Just Creative Design

Designer In The Spotlight: Kate McInnes

Designer In The Spotlight (DITS) is a weekly feature that I run every Sunday (or more) to help particular individuals in the design community get their name ‘out there’ and to educate the community as a whole. It is a series of questions that asks the designer about themselves and their job as a designer. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming DITS post fill out the form here.

1. Please tell us more about yourself, your background, education and what you do as a designer.

My name is Kate McInnes and I’m a designer and Illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia.

I have a Bachelor of Multimedia Design and a Post Graduate Degree in Communication Design.

Currently I’m working as a freelance Illustrator and a designer for Nitro PDF Software.

2. How long have you been designing and what made you become an artist / designer?

I’ve been designing since I was in primary school, I was the first to invent designer toilet paper, I thought the idea was completely ridiculous - who would have known as the economy changed the need for such an item would surface.

I became a designer because I liked it better than anything else.

3. How did you market yourself in the beginning of your design career and how has that differed to how you market yourself now?

In regards to my illustration practice I was pretty crappy at marketing.
I was lucky to meet some people in my city who shared the same interests and I started to exhibit work with them.

Now it’s just a matter of exposure and reputation, increasing the traffic to the blog and folio site.

Saying that, I do try and write blog posts that are of interest, like tutorials and reviews - people like them.

For those you still starting out, you may want to read How To Get Your First Job.

4. What are your tools of the trade? This could include hardware, software and traditional tools.

The Adobe Suite.

5. Where do you work and what is your daily routine?

I work at Nitro PDF Software.

My daily routine changes all the time, sometimes ill be on an email campaign and the next ill be redesigning software boxes or making icons.

Every day involves coffee and chocolate.

6. How do you manage the business side of design such as accounting, invoicing and bookkeeping?

I only take freelance that inspires me so as you can imagine I don’t break the tax limit that often.

I keep all receipts in a really nifty book from kikki.K and invoice all my clients in PDF form.

7. Where do you get your inspiration and how do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?

I am completely in-love with my Ffffound account, that site is amazing!

I don’t follow the design industry as closely as I follow art and illustration, design shouldn’t be about trends, it should be about what’s right for the brief.

8. Can you please guide us through a typical project from start to finish.

Hmmm, well people are fairly interested in my work on icons, so here goes.

I get a brief from the development department outlining what the icon will be called, its tool tip, its function and how big it will be.

I then do a few concept sketches and research existing examples, when it all looks right I start making the image in illustrator (at actual size).

Once the basic shape is made I export it to Photoshop and add gradients and shadows until it’s done.

9. What are your top 3 websites / books and why?

I love all of the books at Victionary.
Their books are always presented really nicely and the contributing illustrators and designers are very inspirational.

My Ffffound Account! I could spend hours on this site.

Nice Produce is where you will find all the latest news on Melbourne art and events.
They are also big supporters of my partner in crime, Bucket’O'Thought.

10. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone just starting out?

Don’t give up, don’t copy other peoples stuff and don’t forget to have fun!

Thank you Kate for taking the time to fill out this interview! If you want to be featured as the next Designer In The Spotlight, fill out this form.

Designer In The Spotlight: Albert Lo

Designer In The Spotlight (DITS) is a weekly feature that I run every Sunday (or more) to help particular individuals in the design community get their name ‘out there’ and to educate the community as a whole. It is a series of questions that asks the designer about themselves and their job as a designer. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming DITS post fill out the form here.

1. Please tell us more about yourself, your background, education and what you do as a designer.

Hi my names Albert Lo, sole owner and designer of albertlo.com. I live in the UK in a leafy suburb of Hertfordshire. I live with my beautiful girlfriend, have 2 cats called Jay and Coco and drive around in a red Mini Cooper S Works with Union Jack wing mirrors, you can’t miss the car as its pretty unique…fitting for a web designer.

My background has been till now within the traditional medium of Art and Design. I studied Multimedia Computing at university and decided to take the path of a Web Designer once i’ve graduated, the course taught me that I’m more suited to conceptual way of thinking and design work. As a Web Designer I also have knowledge of back end Web development but I like to say I specialise in the front end of web design.

As a web designer my skills lie in Web Design, Art Direction, Conceptual art working, Creative strategy, Usability, Web Accessibility, CSS and XHTML.

2. How long have you been designing and what made you become an artist / designer?

I have been designing for the web professionally for about 6.5 years now. I have always had a design eye from an early age. I loved traditional sketching, drawing and painting and from then I knew this is what I was good at through school, well at least that’s what teachers and friends told me. I decided to design digitally by going to university to study Multimedia Computing and from there it cemented my decision once I had graduated to become a web designer. I would never consider a different career path…perhaps being a Zoo keeper might persuade me.

3. How did you market yourself in the beginning of your design career and how has that differed to how you market yourself now?

At the beginning of my design career, I really found it a struggle to allow anyone to give me a chance and get my foot through the door, I concentrated on a well layed out CV in the hope of someone taking notice of me and distributing my CV everywhere. Designing and having a web portfolio really helped but I didn’t really shout about having a portfolio as I was afraid of criticism, so only recruitment agencies saw it.

Cut to now, I think marketing is an integral part of being a freelancer and I understand that now. Marketing for me at the moment is a learning curve. As I’ve gained more experience and worked for huge clients, there is more confidence in what you have done for people to be reassured. If you know you can do great work you need to let people know regardless of what people think of it, my marketing strategy is all about getting noticed in the community and hopefully sharing my experiences which someone might find useful.

4. What are your tools of the trade? This could include hardware, software and traditional tools.

My tools of the trade are an 24″ iMac, iPhone, A5 Wacom tablet, Icemat and Logitech MX Revolution mouse and an oldish Dell PC for x-browser testing.
I have the usual Adobe suite software but I cant live without Transmit and Textmate. My other useful software is Skype and Net News Wire. I still dabble with traditional art mediums so I have a blank canvas and oil paints sitting around which I’m waiting for inspiration for.

5. Where do you work and what is your daily routine?

At the moment I am a permanent member of staff working as a Web Designer in a Online and Telesales team. I work for a well known mobile Telecoms company but unfortunately I am being made redundant, my decision is to go freelancing / contracting once I leave my permanent workplace in a months time.

I’ll let you know my routine when I’ve hit the ground running with freelancing full time, I’m sure it will be an experience.

6. How do you manage the business side of design such as accounting, invoicing and bookkeeping?

Just having set up as a freelancer to start full time,  I have left the business side of accounting to a professional accountant, This will leave me with more time to day to day runnings of things hopefully.

I’m not very good with numbers so I think its a good investment to get someone to look after that side of things if anything goes all wrong. Invoicing and bookkeeping will be my responsibility and hopefully will also allow me learn more about design as a business and hopefully grow in the future.

7. Where do you get your inspiration and how do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?

My inspiration comes from numerous places, I find taking a break and going on holiday to a different culture provides fresh ideas, it’s an expensive way to find inspiration but when you go on holiday, make the most of it, take a small sketch pad or take a camera to record ideas etc.

I find going to the supermarket and book stores a fantastic source of inspiration to look at food packaging and book cover designs which could be used for the web. I love going to large cities for inspiration, the architecture and the buzz really helps.

I keep up to date with what’s happening in the industry by subscribing to numerous blogs and tutorial sites, I also try and find time to listen to a couple of design podcasts namely Boagworld and Rissington podcast and I also subscribe to a few magazines (.net, Computer Arts and Projects) to keep the juices flowing monthly. These can be good starting points for inspiration.

Recently I’ve got a better understanding of the power of Twitter and it’s a goldmine for news nuggets and developments on the web instantly as it happens, as long as you follow the right people.

8. Can you please guide us through a typical project from start to finish.

A typical project will start off with some sort of communication. I usually like to meet the client face to face to introduce myself and get a feeling for them and their business, if this is not possible then I usually speak to the client over IM or email. Once I know someone is interested I usually send back a creative brief for someone to fill in, this ensures the client is serious about the project or work by actually thinking about what they want and filling in the creative brief.

Once I have a creative brief back, I can then get all the information from it and get a good idea of the project and scope, at this stage I will communicate with the client and send back any questions before I start.

I will agree any assets and copy before I start.

Usually I might start off with a mood board to engage a reaction and discussion of the client to suss out what they like or don’t like and get a general direction with colours and look and feel.

I might do some brain storming, and wire frames depending on the size of the project and get the client to agree the direction of the project.

I’ll then come up with an initial mock design and send it back to the client for feedback.
Once I have feedback there probably will be amends and the cycle goes round again.

Once its agreed and signed off, the design will be built.
Once its all finished it will be signed off from the client.

It’s important that up front you agree what is to be delivered, when to deliver and when to be paid.

9. What are your top 3 websites / books and why?

This is a tough question, my top 3 websites/books are:

1. How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy (Author)
This book is like a bible, it reminds me of how it addresses the concerns of young designers who want to earn a living by doing expressive and meaningful work, and who want to avoid becoming hired drones working on soulless projects.

2. Twitter.com - This is a relatively new site to me but i’m so addicted to it. I have it on my desktop and on my iPhone. It keeps me in touch with what’s happening in the industry as well as keeping in touch with friends. I also like the simplicity of it to communicate to anyone who wants to listen as well as using it as a marketing tool and finding out answers quickly.

3. Digg.com - For me this is the ultimate site, it’s simple and so community focused. It keeps me updated in what’s going around the net and world. I’m never bored on this site. I can spend ages on this site.

10. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone just starting out?

I’ve learned a lot by making mistakes along the way and to this day I’m still learning. My biggest piece of advice I would give someone starting out is to persevere trying to find your first design job, don’t get disheartened and be confident in what you design. Take your mind off things by coming up with personal projects or take a part time job, your first design job to get your foot through the door will come out of the blue when you least expect it.

Thank you Albert for taking the time to fill out this interview, it was a great insight!

If you want to be featured as the next Designer In The Spotlight, fill out this form.

Designer In The Spotlight: Brian Yerkes

Designer In The Spotlight (DITS) is a new weekly feature that I will be running every Sunday (or more) to help particular individuals in the design community get their name ‘out there’ and to educate the community as a whole. It is a series of questions that asks the designer about themselves and their job as a designer. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming DITS post fill out the form here.

1. Please tell us more about yourself, your background, education and what you do as a designer.

My name is Brian Yerkes and I am a born and raised Irishman living in sunny Florida. Moved to the States after college to pursue the “American Dream”, started as a freelancer on my own, and soon found myself to be the owner of a leading creative design and development studio in Southwest Florida after a lot of sleepless nights and hard work.

I have a degree in Sports Marketing from University College Dublin. I am self taught in all areas of design and coding, and my range of knowledge spans from print design, to branding, to css, php and asp coding.

2. How long have you been designing and what made you become an artist / designer?

Started playing with Paint when I received my first computer back in the day (no idea when this was…possibly in 1995). I always sketched / drew and this was probably my best skill as a kid growing up. Soon, I started to design logos and websites for friends and family, as I got comfortable with products like Adobe Elements and Photoshop.
I have been a professional designer for about 6 years, starting off in Ireland and now with my company in the States.

3. How did you market yourself in the beginning of your design career and how has that differed to how you market yourself now?

I think I have always marketed myself in the same way as I do now… and likewise for anything I do; I present myself with confidence and know that I will provide someone with a lot of hard work and creativity to help them succeed. Even when I was far less experienced than I am now, I still spoke to potential clients with the same confidence as I do today. Image is vital in business. It can build trust and confidence.

4. What are your tools of the trade? This could include hardware, software and traditional tools.

Adobe Products, PC’s and Laptops, Internet, Online Friends, PC’s and Laptops, Creativity, Integrity and Passion.

5. Where do you work and what is your daily routine?

I work in Southwest Florida, and my daily routine can change 100% each day. One day I could be at 3 meetings and in the car most of the day, the next day I could be sketching logos, coding some CSS and playing Tiger Woods Golf 09 on the PS3.

6. How do you manage the business side of design such as accounting, invoicing and bookkeeping?

I hired an account manager named Sarah, who does it all for me. She worries about the invoices, receiving payments and all that jazz. She updates the project management system to let me know when a project is ready to commence, what ones are on hold, and the ones that are ready for release / launch.

I use Quickbooks and spreadsheets for my own personal bookkeeping.

7. Where do you get your inspiration and how do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?

One of the best ways (and I wish I had gotten involved in it sooner) is through blogging and building online relationships with fellow designers and programmers. I found David Airey’s blog one day, and that got me hooked on the idea of blogging and social networking. Since then, I have found this tremendously powerful and helpful. It keeps you at the top of your game, and you learn so much from others more experienced and also less experienced than yourself.

I have since hired several people that I have met online through my blog, BrianYerkes.com, to help me with various projects, and to build a wider, more international team of freelancers for my company.

I can’t even explain in words how powerful social networking is for a designer.

8. Can you please guide us through a typical project from start to finish.

Let’s say the lead comes in from our website, Brian Joseph Studios, we respond by phone or email (depending on what option they chose in their form submission) . This email thanks them and asks them a few questions about their needs… do they have a current site/logo etc. This email also introduces our company a little more, and tries to build that instant relationship. They are given one person to speak with that will be their project manager throughout the entire project.

The potential client responds with some answers, and we determine whether or not we want to take on the project or not. We have an interview process that we put the client through, and many fail at this step. I think it is extremely important to take on clients that are similar in their professionalism as you and your company.

It can even be down to small things… like if they don’t start an email addressing a name with something like “Hi John…” or anything like that. Small things like that can say a lot about the type of client they will be if you take them on.

So, we begin the sales process. If the client is local or somewhat close to our area, we will arrange a meeting in person with them. This gives us the chance to really build a relationship on a personal level, beyond emails and phone calls.

We get to know the client, their business and their needs in detail. We listen to them and we provide solutions. After the meeting, we draw up a proposal outlining the solution for their project.

If they like it, we send the contract along and ask them to fax it back. We then invoice 50% of the project total and begin the project once that 50% is received.

Once the project starts, we keep in regular contact with the client, and ensure that they are involved in the design and development process throughout. We ask for feedback at all stages of the development and once they are happy with the final design we invoice the final 50% before we send final production files.

The client pays the final 50%, they receive the final files, (we upload the files to our server if it is a website project) and they are ready to roll with their brand new logo or website!

After they are finished with the project, we still keep in touch with them regularly to keep that relationship with them and to help them with any needs in the future. This way we build up a strong and loyal client base, and we do not have to take on a huge amount of new clients to pay the bills and project costs.

If you work with 5 loyal, professional clients that have their stuff together, and understand the importance of your services, those 5 clients will always be more profitable than taking on 20 new clients of all different types. Editor’s note: Ever heard of the Pareto Principle (80 / 20) rule?

9. What are your top 3 websites / books and why?

1. Google.com (where would we be without it?! Yahoo.com I guess!)

2. Wordpress.org (if it wasn’t for Wordpress, I would have to pay programmers to do a lot more work!)

3. The Story of Art by E.H Gombrich, sits on my coffee table and will always be a book to learn from.

10. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone just starting out?

I was recently interviewed by a college design student and was asked this exact question and I actually posted an article answering this question.

My answer was “Never stop adding to your skill set, and always make sure that when you look back over your previous year, you have come a long way baby!”

Thank you Brian for taking the time to fill out this interview especially for going into so much detail in your process.

If you want to be featured as the next Designer In The Spotlight, fill out this form.

Designer In The Spotlight

Designer In The Spotlight (DITS) is a new weekly feature that I will be running every Sunday to help particular individuals in the design community get their name ‘out there’ and to educate the community as a whole. It is a series of questions that asks the designer about themselves and their job as a designer. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming DITS post fill out the form below. DITS will only be posted subject to quality so ensure you write appropriately.

No offensive language or pictures please. Please write in full sentences and do not use slang. Please do not use html or add links except where specified. Thank You.

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Logo Design Tips & A Not-So-Ordinary Interview with Famous Celebrity Logo Designer, Jeff Fisher

Just Creative Design has recently had the pleasure to interview Jeff Fisher but not in the normal ‘tell us about your life’ style interview… This interview walks us through Jeff’s logo design process as well providing invaluable logo design tips on the side.

I highly recommend you to read this article if you have the faintest interest in logo design and if you don’t have time to read it now, print it off for the weekend. You won’t regret it. I have also made bold the key parts of the article for easy scanning as it is 4800 words long.

If you want to print the article at the bottom of this post look for the text “Print This Page”. Read more »