Last week, a rather spirited discussion arose after there was an announcement by Chris Brogan saying that he was looking into launching a design contest on 99designs. Well, needless to say, a handful of designers were quick to react and try and educate Mr. Brogan about their surprise and disapproval of such an idea. After much back and forth, Chris posts the question, “Designers: so besides cost, educate a business person why one beats the other. Blog your answers? I’ll link to a few in my post.” It’s interesting that he would ask this question, because it appears that this isn’t readily apparent to the average business owner. Well, I am here to help.
In the last couple of years, there seems to be a major surge of fledgling logo designers making their way into the design community. What with so many logo inspiration sites popping up every week and some really wonderful logo design books out there, it’s hard to believe that this rather small, sub-culture of graphic design is becoming so popular. Here are some tips on starting a career.
This is a subject that I can share a unique perspective on (pun intended). I have worked on both sides of this particular fence, as an art director hiring illustrators and as an independent illustrator working with design firms and ad agencies for many years. I certainly know what it’s like to sift through source book after source book, scouring every page trying to find the right style–all on an insurmountable deadline.
In the design realm, there are a lot of ‘how-to’ articles written all the time about blogging tips, social networking, Photoshop techniques and the like, but not a lot on keeping a little balance in your life. It’s great to keep up with the ever increasing pace of our industry, but what about you?
Catch my latest interview about the issues regarding the effects of crowdsourcing on business and design. It’s all there in Jason Gramke’s blog article, The 30 Dollar Logo Contest. Give it a read.
