Issue #32
August 24, 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:
  • Roger Parker Reveals His 3 Commandments for Effective Design
  • Quick Tip: A FREE Font-Management Utility
  • The ATS Logo Challenge Winner!
  • The IFD Mailbag
  • EXTRA! EXTRA! News and Job Opportunities
Roger Parker's 3 Commandments of Effective Design
By Kammy Thurman

Roger Parker has been designing winning packages and advertisements since 1976. He credits much of his success to following some basic fundamentals that are being forgotten now that graphic design is becoming more software-oriented and technical.

We interviewed Roger to get details on the most important of these fundamentals – what he calls The 3 Commandments of Effective Design.

IFD: Over the last 30 years, you've seen a lot of design trends come and go. How did you pinpoint the fundamentals that have remained true through all those changes?

Roger: They come from years of analyzing both successful and unsuccessful designs, and figuring out why some work and others fail so miserably. One of the biggest factors separating the two is that designers often fall into the trap of “designing for themselves” rather than using design to help their clients achieve specific goals.

The key to successful design is simply putting your client's needs first. This benefits your client by helping him reach his goals. And it benefits you by guaranteeing repeat business and enthusiastic referrals.

The commandments I've developed provide a counterpoint to “trendy” or “portfolio” designs that may look good, but don't help clients sell their products or services.

IFD: What are your top three commandments?

Roger: My First Commandment is Be Purposeful. Every design decision should be based on how well it moves the viewer from “interest” to “transaction.” Purposeful design takes planning – evaluating the goals of each project and the medium in which it will appear, such as print ads, Web, billboard, and so forth.

The Second Commandment is Be Readable. Design should be as transparent as possible so the message it supports will be easy to understand. Design fails when the type, graphics, layout, or colors draw attention to themselves and dominate the message they're supposed to be supporting.

The Third Commandment is Be Simple. Clutter is the enemy of good design. The simpler the design, the easier it is for readers to identify and understand the key message. A simple design also helps separate important ideas from secondary supporting ideas.

IFD: What are the worst mistakes designers make today – even the pros?

Roger: First, many designers fail to include subheads in long text passages. Subheads help chunk messages into manageable, bite-sized pieces. And when designers do include them, they're often either too subtle to be noticed or they're too long. Subheads should be set in a contrasting typeface or color, and should be limited to one line only.

Second, many designers fail to notice when extra space has been inserted between sentences. This often happens because they're provided with copy that was typed with two spaces after each period. The extra space causes noticeable distractions, especially when you're working with justified margins (lines of equal length). Use your layout software's “Find” and “Replace” feature to replace every instance of two spaces with just one space.

Third, headlines or subheads set entirely in upper case (ALL CAPITAL LETTERS) are much harder to read than those set in title case (Initial Caps Like This) or sentence case (Initial letter capitalized like this). It's fine to use upper case for the first letter and the proper nouns in the headline or subhead, but not for all the letters.

IFD: Any additional words of advice for our readers?

Roger: Designing to sell is more important now than ever. The days of “trend-setting, creative design” are numbered. More and more clients realize that print and Web design must work together. They're finding new ways to test the results of their advertising, learning from their successes and mistakes, and making changes based on what they've learned. And “creative” designers who ignore the impact of this direct-marketing thinking are skating on thin ice.

[Editor's note: To hear more of the success-building advice and the secrets that have made Roger one of the most sought after direct-mail designers, join us at Bootcamp 2006. Click here for more information http://www.awaionline.com/graphicsbootcamp/]

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http://www.thedesignerslife.com/ultimateguide/
QUICK TIP: Get Control of Your Fonts with a Free Font-Management Utility

If you're a typical designer, you've been collecting fonts – lots of them. But with over a thousand available font faces, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the choices on your computer.

Linotype – a company that's been in the type business for more than 120 years – is offering a free solution to manage your fonts in a full-featured font management utility called FontExplorert.

FontExplorer allows you to keep a library of fonts and activate them only when you want them. It has an elegant interface that provides previews of every font you have, allowing you to see what the font looks like before it's activated.

It also allows you to keep your fonts in different font sets (called “folders”). For instance, you could have fonts categorized as serif fonts, sans serif fonts, display fonts, headline fonts, and the like.

One of the most powerful features of FontExplorer is its ability to auto-activate fonts in individual InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop projects. (Its many other features are explained on the Linotype website.)

The bad news is FontExplorer is available only for Mac OS X users at this time. However, the company is developing a Windows version. If you're a Mac OS X user, you can download FontExplorer directly from the website. If you're a Windows user, there's a link on the website where you can sign up to receive notification when the Windows version is available.

For more information or to download the Mac OS X version, visit:
www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX

For Windows users, there's a freeware program called “The Font Thing” (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html) that lets you browse installed and uninstalled fonts, and change sample text “on the fly” or easily switch between your own standard text samples. (Thanks to Mike Klassen, one of our members, for sharing information about this program with us!)

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Do You Have Questions About Your Freelance Design Business?

Get the answers to the hundreds of questions you may have about starting and running your own $100k/yr design business in specific, step-by-step details:

http://www.thedesignerslife.com/getanswers/

CONGRATULATIONS TO CASSANDRA HOOTER!
Winner of the ATS Logo Design Challenge

Accelerated Training Services (ATS) recently approached us with a request for a logo design that matches their high-class image and services.

Knowing that AWAI has the brightest and most talented designers around, we gladly opened the challenge to our Graphic Design Success members.

We received many very creative submissions for the ATS Logo Challenge from our hardworking GDS members, so the choice was difficult. But we had to pick just one. So…

Congratulations to our winner: Cassandra Hooter. You can see her winning design entry at:

http://www.thedesignerslife.com/winninglogo/

FROM THE IFD MAILBAG…
by Kristin Schwarz

Hello, everyone!

We shortened this issue's Mailbag to make room for our good news about the winner of the ATS Logo Challenge. But the question we answer today is a very good one ... one you will almost certainly encounter (if you haven't already).

Dear AWAI,

I recently created a brochure for a client. He really liked the green I chose as an accent color, and now wants me to create a sales letter, outer envelope, and order device using the same green in all the components. Can I drag a swatch from one layout to the next in InDesign ... or do I have to create the swatch again in each new layout?

Beth

Dear Beth,

Have all the layouts open in which you intend to use the swatch. Make sure the layout with the swatch you need is active (in front) with the other layouts slightly offset so part of their windows can be seen behind it.

Then just Click-Drag the desired swatch from the Swatches palette to the window of the next layout. When that layout window gets highlighted with a thick black outline, drop the swatch into it. Continue with the remaining layouts.

You can also Command-Click (Control-Click on PC) several swatches and Drag and Drop them into another layout all at the same time.

Congratulations on impressing your client with the brochure ... and good luck with the design of the direct-mail package.

That's it for now. Till next time...

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
  • GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Cleo Inc., a gift-wrap company, needs a graphic designer to join their team in Memphis, Tennessee. You'll help to create designs for products and may work to design marketing materials, as well. You must know Illustrator and Photoshop. Send your resume to careers@cleowrap.com.
  • GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Elder Health, a managed care provider, seeks a graphic designer who will be a good fit with their marketing team. You must have a good sense of branding, have a full sense of project flow from start to finish, and be good with both written and oral communications. You can apply at www.elderhealth.com or call toll free to 800-235-9188, extension 4512. You'll speak with Jennifer Ruppert.
  • GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Travelon, a product design company in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, needs a graphic designer. You'll work with the Vice President of Marketing. You'll create designs for packaging, advertisements, websites, catalogs, and more. You will also help develop concepts and provide research about markets Travelon hopes to reach. Send your resume, cover letter and PDF work samples to jobs@travelonbags.com.
  • GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Graphic Designer Needed to design DM pieces for Anti-Aging Seminar. Two offers will be tested each with unique look/feel. Limited budget but great opportunity to build portfolio. Please contact Cindy at cgoldberg@injuryandheadache.com.
COMING NEXT ISSUE:
  • Master Designer Rob Davis on Overcoming Magalog Jitters
  • Quick Tip: Design Secrets for Making Someone Look Powerful … or Intelligent
* ABOUT INSIDE FREELANCE DESIGN *

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

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