graphic design, freelancing, illustration, advertising, web design

I was recently trying to put together a website using wordpress and wanted to be able to change the link names using wp_list_pages. I hadn’t realised before that you can’t have a different page heading to your link name, so for example if on my front page I wanted the title to be ‘Welcome to my website” the link in my navigation using wp_list_pages would also say “welcome to my website” when I really just wanted it to say home. I knew I could just hand code it but I wanted my client to be able to easily add pages without messing about, so I searched for a plugin.

After a big search I still hadn’t found one and had little response from the Wordpress forum so I tried the forum over at blogging tips where help was much more forthcoming. Sarah from Stuff by Sarah kindly created a plugin called Page Menu Editor which did exactly what I needed and I am sure will be useful to many people. Sarah’s website also has a lot of other plugins and advice which are well worth a look.

Freelancer Focus is a regular feature, where freelance designers are invited to answer a series of questions about themselves and freelancing.
This week Belinda White (pictured left) is the freelance designer in question.

1. Your name?
Belinda White

2. Where are you are based (Country/Area)?
Newcastle upon Tyne

3. What type of work do you do? (design for print, web, multimedia etc)
All aspects of creative design - illustration, flash design, website design, packaging, advertising, retail display, literature, direct mail, logos and branding, magazines, presentations, motion graphics and flash games

4. How many years had you been working in the design industry before you went freelance?
20 years

5. How long have you been freelancing?
4 months

6. Why did you decide to go freelance?
Flexible working, I have two beautiful children, a four year old daughter and a one year old son.

7. How did you market yourself (find design work/new clients) in the beginning - (online portfolio/brochure/direct mail/email/phone etc)?
Website, direct mail, networking events, telephone calls.

8. How do you market yourself (find design work) now?
As above.

9. How did you decide what to charge? What was the process?
Work out all costs and outgoings and look at local market forces.

10. Do you work from home/have an office/work inhouse at design agencies?
Both.

11. How do you organise your workload, do you work long hours?
I have a bespoke Excel worksheet planner and I work long hours.

12. How much holiday do you give yourself?
None.

13. How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?
Trade magazines, networking events, online.

14. What blogs, magazines, podcasts etc do you subscribe to?
Creative Review, Computer Arts, .Net, Design Week, Drum plus networking sites online.

15. How do you generate ideas/what techniques do you use to stimulate creativity?
Visits to art galleries, general design magazines including architecture, interior design.

16. What about the business side of things, accounting, invoicing, bookkeeping, how do you manage it?
I have a complex Excel spreadsheet set-up.

17. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone starting out freelancing?
Promote yourself as much as possible, try to find different business angles and network, network, network!

18. Would you ever go back to fulltime work?
Yes. When my children are older.

19. Any thing else you would like to add?
Its hard work, but great to feel in control. Plus I get lots of family time.

20. Where can we see some of your work (URL)?
www.arttia.co.uk

I have written before why I think a logo design is worth investing a little time and money on, but a friend told me something a little while ago that shed a whole new light on cheap logo design.

My friend another freelance designer had recently started working with a new client who unfortunately had already had their logo design done by a cheap logo designer. He had now approached my friend to help with some design work after the problems they had had with the cheap logo. They had basically commissioned someone to do a really cheap logo, they were happy with the design and so had it printed on they stationery, literature and vans. The problem began when they found another local company in the same line of work had a very similar logo. I don’t know whether both logos were done by the same designer, or perhaps two different designers used some logo clip art, or the designer copied the other logo, but either way it was an expensive mistake. The cost of van graphics, literature and stationery could easily outweigh the costs of using a reputable graphic designer who charges realistic prices because they spend time thinking about and designing a logo and not just using clip art or copying designs.

Its a pretty embarrassing thing to be driving a van which looks very similar to your competitor too.

A designer friend contacted me the other day to ask if I had done much work on corporate identity guidelines as she was trying to put something together for a client. It’s been several years since I have worked on any logo/corporate ID guidelines, but of course I have had to follow existing ones for projects I am working on for larger companies.

I did a quick google to see if there was any information about corporate guidelines and found a resource I thought could be very useful. At www.designerstalk.com they have a page with has loads of downloadable PDF files of different companies corporate ID guidelines which could be really helpful if you are trying to put something together yourself.

Also I have just found via David Airey’s logo design love another site with branding guideline examples