about that cat… how do you handle it? Figure out a way to make things work for you. That may be as simple as accepting that your co-workers might get promoted more quickly, or get bonuses you feel you’re equally entitled to. Think of it as a sacrifice you’re making in order to pursue your art. Or, you could do what I did – stick things out for a while, and then transition to a situation where you can use the skills you learned at the day job to continue supporting yourself while you free up time for the creative stuff. I left the law firm, started my own small practice, and now I work as much as I need to pay the bills and spend the rest of my time on writing or music.

The important thing is not to let the man get you down. After all, it’s not like your day job is your career, right? It’s just temporary, until that painting/script/novel/CD sells!

Charles Soule has lived and worked in New York City for the past ten years. He’s a writer of novels (regular ­and graphic) and screenplays, a composer (www.soulemusic.com) and gigs regularly with his rock band and his jazz trio. In his spare time, he runs an immigration and corporate law practice.

Have something you’d like me to cover? Not sure about how something might apply to your situation? Want to add some of your experiences? Or maybe you have a suggestion for how I can improve this little project of mine? Register and leave me a comment!

Also, if you know of anyone who might benefit from the stuff on this site, let them know by sending them a link. Or, if you have a website, blog, or podcast and would like to link to or otherwise plug this site, please do. The more readers and contributors I can get on here, the better for everyone.

Thank you folks so much for making this such a pleasure to write week after week.

Gaining peoples respect very much a two-way street. You need to respect others if you want them to feel the same way about you. Here are a few sure-fire ways to help you do that.

1. Only make promises you can and will deliver on.
I have had trouble with this one in the past. Being someone who wants to please everyone, I used to over-promise beyond my means. Doing that, a lot of times, backfired on me when it came down to acting. I’d run short on time, resources, and availability- and before you knew it, those instances started to catch up on my reputation. Nowadays, I’m very careful about what I say I can or can’t do. If I say I can do something, I commit to it and am fully accountable. There’s practically nothing that will make people respect you more than giving them what you said you would.

2. Value your peers.
The folks you work with are as much there for you as you are for them. Not only that, but they’re probably just as (or more so) educated, experienced, and skilled as you are. Consult them if you don’t know the solution to a problem. Understand their strengths, utilize them, and be thankful and appreciative of them. But remember- it needs to be genuine. A team can literally fall apart if even one person in it doesn’t fully understand this.

3. Help out as much as possible.
If you bend over backwards to make sure that your team (clients included) are happy, motivated, educated, and excited, they’ll do the same for you. Communicate clearly. Follow up. Keep in touch. Offer to do more for them if it helps things along. Make yourself available for questions and advice.

4. Admit when you’re wrong and don’t gloat when you’re right.
The last thing people need is a egomaniacal showboater who thinks they’re infallible. Fact is, everyone makes mistakes. If… no, WHEN you do, do the right thing and be responsible for it. Correct it, and if it can’t be fixed, try and make things right another way.

5. Be honest.
Honesty is everything. Building up a reputation as an honest, dependable human being takes quite a long time. Destroying that reputation for yourself, mere seconds. Once that happens, you might never be able to repair it.

6. Understand that you don’t know everything about everything.
Knowing that you still have a lot to learn puts you in a position to continue developing, growing, and bettering yourself and your skills. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t second-guess someone just because they haven’t been in the game as long as you have. Everybody has something valuable to offer, and grasping that fact may be the most important thing you can do.

Have something to add? Leave your suggestions and comments.

Flat Rate:
I tend to work on a flat-rate basis only on very simple projects with fewer variables and fixed and rigid deliverables list. Let’s say I’m doing an illustration for use in a company’s brochure (which, in this case, someone else is designing). If I know the desired print size, style, and terms of usage, I can pretty accurately estimate a final cost (based on how long it will take me to finish it, and licensing) and use it as a flat rate. In the estimate, I’ll include a strict working schedule that outlines the structure of the job, how many preliminary sketches, refinements and changes would be allowed before a final is settled on, and a timeline that shows when we each need to provide feedback and revisions to ensure delivery on the deadline. In a flat-rate job, any deviation from the timeline and deliverables list results in added, usually hourly fees.

Pros: Client knows what they’re getting for exactly how much. Ease of use. Offers you the opportunity to learn and apply some time-saving techniques to get you more money for your time.

Cons: Sometimes can end up being more work than you’re getting paid for. May result in rushed quality. May put the client off if they end up breaking the agreed terms, getting charged more than they expected.

Hourly:
The majority of the work I do is by the hour. For me, it’s the safest bet- especially since projects tend to change over time and development shifts scope at the whim of the client. When I give a quote for an hourly job, I try to estimate my time and fees to provide an accurate price range. Everything in my quote is still laid out in detail, but there’s more flexibility in the deliverables list and the client is more aware that if they make changes to the project, it will impact the bottom line. This approach tends to make clients place more thought and consideration into their feedback, respond in a more timely manner, and be more deliberate with their involvement. Just remember to warn a client during production if you begin to approach the high estimate to avoid logging a bunch of hours that may leave your client surprised and horrified at the final bill. Good communication is absolutely essential.

Pros: The client is more aware and accountable for their actions, resulting in better feedback, cleaner content, and fewer revisions. Quality suffers less because you’re getting paid for your time.

Cons: Final cost estimates are a bit more difficult to nail down.

What do you folks think? Which one works better for you? What do your clients respond to more positively?

I tend to think that these first few tries are going to be the same easy solutions everyone else would come up with when presented with the same challenge. Only after I get those first 5 to 8 ideas out of my system do I truly even begin to gain the insight to start coming up with unique and interesting ways to solve a problem.

Graphic Designer’s Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting
by Theo Stephan Williams
This is a fantastic, easy to read book about the business of graphic design. From Amazon: “Whether you’re a start-up business or an experienced owner, The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting, Revised Edition, provides a one-stop source of indispensable, innovative methods for achieving productivity and profitability in every area of a graphic design business. This brand-new and completely updated edition offers practical guidelines for setting rates, dealing with clients’ budgets, preparing an estimate, and establishing profitability. Readers will also discover step-by-step strategies for pricing on the Internet, negotiating effective pricing with clients, and developing options to traditional pricing. Plus, the easy-to-read sidebars throughout this valuable guide offer dozens of creative, resourceful success tips for running a top-notch business.”

Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers
by Tad Crawford
The title says it all. Comes complete with a CD with editable and customizable forms.

The Dictionary of Brand
by Marty Neumeier
This fantastic reference contains 221 branding terms that your entire team should know in order to communicate your ideas to each other, and to clients, more effectively.

Creative Whack Pack and Innovative Whack Pack
by Roger von Oech
Feeling blocked? Need some inspiration? These card decks are full of creative thinking strategies and ideas designed to give you new ways of solving your creative problems.

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
by Seth Godin
Gain some much needed insight on how to become remarkable in a sea of sameness.

MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer
by Hillman Curtis
In this book, Hillman shares with us his methods behind his remarkably successful new media empire.

Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player
by Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez tells us his hugely inspiring and informative story about how he got off of his butt and and transformed himself into.. well, Robert Rodriguez.

Font Book
from FontShop International
Containing 24,500 type samples from 65 foundries, Font Book is one heck of a monster reference. It’s sold out at the time of this writing, but if you can find this in a used bin somewhere, I highly recommend snatching it up.

Meggs’ History of Graphic Design
by Philip Meggs
The New York Times says: “A significant attempt at a comprehensive history of graphic design…it will be an eye-opener not only for general readers, but for designers who have been unaware of their legacy.” This is a pretty pricey book, but worth every penny to design enthusiasts.

Rejection is very much an important part of the professional creative process, yet is one of the most difficult to accept. A lot of us come from backgrounds where the support and validation of our ideas are central to how we measure our success. We strive to please our audience with our skills and creativity and hungrily devour praise. When the opposite happens, sometimes we feel a huge sense of failure that can affect us in some pretty negative ways.

A bit of advice: If you ever want to make a living at doing something creative, you’d better get over it. Why? Well, because we’re not mind-readers.

Here’s what I mean: When you create something for a specific company, group, or audience, you’re trying to connect and communicate with them. If that doesn’t happen at satisfactory level, then your work has failed at that job, and in turn, will probably be rejected. At that point, it is your job to reevaluate the disconnect, reexamine the problem, and reformulate a new solution- taking your previous try into consideration. The process repeats until the problem is solved and client / your audience is happy.

Granted, it doesn’t always go as I described it, but the heart of the thing stays true. Rejection happens when the fit isn’t just right. It happens when something that makes perfect sense to you doesn’t effectively speak to someone else. It happens when there is a lack of understanding and communication. It happens when expectations are misunderstood or misrepresented.

The bad news is that when you decide to make your career a creative one, rejection happens more often than it doesn’t. Designers will find themselves endlessly tweaking and changing and modifying their work to better suit the needs of a client from project to project. “Revision requests” from client “feedback” is just a friendlier way of saying that your previous try was rejected, and you need to try again. Illustrators will be rejected for others with more suitable styles or working methods. Comic book writers may find that a publisher already has too many books about ninjas before either submitting something else, or trying another publisher.

Which brings us to the good news: more often than not, rejection isn’t a reflection of your abilities. It’s really just part of the job.

Keep it light, and fun, and forward-moving. Smile and help people solve their problems. Really listen and don’t spend the conversation just waiting to talk. Understand that you don’t know it all and that you can learn from people with even a tenth of your experience. Be secure enough to laugh at yourself, and don’t discourage others from doing the same. Earn respect by not making promises, but by delivering on your promises. Take breaks from time to time and chill out.

We’re all serious about what we do. As creative people, we’re very passionate about where we want to go in life. We spend most of our waking time completely devoted to our craft– and I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. It’s exactly why we’re good at what we do, and we should never forget that. But really, are we perfect at our craft? Are we infallible masters of creation that should be showered with praise from the tops of our laureled heads to the soles of our rose-kissed feet and bathed in milk and jasmine in solid gold claw bathtubs?

Yeah. We totally aarrrrrrre.

About great work: “It’s going to offend someone. If it doesn’t offend them, then it will make them nervous. The Vietnam Vets memorial offended a lot of people. The design of Google made plenty of people nervous. Great work from a design time means new work, refreshing and remarkable and bit scary.”

Read the rest here.

1. Blue Vertigo
For the last 5 years, Blue Vertigo has amassed one of the single largest useful links list anywhere. You’ll find both free and pay fonts, stock photos, vector art, photoshop brushes, and a whole range of other useable items that would take a whole page to talk about.

2. Brands of the World
Download vector logos from well-known companies from around the world at Brands of the World. Their database is searchable, enormous, free, and is indispensable for when you’re creating presentation materials for your big pitch.

3. Identifont
Need to figure out the name of a font from a sample? Identifont makes it simple. Just click on Identify a font, answer some questions, and in a few minutes, you’ll get your answer. (Note: Because of the constantly increasing amount of fonts out there, and the nature of licensing and proprietary media, Identifont isn’t a complete solution by a longshot. It is, however, very reliable, and the first place I turn to when needing to identify a font.)

4. 37signals
Some of my favorite project collaboration tools, collaborative writing tools, and information organization tools– all extremely robust, web-based applications for business and personal use. 37signals makes all their apps (free and pay) simple to understand and a breeze to use.

5. Browsershots
Browsershots is a web-based tool that allows you to test your website in several browsers and platforms, all from your desktop. Wait times in the queue are right around 3 hours at the moment, but it’s free, simple to use, and a great alternative to buying several different machines for design testing. If you’re a serious web designer, don’t want to wait, and don’t mind paying $60 a month, try BrowserCam.

6. Protolize.org
This site describes itself as housing “essential web tools in one place.” It’s true, and it has saved my ass on a few occasions.

7. Lynda.com
I attended my first Lynda Weinman seminar in 1999 and became an immediate believer. For over 10 years, Lynda and her crew have been producing some of the best educational materials for creative professionals anywhere. They offer a wide range of stuff, in several different mediums. My favorite (next to the live events), is the Online Training Library. It costs $25/month or $250/year ($375/year if you want access to the exercise files), and is worth every single penny. I’d go as far as to say that they are undercharging for the sheer volume and quality of educational materials you’ll get as a user.

“Looking for cool greeting card designs! If we like what you submit, we’ll pay you $20 for each design we pick!”

I can’t stress this enough. Aside from family, friends, new business partnerships, and reputable pro-bono / in-kind clients… don’t ever, ever, ever do anything for anyone without some kind of guaranteed compensation. Why not? Read on and I’ll tell you.

Example 1: “We’re looking for a new logo, so we’ve decided to have a contest! The person who submits the winning logo will get $500 and an ad in our monthly newsletter!”

In this example, a few things are going on. First thing is, they want to see a lot of finished logos so that they can focus on, and pick the one they would like to represent their company. This is bad for everyone for several reasons. The designer and the company would be missing the most essential step to finding a good logo solution by forgoing the understanding, collaboration, and distillation that is necessary in such a project. A logo should accurately and effectively represent the spirit, and function of a company in a single, simple, unique mark. That cannot happen without research, communication, and a collaborative journey to a specific goal. And those things cannot happen if all I know about a company is in conveyed to be in a one-page email. The company that posted that ad is only doing itself a disservice in taking this road.

The second problem with this proposal is price. Good logos design is time consuming. It takes a lot of research about a company, its market, its target demographic, its branding goals, mission goals, and its competition to really even to begin to form an idea about who they really are. That kind of understanding is essential to logo design. That said, I have never spent less than 40 hours on any single logo design. In fact, it usually hits closer to 60. I seriously doubt anyone could ever make a case where I would be willing to devalue my services to the $8.34 per hour necessary to even come close to this person’s request.

The largest problem, however, is the fact that even if you’re willing to do the other things– Forgo understanding, collaboration and the possibility of a good mark, devalue your services to close to minimum wage… There’s not any kind of guarantee you’ll even be paid for your extremely valuable time. In fact, chances you’ll be paid are pretty slim.

Take a look at the other examples in the beginning of this post. You’ll see that they are equally based on complete speculation, abuse of your time, and lack of understanding of the collaborative process. Opting to do this kind of spec work, no matter what is promised to you, is never going to be in your best interests.

For more information on spec work, check these links out:
NO!SPEC
Creative Latitude on “Why We Don’t Make Speculative Presentations”
A short AIGA essay on spec work

Hell, do some more looking for yourself.

1. Sharpen Your Craft
Keeping up with your craft is extremely important. Learn new techniques, play with new programs, experiment with new and different mediums, and push yourself to expand your services. Devote an hour a day exclusively to developing your craft. And no, working on a project does not count. This time should only be used for development and should not be tied to the restrictions inherent in a work project.

2. Be Confident
A huge part of being successful as a creative professional is purely due to character. It’s easier to trust someone who has a positive, radiant, energetic, and self-assured personality. Your skills and business ethic will only take you so far. It’s your personality that’s going to take you the rest of the way.

3. Learn to Handle Praise
A lot of creative people have problems with compliments. For some reason, they tend to feel self-concious and uncomfortable when a good word comes our way. Take them for what they are, appreciate them and never, ever apologize for your work. The last thing you should do is say something like, “thanks, but it’s not that great,” or, “nah, it sucks, I could do better.” Ditch the self-loathing and always respond with something more positive like, “I’m glad you like it, thanks!”

4. Learn to Handle Criticism
Criticism should never be taken personally. Always learn from it and use it as a tool with which you can grow into bigger and better things. In my previous essay, I cover this topic in a bit more detail.

5. Constantly Deliver
Always deliver on every single thing you promise. It will do wonders for your reputation, and will make others respect you for it. Not living up to your promises has a similar, yet opposite effect. Play it smart, be trustworthy, and never over-promise what you can’t see through to the end.

6. Communicate Clearly
As creative people, we’re in the business of communication. Whether we tell a story with words, photography, design, animation, advertising, marketing, comics, tattoos, or any other form of art- clear communication of our ideas is at the center of it all. Keep your message deliberate, efficient, lean, clear, and effective at all levels of your process, service, business, and product.

7. Manage Your Time
Nailing down a strict schedule is key to getting things done. Try and keep your daily, unchanging chores (like answering emails, promoting your business, skill exploration, and maintenance) at around the same times every day. Allow large enough blocks of time to each of your variable tasks to fully take advantage of your ‘groove,’ and maintain a calendar.

8. Research
Know your market. Read the trades, look at portfolios, track trends in style, and keep abreast of who’s doing what. Keep an ear to the ground for new and relevant software, tools, services, and toys. Read a few blogs. Listen to podcasts. Subscribe to newsletters. The more you know about what’s going on and how you can leverage that, the more dangerous you become to your competitors.

9. Keep in Contact
Good client relations should always be a top priority. If you haven’t heard from a client recently, consider calling them, just to have a short chat about what’s going on in their world. Also, maybe send some cool personalized postcards (with your brand and company info, of course) to some choice clients. The more you’re on their mind, the more work they’ll consider sending you.

10. Evolve Your Career
Always push your career into new areas. I started out as a print designer, but have done a lot of web, illustration, animation, motion graphics, and other related-but-different things for different people. If those jumps seem too large for you, try something more focused. Maybe you’ve done nothing but brochure and stationary design, but have some clients that may benefit from direct mail marketing pieces. Learn how to do new things and see what sticks. Chances are if you’re selling, someone will buy.

Being critiqued is absolutely essential to creative development. Not only does it help you hone your skills by offering up varying opinions of what works and what doesn’t, but it also does something even greater– It helps you to change your perspective from being someone who seeks validation and praise, to seeking knowledge and advancement. Sure, you can enjoy compliments while seeking to better your work, but pride has a funny way of obscuring execution-based weaknesses.

Keep an open mind and an open ear to your peers, critics, friends, and coworkers. Ask for opinions, and ask them to be brutally honest. The more you can understand what is wrong with your work, the more you can do to identify it, learn from it, correct it, and improve yourself.

2) Why non-refundible? A deposit allows you to clear out a portion of your schedule for this new client, giving them priority, and protection from over-booking.

Let the client know that after the job is complete, they’ll have 30 days to pay the remaining 50% of the balance.

Note: With slight modifications, this method can be applied to several different creative disciplines. Be creative with it and modify the approach so that it works best for you.

1. Define a Goal
What is your final destination? Put a well defined, one-sentence goal down so that you can use that as your creative mantra to get you through your project. And I’m not talking about merely writing “I want to make a logo.” That’s not going to cut it. Write something more specific, like “To create a solid, one-color mark that’s going to make me want to go out and buy a camera from a truly cool company.” Or maybe, “To design an 8-page brochure and effectively communicate the unique and exciting way CompanyX enriches lives with its prepaid phone products.” Or maybe you’ll be drawing a comic book cover, in which case your goal might be closer to, “To give a tease of the tension-filled thriller contained inside in a way that incorporates both the hero and the villain, while providing a clean, readable cover that will stand out on the crowded shelf.” Keep it as brief, informal, and clear as possible.

2. Word Lists
Let’s say we’re making that logo in the previous example: “…solid, one-color mark that’s going to make me want to go out and buy a camera from a truly cool company.” Well, what makes the company and their products cool? What is it about photography that is appealing? Who is our audience and are they average consumers or pros? A good way to find these answers is by doing a bit of research and making word lists. Write down and list as many relevant single words and short phrases as possible. Write down everything that pops into your head. For instance, ‘CAMERA’ brings to mind light, lens, film, digital, portrait, battery, color, magazine, speed, memories, art, journalism, etc… Once you have a good page or two of words, break out the highlighter and indicate which ones get you inspired. Mix and match words and see what kinds of ideas come out.

3. Sketch, Sketch, and Sketch
Once your word lists are done and cool, unique connections have been made, fill as many pages as possible with small, 2″ MAXIMUM sketches of your ideas. You could probably fit 20 sketches in a single, letter size page (double if you use the back side too). You’ll want to not spend more than 5-10 minutes thinking about or producing this first round of thumbnails– just sketch one up and move on to the next one. Pay attention to shapes that may play off one another, enhance, or add contextual insight to the message without muddling it. Once you find something that works, move to a clean page and sharpen some of the ideas up. By now, you should start seeing some pretty interesting things happen on paper.

4. Refine and Get Started
Pick 3-5 ideas and refine them. Get rid of extraneous elements and only keep what’s relevant to the message. See what tweaks you can make to further focus your ideas and clarify your message.

If you follow these steps before you get started on your project, then you’ll have armed yourself with some seriously effective tools and insight that will give you the edge you need to do better work.

But is that really the only choice at that point? Take it or leave it? Was the hour-long meeting of mission objectives, EBITDA forecasts, company philosophy, and head nodding only leading up to this? Yeah… and it was your fault. Why? Because you were more ARTSY and CREATIVE than PROFESSIONAL. Because you didn’t establish a presence. You didn’t have total control. You didn’t ask the right questions or give the right answers. You looked and acted like a lazy, uncertain, vulnerable, unprofessional ARTIST that was completely out of his / her element in that conference room. And as soon as they pegged you as that, they walked all over you. And you let them.

But hope is not lost! Here are a few tips on how to appear more professional, be more prepared, and get more out of client negotiations:

1. Brand is king.
Create a clear, easily identifiable brand for yourself and perpetuate it in EVERYTHING that represents you in business. Your web portfolio should look like your business cards, should look like your letterhead, should look like your leave-behinds… all the way down to your quote sheets and invoices. And I’m not only talking about a logo. A brand is an identity system. It’s how you use visual elements in concert with one another. It defines how you handle your visual communications. Color, shape, fonts, spacing… all of these, when used consistently, begin to become associated with your unique identity and help you stand out from a sea of sameness. You brand is going to be a huge part of how your client defines you in their minds.

2. Communicate clearly and effectively.
Make sure all of your business materials fulfill their given function. For example if the resume you’re using to sell yourself as a creative pro includes the 2 years you spent flipping burgers 7 years ago, and reads like your MySpace page (OMG, I luuuuv’d my boss! O RLY? YA RLY! NO WAI!), then there’s not much on there that could convince me to save it from my trash can. Keep it lean, readable, fast. Your client doesn’t want to trudge through pages of typed prose on the hidden iconography hidden in the piece you just presented. Stay specific and on topic. Give them real answers and pay attention to details. For instance, put at least 2 methods they can contact you on every one of your materials.

3.Protect yourself.
When you start a job with a client, money exchanges hands for services, rights and distribution details need to be ironed out, and every last detail needs to be discussed, put into a document, and signed by both parties. This is called an Estimate and Confirmation Form. It outlines, what, how much, when and in what way everything happens for that freelance gig. The Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines has a whole section full of contracts you can use.

4. Work on how you see yourself.
Ditch that self-loathing, self-depreciating, apology-laden act. Nobody wants to hear how you don’t think so and so piece isn’t your best work, or how you could have done better if BLAH. You’re good at what you do and you damned better know it. If you don’t know it, then you have no place trying to sell it– go get a job waiting tables and quit wasting everyones time. If you’re still reading this, good. You deserve to still be here. It means that you’re aware of what you can do and are interested in seeing where it can take you. Hell, you probably spent most of your life trying to hone some of those skills. Yep, that’s longer than most Doctors are in Med School. You’re awesome. Quit your whining and learn to be confident.

5. Work on how people see you.
Now that you have your confidence, go out and get yourself some nice clothes. I’m not necessarily talking about suits and ties, (we’re creatives after all), but nice stylish shirts, pants, and some good shoes with matching socks could work wonders for your image. If you don’t know what you’re doing, take a look at some magazines or store displays, watch some “What Not to Wear,” or just ask the salesperson for some advice. Once you have that, get a nice haircut/style. Not a $7 cut, but a salon-quality deal. Trim and file your nails. Take a shower and brush your teeth and keep some gum on you. Shave. Wash your car. Throw out your wallet-chain and get a new laptop bag. Do everything you can to look like someone who’s successful, fashionable, and in-tune with their career. In short, don’t look like a bum.

6. Work on your physical portfolio.
Again, keep it lean. 14 pieces at the absolute most. Web portfolios can be more thorough, but your physical portfolio should only contain your best and most relevant work for the job you’re going after. And really, keep it relevant. Your client could care less about those artsy B&W photos of frogs you obsess over, so leave them the hell out. Read more about it here.

7. Research!!!!!.
Know who you’re working for. Look them up on the web. Search for press items, company histories, and awards they’ve won. Make occasional comments that reflect that understanding, you will come off as more substantial and valuable. Already part of the team.

8. Load up.
Bring this stuff with you to the meeting: 10 business cards. 10 copies of your resumé. 10 copies of your quote sheet. 10, one-page leave-behinds with a sample of your work. A pen. A pencil. A notepad or small sketchbook. A small planner or datebook. Make sure you give each person in the meeting a business card and a copy of your resumé. Keep notes on everything said. Be prepared to discuss your terms of service and your quote process.

9. Wash, iron, clean, buff.
Get all prettied up and smelling good just before your meeting. Also, be sure to use the restroom so you don’t have to interrupt the meeting to go potty.

10. Know your new allies.
Before the meeting, be sure to ask who you’ll be meeting with. Study and memorize everyone’s names, titles, and job capacities before you step foot into their building.

11. Get a good night’s sleep
You really need to be alert and at the top of your game. Get a full 8 hours the night before if you can. If you can’t, get an espresso.

12. Practice and RELAX.
Get in front of a mirror and practice your greeting and your conversational techniques. Sounds funny, but you really should be aware of your posture, expression, and your eye-contact when making your first impression. After you’ve chiseled the rough edges away in your personal presentation, sit back, play the meeting in your head a couple times to become more comfortable with the whole idea. There’s no reason to be nervous. The worst that can happen is nothing at all.

13. Have a battle plan and stick to your guns.
Try not to talk money at your first meeting. It’s better to assess what you’ve learned and make a rational and informed estimate afterwards to present at a mutually agreed on follow-up meeting. Work it all out, put it down on paper and commit to a price. If your client tries to talk you down, keep your ground and don’t waver. Be prepared to walk away if they make a reduced counter-offer. Why? Because when you cave, you set a prescient. From that point on, all of your work will be subject to down-bidding. If your estimate is rejected, ask your client what they’d be comfortable cutting from the timeline to better meet the needs of their budget. If they still won’t commit, then kindly turn them down and move on. Chances are they may come to you in the future when they can afford you.

There are plenty of associations for creative professionals. AIGA is the huge one for designers. Graphic Artists Guild is another. Illustrators have The Association of Illustrators, while cartooonists are encouraged to join the National Cartoonists Society. Each has their member benefits, dues, and opportunities to connect with others. Although I highly recommend finding, joining, and becoming active in the one that best suits you, I would not advise stopping there. Especially not when gaining new clients is your goal.

You see, each one of those is full of other people looking for new gigs, just like you. Competition is fierce, and though not necessarily a bad thing, doesn’t exactly pay the bills. The real trick in gaining new clients lies in identifying untapped local resources, finding an ‘in’, and developing a strategy that caters to that group.

About a year ago I attended a local realtor’s association open house banquet. Most of the guests were people representing small companies new to the market. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of new business owners and exchange a lot of business cards in a short amount of time. A day after the banquet, I sent each one of them a personalized follow-up email, letting them know that it was great meeting them. To the ones that replied, I sent another note saying something to the effect of,” you know, I have a great branding and sales materials design package for realtors that you may be interested in.” I did the same thing several months before that, when I asked an events coordinator client of mine if I could go with him to one of their association functions. To this group, I replied to their emails with offers to do menus (for caterers), promo catalogues (for rental companies), and invitation design (for wedding planners). From just those two events and the direct contacts I made, plus word-of-mouth recommendations that followed, I gained about 8 new clients.

Another idea is to take a good networking strategy with you to a large trade show or expo. If the expo is a state or national event that happens in the same place year after year, then do some research and find out where all the nearby bars, lounges, and hotels are. Chances are, after day one of the event, the special guests and the rest of the ‘in crowd’ from the show will be at one or two of those places for some after-work refreshments. This sort of informal social situation is one of the best possible places where you can introduce yourself to a potential client or business prospect. Play it easy and don’t sell yourself too aggressively– just have a conversation and a couple of drinks with them. Keep it brief, but interesting enough so that they remember your face the following day at the expo floor, when it’s more appropriate to talk business. If you’ve played your cards right, then you’ll have a competitive edge when you make your pitch. And you know that bar you were at last night? It’s likely that it’s where everyone will hang out each subsequent night for the length of the show. Use that.

Sometimes, a good, high-profile event may need some low-cost or free work to promote it. Get in contact with the organizers and offer your services up in exchange for a small ad in their event guide or playbill. Offer to design a poster, some fliers, signage, or event badges in exchange for the privilege of being listed as a sponsor of to have a small feeler included in their goodie bags. Maybe include a coupon on the feeler, or a promotion code that potential new clients can use for a ‘new account discount.’ Introduce yourself and exchange cards with as many people as possible at the event. When they (hopefully) see your ad or feeler, they’ll be more likely to take a chance on you in the event a need arises.

Keep your eyes open for off-stream networking opportunities and ways you can utilize them to gain new clients. The world is full of untapped client pools that are yours for the taking. All you need to do is shift your perspective away from tradition just a hair, and they will reveal themselves to you.

Do you have any cool non-traditional networking ideas that you’d like to try, or that have worked for you in the past? If so, tell us about it! Register for an account and leave a comment.

Not evaluating your portfolio and its contents before a meeting is a great way to show a potential client or employer that you really don’t care about what they have to offer. Different companies have different needs, and you should know whether or not the company you’re meeting with in two days cares at all about the 12 vector drawings of cats that you’re dying to show them.

A couple of years ago, I was working as a Creative Director in an in-house creative department at an Austin-based financial corporation. The company was about to increase its reach into several different retail channels, and I needed to hire a new designer. Out of close to 50 portfolios I saw, only about 5 really spoke to the position we were looking to fill. The others ranged wildly from one that consisted of purely home video cover designs, to another that had about 2 layout samples hiding in a sea of hand-stitched purse designs, to one that must have thought our company dealt purely in close-up b&w photography of leaves. Yeah. I got a portfolio from a girl who drove 90 miles to hand me a book full of her leaf photography.

What did the other five do?

1. They did their research.
Each one of them knew enough about the company to construct portfolios that had appropriately relevant work. A couple even had stuff they had done for banks or credit card companies, perfect for pitching themselves to a similarly interested company. With the internet, finding information about prospective employers and clients has never been easier. Take advantage of that and use what you find as your primary influence when selecting work to include in your portfolio.

2. They kept it lean, mean brief.
None of the top five had more than 14 pieces in their books. The best of the bunch had about 10 or 11 that were somehow directly related to corporate clients, some of which were financial companies. The other 3 or 4 pieces focused on showing range and skills not already highlighted in the main body of selected work. It’s absolutely key to only cover the essentials when showing your book, so make sure you only pick your best.

3. They displayed impeccable craftsmanship.
Of the top 5, not one of them had any visible flaws in the construction of their portfolios. Every edge was tidy and sharp. Every board was clean, unmarked and uniformly cut. Carriers looked like they just came off the production line. Every little detail was as meticulously attended to as the next. However you choose to build your portfolio,

Taking these simple and universally effective steps will help you stand out in what could possibly be hundreds of applicants. Now that you have a killer focused and targeted portfolio, practice your presentation. Work on the order of your reveal and tweak it for the greatest possible impact. Don’t over explain your work, and never ever apologize for any of it (no matter how much better something could have turned out if only you had more time, etc…). Maintain eye contact, stand up straight, smile, and communicate effectively.

Communication is our business, after all. The ability to do it with your portfolio, in a language that your interviewee understands, speaks volumes about you and your value to their company.

If I could go back, I would have paid more attention. I would have started my education not then, but at 8, when I first discovered the blackroom they had stashed behind my uncle Richard’s light table. I would have spent more time studying the racks of lead type before dismissing them as just things that got my hands and homemade clothes covered in ink.

I’m not saying that I’m disappointed with how it all turned out. I’m not, by any stretch. Paying more attention back then would have made things easier for me later in life. In that shop, I had almost 20 people who would have been more than happy to mentor me and teach me everything they knew about things I had to learn on my own later on. Away at college, I quietly wished for advice and guidance from some of those folks who were by then long gone once the shop closed down.

It is in that spirit of guidance, sharing and advancement that I present to you CREATEaPRO.com. My goal with this site is to use my years of experience and insight to help equip and motivate you to launch or elevate your creative careers.

Who’s this for? Well, pretty much anyone who is trying to become or already a creative professional: The design student wanting to line up a good post-graduation job; The comic book artist trying to figure out a good way to pitch a book; The graphic artist wanting to break out of the corporate marketing department and into an agency; The new freelance illustrator who’s not sure how license out their work; The fine artist who’s just a little less than confident… I’m going to try and touch on a little of everything.

I hope you get as much out of this as I plan to put into it. Feel free to drop me a line or make a suggestion about what you’d like me to cover. I’m confident that together, we can launch some careers, expand our horizons and ultimately CREATE a PRO.

John Rubio