The right WordPress theme can make or break your website, so its important to choose one that is clear, concise, simple to navigate and overall generally pleasing to the visitor.

Below are some of my picks (free and premium) for the hottest WordPress themes for freelancers:

1. Typominima – Free

Download Here (Link to a blog post by the author)

Typominima is a great theme for freelancers who want to spotlight their writing and publishing experience. It’s a simple, clean design that can be used to showcase a writing portfolio or simply to use as a blog in conjunction with a freelance writing business. The theme also includes some design customization options.

2. Boldly – Free

Download Here

Boldy is a simple, yet robust WordPress theme by Site5.com. It comes with helpful features such as a theme options page, Ajax-based contact form and a Nivo slider. This theme is perfect for the freelancer who wants to start a professional website that lists everything a potential client needs to know.

3. Fotofolio Landscape – Free

Download Here

Fotofolio Landscape is a WordPress theme designed by Wordspop.com for photographers to showcase their work to clients. This theme would also do well showcasing a designer’s work.

4. Suburbia – Free

Suburbia is a great fit for a freelancer who is interested in showcasing magazine work or a blog. The design is simple and minimalistic and it also has some flexibility such as a logo uploader and a theme options page.

5. Smashing Multimedia – Free

Smashing Multimedia was designed by Smashing Magazine for podcasters, videographers and photographers or anyone who needs to easily embed videos and images, rate them and showcase them in their own blog. The theme comes with layered PSD source files and a help guide as well.

6. Businezz – Free

If you are looking for a “corporate-looking” theme, this design will meet your needs. The home page includes testimonials and real-time news updates from your blog showcased in a clean and crisp layout.

7. Berita – Free

One of my top picks in the “free” category, this theme is simple and easy to navigate. It is a great starter theme for those freelancers who are transitioning to building a company brand for their services. It has a casual feel, yet it allows you to showcase your work and your services in a professional way.

8. Strange – Premium

I like this premium theme because it works for either portfolio-based content or a business website. It offers a variety of customization options that are easy to change even for the novice user. You can modify layout, styling, colors, sidebars and fonts directly from the backend admin.

9. U-Design – Premium

I am slightly biased with this premium theme because I use it for my personal website. I love the clean design and the many layouts available. It is built with SEO in mind as it relates to content placement on the home page and it offers easy customization of colors for backgrounds, links, text, menu links, etc. I have had the theme for a month and I am still finding new ways to customize the site to complete it. It gets a “thumbs up” in my book.

10. MyResume – Premium

MyResume is a premium theme suited for the freelance professional who needs a digital resume to showcase to clients. It is sleek and easy to use and allows the user to add new pages and tabs and a custom portfolio as well. It also integrates well with social networking sites and includes sections for services and testimonials.

11. Client Machine – Premium

To be honest, this design has me a bit envious and I may have purchased it had I not already decided on a theme. It offers a clean, professional design and it comes with features such as built-in invoicing and the ability to create professional project proposals. You can also display testimonials, contact forms and social media icons with customizable widgets. A rotator is available as well so you can showcase your specialties by choosing from a library of 20+ icons.

12. Studeo – Premium

Studeo is a feature-packed premium WordPress theme designed for any freelance creative professional or a creative agency. It includes a filterable portfolio, custom widgets and custom page templates.

13. Rockfolio – Premium

Rockfolio is a simple premium theme with high-end coded CSS, compatible with all the major browsers. It is a great theme for freelancers starting a small business or simply showcasing their work skills. Some highlighted features include easy to edit html coding, lightbox portfolio sections with gallery view options, and PSD files.

14. Classica – Premium

The Classica theme puts your talents and skills front and center. It is a clean and beautiful design that allows you to present your work professionally. It is a great theme for any type of artist whether graphic, motion, print or web.

15. Lightspeed – Premium

Lightspeed is a clean, versatile theme perfect for freelance professionals. It includes the Content Composer v2 which allows you to drag & drop your content and layout with ease. Version 2 of the Content Composer comes with a templates system that allows you to continually utilize Content Composer templates by saving, loading, importing and exporting them with other themes that use this same system.

16. Semantic – Premium

The Semantic theme is a great choice for a web design company or a smaller scale business. It is clean, professional and includes many features that are easy to implement and customize.

17. vCard – Premium

For those freelancers who are looking for a simple, electronic resume or business card, vCard (Virtual Business Card) is a solid choice. Its minimal design is clean and professional and allows you to showcase your experience and customize your layout.

18. Multi-theme – Premium

Multi-theme would work for any freelancer in a wide variety of industries. It is a more universal theme and it can showcase portfolios, blogs, and any other services you offer.

19. Fiero – Premium

Fiero is a simple, yet bold theme designed with the artist in mind. If you are a photographer, digital artist, graphic designer or anyone who wants to showcase your amazing designs, this theme is an ideal choice. There are many different color options available or you can use the included PSD files to completely customize the look.

20. Intense – Premium

Intense is suitable for a freelancer with an active business or blog. It includes a custom accordion slider, portfolio pages, PSD files and more.

21. Vendor – Premium

Vendor is another powerful universal theme which will suit any company or business looking to expand on the web. With extensive theme options and customizable widgets, you can control content layout, manage your showcased products and advertising media as well as display your latest tweets, posts and videos.

22. Harmonia

Harmonia is catered to the freelancer who is interested in regular blogging. It is completely customizable and also features many options for showcasing and selling your services.

23. The Novelist

The Novelist is for the serious journalist, writer or copywriter who is more focused on showcasing his/her work. It is the perfect avenue for authors to display snippets of their work or simply to blog about their expertise.

24. Bookpage

Bookpage is a great choice for the freelancer/internet marketer who has an e-book to sell. It comes with payment options, book sample carousel and testimonial functions. And at only $8, it’s a pretty sweet deal.

Do you like these themes? Which themes have you used for your website? Please share in the comments below!

A few days ago I saw a comment here on 1stwebdesigner that says most of today’s web designing is just like recycling old designs. That several years ago, when CSS was first introduced, people were really ecstatic to see “new” designs which were totally one-of-a-kind. With the rise of CMS like WordPress, Joomla, and others, there are already ready-made themes that, if I may say, are used by thousands of people. Nothing unique, nothing fancy.

I am among those people who buy ready-made themes. Partly because I don’t have the funds to hire a professional designer/developer to make me a website and half the reason is it’s easier that way. I know, hold your pitchforks and listen first!

It’s pretty hard to come by a design that equally serves both beauty and function. This applies to logo, website design, illustrations, posters, and almost anything that has lines, curves, colors, and is artwork.

Let’s agree that there are certain facets of designing that take longer than others. An example is website design, it takes a vast amount of time to produce the optimal result the client wants. There are designers who have really bad experiences dealing with clients because the purpose of the website does not jive with the design the client wants. In which case, the two need to strike a bargain.

Designing for Beauty

Looking at a website, logo, or a poster and telling yourself, “well, it could be better” should always be followed by thinking about the users. Are they already accustomed to the current design, that if a change is made they’ll hate it?

Designing to solely improve the beauty is quite tricky. Trickier than adding functionality or information because a redesign means a change of identity. Now we’ll focus on web design, but keep in mind that this applies to all things that can be designed. In web designing, why do people have to redesign? For two reasons: 1. the existing design sucks, and 2. a fresh look is needed.

Reason one is the most used reason for redesigning, and is somehow less tricky because people will see the improvement and most likely love the new design. Just keep in mind that you are redesigning for ease of access, to make things better than what they used to be.

Reason number two is the trickiest. Redesigning just to keep things fresh is not really a good practice. There is a 50-50 chance that if the previous design is loved by people and a sudden change is introduced, people might hate the change which could result in a drastic decline in readership, like what happened to Digg and the Gawker Network (fairly recent).

Designing for Function

Nothing fancy here, just straight to the point like most news websites. Actually, if you look at news websites you might get dizzy at first because everything appears to be scattered. These websites take quite some time to get accustomed to, but once you know the basic navigation, all is well. A perfect example is Reddit. Over three years ago, when I first arrived on the website, I said to myself, “man, this website’s design blows” but as I spent several minutes and hours there, when I’m already accustomed to things, I’d rather have it stay that way than to have fancy colors and logos and things. Why? Because the purpose is to read, share, and view different media from external sources.

Another perfect example are management systems and eCommerce websites like eBay. I think you already know where I’m headed, designing for function is more about serious business.

The problem with redesigning

The problem with redesigning usually isn’t actually about how hard the existing design is to manipulate, but the problem is “can it still be improved?” Yes, the problem is a question of whether redesigning will improve things.

In art, there is no such thing as a finished piece. Everything is abandoned. No art is finished and perfect. But when is the right time to pull out that brush and stroke the canvas once again? I’m afraid that’s a grey area even for most designers I know. Why redesign? It looks good and it already serves its purpose, doing more may confuse your audience with the sudden change.

As you may have experienced, people have the propensity to reject changes. But there is a way to introduce change without irking people, and that is by gradually changing things, not a full-blast update. Take for example Facebook. For several years the layout has changed incredibly, there were fiascos (like the recent chat box update) and there were several successes, all without alienating the existing users.

But I didn’t answer the question, “why redesign?” You redesign when a function is needed and it changes the layout of the entire design, but only redesign if it will complement the site well. As I have stated in my previous article, the purpose of redesigning is to make things easier for the users.

Why can’t it be both?

photo by: cobrasoft

Like people, artists and their masterpiece are unique creations. These artworks have their own personality, and that their “purpose” may or may not be positively taken by the audience. To the artist his/her creation might be a masterpiece, but is it for other people?

Take for example Digg’s redesign. It was big news a few years back because they lost a big fraction of their users because of the redesign which they thought would be good, but really isn’t for “old timer” Digg users. That is how severe the redesigning process can affect things if it isn’t done right.

One thing to remember

Designing can be two things: for beauty and for function. It’s like saying “beauty and brains,” only it doesn’t work that way. One thing you need to remember when faced with a design project is that you need to figure out what is really needed. Does the material need to call out to people more or is it for a specific function.

One thing to remember: never use the color blue just because it’s your favorite color.

The problem with users

Audience are fickle creatures. Most of the time it only takes one angry reader to cause a large avalanche of people to follow them. We’ve seen this happen on the internet many times now, even outside the field of designing, where someone convinces people that Company X’s service is not good, then the whole internet brigade of justice brings out their pitchforks (or are they internet mobs?).

What do you think?

Have you redesigned a website? What was your experience? We’d love to hear!

Visual Language

The visual language of a website plays a pivotal role in its personality. Is your site clean and minimal or bold and eye-catching? The way you define your website will help you in creating an effective visual language. Visual language is expressed by:

• type choices
• alignments
• color usage
• the overall design style

To better understand the potential of this trait, take a look at the following two corporate websites and how their visual language is defined through the above attributes. While neither of them is better than the other, you can pick up how the designer expressed the company’s vision through the site.

Capegemini presents a clean, slick visual language. The color blue is used predominately throughout the site – a good choice as it represents protection and wisdom – something a user is looking for in visiting this site.

Red Brick Health takes a softer approach on their website, choosing illustration to convey personality. The result is a feeling of warmth – an attribute visitors respond favorably to in visiting this health website.

Color

Color is a powerful tool that can affect our senses and be associated with feelings and ideas.  It’s said that reds, oranges, and yellows are associated with hunger, excitement, and warmth while cool colors such as blue and purple evoke calmness and serenity.  These feelings are tied to the overall experience we have with a brand and factor in largely to the decision making process.

Adding textures too can alter colors – a roughly textured surface makes a color seem darker, while a smooth surface lightens the same color.

Consider the following feelings evoked by the corresponding color:

• Red – Energy, strength, passion
• Pink – Romance, love, friendship, femininity,
• Orange – warmth, energy, balance, enthusiasm,
• Brown – friendships, special events, earth,
• Gold – wealth, god, winning, safety, masculine power,
• Yellow – sun, intelligence, light, accelerated learning,
• Green – earth mother, physical healing, monetary success,
• Blue – good fortune, communication, wisdom, protection,
• Purple : influence, third eye, psychic ability, spiritual power,
• White : spirituality, goddess, peace, higher self, purity,
• Silver : glamour, distinguished, high-tech, industrial,
• Grey : security, reliability, intelligence, staid, modesty,
• Black : protection, repelling negativity, binding,

Resources:
Color Theory
Color Scheme Designer
Color Psychology in Online Marketing

The social networking site Twitter has designed a look and feel for their site to make visitors feel at ease. The color blue is a nice choice here, as it enhances productivity and makes you feel relaxed and trusting. It’s no surprise that a lot of companies use blue when designing their logos.

Twitter

Atmosphere

Atmosphere contributes a lot to one’s emotions. When you walk into a restaurant or café, you’re probably formulating in your head impressions you have about the particular establishment. The same is true for the web. Atmosphere is created through a number of elements including color, texture and organization. Whether fun and family friendly or elegant and professional, the atmosphere should give the viewer a taste of what your business has to offer.

When you think of coffee shop websites and how they engage users you may think of close-up shots of coffee or large static images of customers enjoying the atmosphere. The designers of Melitta knew this and made some intelligent decisions to really push the environment of the shop. What better way to get the user involved in your product then by putting them into the scene?

Melitta redefines what it’s like to enjoy coffee by putting us at eye level with the rest of the shop patron’s, making us feel included and like we’re enjoying the coffee ourselves. With a large view of the shop’s exterior and by watching the patrons move and enjoy the experience, we are given an insight into the culture and experience of Melitta before we even step foot in the door.

Texture

Texture is another element used in design to evoke a feeling and contribute to the overall experience. If used correctly it can evoke memories – the emotional reaction of seeing a texture can conjure up images of how we felt about it when first experiencing it.

Cure

Peter Granfors

Resources
CG Textures
25 Excellent Photoshop Texture Tutorials

Designing a Website with Personality

• Incorporate original and unique graphics. Through large or slightly quirky graphics you can help your website stand out from the competition.
• Use confident opening statements, catchphrases and/or interesting summaries to catch the attention of your audience. Most visitors will only read a small percentage of text on any given page, so use original language to emphasize your differences.
• Keep things organized. If a visitor can’t see past the first page due to untidy navigation, chances are they won’t stay around much longer after that.
• Experiment with non-traditional color combinations. You want to user to feel engaged, but keep readability in the back of your mind too.

Related Links
Personality Culture History
Designing Websites with Personality

Conclusion

As designers we have the ability to think outside pure functionality concerns and creating websites that forge emotional bonds with the viewer. Of course, you should have a solid strategy in place for what the site will achieve, but personality is one way of helping your design cut through the clutter and reap rewards for your clients. What are some ways you show personality in your web designs?

The answer is simple: People prefer talking face to face. A mascot/avatar helps companies to connect with people and develop a relationship with them. Generally, people prefer common types of avatars such as humans and animals. It’s hard to connect with something abstract, although it is possible. There is also an emotional aspect – the more emotional the design is, the more likely it creates a feeling for visitors. The three following steps should make it easy to create an attractive mascot:

• Consider your target audience
• Make the mascot match the website
• Give the mascot a personality

And yet, most of the mascots and avatars don’t serve their purpose as effectively as we’d expect. Concerning these less effective avatars – for some reason most companies stick with a mascot who has personality but who doesn’t ‘live’ on the site. Therefore, I would like to point out five different examples.

One of the most popular examples of a typical mascot is MailChimp.

Whenever you check reviews about the best online mascots, the MailChimp monkey is always among them. It took 7 years of work and revision until the creator of the logo was finally happy with the result. It happened only when they hired an expert, creator of Firefox logo Jon Hicks, who redesigned the mascot and gave the logo its current appearance. You can read more about the design process of MailChimp mascot here.

Another highly rated example from Jon Hicks is Silverback @ silverbackapp.com

The creation process took a lot less time than for MailChimp, but it’s a good example of the steps a designer goes through to get a good mascot that relates well with users. An idea was turned into basic sketches, which, after adding some details, were scanned in. The next step involved the first layer of colors in Photoshop that resulted in a realistic gorilla wearing a shirt and a drawing pad. But it is difficult to relate to a simple animal. Therefore, as a last phase, Hicks added some more human-like details and facial expressions. You can see the steps of this process here.

One mascot, which takes a step further motion-wise, is Crayons.

The Belgian mascot Crayons is rather rare in the mascot world because it is based on an inanimate object. And yet they have still managed to create a friendly mascot which creates positive feelings and is easy to bond with emotionally. The only negative side to Crayons is its relative similarity to the Microsoft paperclip Clippy. The designer has given the mascot more emotions and movement than usual, and I must say that without a doubt he has done it successfully. Some emotions displayed by the Crayons mascot can be found here.

Now, I’m not quite sure whether Roger MozBot by SEOmoz should be grouped with Crayons or following Sportlyzer.

SEOmoz has done even more amazing work with an inanimate object. Roger MozBot looks like he is alive and emotional. In addition, most female users probably find him cute. SEOmoz has used Roger MozBot in several situations on their homepage and he ‘lives’ a separate life on Twitter and Facebook. And yet, he is still somewhere in between. It’s difficult to say whether it’s because of the company’s brand building or because of the fact that,despite his cuteness, he is still just an inanimate robot.

Sportlyzer has tried to go even further with its avatar, Mike Lyzer.

The virtual coach avatar, Mike Lyzer, is a key element of Sportlyzer’s UI therefore an attempt to make the avatar as ‘live’ as possible has been made. Mike, like Roger MozBot,communicates on Twitter and Facebook but, in addition, he also has a primary role on Sportlyzer. He acts as a coach on the website and gives practical advice to users. Mike’s avatar was chosen via a competition on 99 Designs. Applicants were given three emotions and they had to create a virtual coach from whom people would like to receive advice. You can see the development of Coach Mike Lyzer and some examples of the winning designs in action here.

The last two examples seem to be taking it one step further, and yet we still haven’t seen many examples like this – most of the mascots are rather like MailChimp’s monkey or Silverback’s gorilla. Is there a good reason as to why sites are choosing this path? Is it simply because different mascots and avatars serve different purposes or have SEOmoz and Sportlyzer really gone a few steps further in mascot development? If so, then what’s next?

If you’re a small business owner, your website is a pivotal part of your marketing and branding, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s integral to not just focus on appearance – but usability – as this will play a major role in how long your customers stay around.

In this article I will address the areas that factor into whether a small business website is ultimately successful or not.  Pay careful attention to these areas in your next design for a small business, as they will reap benefits for your clients in the long run.

Articulate Your Mission

In today’s society buzz words are a thing of the past. Freely express your vision for your business with the world on your website. You can start by asking yourself (or your client) these three questions:

1. Who are you?
2. Who are your potential customers?
3. How can you tell your potential customers who you are?

After answering these three questions your can begin to develop a creative strategy for your website that will ultimately make it more effective. These questions hold the key to making marketing decisions, branding your business, building fierce loyalty within your customer base, and a lot more.

You’ll find mission statements for some well-known companies here.

Keep these tips in mind in creating copy for your site:

• Employing overly sophisticated language or industry-specific jargon could confuse, isolate, and frustrate clients. Use words you would use when speaking to someone in person.
• Read your marketing material to a child in late elementary or middle school. Do they understand your product? If not, what did you need to tell them before they did?

A Call to Action

You’ve spent hours upon hours designing a beautiful website for your clients, complete with custom illustrations and a flashy new slideshow, but your client isn’t getting any new business. A fundamental error of many small business websites is they fail to include a clear Call to Action. If you aren’t leading users to commit to an action (buy a product, contact you or subscribe, for example), then you are losing them.

You may have spent a lot of time driving traffic to your client’s website, ultimately to only have these customers not convert into new business. If a call to action is a small link buried in a sea of text, it’s easy to see how these customers got away. To achieve a business’ goals, creating a successful call to action to guide users where they need to be should be at the forefront of your web design check list.

The call to action button above is placed in a prominent location; it’s large and has a distinctive color with respect to surrounding elements. To provide additional context on what it means to “Purchase the book”, the call to action button is followed by text explaining cost and available format (traditional book or PDF).

Keep the following in mind when creating the right call to action:

• The design of a call to action can be broken down into 4 simple elements —size, shape, color, and position. Each plays a vital part in determining how effective the call to action is in directing the user.
• Don’t overdo it with multiple call to actions on each page.
• Provide access to the call to action quickly. Your visitor is most interested in accessing this information as quickly as possible so don’t create any unnecessary hurdles!

Content

We all love a beautiful website, but when that website loads slowly or gets in the way of accessing pertinent information, it’s time for some restructuring. It’s important to address what is the ultimate goal you wish your visitor to achieve in visiting your site. Your site should ultimately draw focus to the content, and all those bells and whistles are just icing on the cake.

Most people won’t read everything on your page, so it’s critical to decide the most important content that needs to be there. This can be achieved through a visual hierarchy that guides the user through the page and creates a more enjoyable user experience.

Here’s an article on Eye Tracking to give you a better idea of how to structure content.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when structuring your content:

• White space is necessary. Giving your content room to breathe allows the user to focus on the most important aspects on any given page.
• Break up lengthy blocks of text into digestible blocks. Heading, sub-headings, bullets, blockquotes, and paragraphs are all necessary components of a well-structured website.
• For every flash animation or widget on your web site, your site’s loading time will increase while your screen real estate decreases.
• Challenge every item on each page and ask, “Does it really need to be there? Does it serve a specific purpose? Can I live without it?”
• Crisp layouts, cohesive colors, and well thought-out design elements give off a sense of know-how and experience.
  

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should also be addressed in your overall website strategy. Quality content with legitimate mentions of key words and topics related to your business will help to bring more business your way. What’s best is results are now consisted of all kinds of content, including videos, images, maps, business listings, tweets and even Facebook Page posts.

• Add a Blog. Search engines love fresh content and if your client updates it regularly, they will experience a distinct SEO advantage. The interactivity also increases the likelihood that potential customers will social bookmark it and share it with their network.
• Consider creating a YouTube channel. Every video you post to your channel can be tagged and indexed, increasing the odds your brand name will appear in natural searches for keywords associated with your business.
• Remember to add footer links to every page, use meta description tags, and make each page unique.

Examples

Mailchimp
MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. In addition to a user-friendly navigation, a prominent call to action button is displayed, encouraging users to get started.

Craft Coffee
Craft Coffee is a coffee discovery service that explains the value it brings to customers as soon as they enter the website. After highlighting their services, they direct users to “Buy a Tasting Box” with one of their highly visible call to action buttons.

Your Web Job
Your Web Job is a hub for job-seeking web professionals — project managers, copywriters, SEO experts, usability folk, social media gurus, and designers and developers — and for those who want to hire them. A call to action button is placed right at the top of the page, encouraging visitors to submit jobs right away.

These simple procedures in web design are just stepping stones on your way to creating a memorable website for your business. These are just a few rules, have you found any others in creating small business websites for your clients?

How do you know what to charge? Hourly or flat rate? What are the market prices? Once you find the answers to these questions, many things will begin to fall into place. I have noticed, however, there are two HUGE myths floating around the design business in regards to setting prices. The two myths are essentially the same, just with two different view points and arguments. What are they you ask?

The designer that prices cheaply says:

“Making my prices so low will attract more customers! And in turn I’ll be making a ton of money!”

Promotion and Strategy Get Customers

This one is super easy to fall into, especially for the newbies. The biggest issue with this viewpoint is the idea of attracting more customers. First, getting customers depends on your marketing and promotional strategy. You may have affordable prices, but if no one knows about them, no one is coming to see you. Make sure you have an all around solid strategy to get and keep customers interested in you.

Take advantage of the many social networks online as well as blogs to keep your name in the search engines. Buy some advertising and create great work so potential customers will come straight to you. Using pricing as your primary marketing strategy is very hit and miss. You MUST be cautious of setting your prices cheap in order to get people in the door (for example, an introductory price). Sometimes when you do this and then try to increase your prices, you leave your customers wanting that cheaper price you started with and you can sometimes dig an unprofitable hole for yourself. Clients can get extremely irritated and you may gain the perception of being ‘sketchy’. If this is your strategy, make it known that prices may increase, and to what they will increase to. You don’t want your clients thinking you’re out to get them!

You Attract What You Are

Second, when your prices are cheap, you generally attract cheap people. And in what I’ve seen, you can attract people so cheap, your cheap prices are too high for them. Not only that, you attract people who have cheaper morals (such as not paying on time, never paying, squeezing the most out of you) and I’m not sure they are worth all that hassle. Dealing with a cheap client can be a total and complete waste of time as well as a big ball of stress and frustration. While (I believe) there is no such thing as the perfect client, the last thing you want in this business is the penny-pinching client.

Affordable vs. Cheap

Your time and dedication is worth more than the pennies you may be charging. Your niche may be affordable graphic design, but affordable (a $250 logo) and cheap (a $50 logo) are two different things! Do your market research and figure out what is best and what is not because in the end, pricing cheaply really ends up going down hill.

The designer that does not price cheaply says:

“Those other designers are so low, they are ruining the market! How will I keep my customers?”

Pay Attention to Your Client Base

To this designer, I want to be clear: mind your own business. The point here is that you are serving a completely different clientele than the cheaper designer; one of which has little to no issue with spending money and another that does. What kind of sense does it make to get all up in arms about what some other designer is doing?

The issue is that many believe the cheaper designers are ruining the market and making it harder to charge so much, but the truth is there are people out there who don’t mind paying the prices. Especially if it translates into quality that is reliable, dependable and consistent. Perhaps you may have to add some more services, like a free consultation or increase the amount of revisions, but don’t fall into the pricing war. Far too many huge companies start off with higher prices and try to lower their prices and they end up tanking. The little guy will always win because he may have a plan to keep up with his prices–you don’t. That’s not your competition and you don’t have to keep up with the cheaper designer. Look into what your peers are doing and try to compete with that.

Customer Service is Key

Keeping your customers is a service issue. I worked for a high-end fashion retailer a while ago and the truth is the stuff we sold and the stuff lower-end competitors sold was pretty much the same. And it wasn’t a secret–many customers knew there wasn’t a huge difference but when you talked to them and asked them why they return and why they purchase from us, it was always because they liked our customer service and the extended warranties and they didn’t mind paying for quality (as a combination of product and service).

Avoid it All: Communicate!

Whether you are the lower priced designer or the higher priced designer, when you get a customer, make sure they know and understand what they are (and are not) paying for. I use a flat-rate, base price system, and when I start to up-sell and add-on services, I make sure I spell it out on my invoices and to the customer. We have to remember that most of our customers are not designers and don’t realistically understand the work we do, so we have to spell it out. And once you start communicating WHY your prices are what they are versus WHAT your prices are, you should have an easier time getting and keeping customers. Try not to fall into either of these myths by focusing on creating GREAT work and providing EXCELLENT customer service–no matter the price!

Having trouble thinking of prices?

Try some of the calculators and guides below. They can help you find decent going rates for your line of work.

Web Design Cost Calculator

FreelanceSwitch Hourly Rate Calculator

HOW Design – Hourly Rates

Pay Me Please: A Freelance Web Designer’s Guide to Billing and Pricing

How Much to Charge for Design Work?

1. Take Your Own Pictures

Chances are, if you’re using a stock site (especially a free one), you aren’t the only one who has used that particular stock picture. While designers may have their own style, there’s something a bit unsettling about finding two different designs using the same stock photos. If you have the capability, go out there and take your own pictures. Digital cameras nowadays are becoming more and more affordable with better technology. This really allows you a chance to be unique by not just using original pictures, but your shooting technique may be something worth watching out for. A bonus for taking these pictures is the ability to offer something new to the design world. This can help contribute to your popularity by submitting your photos to stock photo websites and popular design blogs.

2. Use Your Scanner

I’ve seen many designers (including myself), who use this technique: when you are almost finished with a design and it still needs that ‘umph’, whip out some printer paper and draw some stuff on it, whether it be characters or scribble lines. Fire up your scanner and scan in it into your project. You can doctor up your image a bit by using your filters or by live tracing it in Illustrator. Either way, you get something that is entirely from you and represents your artistic side. Don’t just stop at drawing things either, scan in different textures or items. If it can fit, try scanning it! You never know what kind of effect or look running it through the scanner gives. Using this technique can give a design a very individualistic feel, whether you can draw or not!

3. Edit Your Fonts

Don’t get me wrong. There are a ton of great fonts out there, some of which are free. Font designers are also pretty consistent in releasing fonts, so there’s a lot to choose from. However, the truth is, when the design world finds a good font, we kind of latch onto it and it spreads like wildfire. Everyone uses it. In an attempt to change the monotony of typography, why not edit your fonts so the look may change a bit. Whether you decide to just change your tracking or leading or adding or subtracting something, make it your own. And what happens when you can’t find that PERFECT font? Make your own! You don’t have to create a whole type set, but oftentimes, when I feel stuck looking for that perfect typeface, I’ll just grab my pen tool and make my own font.

4. Use Other Design Programs

It’s pretty popular to use  Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator in the design world, and while are industry standard, you may not be able to do everything in them or at least get the look you are going for. Do some research and look for programs that are specific to the types of techniques you’d like to incorporate in your designs. Try pairing your designs with different programs such as Cinema4D or any other design programs. You have the potential to make really complex yet stunning designs people can’t try to copy by using just Photoshop. The outcome could be greatness!

5. Make Your Own Patterns

There are plenty of tutorials on how to create your own patterns, so why not make your own? If I am looking for some uniqueness, I will quickly and easily make my own patterns. Making your own patterns works the same way as snapping your own photos does. There are tons of patterns online and pattern designers (like myself) release designs almost constantly. Once one gets really popular, though, it becomes the new standard quickly. Creating your own can not only give you a sense of uniqueness, but if the pattern is really good and useful, why not release it and give variations of it to the world? Whether you decide to share or not, if you just use some creativity, you can come up with some crazy beautiful patterns no one has ever seen (or thought of) before.

6. Break the Rules a Little Bit

In the design world, there can be a lot of different rules about where to put what and how to make whatever. There are different styles that you can design within that may or may not have more rules than another. Break the rules a bit and create something you wouldn’t normally see. Blend different styles and forms and come up with designs that need their own category. Breaking the rules is really about being a trendsetter and creating a bit that people wouldn’t normally consider. Don’t go too nuts or try to reinvent the wheel, but use subtle differences that could mean the difference between one style and another. Taking the time to cultivate this technique could really end up being a part of your signature style.

7. Use Filters Subtly

This one is particularly for the newbies; when you get into your design program (we’ll use Photoshop as the example), it’s easy to want to use the filters and use them heavily. The result can sometimes end up being a very cheesy look, but I say use your filters subtly and see what you can come up with. Sometimes when using your distort filters and artistic filters lightly, you can end up with some really nice sophisticated looks. Some of those ‘cheesy’ filters when used lightly can create a pretty neat look!

This is just a short list, but the idea here is to just be as creative as possible! And as technology increases, try to incorporate as much as possible into your designs. If you are really working on trying to create your new style, try going into your design program and not use a thing that doesn’t belong to you. Create your own patterns and your own brushes and fonts. Don’t rely heavily on design resource aggregate sites to take your work to the next level. After all, that is someone else’s work which are just trying to pass off as yours. Do your own thing. No holds barred!

Do you have any tips and tricks that have taken your work from cookie cutter to standout?

How to Create a Memorable Headline/Tagline

• Choose a headline that summarizes what your website is about. Keep in mind it should incorporate your brand or at least be harmonious to what your brand is about.
• A tagline is your slogan and should speak directly to your audience and customer base. It’s not meant to be changed as frequently as a headline and is meant to be repeated over and over throughout advertising, websites, and even corporate stationary.
• Pick a headline and tagline that are catchy and  interesting and will compel your visitors to keep reading.
• Keep the headline short – no more than eight words. Most visitors will scan the first few words before deciding to move on. If your headline/tagline combination is short but summarizes your content, visitors will be more likely to read on.

Some Memorable Taglines

Some instantly recognizable taglines include:

Apple: Think different.

Dunkin Donuts: America runs on Dunkin.

General Electric: We bring good things to life.

Nike: Just do it.

Subway: Eat Fresh.

Wheaties: The breakfast of champions.

If your brand is very well-known, sometimes the tagline can function as a headline as well.

Examples

In the following examples inspect how copy is used to convey a memorable brand experience. Through the use of type, color, and composition the designers have given visitors a glimpse of their brand and accompanying services. Hopefully through this careful emphasis on compelling copy the visitors stuck around. Do you feel these websites cut through the clutter?

1. Dropr

Hand drawn type is used effectively on the Dropr website – something not usually seen on a technology-based service.

2. Ryan & Sofia

This couple manages to use a compelling typewriter font in their pursuit to collect donations for their wedding held in Greece.

3. Just Dot

Typography is given real-life characteristics on a chalkboard, further exemplifying the concept behind the Just Dot brand.

4. DBA Products

A play on words is used in this website for a company that sells pens – allowing the customer to consider just what they’re purchasing before they make the decision.

5. Row to the Pole

This illustrative website is juxtaposed by strong, bold typography that is soliciting new members to their team.

6. Comwerks Interactive

A fun illustration and accompanying headline relay to the visitor a compelling experience from this design studio.

7. Denise Chandler

Larger than life typography is intertwined with sea life to give the visitor an image of what this designer is capable of.

8 . Wak Waw

Typography on this website is used to both allude to the logo and appeal to the demographic in which the studio serves.

9. Forever Heavy

Clean, straightforward typography here is treated as if it were on a beer label, which gives us a glimpse into the designer’s personality.

10. Bright Bulb Studio

The headline for Bright Bulb Studio personifies the era this website is targeted to.

11. Iceberg Quest

Bold typography is interplayed by an illustrative background, alluding to what’s in store for the potential tourist.

12. Solid Giant

Bold, clean typography gives the user a glimpse of what this design studio has to offer.

13. Kunalchhajer

Through the use of both the designers illustration/self-portrait and headline, the visitor is given some genuine insight into the creator’s personality.

14. Sprout Fund

A botanical illustration is set off nicely by clean, sans-serif typography which encourages the visitor to support biodiversity.

15. Pointy Design

Simple, straightforward typography engages the viewer on this website for web design studio located in Kawarthas.

16. Hey Indy

Typography is used to encourage the visitor to enact and download this animators reel.

17. Tea Round

A catchy one-liner is used here to give you a glimpse inside the Tea Round brand and their iPhone app.

18. Jeroen Homan

Bold, slab type catches the viewer’s attention on this website for a web designer/front-end developer.

19. Carsonified

The headline used on the Carsonified website gives you a glimpse into the companies values and practices.

20. Jar Design

A fun, straightforward speech-bubble catches your attention and provokes you to what to understand more about this design studio.

21.Ben Darby

The headline for the U.K. based designer Ben Darby uses simple text to note his location and hobbies.

22.Ryan Keiser

The website for Ryan Keiser emphasizes his services through the use of bold, large-scale typography.

23. Auxilium Lab

Novelty type that pays homage to the companies heritage is used beautifully on this website for Auxilium Lab, a creative development and web design studio.

24. Don’t Let Yourself

Stylized type is used to reach the demographic this website is aimed towards in hopes they’ll respond to this serious message and educate themselves.

25. Mario Bonilla

Mario Bonilla uses a food analogy to entice visitors of his website to explore more.

26. J Dawgs

A play on words for this hot dog shop alludes to the tasty food it offers.

27. Farrkling

Bold, comic type is used to catch the visitor’s attention and explain the significance of their brand.

28. Webeffectual

Through the use of bold sans-serif and script typography, we get the impression right away what this web designer specializes in.

29. Creative Payne

Creative Payne uses a mixture of typographic styles to tell visitors who they are, where they’re from, and what services they offer.

30. Vince Angeloni

The website for this designer, Vince Angeloni, uses a call-out treatment similar to a flyer to encourage the visitor to pursue his services.

The use of clever and effective design is necessary in setting your brand apart from the rest. Through the use of clear and powerful copy, these websites are meant to catch your attention and captivate an audience. What are some unique visual or written tactics you use to make your website stand out? Share your opinions below!

Did you help someone out? You just established yourself as a helpful person and that adds to your brand. Do you complain a lot? You’ll become known as a whiner. Are you the go to guy in your field of work? That’ll add to your brand too.

With every personal and professional interaction, you’re subconsciously branding yourself or your business for your customers.  Social media is now considered one of the most important outlets of establishing a brand. If you aren’t utilizing the power of social media, you’re doing your business a disservice. Social media has the power to cement your brand in your audience’s mind. Yada, yada, yada.

Importance of branding

As a freelancer, your brand is the most important aspect of your marketing efforts. It sets you apart from other freelancers in your niche. It helps your clients identify you as someone who’s business values match theirs. It helps you establish an emotional connection with them which, when done right, can turn into loyalty. Imagine having a client who’s so happy with you that he only wants you to handle his work.

A brand isn’t just a symbol or logo. It is an amalgamation of your core values and beliefs. Through branding, your clients know your values, what you believe in, stand for – and what you don’t. Your brand tells your consumers why you’re different and better than your competitors.

Get your branding right and you won’t have to prove your mettle to your client’s time and again. Your brand will tell them for you.

Personal vs. Professional Brand

Your brand could be anything that your customers and target audience identify you with. It could be your name, a symbol, your company logo or tagline  – anything that is your identification mark.

At its most basic level, branding is divided into two types: personal and professional. A personal brand is one where the name of the individual is more recognized. A professional brand is about a company and can represent more than one person or even just one as is the case in most freelancing businesses.

Freelancers often have a tough time figuring out whether they need to establish a personal brand focused around their name or a professional one based around their freelancing business. Both have their pros and cons.

If you’re a one man show whose name carries more recognition than your company, then a personal brand is the best option. It’s easy to recognize, people relate to it more easily and trust it more. On the other hand, a personal brand is vulnerable as there’s no off time where you can shut off and not be scrutinized. Because your name is your brand, anything online that has your name on it gets attached to your brand even if you don’t want it to.

A professional brand is the right choice if your company is the face of your business. For example, you may be a team of freelancers working as a business. Depending on your goals, you can either all use the company logo as an image or create separate accounts for your business. This way, more than one person is the face of the brand and this is also where it gets complicated.

It also means that there’s no one point of contact and the action of one reflects on the business and it’s partners and has the potential to ruin your reputation should something go wrong.

Using Social Media to Establish your Brand

One of the easiest ways to establish your brand these days is through social media. It doesn’t cost anything and has the potential to reach thousands. It’s also the most treacherous way to establish your brand. One wrong step and you could ruin your reputation and damage your brand. But do it right and you’ll be reaping the rewards.

Decide which Social Media Networks to Use

The biggest pro and con of using social media to establish your brand is the sheer number of services available out there. In order to effectively brand yourself, decide on three that are most relevant to your business.

For freelancers (and most other businesses), the top three social media networks are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The interesting thing about these three is that they all have different vibes and uses.

Facebook is the ultimate social network. You can create a group, start a page and even use your own profile to connect with your existing and prospective clients. People can join your group, like your page or add you as a friend to start interacting with you.

Twitter is more like the office water cooler. People hang out there to share things, make connections, network and generally have fun. The action and reaction time on twitter is in real-time. Tweet something and you’ll start getting replies from your followers immediately.

LinkedIn is more formal and aimed at professional networking. It is where you put your business foot forward. If you’re looking to make some serious connections, then LinkedIn is the place to be.

The one common thread between these three networks (apart from them being social networks) is that they can be effectively used to establish your brand.

Establishing your Brand Online

The first step of establishing your brand is to stay consistent with the information you display on these networks.

Display identical information on all of them. If your profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all display different information then your brand will become known for its inconsistency.

Social networks ask for the same information no matter where you’re signing up. Instead of having different information on them, it’s simply easier to use the same on every network. Not only will it save you the headache of thinking up a new ‘About me/us’ section of the profile, people will recognize you regardless of which network they run into you.

To stay consistent, pay attention to your:

Profile Picture

Your profile picture is the visual representation of your brand. If you have a personal brand then using your own picture is the best option. If you have a professional brand then you may use your company logo.

To make sure that the same picture is displayed on the website even outside of your social networks, use a service like Gravatar. It uses your email address to recognize who you are and display the picture you’ve linked to that email address.

If you use multiple emails, they can all be linked to your Gravatar account. The best thing about it is that you only have to do it once. Then you can leave a comment on any website or blog and you’ll be showing the same image as you use on your social media networks.

Profile Page

When setting up your profile, make sure your bio is the same across all networks. Facebook and LinkedIn give more space for everything in the profile section. Use it to go in detail of your business.

Twitter though just gives you a few characters. Create a short version of your profile that still lets people know that it’s you.

Link to the same website and blog in your profile and the same with interests, location etc.

Tagline

Your tagline should be present in the about section of your social network profiles. It’s the second thing visitors look for in your profile after the image.

A tagline tells you what your business, website or blog is about and how it is relevant to your audience. It’s your online elevator speech.

Contact Information

Contact information is another way to keep your brand consistent. Include the information on every social media profile, your website, blog and even communication programs like Skype.

Your email signature is another great tool to help introduce and establish your brand. Your name, occupation/designation, tagline and contact information should all be listed in the email signature along with the image you use in your social media networks. This way, if you’re contacting someone from your networks, they’ll know who you are and vice versa.

Doing the legwork to establish your brand through social media isn’t hard. It just takes time in the beginning but once everything is set up, it pretty much automates itself.

Make these changes to your social network profiles today and then all you need to focus on is your online behavior and interaction with target audience.

Blogs have changed the whole scene of marketing, creating millions of opportunities to all people, and to both small and large businesses. I personally have several blogs for many reasons–personal and business uses to name a few. Why shouldn’t we graphic designers bite a piece of that huge pie, too?

The Boons of Blogging

Why blog? The question you should ask is–why not blog? Blogging offers everyone the following advantages, plus more:

1. Establishes relationships and builds community

Blogs provide opportunities to talk to an audience, to build rapport to your clients and to share your knowledge and expertise to the same people in the industry. As a blogger myself, I have met several people in the industry including fellow graphic designers, journalists, creative hobbyists, professors, and more. I have learned many from them–like seeing graphic design in different eyes. Through blogging, you can cultivate your brand and grow as a graphic designer by learning from other fellow artists and designers. With blogging, you learn the art of networking–ultimately integral for you and your blog’s success.

2. Lower costs for marketing

Most people can start blogging for free or come at a low cost. There’s WordPress and Blogspot. It is the most cost effective way to achieve a strong and constant online presence. It’s a fast way to advertise yourself, to show your graphic design works, without the need to learn web HTML or CSS. It is an inexpensive way to get your name out on the World Wide Web.

3. Blogging as a Powerful Differentiation Tool

Blogging can help you get ahead from the pack. It’s a strong differentiation tool to set you apart from competitors. What do you have that your competitors don’t? Capitalize on your expertise, your strengths. Show them that you’re the only one who can provide them the solutions to their needs.

Blogging for Promotions and Branding

How can blogging forward your own personal or business goals? Blogging was created to sell the person, and not to sell a product, service, or ad space. You can gain a strong and steady customer base through effective blogging. You must, however, work hard to first establish the following:

1. Trust

Trust must be the very foundation for every blog. Most readers go back to seek services from designers they trust. I always treat my clients as someone I should help, not as someone I should sell to. I see myself more as a counselor to help answer the problems of my clients, rather than a businessman. In the world of blogging, a successful blogger is seen as close and trusted ‘friend’, not as a hard salesman.

2. Expertise

Establish yourself as the expert or the go-to person for a particular niche. This is easier said then done–you can’t be called an expert until you earn the name. Provide unique insight and information, and make sure the knowledge you share is not found anywhere else online.

3. Quality and Quantity in Content

Just like the previous point, provide content that is high in both quality and quantity. Some blogs are abstract, and do not offer a practical, everyday use to the readers. I try to be as generous as I can and share all that I know. In today’s world, there’s no longer such a thing as “insider’s secrets”–everything is an open book and the person who shares it first is king.

4. Consistency

Be consistent with your blogging technique. Avoid posting random blogs for the sake that they may be interesting. Maintain focus to be able to establish a relationship with your readers over time. Update at a consistent rate (once a day, once a week, etc.) so they can expect new information from you at a specified time.

5. Showing your Personal Self

Readers respond positively to bloggers who show a bit of a personal self. They feel a connection when they feel like talking to a person one on one, as if they are conversing to a real human and not just a computer. You don’t have to state your life story, but injecting a bit of humor or add a photo and short description of yourself. Personally, I try to relate the topic I am writing about to your own similar experience. It is a good way for readers to feel more comfortable with you.

Introduction to Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a way for bloggers to connect with fellow bloggers within the blogosphere. Guest blogging offers a win-win situation for all parties: it helps build relationships, grow your audience, increase traffic to your blog, and grow and learn from fellow bloggers. This is enough reason to start guest blogging more!

There are two ways for you to guest blog. One is by guest blogging via your own blog. A guest blogger will guest post for you voluntarily or upon request. Talk to a blogger or designer that you like and ask them to guest blog for you. Another is by guest blogging to someone else’s blog. You can publish a guest post for them, and you can ask their own guest blog contribution in return.

How can guest blogging possibly promote your blog? Simply, guest blogging is the best way to introduce yourself to the world of blogging. This is helpful especially if you are a newbie at blogging. Submit guest posts to other designer’s blogs to gain steady traffic into your site. When you are visible to other people’s blogs, you are increasing your online exposure, and thus, increasing your ‘sellability’.

Blogging is easy, cost effective, and far reaching. It’s a great vehicle to share information, and to showcase your works. In today’s world, it’s impossible to succeed without help from others–and blogging is the best place in the Internet to create establish camaraderie.