Quote of the Day
“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”
~ Diana Scharf Hunt
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How to Get More Design Referrals
Freelancers and small design companies do not have large marketing budgets. There may be a few dollars here or there to spend on Google AdWords, Facebook ads or perhaps a small print campaign, but by and large we survive on one things: referrals.
When someone begins his/her freelance design career, all we have are referrals: from our friends, schoolmates, even our parents and family. As we land our first clients and complete our first design jobs, it’s important to realize the importance of referrals and think about how to maximize them. The more clients we get, the more opportunity for referrals, which brings in more clients, and so on. It grows exponentially and, if you take steps to ensure you get more referrals, you may not have to spend a cent on advertising. Ever.
Read the full article here! (via www.paper-leaf.com)
45+ Unique Examples of Coming Soon Pages
When launching a new site, it is important to build up buzz before actually revealing your masterpiece to the public. That way you can have an eagerly waiting audience to hit the ground running! This next post will not only help you start a promising site, but will guide and inspire you to create your own sensational “coming soon” page to build up buzz. First impressions mean a lot, so make the most out of every opportunity. Here are 45+ Unique Examples of Coming Soon Pages. Check out this list that we came up with just for you. Enjoy! (via www.youthedesigner.com)
Quote of the Day
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”
~Mary Lou Cook
Behavioral Job Interviews
Behavioral based job interviews are based on learning how the interviewee acted in specific employment-related situations. The logic is that past behavior will predict future performance. Here’s information on behavioral job interviews, including behavioral job interview questions, how to prepare for a behavioral interview, and techniques and strategies for acing a behavioral job interview.
What is a behavioral job interview?
Candidates for employement often ask what the difference is between a regular job interview and a behavioral interview. There isn’t a difference in the actual format of the job interview. You will still meet with an interviewer and respond to interview questions. The difference is in the type of interview questions that will be asked.
Read the full article by Alison Doyle on about.com!
An Introduction to Color Theory for Web Designers
(tutsplus.com) – Today we’re going to learn the importance of color in Web Design and how to choose a pleasing color scheme. This article is part of our Basix series, which is aimed at providing practical and concise explanations of design principles for those with little design experience… let’s get started!
Who this Article is Written for:
This article is written for people that are just starting to learn formal design principles. It is not meant to be a comprehensive study of how to apply color to a design (we’ll have plenty of those in the future), but rather, it’s an overview for those looking for practical advice that will help them approach color theory within the context of a web design project.
I’m writing this because I’ve always found it difficult to decide on a color scheme that works well for a project; it’s probably one of the toughest decisions that I have to make as a designer. However, by learning the basics of Color Theory and some excellent tools available on the web, I’ve been able to strengthen my designs and account for this weakness.
Read the full article here!
Chicago Event Tonight – AIGA Chicago Mentor Program
Firebelly Design
Need a Little Design Therapy?
Winter’s in the air, and with it, another season of the AIGA Chicago Mentor Program. Anyone interested in joining the group sessions, getting great advice and sharing your resources is encouraged to attend our winter session kickoff event at 6:30pm on Thursday, January 27 at Firebelly Design, 2701 W. Thomas in Chicago.
The focus of this session’s small group is on mixed disciplines. Whether you’re a print designer looking to learn more about web design or a photographer wanting to know what art directors want, it’s a great opportunity to learn from your peers.
See the full details here on aigachicago.org!
Quote of the Day
“People don’t choose their careers; they are engulfed by them.”
~ John Dos Passos
8 Portfolio Phrases That Send the Wrong Message
Like corporate website, which use phrases like “innovative strategies” and “leading-edge solutions” ad naseum, many freelancers’ online portfolios tend to use some of the same tired phrases again and again. I combed through dozens of freelance websites (many of them discovered through FreelanceSwitch’s Find a Freelancer Directory) to create this list of over-used and ineffective phrases.
If you’re using these in your own portfolio, consider finding other phrases so you can stand out from the pool of eager freelancers.
Read the full article here! (via freelanceswitch.com)
7 Tips for Starting a Coworking Space
Jeff Park started out looking for space his company could share with a handful of other independent workers in order to reduce rent. Bill Jacobson and Dave Ulrich ended up with a lot of extra space after the main tenant that shared their sublease decided to move out. And Tony Bacigalupo decided to try working with a group of people that called their rotating work event a Jelly. All of them ended up founding coworking spaces — Ravenswood Coworking in Chicago, WorkBar in Boston, and New Work City in Manhattan, respectively.
No matter what brought you to the conclusion that you’d like to start a coworking space, a good place to start is asking veterans for their advice. We’ve taken the liberty of starting this process for you. Here are seven pointers founders gave us for how to get a coworking space started. (via www.mashable.com)
Quote of the Day
“The word career is a divisive word. It’s a word that divides the normal life from business or professional life.”
~ Grace Paley
Get a Design Job!
(www.aiga.org) RitaSue Siegel’s Get a Design Job, now in its third edition, is available to the AIGA community at no charge. Originally written for Innovation, the quarterly publication of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Siegel offers advice to emerging designers looking to break into the world of design, designers eager to improve their positions, as well as recently downsized managers and executives.
From performing a self-evaluation on the core design competencies that can add value to a wide range of businesses, to navigating different types of interviews and networking situations, Get a Design Job offers practical advice for the changing roles of today’s designers.
Read the full article here!
Awesome Collection Of Creative Websites For Your Inspiration
“Some of most impressive websites out there. They are all individually designed, but have one thing in common: They are stunning.” (via whatanicepost.com)
Quote of the Day
“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
~ Steve Jobs
Top 10 Etiquette Blunders
Recently, a colleague was lamenting the lack of etiquette he deals with on a daily basis.
“You would not believe how some of these people speak and act,” he said of salespeople at businesses he frequents. “They don’t know how to answer the phone, they text while talking to you, and when you walk in, they don’t greet you appropriately. They don’t even seem to know how to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’”
Do I need to mention that he is in his 50s and he was mostly referring to younger workers? No, I don’t think I do. But it is valid nonetheless. And I must say, I share some of his concern.
And so, after speaking with some etiquette experts, I came up with the Top 10 Business Etiquette Blunders to avoid:
Read more at openforum.com
18 Common Work E-mail Mistakes
Most of us rely on e-mail as one of our primary communication tools. And given the number of messages we send and receive, we do it with remarkable success.
But as with anything, the more e-mails we send, the more likely we are to screw one up. And simple e-mail mistakes can be disastrous. They can cost us a raise, promotion–even a job.
With a new year upon us, this is the perfect time to go through some of the worst e-mail mistakes employees make and how to avoid them.
Read the full article on yahoo.com!
Quote of the Day
“Quit counting fans, followers and blog subscribers like bottle caps. Think, instead, about what you’re hoping to achieve with and through the community that actually cares about what you’re doing.”
~Amber Naslund, Social Media Today
Top 5 Online Communities for Starting Your Career
It’s helpful to have someone with more experience show you the ropes when you’re beginning a new journey — this is especially true when it comes to entering the job market.
Having a community that shares job openings, tips, resources and words of wisdom is of real value, especially when you can ask the tough questions, such as “Do I really need to write a cover letter?” or “What are the job prospects in my industry?”
There are several career communities that focus on those initial years of your career and offer resources for you to start off strong — here are five.
Read the full article by Sharlyn Lauby on mashable.com!
11 Traits of a Great Employer
Darcy Breeman works for Edward Jones, a company that recently came in at No. 2 in Fortune’s annual list of the 100 Best Places to Work. So what makes that investment company unique and why is it on the list? Well, just consider Bremen’s story:
“I’m in the process of adopting a newborn and will be a single mom. Jones will send someone to my office to cover me while I’m gone and serve my clients… I can [then] come back and take a couple of appointments a day and then come home. If I want to bring my daughter into the office, that’s fine. They [even] have an adoption reimbursement plan.”
Read the full article on openforum.com!
Quote of the Day
“Great design does not come from great processes; it comes from great designers.”
~ via www.wired.com