Inside Freelance Design

Issue #24
May 04, 2006

Welcome to Inside Freelance Design (IFD), your free, bi-weekly e-letter from American Writers & Artists Inc. Every other week, you can receive this special alert with secrets, tips, and insights from AWAI's graphic design pros to help you improve your skills and reach your goal of becoming a professional graphic designer in the fastest time possible.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Your Most Important Self-PromoTool, an interview with Lori Haller
Quick Tip: A Little-Known “Extra” in Acrobat 7
The IFD Mailbag
EXTRA! EXTRA! News and Job Opportunities

Creating an Eye-Popping Portfolio as
Your Most Important Self-Promo Tool
An Interview With Lori Haller

In a recent issue of IFD, Ilise Benun discussed the importance of having a professional-looking website for your business. But that's just one tool you'll need to sell your services. Another crucial tool is a print portfolio that you can send to prospects who request more information about you.

We interviewed design master Lori Haller to find out how to create a real “eye-popper.”

IFD: So much is being done on the Web today... so why is it necessary to have a print portfolio as well as a website?

Lori: Samples on your website are always helpful, especially when you're just getting started. People tend to check a designer's website initially to get a feel for what they do, their level of expertise, that sort of thing.

The potential clients who call me for samples prefer live samples, hands down. It may seem old-fashioned, but people still love to touch and feel things, turn the pages, pass the samples to co-workers.

The other bonus of live samples is that when a prospect calls about them, you have the opportunity to talk to them, put a friendly voice to the name, make a good impression, and explain how you can help them.

IFD: A lot of designers create portfolios that have to be sent back and forth through the mail. Are there ways to create an impressive portfolio that clients can keep... so you stay top-of-mind when a project comes up?

Lori: Yes. Make color printouts of projects that prospects can keep, and put them in some sort of folder. You can be as simple or elaborate as you want with the folder. There are many to choose from at office supply stores like Office Depot or Staples.

You can even send your samples in a manila folder with your business card stapled to the outside. That way, after your prospects review your samples, the folder can go directly into their file cabinet, saving them time.

Include a handwritten note thanking them for their interest, and inviting them to pass the samples around to their team members.

Here's another approach: Use an inexpensive 8-1/2” x 11” portfolio booklet that has 20 to 30 clear sleeves, and fill them with samples pertaining to the client's requests. Include designs and formats they didn't ask for, too, so they can see your versatility. To draw attention to them, put a handwritten sticky note on the sleeves of those formats that says something like “I also enjoy doing renewal series.”

IFD: What else should be in a designer's portfolio?

Lori: Include a bio, contact information, list of services, partial client list, and an explanation of the projects you do best. If you don't have a substantial list of clients, just leave that page out.

IFD: What's the most effective way to lay out a portfolio?

Lori: Most people have only about 10 minutes to review your work, so make it quick and easy to go through. Put like formats together. Put your best designs up front, those that are relevant but a little weaker in the middle, and one or two strong pieces at the end. That way, the first and last impressions you leave will be the strongest.

Use interesting colored folders or envelopes. When they're sitting on a desk piled high with white papers, the colors will pop. Make your cover letter interesting. Include a quote, an article, or a statement providing an “angle” for the cover letter so it doesn't read like a mundane business memo.

And keep in mind that creative directors are more interested in your ideas than in awesome samples. If you don't have a lot of samples to show, come up with your own ideas. Include made-up sketches and logos for pretend businesses. Rework something that came in the mail, showing before and after examples. Cut out a magazine or newspaper ad and give it a fresh new look with a snappy photo or better font treatments.

Prospective clients want to see how you think – how you use typefaces, color, organization, and clarity. And you can show all of these things in a simple manila folder for very little cost!

The main thing to remember is that Web samples and physical portfolios are tools. Use both of them to promote yourself. And make sure both are of the highest quality so you show yourself at your best.

[Ed. Note: You can access previous issues of Inside Freelance Design at:
http://www.thedesignerslife.com/insidefreelancedesign/]

* * * * * * * * Highly Recommended* * * * * * * *

Learn the Secrets of Getting Clients Who Will Stay With You Forever:
http://www.thedesignerslife.com/reservemyspot/

QUICK TIP: Locate PDFs Quickly Using This Little-Known Extra in Acrobat 7

Acrobat 7 comes equipped with its own free file manager/browser and manager, called the Organizer. This little-known tool gives you quick access to PDF-files anywhere on your computer, even if you have multiple hard drives.

Organizer can track locations of any PDF you've viewed in the last 24 months, and show you the date and time a file was modified. You can sort by file name, number of pages, author, title, and much more. You can also print, email, and create PDFs from multiple documents directly from Organizer.

Best of all, it shows you little thumbnail images of each PDF document. Even if you have forgotten the name of the file you're trying to locate, the thumbnails will help you find it in an instant.

To open Acrobat Organizer, choose File > Organizer > Open Organizer or click the Organizer tool on the toolbar. It looks like an open file drawer with multi-colored files peeking out.

* * * * * * * * Advertisement * * * * * * * *

ARE YOU RUNNING YOUR FREELANCE BUSINESS THE RIGHT WAY?

Get the answers to these and hundreds of other questions about starting and running your own profitable design business: http://www.thedesignerslife.com/getanswers/

FROM THE IFD MAILBAG…
by Kristin Schwarz

Hello, IFD Friends. Let's start today's Mailbag with a question from Andrew that's on the mind of many designers.

Dear AWAI,

I've just received my 2nd assignment back. There was a note from the reviewer suggesting I remove the extra space between paragraphs and adjust paragraph spacing instead. How do I do this? I'm using Microsoft Word.

Dear Andrew,

Removing the extra space between paragraphs makes your design look more professional and more consistent. Here's how you do it:

On the toolbar, go to Format > Paragraph.

A dialog box appears. Under the “Indent and Spacing” tab, you can adjust spacing before and after paragraphs.

You can also control your line spacing (leading) here, as well as paragraph indentation (an often-overlooked feature of this tab). Instead of hitting the tab key every time you start a new paragraph – resulting in indents that are either too big or too small – you can control the indents very preciously.

The question from Eric in our last issue on InDesign training resources received a lot of helpful responses from our members. Here's just one of them, an email from Julie:

Dear Kristin,

I want to comment about information resources for learning InDesign. When I received my copy of Adobe CS2 Premium I realized InDesign is not just a more complex version of Word! So I purchased 2 books from the Adobe Classroom in a Book series: Adobe CS2 Classroom in a Book, and the more in-depth Adobe InDesign Classroom in a Book. These have been terrific resources for me that have helped me get up to speed with InDesign quickly.

Also, please tell other members they should be sure to look at the gigantic PDF files included on the “extras” discs that come with the program. These are the complete help manuals (to the tune of 780 pages for the InDesign manual alone!), and the files have tutorials. Extremely useful.

Dear Julie,

Thank you so much for this information. People often forget to look in the extra material that comes with our software, but it's probably the best place to start. Many of these files are presented in a PDF format, so you can scan them on your computer and print only the parts you need (saving you from wasting paper... and trees).

That's it from me for today. Have a productive couple of weeks.

Kristin

[Ed. Note: If you have a question or comment for Kristin, please send it to:
insidefreelancedesign@awaionline.com, Attn: Kristin Schwarz.]

EXTRA! EXTRA! News and Job Opportunities

FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Urgent! Deadline May 12! Cortiva Education, a provider of massage therapy education, wants to hire a full time freelance graphic designer for a time. You'll work with the marketing department on a variety of projects. You must know Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop as well as Microsoft Office. Send your resume and pdf work samples (no more than 5MB of attachments) to ablazey@cortiva.com.
EXPERIENCE GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Air Jamaica Vacations organizes vacations to Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. They need an experienced graphic designer to help them reach their audience more effectively. You must know all aspects of layout and graphic design. You should be skilled with InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat. Send your resume to ajvhr@airjamaicavacations.com.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Evergreen Enterprises, Inc, a home and garden décor company in Richmond, Virginia, seeks a graphic designer. You'll work on catalogs and package design. You must be comfortable working on a number of projects at the same time. You'll work in a Mac-based enviroment and must know Quark, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Send your resume to cindis@myevergreen.com.

COMING NEXT ISSUE:

Setting the Right Mood With the Right Type
Quick Tip: Pampering Your Eyes for Greater Productivity

* ABOUT INSIDE FREELANCE DESIGN *

Inside Freelance Design is a FREE bi-weekly newsletter from American Writers & Artists Inc., available to AWAI members and friends.

ARCHIVED ISSUES of Inside Freelance Design can be found on our website at www.thedesignerslife.com/insidefreelancedesign.

To ADVERTISE in Inside Freelance Design or send comments, news, research, or story ideas, email Kristin Schwarz at graphics@awaionline.com.

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Issue #24 May 04, 2006