Talent Is Not Enough Business Secrets For Designers

by Perkins, Shel

• ISBN13: 9780321702029
• ISBN10: 0321702026
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-22
• Publisher: New Riders

Summary

The best business guide for design professionals just got better! This revised and expanded second edition includes everything designers need-besides talent-to turn their artistic success into business success. Yours"ll find information on key issues facing designers from freelancing to managing established design firms. A strong visual focus and to-the-point text take the fear factor out of learning about thorny business realities like staffing, marketing, bookkeeping, intellectual property, and more. These smart business practices are essential to success in graphic, Web, and industrial design. Here are just a few of the things yours"ll learn: bull; How to get on the right career path bull; The best way to determine pricing bull; How to avoid common legal pitfalls bull; How to manage large projects bull; The secrets of efficient design teams bull; How to forecast your workload and finances Talent Is Not Enoughprovides a big-picture context for these and other challenges and shares practical, real-world advice. Since its first publication, the book has become an essential resource for both students and working professionals in these areas and more: bull; Design planning and strategy bull; Corporate identity development bull; Publication and editorial design bull; Brand identity and packaging design bull; Advertising and promotion design bull; Marketing communications bull; Environmental design bull; Industrial design bull; Motion graphics bull; Interaction design bull; Information design "It is rare to find one individual with such a wide range of knowledge in the design-related fields. And, because of his experience as a designer, Shel brings a sensitivity and understanding to administrative issues while still respecting the artistic side of our industry." Frank Maddocks, President, Maddocks & Company "Now that design skills have become a commodity, you need business skills to focus them. Shel has written a crackerjack book that will be on the shelf of every ambitious designer." Marty Neumeier, author ofZagandThe Brand Gap

Author Biography

The author is a graphic designer, management consultant, and educator with more than twenty years of experience in managing the operations of leading design firms in the U.S. and the U.K. He currently provides management consulting services to a range of creative firms in both traditional and new media, and he serves as chairman of the AIGA Center for Practice Management. Shel has written the Professional Practice column for STEP magazine, the Design Business newsletter for AIGA, and the Design Firm Management column for Graphics.com. He has given presentations and workshops for many organizations, including IDSA, SEGD, HOW, ACD, Dynamic Graphics, STEP, Seybold, APDF, PromaxBDA, InSource, RGD Ontario, and the Graphic Artists Guild.

 

He teaches courses in professional practices at the California College of the Arts, the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and the University of California. He has served on the national boards of AIGA and the Association of Professional Design Firms. He has also been honored as an AIGA Fellow “in recognition of significant personal and professional contributions to raising the standards of excellence within the design community.”

Table of Contents

Career options
01. Making a living as a creative professional
02. Job hunting
03. Independent contractor issues
04. Sample independent contractor agreement
05. Income taxes for freelancers
06. Calculating a freelance rate
Small business
07. Becoming a business
08. Pricing models
09. Setting rates for a firm
10. Marketing
11. Proposals
12. Project management basics
13. Bookkeeping basics
14. Cash flow
15. Insurance basics
16. Facilities planning
Legal issues
17. Intellectual property
18. Defamation, privacy, and publicity
19. Understanding terms and conditions
20. AIGA standard form of agreement
21. Ethics and social responsibility
Large firms
22. Successful design teams
23. Using student interns
24. Working with a sales rep
25. Large projects
26. Financial management
27. Forecasting
28. Business planning
29. Exit strategies
30. Special challenges for in-house departments
Index