Fresh out of school, you are a technician not a professional Quote
8th March 2010 2 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/420
Question: “I recently graduated from design school and have started freelancing, and I’m wondering how you get clients? How do you get your name out there?”
This person may just as well have jumped out of an airplane and then asked, “Now, how do I go about finding a parachute? Oh, and should I land somewhere specific? How exactly do I do that?” Even so, this lack of foresight is quite common. The immediate lesson is that you shouldn’t become an independent professional with little to no professional experience, with no prospects and knowing little to nothing about the business.
Andy Rutledge lays down the law on Design Professionalism with answers to some very commonly asked questions from both agency and freelance designers.
Learn To Fucking Spell Quote
11th December 2009 9 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/410
“You can be the greatest designer on the planet, have the most intriguing concepts out there, create wonderfully thought provoking experiences for your users, but if you type something like ‘I’ve been freelancing for a number off years’, you honestly look like a five year old.”
Paddy Donnelly vents his frustrations at the common and simple spelling mistakes that plague the web in Learn To Fucking Spell → another wonderfully crafted blog post.
Jeffrey Zeldman On Self-Promotion Quote
24th November 2009 2 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/407
“There is a difference between being arrogant about yourself as a person and being confident that your work has some value. The first is unattractive, the second is healthy and natural. Some people respond to the one as if it were the other. Don’t confuse them. Marketing is not bragging, and touting one’s wares is not evil.” – Zeldman
Wise words from Jeffrey Zeldman On Self-Promotion and something I constantly find myself worrying about, this however is reassuring.
Johnnie Walker - The Man Who Walked Around The World Quote
30th September 2009 3 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/400
“By 1860, he had developed the square bottle, now with a label at an angle of precisely 24 degrees. No big deal, you might think, but you’d be wrong. The square bottle meant less breakages and more bottles per shipment. The diagonal label meant larger type and together that meant Johnnie Walker had unmistakeable presence on any shelf in the world.”
Johnnie Walker – The Man Who Walked Around The World – at YouTube →
Not just a 6 minute advert for Johnnie Walker but an insight into how they became so popular, starring Robert Carlyle. (via @mattmc)
Andy Budd on the UK film and TV industry Quote
15th September 2009 Be the first to comment... http://sam.brown.tc/398
“People don’t go out of their way to pirate movies and TV programs; they’re not intrinsically bad people. They do it because often it’s quicker and easier than legitimate means. The quicker the film and TV industries recognise this and make it as easy to buy legal content as it is to download illegitimate content, the more likely they are to stem the flow.”
Andy Budd sums up the current stand-off between the UK film and TV industry and the viewers in his article Generation Y-pay. I completely agree with Andy, there is nothing worse than a show airing on TV in the US only to be spoiled on Twitter while we wait months for it to air in the UK.
Andy Rutledge on The Trouble With RFPs Quote
31st August 2009 5 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/396
Andy writes a great piece on some of the problems we face with RFPs, while it is more aimed at those requesting them there is a lot to learn here, particularly the difference between design as a service and design as a commodity.
An RFP typically circumvents relevant communication.
The first step in any client/agency inquiry should be concerned with getting to know one another in order to gauge mutual suitability. Yes, mutual suitability. Sure, I need to know what your project is about and what you’re generally expecting, but I also need to get to know you and discover if you meet my criteria.
What Andy says above in The Trouble With RFPs really rings true for me, and as I’ve said in the past I simply don’t do proposals – I don’t want to spend a day writing about making you a kick ass site when I could be doing it!
Art & Copy - a film about advertising and inspiration Quote
25th August 2009 Be the first to comment... http://sam.brown.tc/394
“The frightening and most difficult thing about being what somebody calls a creative person is that you have absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from really, and especially, you don’t have any idea about where they’re going to come from tomorrow.” – ART & COPY Trailer
Proof of Income: A Freelance Problem Quote
13th August 2009 2 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/392
“If you’re renting an apartment or buying a new home, you’ll probably be asked to provide proof of your income. In some cases, the same goes when starting a new service or opening a line of credit. Freelancers can’t exactly present a pay stub, though, making what should be routine paperwork much harder.”
Proof of Income: A Freelance Problem the latest FreelanceSwitch article discusses a rare problem that I’ve only stumbled into once myself but is something that new freelancers should certainly be aware of. Proving your income can be a mighty tricky task.
When renting my apartment several years ago as an alternative option my realtor asked for a Bankers Reference which is essentially a letter from your bank to the realtor that confirms your accounts are in a healthy well-maintained state (code for in credit I’m sure) and whether you can afford to take on the financial commitment. That said, this type of situation is likely to crop up again in the future so the alternative options FreelanceSwitch list are worthy of noting down.
Zeldman - In defense of web developers Quote
7th July 2009 8 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/388
“It has only been a few days but I am already sick of the “XHTML is bullshit, man!†crowd using the cessation of XHTML 2.0 activity to condescend to—or even childishly glory in the “folly†of—web developers who build with XHTML 1.0, a stable W3C recommendation for nearly ten years, and one that will continue to work indefinitely.”
What Jeffrey Zeldman then goes on to say in In defense of web developers is something that I think a lot of people are glossing over:
“All of this is to say that XHTML is not dead (XHTML 2 is dead, thank goodness), and HTML 5 is not here yet. Between now and 2022, we have plenty of time to learn about HTML 5 and contribute to the discussion—and browser makers have 13 years to get it right.”
So yes, HTML 5 will be the way forward in the future, XHTML 2 is dead but there is nothing wrong with XHTML 1 currently. That date isn’t some arbitrary number either it’s the date for the final proposed recommendation.
For the time being and in the immediate future I’ll be sticking to XHTML 1. Will you?
Some lingering concerns about Typekit Quote
1st June 2009 2 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/382
“Don’t get me wrong: I’m excited about the potential here. Really excited, in fact. I think Veen and his team are amongst the absolute best minds in the industry and I have nothing but faith and trust in them. But, all we really know about TypeKit is what we learned in a pretty vague product introduction blog post. We haven’t even seen an example, let alone the thing working in the wild.”
I share Jeff Croft’s concerns about Typekit, this quote was from his reponse to Mike Davidson’s article Examining Typekit. Jeff outlines his 5 major concerns which mirror mine exactly. I too am really excited about Typekit but think we may be jumping the gun a little as the details are still pretty vague, I can’t wait for working demos and further details on licensing and cost.