IM Creative

As a designer my job is to help clients complete their goals so they can promote their business. But there are times when so many projects are going on you don’t know which way is up or down. And I feel like that today so I’m blogging about it. Its been a crazy couple of weeks but I can’t complain because I’m busy. Yet when I’m not busy I wondering what the heck is going on. So take the good with the bad, right? How do you maintain that level of sanity while under deadlines? I’m still working on it. I have been so busy that my blog is neglected, my twitter is non-existent at the moment, and facebook is not even a thought in my mind. My own website needs updating and I still need to continue to promote and push the business to have consistent clients coming through the door and at the same time get all their projects done! Not to mention time for the fam and fun.  I work from home so for me being in the house all day designing can get a little stir crazy. Also how do you balance doing the best creative you can when you get behind and just need to crank something out??? This week its about time management for me. Maybe its purchasing some software and organizational folders so I don’t go crazy. Either way everybody has to push through it at some point!

So as a graphic designer who works from home I spend most of the day in my kitchen. I have a small square foot of space that my desk and books and other junk for all my design stuff is lcoated. However, I go crazy when I have been in the house to long and I have been feeling my creativity needs a jump start. So I decided to get some outlets. I am learning to play the drums, ballroom dancing, bike riding, building wordpress sites, and at the same time trying not to over do myself with all this craziness!

But here is the thing how to do you have fun and get your mind to focus on other stuff when you have so much work to do. I can’t leave my office since I live in it. I go to drum lessons but as soon as I’m done my brains shuts down and goes straight to work. My problem is how do I make time for each and every little thing without getting behind on projects. Cause it feels like all I do is play catch up.

And when I’m away learning all this stuff and having these fun creative outlets how do I practice and focus. By doing these things I’m hoping my brain gets the jump start it needs to get my design to the next level. And in just the few weeks I have been doing this I feel I look at things different. It’s like these outlets have almost eased my mind to look at other things in a creative and different way. From the sky after a rainstorm, to the way a water looks at different angles, or the way hail falls out of the sky and leaves dents in cars.

The point is decompressing is necessary whether we want to or not. And like anything else takes practice one day at a time. So I’m hoping to learn to let go and hopefully the creativity comes on its own.

Ok I am posting this because I am still learning Wordpress and don’t know enough about it. But I have been hearing from people that Wordpress is the next big thing! Even better than Joomla and Drupal. Now I have used Joomla and I like it. I have met other web designers who like Drupal over Joomla. But now I hear Wordpress over both. Why? The main reason that seems to come up…It’s user friendly on the backend for customers. Where Joomla and Drupal are not. Now I am half way decent at manipulating a Joomla template, but for some reason I just can seem to grasp Wordpress. How do I turn Wordpress into a website useful for my customers? I can edit the graphics, but how do I make a blank page? Maybe it’s a lot easier than I think and my brain is just befuddled because its a new thing to grasp. I have checked other Wordpress sites out there and they are awesome! So why can’t I get it. And if so is this the wave of the future: blog turned website. I have people asking me to build blogs as websites, including stores with paypal, video and audio, flash rotating pics and more! But now do I sell Wordpress as a website and at what cost? Or do I stick with something like Joomla? I can’t build one from the ground up but I can trade out the graphics and the links. And once I learn Wordpress do I just do Wordpress sites since from what I’m hearing they can do the same thing as Joomla and Drupal? Thoughts???

One the things that has been going through my mind has been to do pro-bono work for non-profits. What are the pros and what are the cons? Is it worth it? If you think about it you do the same work you would normally do any other client except you get more creativity, added portfolio options and possibly win some awards. You still need to research, evaluate the end user, and come up with an amazing design. But I think non-profit work is more about building a relationship with companies. You build trust about something that makes you feel good so its not all about what I get in the end. For me if I could do work for kids or adults with Down Syndrome that would be great.

The word Pro-Bono is all about the public good. So why not more of this kind of “public good work?” Do my paying clients expect discounts because I am willing to do “pro-bono” work? I would hope not. Non-profits have always had a special place with me because for me they tend to need the most help. Their causes, their people, the work, all of it is done by passionate people trying to make a difference for peanuts. I guess for me hearing them say “this means so much” is worth not having a check in the end.

This one thing has been bothering me a lot. Most of the clients that come to me have used a designer in the past and spent thousands of dollars on them! But they tell me they have no more money but need help because this “thousand dollar designer” didn’t do what they asked. So what’s a gal to do: turn them away, tell them I’ll work for peanuts and end up pulling most of my hair out, or try and compromise.

One of the first things I do is go through with these clients about why their current pieces aren’t working for them. And one of the main reasons that comes up is the clients audience. See it doesn’t matter to a point what the client wants or even what the designer wants, what matters is how it relates to the end user. So no matter how good your piece looks if it doesn’t get the point across to your end user then, well, its crap. It can’t help you in any way get clients, but the designer might win an award for it, whopee!

Now as the person hiring the designer its ok to shop around and ask questions. Things like: what do I get for my thousands of dollars besides a really cool design? How are you going to relate this to my clients? How many hours will this take? Do you charge by the hour or project? What is your process? What other companies have you done work for that relate to my field in some way? How long have you been designing? Do you charge everytime we are on the phone together? Most designers have no problem answering these questions and they shouldn’t since you are the one paying. But you must be realistic in what you ask. Don’t ask for the moon when you really only need the sky.

Think of it as hiring a nanny. Your not going to leave your kids with just anyone, so why leave your business in the hands of the first designer that comes along? If the designer is not working for you then talk it through with them. If they still refuse to listen seperate and find another designer. But always before you start any project make sure that you get your native files and codes for anything done with the design firm or agency and make sure its in the contract that you sign!!! So read carefully, some designer like to keep all rights to artwork done for you so if you ever do decided to leave they can charge a big fee for you to obtain the artwork that you have been paying for all along.

So this being my first post it should be really fun and exciting right! Hi.