Summaries and Reflections (3)
On Getting Paid - Jessica Hische
This article helps guide emerging young designers who are skeptical when pricing their creative work for clients. Hische starts off by talking about how charging hourly is pretty advantageous when freelance is the main source of one's income. But by doing so, you must be aware of how well and how fast you work under certain conditions, to ensure everyone is happy with the end work and payment. She then leads into how to properly message a client when details are very vague, and the importance of "rights management". She provides factors to price a job based on licensing - the length of time it will be used for, where and how it will be used, reprinting fees, etc. If clients are to be vague with their requests, Hische gives general guidelines for pricing for "presentation only" based on the size of a company. As well, she includes other price points for various usage scenarios. She also speaks about internships and how they should be a learning opportunity more than anything. And lastly, Hische gives great tips on how to find freelance work out there.
I found this article to be very interesting and handy when it comes to pricing my own freelance work. I have recently accepted some client work from friends and after reading this article, I was reassured that doing work for friends is a great start for building my portfolio, and practicing how I would professionally talk to (or message) future clients. I thought that it was very important when Hische stated to read every contract carefully, and to look out for the red flag – “WORK FOR HIRE”. It is crucial to know if the work you will be creating will hand over your authorial rights as well. Though as a designer, she brings up the point that in those situations we are usually just creating a unique context and not creating new content. I also found it important to know that hourly pricing is okay when creating a logo, as it will be used at an unlimited capacity.
The pricing guidelines are also great to know, as I’m sure most of us have very little knowledge of this. There is pricing for presentation only, and then that price gets tacked onto whichever scenario is chosen – all priced accordingly to usage. I was happy to read that it is fine to turn down jobs if a big name client is to give a very low budget. This just means that you are helping out by not lowering the standards of pricing for other designers. Even though keeping in mind that quoting respectable prices is key. I admire the fact that she says our work has value and that it is ultimately up to me to determine how much my creative work is worth. I am also very lucky to have two older brothers as designers, who are able to help me with ballpark pricing for any prospective work that I may encounter.
I could not agree more when Hische talks about internships, and how experience and knowledge is most valuable thing that can be taken away. Though I do agree that any work should be compensated for, when these days internships are mostly unpaid. When I had my placement at Site3 last semester, my experience there was mostly acting as an extra hand for small, personal projects. Though I wasn’t paid for the assistance I gave, I was educated to the fullest extent on the specific projects I helped out with. Sometimes, just nodding and pretending I understood what they were doing or trying to fabricate. I greatly value the people I met there, and the work that they do because of the passion and knowledge they have. It is very inspirational.
While glancing over Hische’s tips on how to get freelance work, I fully agree that doing work for free (for charities, friends, contests, etc.) to enhance your portfolio is truly beneficial. Besides that, paying attention to the industry so that your work is up to date with designs and being able to hold intelligent conversations is very important to me as well. I am glad to have read this article and very excited to jump into the world of freelance work!
Make every word count: Tips for polishing and tightening copy - Steve Buttry
Steve Buttry’s article is a guide to “polishing and tightening” written work. Buttry first starts off by stating that it is very important to coordinate with your editor so that the length of the writing is correct. Also, to ensure that you are doing the right research so that you can save time. When writing, it is also crucial to “consider the reader” in such a way that you’re writing for the average interested reader of your content. When looking for information to include, think about what you want the reader to think about afterwards and if it will be useful to them later. If there is a lot of information, consider other types of visuals like graphics to better relay some information of statistics. Buttry then says to set the pace with the lead. Starting strong from the start is the topic another article that he has written, which helps with a brisk lead and sharp focus on content.
Speaking upon the writing process, Buttry says to write without the mess of your notes so that you can be more focused on what you want to say. If it is important, then it should be in your head already. Stay focused, and avoid taking the story on detours that do not help with its development. Only use the best information, images, examples and quotes as well to help keep the story tight and focused.
I found this article to be very useful when writing, especially when it came down to the tips and techniques. Aside from the “read aloud” and “check each sentence carefully” that I already knew, I noticed that a lot of things I write should be stamped out or minimized. Reading this article has already semi-helped with excluding many words I would normally include in a piece of writing. I will definitely refer to this article in the future when it comes to writing specific content. I agree with the fact that we are in a technical field, and digital skills are pressured upon us more heavily than anything others. Even when I was studying fine art and art history at another institution, we were required to take grammar courses to ensure we could all write and speak about the history and techniques we were learning. In this field, it is highly important to coach high writing standards so that we are able to communicate and verbalize the work we are making.
10 Steps to better blogging - Dan Frommer
Dan Frommer’s article on tips for better blogging, lists 10 different techniques to pay attention to when having an online presence or opinion. From being accurate about the facts that you use - to thinking about the reader’s experience, these tips and tricks are great because they are clear and concise. Frommer says to “write the site that you want to read”, relating to the length, style, attitude, words relating to a specific field or interest, etc. Most importantly however you articulate yourself, make sure to be proud of what you are writing. He ensures that it is okay to be a jerk, only if it is funny. If you’re not an unlikable person offline, why be one online? Frommer says that it is important to “be critical, but don’t be unfair”. Tip number 9 encourages choosing a unique topic, something that has not been written about time and again. If someone happens to get to it before you, then share their work if you think it’s great and this will encourage conversations to spark.
This entire list consists of great approaches when it comes to “better blogging”. One that I greatly agree with is to “be more skeptical” – by trying not to take one side and fully agree with a source. Instead, question it and question everything. Another tip that I already follow is to “attribute well”. This is always great to practice, as we all hate when we’re not given credit for our own work. It is very simple to link sources, which in turn will create traffic to the blog. Frommer also lists other sources that are great to refer to when it comes to attributing. I think it’s important when Frommer states that you shouldn’t “assume people know what you’re talking about”. Especially when speaking about a specific field with concepts that are not commonly known, or even new and emerging – simply adding a good description that’s a click away is the best way to solve this problem. Lastly, the encouragement to “try new things, all the time” is something that I will take away from this article. With the new social media platforms that have emerged in our time, there are many ways to communicate a story or message. Whether it be through images, charts, other graphics, or short and concise text – Frommer says to use these as experiments and keep the results in mind for future posts.
