With all the madness the design community has endured with the pilfering of my and others’ work in recent months, the thought inspired me to create a poster.
I’ve been working in this business a long time and have seen my share of successful entrepreneurs and thriving companies. Every once in awhile, I come across a potential client with a business that just doesn’t add up. They could be wildly successful with lots of business coming in the door and plenty of people staffing the place, but for some reason you get a vibe – a weird vibe.
Recently, I’ve heard the question, does a graphic designer need to have an understanding of marketing? Well, quite simply – yes. If you don’t have an understanding of how to market, whether it’s a packaging design, a promotional message or a website, you can’t adequately direct someone to take action – or even care, from interacting with your design. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m just like any other red-blooded creative guy, ready to run away screaming at lengthy PowerPoint decks and dozens of statistics-laden spreadsheets. But, there is definitely some use to all that drab information, and you just need to know how to process it in your own way. It’s marketing on your own terms.
There you are. You’re ready to start your own thing, hang your shingle and be your own boss. You’ve finally got everything in place and you need to have a logo designed, put it on the website, business cards, etc. And get your logo trademarked.
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?
