I have also been a victim of a situation like this and as professionals we need constant training and tools to stay ahead of the competition, and what this only means is that we need more money to keep ourselves afloat. This kind of situation is very unique and it isn’t a result of lack of skills or lack of clients, but it is simply because we can’t get more done.

If you’ve been experiencing problems with making more money as a designer due to lack of time then you simply need to learn how to get things done in less than half the time it takes without having to sacrifice quality for speed.

Having the right productivity tips and making effective use of them can make a whole lot of difference in how fast you succeed as a freelancer and it can mean the difference in you making four figures in a month or you making five figures in a month. Below are some of the tips that have helped double my productivity and thus increased my income over the months.

Work in Batches

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I’ve been in situations where I have high hopes about what to do in a particular day but as a result of one big project I keep on postponing the smaller projects and at the end of the day I discover I’m unable to work on both the small and big project for that day.

One trick I recently discovered that has been working for me lately is to get all my work done in batches. I classify the kind of work I do with various clients and I identify the ones that are pretty easy to work on and the ones that take the most of my time – I group all my tasks based on how long it takes to complete a task and I dedicate a day to a group of tasks. The result is that I find it easier to get things done because whenever I start working on the simpler tasks I become pretty confident about what I’m doing and I also won’t be distracted by the bigger tasks and whenever I embark on the bigger tasks I find it pretty easy to focus on completing them because I believe I have enough time dedicated to it.

Working in batches ensures you don’t just work on any random project but that you’re able to work on a task based on its simplicity and that when you’re working on a bigger task you do it with great commitment – this will help you prevent the unexpected, make it more difficult for you to procrastinate and thus make it easy for you to get more done.

Complete First, Revise Later

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Perfectionism can be a great problem if you’re involved in any kind of creative work, especially if you’re a freelancer.

We all know that the better the quality of our work for a particular client the more likely they will rehire us and the higher the chances of them referring someone else to us, and as a result we try our best to make all the work we do the best, even if it means sacrificing our productivity.

Trying to be a perfectionist poses great danger to your work so instead of obsessing over each font you use whenever you design the first letter of a particular logo why not focus on completing the task first before revising it? The reality is that nothing will ever be perfect so don’t focus on producing the perfect design. Instead focus on giving your best to your client.

Whenever you take on a new project try to outline how you will go about it, design the whole project and then come back to make your changes by doing a revision after the project is complete – trying to examine every letter and font to make sure it is perfect as you’re working on a design won’t help you at all, it makes you less productive and results in a decrease in income for you.

Time Yourself

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If only we could notice how much time we waste on small insignificant things every day we would see the main reason we’re not being productive. A lot of us try to work on a particular project while at the same time surfing the web, and as a result we keep on checking our email and social media accounts every once in a while – if only we could notice how much time this is costing us!

You can increase your productivity as a freelance designer by timing each project you do – if you give yourself 40 minutes to complete a particular project make sure you don’t do anything else before that project is completed.

Another thing about timing ourselves is that it helps us become more focused. Once we are conscious of the fact that we need to complete a project in the next 40 minutes it becomes very easy for us to focus on it till it is out of the way.

Don’t Take All Jobs

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One thing about being a freelancer is that you will start getting a lot of offers, especially if you know your stuff. Some offers will be highly lucrative but out of your scope and some offers will be what you find fun to do but the prices irritating. The best thing to do in a situation like this is to make sure you don’t just take any offer but the ones that will be best for you.

If you discover that you’re not that good at working on a particular type of design and that it will end up taking the most of your time the best thing to do is to avoid the job, no matter how lucrative it is. You should also do your best to ensure you avoid low paying jobs – they will only leave a stain on your career and make it difficult for you to get other jobs.

The less jobs you take the easier it becomes for you to identify and focus on what really works for you and the more likely you are to get paid for it.

Break Down that Big Project

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There are situations where I get projects that I believe are too big to start working on and at the end I keep on postponing starting to work on them. As a result I discover that even after a month’s time I’m yet to touch that project.

That project that seems like a mountain really isn’t that big, and you might not realize that until you get started with it. Instead of procrastinating over a particular project because you think it is too big why not focus on breaking it down into smaller tasks?

If a project will take you three days of hard work to complete why not try to break it down into hours of work a day and days of work a week? That might take you longer than three days to complete but on the long run you will see that it is better than postponing the project for a few more weeks before you get started with it.

Procrastination is the worst thing that can happen to a freelancer and we have more time than we often think we have. Make it easy to complete big projects by breaking them into smaller projects.

Always Do Your Best to Avoid Deadlines

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Some of us are used to not starting a project until we have less than a few hours to get it done. This can be really dangerous to our career so it’s important to work hard on eliminating it as soon as we get the chance.

I’m someone used to the idea of working on a particular project only when the deadline is near but in a particular month I decided to start working on a project in the beginning of the month. I only worked on my projects for the first few weeks and I got sick towards the middle of the month. I was unable to work for two whole weeks but at the end of that particular month I noticed I made more in that month than in some other months I was fully active.

The best solution sometimes is to start working on a project as soon as you get it. Don’t wait for a few more days, don’t wait for a few more weeks but start immediately! You will be amazed at how much spending a few minutes or hours on that project consistently can help you achieve.

Another reason why you should avoid deadlines is that as a designer you need ideas to thrive and deadlines only create nervousness which makes it easy for you to get ideas but when you focus on working on projects earlier on when you’re at peace you will find it extremely easy to get ideas and thus progress at whatever you do.

Have the Right Tools

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Why spend ten hours trying to achieve a particular goal using a cheap tool when a better tool can help you achieve the same goal in ten minutes?

The reality is that time is money, and you need to realize that to move forward. It might cost you money to get better tools but it will save you time in the long run, and that time can be better spent improving your skills or making some more money.

If you have the right set of tools you can easily reduce a two hour job to ten minutes and you can easily reduce a two day job to a few hours. That will only leave you with more time to work and will thus create an opportunity for more potential income for you.

Online generators can be extremely handy for creating small details or saving time writing code. Whether it’s a striped background, a pattern or an advanced CSS3 text effect, online generators can surely make your workflow go smoother. This post presents 45 of the best and latest online generators for designers and developers. The emphasis has been put on CSS3 generators since CSS3 is quickly becoming the new progressive web standard.

Backgrounds & Patterns

1. BGMaker

BGMaker allows you to create solid line patterns which are then exported as transparent PNGs. Don’t be fooled, however. If you checked out the gallery, you’d see the true power of this lite generator.

2. BGPatterns

BgPatterns is a tiny web app for making background patterns in a few clicks. It was created mostly for fun and experimentation by Sergii Iavorskyi.
Feedback is welcome.

3. PatternCooler

With PatternCooler you can add your own colors to 100s of cool free pattern designs, or browse from 10 000s of colored patterns using a seamless pattern background editor.

4. TartanMaker

Tartan Maker is a new trendsetting application for cool designers created by Alex ‘Pit’ La Rosa & Fabio Fidanza. You can easily create tartans with up to 10 bands and then export them as PNGs.

5. StripeGenerator

With Stripe Generator you can unleash your personal style, experiment and download the tile. You can use it directly in your CSS file or as pattern in Photoshop.

6. StripeMania

Stripemania is a simple and free web tool to create seamless diagonal stripes for your designs. You are able to choose the size of the stripes and the spacing between those. You can even add color gradient effect for all of your stripes.

7. StripedBackgrounds

StripedBackgrounds generates a 5 column striped background with your chosen colors and resolution.

8. Dotter

Dotter allows you to easily create stylish dotted background with either one or two colors.

9. secretGeek’s GradientMaker

This gradient maker by secretGeek allows you to create horizontal or vertical gradient backgrounds with two colors.

10. ColourLovers Seamless Studio

Seamless Studio makes it easy to design a seamless pattern. With simple editing tools you can resize, rotate and add shapes, lines and text to the canvas and it tiles automatically. Save your pattern template and see how the world colors it in.

11. Background Generator

Background Generator provides the ability to edit the background of any website in real-time. It allows you to create fancy web 3.0 backgrounds without getting dirty with Photoshop and other image editing software. The project includes a collection of textures which are combined with custom linear-gradients and colors to create a wide assortment of themes.

12. Patternify

Patternify is an app that lets you create simple pixel patterns and export them either as PNG or as base64 code. The awesome part is that you can embed the base64 code straight in your CSS code! You don’t even need to use an image file anymore.

Color Palettes

1. Kuler

Kuler by Adobe is a web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you’re creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler.

2. Color Palette Generator

With Color Palette Generator you can generate a color palette based on an image. You can upload your own image or choose from other user submitted ones.

3. Color Scheme Designer

Color Scheme Designer allows you to create various color schemes and export them as HTML/CSS, ACO for Photoshop and many more.

4. Copaso

COPASO from ColourLovers is an advanced color palette tool that helps you create the perfect color palette.

5. Pictaculous

Pictaculous helps you to decide which colors suit best with a particular image. Just upload an image and it will generate a color palette from it. You can also download Adobe Swatch File (ACO).

6. Colormunki

Colormunki allows you to generate color palettes from advanced color libraries, images and browse other user palettes.

Buttons

1. RoundedCornr

With RoundedCornr you can generate HTML/CSS code and images for rounded corners. There are four options to choose from.

2. Tabs Generator

Tabs generator allows you to create tab styled buttons online without using any image editing software. Tweak size, colors, corners and more, generate your design, then download and use in your CSS style sheet.

3. Brilliant Button Maker

Brilliant Button Maker is a web interface to create 80×15 buttons. You can also use two images (one on the left and the other on the right side) to decorate the button.

4. Web 2.0 Badges

Web 2.0 Badges is a generator that creates cool web badges. Badges can be used to display a big ‘Beta’ message on your website or emphasize a price or a promotion. No web 2.0 site is complete without one.

5. FreshGenerator

FreshGenerator is a web design tool which can create interesting graphic elements used in many web 2.0 sites. You may use it to create boxes of different styles and colors. In order to make changes to your image later, store the link listed below the image.

6. Favicon

Favicon is a tool that allows you to create favicons either by painting pixels manually or importing an image.

CSS3 Buttons

1. CSS3 Button Generator

With CSS3 Button Generator you can create modern and stylish web buttons that fits today’s web standards.

2. CSS3 Button Maker

CSS3 Button Maker allows you to easily create CSS3 buttons with gradients and shadows. Just adjust the settings until you have a nice looking button, then press the button and it will give you the CSS.

3. CSS3 Button Generator

Generate fancy CSS3 buttons with just few clicks. This generator also provides you with the code for IE styles.

4. CSS Button Generator

CSS Button Generator will create beautiful CSS buttons for you to use on your web pages without the need for any images. When you have styled your button to your liking, simply click on the generated button to get your CSS style code.

5. CSS3 Button Generator

This CSS3 Button Generator is a HTML/CSS/JavaScript/Flash application that generates all of the style properties and speeds up the code writing for CSS3 buttons.

6. CSS Button Generator

With the CSS Button Generator you can instantly make buttons for your website or blog that use your colors, web fonts, and sizes. The CSS button generator uses no images and can say anything you want in any colors or size.

7. CSS3 Button Generator

Easy tool to generate CSS3 buttons with gradients and shadows.

CSS3 Generators

1. CSS3 Generator

CSS3 Generator allows you to play with multiple CSS3 properties to create backgrounds.

2. CSS3 Generator

Simple generator for creating simple single CSS3 properties.

3. CSS3 Please

CSS3, Please! is a Cross-Browser CSS3 rule generator. You can edit the underlined values in this CSS file and when done, copy the whole CSS code.

4. CSS3Warp

CSS3Warp is a proof of concept: create Illustrator like “warped” text (text following an irregular path) with pure CSS and HTML.

5. CSS3 Text Shadow Generator

CSS3 text shadow generator helps you insert beautiful shadow effects to your texts. You can change between different web fonts and explore different shadow effects such as Fire, 3D , acid and more stunning examples.

6. Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator

Ultimate CSS gradient generator is a powerful Photoshop like CSS gradient editor from ColorZilla.

7. CSS3 Gradient Generator

CSS3 Gradient Generator allows you to generate nifty CSS3 gradients with just a few clicks.

8. CSS3 Rounded Corner Generator

CSS3 Rounded Corners Generator generates the necessary CSS3 code to put rounded corners around your content. You can set different radius for the four corners, it is image free.

9. CSS3 Rounded Corner Generator

This generator will help you create the code necessary to use rounded corners (border-radius) on your webpages.

10. Border Radius

Easy tool for creating rounded corners.

11. Border Image Generator

This generator helps you to generate code for border radius properties.

12. CSS3 Multi-columns

Generator for creating multi-column CSS3 layouts.

13. CSS3 Pie

PIE makes Internet Explorer 6-8 capable of rendering several of the most useful CSS3 decoration features.

14. CSS3 Sandbox

With CSS3 Sandbox you can explore CSS3 features and properties.

Have you ever thought that every day, while you are busy doing your work, there are a lot of people doing almost the same thing as you? And they are releasing it. For free.

And sometimes we just forget all this stuff and lose a lot of time doing things that just didn’t need to be done. Someone else has done it for us. Why should you start from scratch if you can get some cool things and just make them better?

So, this is a post with a lot of links, and with my opinion about many of them. In short, we will be talking about:
• Creative photos collections
• Cool Icon packs, Buttons & Menus
• Professional Font faces
• Useful patterns, brushes, backgrounds, textures
• Templates and other miscellaneous elements
• Online generators and other tools

So, let’s rock!

Creative Photo Collections

Actually, most of you always use stock photos in your layouts. Yeah, they are nice, but many of them just don’t get the point across that you want. Don’t get mad, they don’t ruin your work. But they don’t make it brilliant either.

So, usually you have 2 options:

1. Use premium stock photos
2. Take your own photos

I think there is a third option that we almost always forget: Some really artistic and creative photos out there.

We have a lot of photo collections, with photos for specific situations. Think about it, when you are talking about victory, for example, it’s much better to use a real emotional winner photo than a commodity clip art trophy image.

Why they are good: Using in-context funny or emotional images is the easiest way to get your reader’s attention, so you get more time to explain your point.

What you should pay attention to: You must pay attention in copyright notices for images. We can’t steal someone elses image just because it is on the web.

Good Start points:

• Search for: Photo manipulations, Photo manipulation tutorials, [type] photography (“tilt-shift photography”, for example), [type] examples, [type] showcase, [type] collection
• 1StWebDesigner (Photography inspiration) – I think you heard about this blog before, it is amazing, isn’t it?
• From me to you – Jamie’s photography blog, with some amazingly amazing gifs
• Instant Shift (Photo search) – Artistic photo manipulations galleries, like this 80 excellent example of photo manipulation art.
• The design work (tag photos) – Fascinating photo collections, like this panoramic photography gallery
• This Ain’t no Disco - Cool workspaces galleries. As they say “Try not to drool too much”.
• VanderlayDesign (photo search) – Good for design inspiration in general. You should check this cool rain photography collection.
• Web Designer Ledger (photo search) – Really good for inspiration. Check this awesome photography shots to change your mood!
• Flickr (Creative Commons) has always really good photos, and a powerful search engine, that make things even easier.
• TotallyCoolPix, as its name says, is focused on cool photography. This sports pictures collection, for example, is really useful!
• We have also this 10 most inspirational deviantart groups (really good, seriously, you must to check this out).
• Some traditional free / paid stock photo sites like Veer, Public-Domain-Photos, Pixel Perfect Digital, Image After, Design Packs, Free Range Stock, Cepolina, Stock.XCHNG, Morguefile, Toasto and others, are also always a good source.
• Last but not the least, Haznos.org/images (brazilian blog, with google translated version) has a lot of cool collections, like this funny bikes gallery

Cool Icon Packs, Buttons & Menus

Sometimes we need an idea of how could we put those 20 links that the customer wants in a really good-looking menu. Moreover, you have to worry about all the “call to actions” and semiotics stuff for icon and button design.

When you feel like this, it is time to steal someone elses design :D

Why they are good: Depending on the site you use to search, it is possible to find really complete icon packs, with “generic” icons for customization (just the background, for example). Many people may have solved the problem with 30 links in the same menu already.

What you should pay attention: It is worthless to find a really cool icon pack, button or menu that you don’t know how to customize. So, if you get a cool wooden icon pack, but don’t know how to make a “home” icon (maybe it is missing), you can’t use it.

Good Start points:

• Almost every good design blog has an “icon” section, or icon tutorials, they are helpful.
• DryIcons - Free and good icon packs
• HouseOfButtons has the best buttons seen in the web
• Really useful mega buttons pack
• Awesome blurry menu by 1stWebDesigner
• Simple navigation PSD by designdeck
• 10 best icon search engines by savedelete
• 50 high quality and free to use minimalist icon sets by smashingapps
• 47 Clean and High Quality Icon Packs for Designers by onextrapixel
• Simple tabbed navigation in psd by premiumpixels
• Dark navigation in psd by premiumpixels
• Cool Basal icons pack by designkindle
• Clean Social icons by folksnetdesktop
• Fresh icons sets to improve your design by noupe
• Top 10 country flag icon sets by speckyboy
• 20 examples of great navigation by webdesignfan

Professional Font Faces

I have to tell you a secret. I don’t know anything about typography. For real. I know just the basics, that serif and sans-serif stuff, but anything beyond this, don’t count on me.

Everytime I read something about typography I get amazed on how this is a wide field to study. And how we are getting better and better at it.

With all this @font-face stuff, it is almost a crime to not use a really professional font in your headlines (at least) without fear of the monster of cross-browser compatibility.

Why they are good: They give a really professional look to your project and they are easy to use.

What you should pay attention: You should notice copyright restrictions (yeah, not every font is free), and whether or not the font you want has some special characters (it is hard to find, for example, c with cedilla or grave accent, really used in Portuguese).

Good Start points:

• We have a lot of free font download sites, like dafont, 1001 free fonts, acidfonts, urbanfonts, fontstock and much more, just google it :D .
• Abduzeedo’s friday fresh free fonts series – 99 episodes in this series, so you have a lot of fonts to try.
• Design instruct (Jacob gube’s posts) – I don’t know where he finds those fonts, but they are just amazing.
• HongKiat (fonts search) – Some really good collections!
• 1StWebDesigner awesome minimal fonts collection and professional fonts collection.
• WebDesignerLedger (fonts search) – Some good ones, like this 11 fonts collection.
• Massive collection of elegant thin fonts and 30 of the best font foundries by webdesignerdepot
• 25 popular websites to download free fonts by djdesignerlab
• 40 beautiful free fonts for creating attractive typography headlines, 30 free fonts which are perfect for professional logo designs and 30 top best free fonts from 2010 by creativenerds
• 15 free high quality fonts for minimal designs by slicescript
• 25 free fonts perfect for fontface revived by speckyboy
• 30 websites to download great fonts and 15 free graffiti fonts for your design needs by reencoded
• 30 free script fonts for calligraphy and 35 free grunge fonts for abstract designs by visionwidget
  

Useful Patterns, Backgrounds, Textures

Yeah, I love patterns and textures. I used to download patterns because some of them I just don’t know how to create myself, and sometimes I just need a preview of how the work would look with that pattern. Actually, there are so many combinations of patterns, textures and brushes that you could spend all your life just trying combinations. So it is better just to pick some good samples, isn’t it?

Why they are good: They save you a lot of time, with complex and tiled patterns.

What you should pay attention: When you use a texture for websites you have to pay attention in their screen size, because we have a lot of different screen dimensions nowadays, thus many users can see that ugly white background when your texture ends.

Good Start points:

• Previously said photo stock sites (actually a texture can be a photo :D)
• Subtlepatterns, Patterncooler – Whole sites dedicated to patterns!
• 41 free texture packs and other textures (texture search) by designm.ag
• visionwidget’s free HQ photos – like this awesome wooden textures colection
• Vanderlaydesign (texture search)
• Myinkblog (textures category) – Really good collections, like this 7 High Resolution Stone Textures
• WebDesignerDepot patterns and textures – like this funkies patterns collection
• 20 great resources download free patterns by makeuseof
• Best free textures and patterns of 2010 by webdesignledger
• 60 beautiful high resolution paper backgrounds by photoshoproadmap
• A collection of free carpet textures by naldzgraphics
• 50 free wood textures for your designs and 45 awesome abstract textures by reencoded
• 1000 grunge photoshop brushes (Yeah, brushes, why not?) and 50 fantastic textures for your toolbox by speckyboy
• 34 must have texture packs for web designers by inspiremonkey
• Awesome collection of 60 high quality free textures by pelfusion
• 34 pebble textures for a cool round up of design choices by naldzgraphics
• 35 free adobe illustrator patterns sets a designer should use by designresourcebox
• 35 free abstract background pattern and texture designs by designmodo

Templates and Other Elements

Yeah, we have a lot of other elements ready to use, that couldn’t be in above list. There are a lot of boxes, ribbons, slide shows, form elements, complete page templates and many other things that you could use in your work. There are a lot of creative design solutions for problems that we all could pass (like slide shows, or complete admin panels), and with this samples, you save a lot of precious hours.

Why they are good: They surely save you a lot of time, and brings you inspiration for common problems.

What you should pay attention: For every element we have a lot of possibilities, and many of them could be good. You don’t have to find a magical unique solution for everything, for each problem there’s more than likely a solution out there. This is why we have so many links in here :D

Good Start points:

• Some good sites like NetTuts+, DesignInstruct and Freepsdfiles.net are full of good samples and elements
• 10 useful search engines for graphic designers by blog.medhley.com
• 50 stunning pixel perfect psd freebies by inspirationfeed
• Create a portfolio web layout in photoshop by webdesignfan
• Free travel and hotel website templates and Web design elements psds for user interface design by visionwidget
• 30 energy infused free photoshop web design psd files by creativefan
• 50 creative web interfaces from deviantart by reencoded
• 25 photoshop web layout design tutorials by designmodo
• Best sites for web resources by inspiredology
• 50 free psd ui kits and templates for web designers by speckyboy
• Awesome Html5 admin template by medialoot
• Free admin skin available for download by netdreams
• Free html/css & jquery admin panel inadmin by indeziner
• GUI free css template by chocotemplates
• Free admin template by Mathew Davies

Are You Hungry Yet?

I know that you have some useful links to share too. Why don’t you put them in comments, or write a response in your blog?

I’m sure that we will always need new sources to make our designing process more effective.

Also, with this list I have shared their Facebook, Twitter, Dribbble & LinkedIn information so you can always stay connected and get inspired by their work.

1. Jeffery Zeldman

Jeffery Zeldman is the King of Web Standards & co-founded The Web Standards Project. Zeldman was one of the first bloggers and independent publishers. He has written design books like “Designing With Web Standards”& “Taking Your Talent to the Web”.

Website: http://www.zeldman.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/zeldman
Facebook: http://facebook.com/JeffreyZeldman
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/zeldman
Dribbble: N/A

2. Jason Santa Maria

Jason is a creative director for Typekit & founder of Typedia. Inspired by traditional print design and typography, he has worked with WordPress, Miramax Films, The New York Stock Exchange, PBS and many others.

Website: http://jasonsantamaria.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jasonsantamaria
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonsantamaria
LinkedIn: N/A
Dribbble: http://dribbble.com/jsm

3. Dan Cederholm

Dan is a designer, author, and speaker and a co-founder of Dribbble. He is know as a CSS guy. He’s worked with some of the heaviest hitters in the web industry including: Google, YouTube, Blogger and many more.

Website: http://simplebits.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/simplebits
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/simplebits
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/simplebits
Dribbble: http://dribbble.com/simplebits

4. Vitaly Friedman

Vitaly is a founder of Smashing Magazine which is one the largest online design magazines on the web. They regularly publish really high quality articles that help designers and developers across the world.

Website: http://www.smashingmagazine.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/smashingmag
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vitaly.friedman
LinkedIn: http://de.linkedin.com/pub/vitaly-friedman/4/126/40
Dribbble: N/A

5. John O Nolan

John is a talented designer from the UK and is working as a member of the WordPress UI Team, he is also developing user interface for Virgin Atlantic Airways. Besides his personal blog, he also contributes to Smashing Magazine, Web Designer Depot and Envato Network.
Website: http://john.onolan.org/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/johnonolan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/johnonolan
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/johnonolan
Dribbble: http://dribbble.com/JohnONolan

6. Brian Hoff

Brian is a graphic designer who focuses on corporate identity & branding. His recent project includes redesigning Mojo Themes. Inspired by typography and layout, Brian focuses on usability & design.

Website: http://www.thedesigncubicle.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/behoff
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TDCBehoff
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/brianwhoff
Dribbble: http://dribbble.com/behoff

7. Douglas Bowman

Douglas founded Stopdesign under which he worked with Google, Capegemini, Blogger & other big clients. Later, he worked at Google as a Visual Design Lead and after that he moved on to work with Twitter as its creative director.

Website: http://stopdesign.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/stop
Facebook: N/A
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stopd
Dribbble: http://dribbble.com/stop

8. Aarron Walter

Aarron is a designer, author, professor and speaker. He is the lead user experience designer for MailChimp. He also leads the development of the InterACT curriculum project that helps connect the design industry & education.

Website: http://aarronwalter.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/#!/aarron
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aarronwalter
LinkedIn: N/A
Dribbble: N/A

9. Ethan Marcotte

Ethan is a passionate designer, speaker and wrote ‘Handcrafted CSS’. New York Magazine, Stanford University, and the World Wide Web Consortium are some of the clients he has worked with. Ethan can be found blogging about design-related articles on his blog.

Website: http://ethanmarcotte.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/BEEP
Facebook: N/A
LinkedIn: N/A
Dribbble: N/A

10. David Airey

David works from a Northern Ireland-based home studio, he is a brand identity designer who has worked with clients of all sizes. His client list include Giacom and Yellow Pages. He writes on design at  Logo Design Love and davidairey.com. He also authored the book ‘Logo Design Love’.

Website: http://www.davidairey.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/#!/DavidAirey
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidaireydesign
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/davidairey
Dribbble: N/A

11. Patrick McNeil

Patrick is more of a developer than a designer but he has contributed equally to the design community. He has been featured in .NET Magazine and authored the book series “The Web Designer’s Idea Book”.

Website: http://pmcneil.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/#!/DesignMeltdown
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/people/Patrick-McNeil/764310713
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmcneilstl
Dribbble: N/A

12. Jason Beaird

Jason is a user experience designer and front-end developer with a degree in Graphic Design. He is currently working as a user experience designer at MailChimp and also authored the book ‘The Principles of Beautiful Web Design’. He has also spoken at many SXSW events.

Website: http://jasongraphix.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jasongraphix
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jbeaird
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasongraphix
Dribbble: N/A

13. Chris Coyier

Chris is currently working at Wufoo, he is the founder of CSS-Tricks which shares tons of useful tutorials and tips. He has also co-authored the famous book Digging into WordPress.

Website: http://chriscoyier.net/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/chriscoyier
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chriscoyier
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/chriscoyier
Dribbble: N/A

14. Eric A. Meyer

Eric is the author of ‘CSS: The Definitive Guide’. He has been working with the web since 1993 and is an expert of HTML & CSS. He is also a co-founder of An Event Apart & GMPG.

Website: http://meyerweb.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/meyerweb/
Facebook: N/A
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/meyerweb
Dribbble: N/A

15. Luke Wroblewski

Luke worked as the Chief Design Architect at Yahoo and was the Lead User Interface Designer of eBay. He has authored two design books and is currently the Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Bagcheck Inc.

Website: http://www.lukew.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/lukew
Facebook: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lukew
LinkedIn: N/A
Dribbble: N/A

Your Turn

Let us know about the designer you are influenced by and tell us which of the designer listed here you like the most.

Wrong. There’s one very important factor lacking in the equation – TEAMWORK!

Superman needed Batman and the Justice League to defend the world from a slew of villains. Michael Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and the Bulls all together conquered the NBA. Even Megamind needed Minion in becoming the world’s baddest bad guy. All these successful guys have their team to support each others’ backs in one way or another.

My point is: Nobody Works Alone!

It’s a reality that in the dynamic world of web designing, too many of us work alone. When we talk about the great people making it big in the industry, we think about highly creative people.

“In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.”

~Rollo May

The very popular concept is that highly creative people work really well when they are alone. I know a lot of you guys know what I’m talking about. Freelancers work all by themselves. A person starting his own advertising agency works everything out all by himself. There are a bunch of guys out there able to run a complete website all by themselves.

Indeed, isolation fuels creativity. With solitude you can hear yourself think, you can meditate and reach the deepest part of yourself, and with solitude you can focus and concentrate more. The idea of working alone is very tempting: no distractions. Just quiet.

Too quiet…

“Sometimes I am distracted by the silence”.

Who’s with me? I mean, sometimes it just gets too quiet. So quiet that you can’t think because you keep hearing your own thoughts and they start to get too noisy.

Going back to the subject, indeed there are a lot of good things about working alone. However, everything has its pros and cons, the same goes for the idea of “working alone”. As web designers, working on one’s own can also be counter-productive. Although it can fuel a creative designer’s mind, boost productivity and attracts fewer distractions, it also have some negative points. The benefits above can be outweighed by these negative points.

Note:

The following are harmful and might lead to choking and eventually death as web designers.

1. Social Isolation is Bad for your Health

This is perhaps the single biggest reason why designers should not work alone. Human beings (including web designers) are “social” animals. We are designed to mingle. We evolve and surpass challenges by sharing our experiences with mankind. We communicate for the sake of progress.

When we work alone, we isolate ourselves and it can really do damage, not only to our careers as designers, but also to our mental health.

Why?

When working alone, it is very easy to get used to isolation. There’s no boss, no working hours, you can work freely on your own based on your own rules, and in fact just the idea of taking care of everything yourself is really exhilarating. It is really possible to pull it off all on your own, but as time passes it can be very difficult on you.

Just like everything else in this world, there will come a time when you cannot handle everything on your own. By that time, you will become too comfortable with working alone that you’ll find yourself uncomfortable with other people and you won’t be able to work with them. Worst case scenario: Irritability, fatigue, feelings of hopelessness, and inactivity. Plus you’ll no longer be able to enjoy what you usually find enjoyable. In other words, you’ll lose interest!

Thus, it is okay to work in solitude, but do not make a habit of isolating yourself. You see, solitude and isolation are two very different things.

2. Working Alone = Creativity

It’s true that creativity flourishes in solitude and creative people work at their best when they are alone, but only to some extent. You cannot be creative on your own forever. Creativity requires dynamics. At some point, everything you do would seem like a routine and that’s not creative.

As designers, it is our job to always make things a little bit better. Ideas must be dynamic and in motion. Say for example you have this crazy idea, you can always discuss it with the team and this crazy idea of yours might turn into an even more crazy idea, an exceptional one!

Therefore, as designers we have our team to share our ideas with and turn them into something amazing.

3. Too much Increase/Decrease in Confidence Level

Without a team to work and converse with, working alone can have either a horrible increase or a saddening decrease on a designer’s confidence level.

Since you are working alone, you are a lot less likely to have interaction with other people and you may find yourself battling depression from time t time. If you’ve become too comfortable working alone you may have a hard time imagining yourself attending big gatherings, or work with a team amd discuss your idea because you don’t have confidence to do so. For web designers and developers, there’s always room for support and that’s where the team comes in.

On the other hand, some people might have the opposite effect. Since they have been too comfortable working alone they feel really good about themselves and they are a bit on the arrogant side. Plus, there’s no team to question their ideas if they are wrong. For these web designers, there’s always room for a solid reality check. Just like a family, the team is always there to guide good web designers.

Let us remember that no one is perfect and that there’s always room for improvement. So, be sure to surround yourselves with a team of great people and make sure to be open for suggestions.

4. Working Alone means No Second Opinions!

That’s right, it will be like a room full of chairs but no one’s there to have their say. A room full of opportunities but no one’s there to grab it. It’ll be just you and your doubtful yes or no. When you are working alone, you are handling all the work. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a team to share the burden with? And wouldn’t it be nice to have a team to share all the glory with?

Even if you’re a really, really great designer, you’ll reach a certain point where you are confused too. When that time comes, wouldn’t it be nice to be surrounded with a team of great players and listen to their opinions?

Before we are designers, we are human beings. “Social” animals that are designed to work in teams, never designed to work alone.

The Bottomline:

1. Social isolation is bad for your health.
2. Working alone does not equate to creativity.
3. Working alone can lead to too much increase or too much decrease in confidence level.
4. Working alone means no second opinions
5. Nobody works alone!

Note:

This is just me. It would be my pleasure to read your comments and please don’t hesitate to add anything as I fully realize that it is necessary for learning.

How about you guys? Do you prefer working alone? Or are you more productive when you’re communicating with the team?

Our goal will be to find the pros and cons of these approaches and find their respective target audiences and finally, to find you in it all.

Definition

Let’s begin with defining what the words “artist” and “designer” for the length of this article.
From http://dictionary.reference.com definitions are as follows:

Artist – a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.

Designer – a person who devises or executes designs,  especially one who creates forms, structures, and patterns, as for works of art or machines.

Those don’t put any clear difference in the meaning. So we will have to create one ourselves for now:

Designer – we will view designers as trained people with vast knowledge in rules of the design process, how to use different elements to ones benefit, meaning of colors etc.

Artist - artists will be those guys out there, who probably are self-taught, they have a basic understanding of the rules out there and saw their use in multiple occasions, but in their work they tend to go their own ways.

With that we can move on.

Finding your way

People who are very good at something usually enjoy whatever it is they are doing. That gives them the drive to constantly improve their skills, learn new tricks and improve the old ones. That’s why it’s important that you make an aware decision when choosing your path.

Try to remember what made you interested in becoming a Computer Graphic. The reasons can vary quite a lot. Maybe you were just looking at all those pretty pictures and designs and decided – hey, I want to have a go (that’s my story), maybe one of your friends got you hooked up with the idea, or you just thought it’s going to be an easy way to make money, why not?

We’re only looking for the reason to find out where to go from here really. For instance – if you got into design just to make a quick buck you probably want to stick with our “designers”, nothing absolutely wrong with that. On the other hand if you’re driven by the passion to create pretty and original things, then working for corporate, big companies will probably be the definition of torture for you.

We don’t really want to see you suffer (no, really). So think hard on where you came from and where you want to go to.
Don’t jump to conclusions that  designers do their job only for cash or other non-sense like that. Just trying to make a point here.

My own strength

So now that you know where your path lies, we’ve got to think on how to get there.

Know your own strength

Every person is different on many levels. No real discovery made there. But that means, that everyone will have a different approach on design. In a field where you are expected to create things by yourself, your personality makes a huge difference. It’s hard to compete with others in everything, so how about challenging them in what your best at instead?

Make your best assets the core of your design and build around them. You may exceed at creating colours and mixing them, or you a have keen eye for details, creating unique navigation methods. Whatever it is, try to use it to your advantage.

There will be times though where you just can’t, then what? Just do the best job you can. The fact that your skills in other fields may be inferior doesn’t mean they are useless. To some extend you’re a one man army out there, especially as a freelancer. Any knowledge is to your advantage.

So find out what are you most comfortable with and build around it. Here comes the difference though – our designers will probably want to get a lot of knowledge from every direction where our artists would mainly focus on their strong sides and figure out how other fields can improve them. Again, neither way is wrong, it’s just taking a path that suits better your personality.

Focus on your own area of expertise

While the above may sound at first familiar to the above section, the concept I will try to grasp here is a bit different.

With programs getting more simplified by the year there is a growing number of human-factories, folks that can create Graphics, Code, Music, Video, etc., all done by one person. Adobe with every presentation of it’s new Creative Suite makes us want to believe, that now you will be able to easily operate any of the programs with no problem nor knowledge. Truth to the matter is though, regardless of the improvements made, we’re still far from being able to do a perfect job in all fields.

If you’re looking to do work for small companies and not very demanding clients, then you probably can get away with multitasking across different programs, but at  some point you will want to evolve further at which point you’re going to find out, that you simply just won’t have the time to do so.

So at some point you’re going to have to narrow down your area of expertise, whether you want it or not. When you begin working with others, would you prefer that they’re very good at their thing or mediocre in many? That’s how others will view you as well.

Knowing standards will be to your benefit

For designers that’s a given. Artists may scream here about ripping the bounds, going into new worlds and so on.
The truth is though – you need to know how things are done. In school they will teach you that until you are so bored of it you’re ready to burn the place down. If you are self-taught though, you need not only to learn this stuff yourself, you have to find out it exists in the first place.

You may create the most original an ingenious projects known to humanity, but if there is no way to make them work, it’s just junk.

Where to start? The old-fashioned books are a great way to get you out the door, or a Video Course (not to mistake with a Video Tutorial). You are basically looking for something, that will give you all the essential knowledge, technique, issues etc. of the field. Otherwise you’re in danger of running into those problems by yourself and that may hurt. Nobody wants  to have the project done and ready to take payment, when suddenly you realize you’ve done it all wrong. It does happen more times than you think, so be sure it does not happen to you.

I’ve found my Path

So you are finally good to go. But are you sure? Let’s try to think about what you’re getting and what you’ve missed out on.

Impact of your choice

Your works style will differ dependant on your path choice. I’ve had companies tell me in the past, that they love my portfolio, but my style is different to theirs. You rarely will have the option of second impression, even if you could change your style to match theirs. Why would they revisit you though? If they can find someone else, who’s style is originally more compatible to them. Often advertisement agencies focus on a particular type of clients, hence develop a style, which will suite their clients.

Your path will have an impact on who you work for. Once you land a client which wants a flashy website, you are going to have a portfolio with a flashy website in it. With that you can advertise to another client, then you have two designs, which are the opposite of toned-down and clean and so the wheel starts turning.

To further dwell on the subject, I’ve went ahead and asked a few company owners the following question:

In designs for your company do you put more emphasis on the fact that they should be in compliance with various standards or do you prefer to see more originality, even if the usability may suffer because of it.

The answers are  as follows:

Well, depends on a purpose of use I guess. General recipe for the design would be to make it compliant with various standards, original and usable. Company web site’s should be as easy to use and as clean as humanly possible. Another story are games’ layouts, like the one for Werdelion – major point for game’s layout is its connection to the game; of course usability also matters a lot and the design shouldn’t “suck the big one” in neither of those points as long as it’s both clean and relatively original in relation to common standards of usability.
Konrad Jurkowski, Werdelion.net

I try to make a compromise between keeping the standards, usability and to make it look original.. but if this can`t be done I’d go with standards and usability since this makes more sense from marketing side, after we get the website popular then we can try to do something different… and at the end people can choose the way they like it more
Patryk Kita, Dating Site

First I was thinking about originality, not usability. I thought “I’m going to make something original and simple”, so I did. Although when it comes to usability it’s kind of bad, because people don’t know what is what. They see the website and have no idea what to click.
So I did not think about usability, therefore my portfolio is down in the dumbs.
Piot Bozetka, piotr.bozetka.net

For us it is more important that the clients will not have any problems with using it.
Roberto Tariello, tour2iceland.com

Definitely I expect originality, that may be in compliance with various standards ;)
Małgorzata Suknarowska, agro-relax.pl

School vs. Self-Taught

I’m not trying to make a statement here that you should not go to school. But is there some backside to beginning your education there, compared to trying to learn things by yourself? Let’s make a statement – “School kills creativity” and think about it. While you may enter the school with eagerness to learn and visions of a great, artistic future ahead of you. The story will probably be different by the time you finish.
It really depends on the school and their approach to teaching, we shall not discuss that vast topic here though. Let’s just say that there is a good possibility, that by the time you get your degree, your mind will be programmed to think more in design terms then the artistic ones. On the other hand, when you learn by yourself, you are probably doing so for a certain purpose, to gain necessary knowledge and skills. Only to be expected then, that after having learned those you will want to play around with them and by so, give an outlet to your artistic side.
Of course all depends on a person and the results will vary, but the above does in fact happen more often than not. I did ask around with some people I know and the majority of them have the opinion, that apart of getting a paper, design school was a waste of time. Then again, it’s your own responsibility and in your best interest to check the school you’re applying to and make sure you will be getting your times worth.

Learn from others, bring it to the next level

You won’t come up with all the ideas by ourselves. If you are one of our “artists” then you probably really want to thought. Other people have good ideas, that’s an undeniable truth and it’s your choice if you want to fight it or make it work for you. There is nothing wrong with looking at how others tackled the same problems you’re facing. See what they came up with and think if it’s good for you and can you make it better, bring it up a notch. That helps as well unify the ideas out there. Remember that your clients may not necessarily want to learn a new navigation or others things, just to visit your website. There is a place for everything, don’t try to put everything, everywhere though.

Conclusion

Everything I said may be my own opinion, but I tried to present it in such a way, where opinion does not really come into place. Whether I’ve succeed or not is really up to you. Either way I hope you’ve found this article helpful in some way. The choices you make today will make a difference tomorrow, so choose wisely.

Here is an inspiring list of resolutions for web designers, developers and bloggers. Hopefully to get you started on the new year right.

1.Better Time Management & Get Things Done

Ending the holidays, you might find yourself in a high. You still might be pretty lazy to getting back to work and do your thing. To get yourself warmed up, why not organize and update your new daily planner. If you don’t have a daily planner or organizer – get one! Write down what you need to do for the day and prioritize your activities. Starting from the most important to the least. Using your time wisely will make you productive and efficient.

2.Leave Your Creative Comfort Zone

Venture to different type of creative outlets relevant or irrelevant to your usual thing. For example – if you are into print designing, try anything on web designing. If you are into web designing, then try print designing. Whatever your preferences maybe. Take yourself to a new and challenging forms of activities or hobbies that would also make you profit in the near or later future. Expand your horizon and explore. There’s a whole lot more to learn from.

3. Acknowledge Your Imperfection

It is understood that you can make really bad moves and decisions. The one thing that hinders us to change or improve is pride. Yes, it is difficult to admit you are wrong. But face it, everybody makes mistakes. If you don’t, then you might not be normal. If you own up to your mistakes and realize that you are not perfect, you are making room for improvements and change for the better. But of course, it always better to put it to action than just putting it in your mouth. You have to really commit to making improvements. If not, you’d just be sour-graping and that’s not a good thing either.

4.Try To Read One New Book a Month

Take a time to relax at least once a month. Reading a good book will take your mind off things and enhances your creativity by your imagination. Discover new things and words to add up to your vocabulary. Reading also boosts up confidence.

5.Clean the Clutter on Your Desktop

Start clean & fresh. Get rid of all the clutter in your desktop and make room for new to come. Keeping unused or unwanted files or software on your desktop make you no less than a pack-rat. So you better start cleaning – you’ll be amazed how much space those useless items are taking up.

6.Update Your Portfolio

Since this is another year for you and your business, freshen up and update your portfolio. Create a new design and add what’s most recent on your designs, themes, photographs etc. Keep your clients, followers & fans updated.

7.Step Away From The Computer And Exercise

Sitting in front of the computer half of the time if not most, may cause laziness or could make you gain weight – considering it makes you eat unhealthy junk food. Go for a hike, jog, do yoga or engage in a sport.  Slide in a workout routine to your planner for half an hour or more and get yourself fit. Remember, health is wealth.

8. Stretch Your Patience

This new year, go the extra mile and stretch your patience. The survival and main objective of a business is to cater clients’ demands and needs. So be extra patient with your clients. It will pay off when they get really pleased with your services, and that will make you happy. As well as your wallet.

9.Find New and Better Ways to Connect with Clients (Google Voice, Google Wave, etc.)

Reach out to clients in every way possible. This is also one of the many strategic marketing techniques. Some clients don’t know where to find good service providers. Be there to help them out and show them that you can live up to their demands and expectations. Promote your services and offer them the best.

10.Try a Color scheme You Have Never Even Imagined

Never be too cautious with designs. Because unique designs always stand out. Be more creative, play with colors. Maybe you will be the first to mix and match a new color that will go well that others haven’t tried. Step out of the circle and think out of the box.

11.Master At Least One Application Or Programming Language

Improve your performance by focusing on one application or programming language. This way you have a target on what your main work or field is on. After which, then you could proceed to another.

12.Take an Extra Class About Design

Make time for your passion. There are always new things to learn, better learn it from real teachers and go to school. When you know that you’re good at something and want to make the most out of it, it is better to keep enhancing that talent. That is what school does – it harnesses what’s the best in you and develop your skills even more than what you actually know.

13.Follow Top Designers on Twitter and Interact with Them

Get inspiration from top people in the business.  Twitter will get you updated on their latest activities. If you get lucky and get the chance to interact with them, they might give you tips about how they got successful.

14.Really Impress your Clients–Current and New

Never miss to surprise your clients. They are like the better half of your business. You need to keep impressing them to make your business last. Show them something fresh and innovate. New clients are as important as the new ones. Mainly because they both could find another service provider if you don’t meet expectations. So find new ways to excite them and always maintain that harmonious relationship with them.

15. Take Time to be Inspired

Always be on the look out for new inspiration. Make time to browse the web for anything fresh on the scene. Search for newly discovered digital artists, designers, web designing businesses, softwares, gadgets, applications etc. Everyday is a new day and that makes yesterday old news.

*These New Years resolutions are pretty much easy to accomplish. I know everyone has a struggle in fulfilling resolutions. But if you don’t start now, when? Hopefully you are now looking for a great year ahead. Making a New Year’s resolution is just the first step, putting it to action is the most important leap. If you have anything to add, feel free to share. Cheers to 2011!

The days of people who focus only on one skill is numbered. Slowly, and steadily, a rise of designers, photographers, developers, and anyone who knows what a blog is are starting to write.

This will be harsh for people whose desire is to focus only on their trade. People in the online community will soon eradicate specialists, the internet will be filled with Jack-of-all-trades and if you are not one you won’t get noticed.

Reason #1: To be noticed

Image by: Peter Suneson

Yes, you are a great designer but do people even notice you? It is actually all about ego. Learn to write and start a blog to let people know who you are and finally create your online persona –  how people look at you in the online community. This is important, ego too, because when you finally get noticed by a large community, that itself becomes your ticket to becoming a superstar.

Why do you need to be noticed? Simple. Wide audience spells more business opportunities. Once known by thousands of people you can actually say that your life is secured. It’s like planting your roots so deep that even frost won’t reach. (LOTR reference, cool!)

Reason #2: To build confidence

Image by: Kevin McGee

Of course everybody knows how to write, what I mean is to write things that people would want to read. When you become more knowledgeable in your field you can gain more authority by giving people tips and tutorials. Share your experience and inspire people.

Think of the first website you run into whenever you have questions. People who can answer your questions in forms of a discussion or an article sure are impressive. Why? Because they are confident enough that the information they give will be of help, mind that anyone can view information on the internet.

TL;DR version (Too long; didn’t read):

It takes guts to write a tutorial. If you do, you are on your way to a distinguished road.

Reason #3: To start a business

Image by: Michal Zacharzewski

Perhaps a goal that every freelancers share is to have a business of their own. And business entails lots of writing. To kickstart a freelancing business you need, of course, an avenue to showcase your works and for people to see you. Meaning you must have a website. There you must tell prospect customers why should they choose your services and what makes you reliable. Refer to #1 and #2.

It is practical to do more with less people involved. If you can write, you won’t have the need to hire a writer. Or in the case when you will really need to hire one, at least you have already experienced writing and know how things work (one way to avoid a scammer). *laughs*

Reason #4: To mentor

Image by: Quynhyen

Days will pass swiftly and many will not even notice until they’re already about to retire. It will be a liberating experience for a few months until you realize you are actually no longer being productive. Depression will kick in and wrinkles will be carved. Nobody wants that, right?

Realize that you can actually be more productive while helping people get up their feet. A simple analogy for MMORPG gamers: when you finally reach the maximum level what do you usually do? That’s right, help people. With all the experience you have your knowledge of things will surely benefit young people, and they will love you for that. And mind you, the internet has overcome the Great Wall of China, which makes connecting to people very easy. Because of the internet and its fast revolutions you can reach millions of audience. You can be a mentor.

What about writers?!

Writers should go outside of their comfort zone and write on different niches. Practice different writing styles, imitate famous journalists and novelists, and you will be super! By stepping out of your zone you make yourself vulnerable to harsh elements like criticisms for a poorly-written article or worse no audience at all. But the risk and pain involved is inversely proportional to the knowledge you will gain.

I love sharing personal experiences (in case some of my readers have noticed) and now I will tell you a very short one.

I began writing love poems back in high school, they were so terrible that I dared not show them to anyone. Soon I started writing short stories and I joined my school’s official paper. I wrote feature articles and became an editor. And during my last year in college I was an editor of my college’s official paper. Now I am writing for 1stWD and I am very happy. From pesky poem writer to short stories to more serious business I daresay I have improved quite a bit, but there’s still an ocean of knowledge I need to swim on. And I will!

/Boring Story

It is good to write things you know because:

When you write, you share

When you share, you help

When you help, you make the world better

When the world becomes better, living becomes easier

Living easily means more happy people

Happy people are inspired people

When people are inspired, they share

And what they want to share, they write

Need Help?

I know my writing is not that great but I am willing to help people! Just ask and I will be there, I’m pretty quick at replying. Feel free to criticize (creatively) things because when you do, you help people improve. Share your suggestions or violent reactions below. Please?

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” –  Benjamin Franklin

Happy and Healthy

Image by: klarissa

Surely, most healthy people are happy with their lives and vice versa. Being unhappy for more than the normal amount of time is life-wrecking. Some day you just have to get up and stir yourself to life again and take on the challenges that awaits you no matter how grave the thing you must rise up from. Then there are people who are neither happy nor sad, they simply don’t care about things. What will you expect from a designer who is oblivious of things, who is apathetic? No client would want another Van Gogh (I love Van Gogh, seriously). Although in the past most creative geniuses are used to locking up in the attic or in their basement alone for months at a time to create artworks that are now sold for thousands of dollars, what the world needs today are artists who can communicate well with people and can express emotions no matter how macabre or jolly the design should be.

Success = Happy + Healthy

Image by: Billy Alexander

If you live a healthy and happy life then chances are you will do well in most of the things you do, no matter what the outcome is. However, success does not always entail being victorious in every thing you do but means how able are you to recuperate and continue.

Just look at the very successful people in their own trade today, they are happy with their lives and are living a healthy lifestyle which is reflected in their works. Isn’t that noble?

First you must asses yourself if you are lacking either or both.

How to be Healthy and Happy (if you’re not)

Image by: Cienpies Design

Designers should always have fresh ideas, as such it is important to have a fresh experience as soon as time permits. Creation is a continuous process, this applies to movies and book releases too. It wouldn’t hurt to treat yourself to the movies once a month or buy and read a book that interests you, aside from fulfilling your little “cravings” you are automatically making your mind open to new stimuli. Hit the gym a couple of times a week, walk your dog, go swimming, destroy a friend’s house; just be happy and your health will follow.

Easier said than done but there’s a fun way to combat procrastination and ill-will by creating a list of things you want to do. “I want to drink a gallon of vodka in 10 minutes” ? Let’s set some ground rules for you to follow to avoid gulping a gallon. Steps first.

Keep a List

Image by: Mark Barner

Steps:

1. Write things that you really want to do –  no restrictions.
2. Write things you think are fun to do (even if you really don’t want to).
3. Be realistic.
4. Consider various things like the food you wish to eat, someone you’d like to reconnect with, a place where you want to go, et cetera.
5. No editing, yet.

Filtering:

1. Cross out the things that will put your health at risk.
2. Remove things that might hurt others.
3. Do not cheat by removing the things that will tire you out.
4. Remove all work-related items. The goal is to have fun!

Execution:

1. Set a specific date when you should have accomplished all the items.
2. Execute them little by little.
3. Enjoy.

Watch The Bucket List if my explanation is not clear.

How to stay Healthy and Happy (if you are already)

Image by: Alex Bramwell

The trick is to maintain your daily routine, less risky and is proven to work. But as everything wears and tears, so does your routine’s effect on you. The things that you are currently doing to stay healthy and happy should evolve with you as you mature. Consider it like eating your favorite pasta every day for a month. The excitement of finally eating it after a day’s hard work wears off slowly and the taste will be less delicious than what it used to be, correct? This is the reason why the experienced, and happy people, are always saying to do new things whenever possible.

Once in a while do things that are out of your comfort zone. Are you so used to designing in front of your computer that doing your art in another medium would be a waste of time? Try doodling on the sand, simple things such as this will hopefully spark that creative genius inside you.

Final Words

Exercise and eat foods that will boost your health. Your mind is more active and is more flexible when the body it is in is strong and happy! Try smiling now, come on! Did you just smile? It’s fine smiling while you are alone but not always. *laughs*

Now, share your thoughts!

Resources: Are you lacking enthusiasm? Read How to Maintain Enthusiasm for Work! Perhaps you are feeling uninspired? Find Inspiration!

You just need to sign up before showing your creative work off to the whole world. In this article we have reviewed 10 best solutions for creating your online portfolio in matter of few minuets.

1. Carbonmade

Carbonmade was established in December 2005 by Dave to manage his and his friend’s online portfolios. Later it was opened for everyone. Carbonmade helps you in managing your online portfolio with variety of tools that allow you to customize the way your work should be presented. It is very effortless to use, as you don’t need to have HTML knowledge for updating portfolio or its theme. Ideal for displaying illustration, photography and videos online, you get custom sub-domain for your portfolio. Carbonmade provides you a personal blank canvas, without any advertisements and other crap stuff, just to show your work to whole world. It provides free as well as pro plans. Free plan allows you to upload 5 projects and 35 images. Pro package costs $12/month and allows you to show 50 projects, 500 images and 10 videos.

2. Krop

Krop is an excellent choice for building resumes and portfolios, which offers simple and elegant template enabling you to manage your work quickly. You can show your work to the whole world with your own personal and unique URL, without any advertisement. It is a professional portfolio solution, not a social networking site where you get comments or likes, these things don’t belong in professional world. You can try Krop for free having limit of 10 images, pro plan costs $9.99/month unlocking image hosting limit.

3. Behance Network

Behance Network is a very well-designed and professional website to showcase your creative work online. You can exhibit images, text, video or audio, you can also embed your projects from Flickr, YouTube or Vimeo having no uploading limit. It is a completely free platform to promote yourself instantly, get exposure and get hired. You can find other creative people to work with, to share tips and media or to get feedback. Behance Network ensures maximum vulnerability on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. Awesome traffic stat is an insurance that your creative work will get seen.

4. PhotoShelter

PhotoShelter is the best choice if you are a photographer interested in building your online portfolio, selling photos, marketing yourself as an accomplished photographer. Over 65,000 photographer worldwide uses PhotoShelter to power their success online, using awesome features of PhotoShelter, like easily searchable photo galleries, secure photo storage, elegant templates and easily searched photo galleries. It helps in selling your images quickly at very reasonable price. You can try it for $1 for 14 days. Other plans start from $9.99 per month up to $49.99 per month depending on the storage space you want.

5. Coroflot

Coroflot is a fast and easy way to get your creative projects online and expose it to the world. Coroflot is used by over 200,000 designers and artists worldwide, hosting more than 1.4 million images of diverse disciplines of creative work like graphic, fashion, interior and textile designing. Coroflot also offers an active job board where you can hire creative people or get hired by multinational organization. Creating portfolio is absolutely free with unlimited file hosting.

6. ViewBook

Viewbook was launched in 2008 to help creative people to present and promote their work with simplicity and creativity. It provides a minimal design without any fancy designing, advertisement or any other distraction so that your images wont lost their beauty and taste. You can make your images private as well as public, choice is yours. You can try Viewbook for free for 30 days, plans starts from $4 per month.

7. deviantART

deviantART is the largest online social network for artists created in August 2000, having 13 million registered members, 100,000 uploads daily and 35 million unique visitors per month. You can configure your online portfolio is matter of minutes, upload or import your images and publish your portfolio. You can use deviantART as a digital place where artists are looking to co-operate and helping each other to improve their artistic skills. You can choose from Basic or Premium Portfolio. Free portfolio offers hosting up to 100 images, provides you advertisement-free domain and easy-to-use interface with no HTML required. Premium portfolio offers unlimited image hosting service, personal domain and password protected access option. It costs $4.95 per month.

8. Jobrary

Jobrary is resume and portfolio builder for designers who want minimum effort for maximum impact. Use just need to have creative projects, Jobrary will make sure that your portfolio looks stylish and modern.

9. SmugMug

SmugMug is one of the best website for showcasing and selling your photos online. You can sell your photos and earn up to 85% of the markup, share on Twitter and Facebook and make your gallery looks hot with full-screen slideshow. You can try this amazing professional service for 14 days for free, then you have to upgrade to pro plans starting from 39.95/year. SmugMug is worth paying as you can earn huge amount by just selling your photos, enjoy pleasure of unlimited storage and traffic, also you get advertisement free space to display your work.

10. Sortfolio

If you are finding talented web designer for your project then you should not overlook Sortfolio as it offers services of best web designers from all over the world. Sortfolio is a hub of creative web designers to interact and get hired, you can find web designer or if you are a web designer and looking for work then you can get listed for free. This service also offer same services for web designers and freelancers as they do for web designers. Sortfolio is a free platform for clients and firms to interact, it is not involved in any kind of financial transaction between them. You can build your own portfolio for maximum exposure.