Final Draft Design

From vandelaydesign.com

Each of us is unique and no process will work for everyone, but all of us have plenty of things that we can do to improve our workflow. In this article I’ll cover some of the lessons that I have learned through my own experience. For me, productivity is a constant goal, and always interested in finding new ways to get more out of my time. I’m far from perfect in these areas, but making consistent improvements. Hopefully some of these things will help you in your own work.

Here’s a couple and read the full article, with descriptions, after the jump.

1. Have a Task List for the Day
2. Prioritize Tasks
3. Place More Emphasis on Finishing Tasks Rather than Starting New Ones
4. Know the Strongest Times of Your Work Day
5. Give Yourself Some Flexibility
6. Have a Specified Ending Time for Work

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Great article from Freelance Folder

When I started my own design business, one of the first things I put in place was a well-written contract. Before I spoke to an attorney about drafting an official document for me, I made sure I had my design process established. I also did a lot of research as to what other design firms and freelancers were including in their agreements. With something as subjective as design, there are lots of gray areas that need to be clarified as much as possible on paper.

If you’re in the process of drafting a client contract, or if you are considering revising one that already exists, I would recommend including the following list of items:

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from the Freelance Folders

From management, to marketing, to finances — business skills of all varieties are critical to have in this economy and incredibly beneficial no matter what your situation.

In this article we’ve collected 15 different websites that will help you sharpen your business skill set in a number of different ways. Each of these sites is an incredible source of information, and some of them are easily worth reading on a daily basis.

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My favorite late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, visits a barber shop to ask black people how to make fun of Obama. FUNNY STUFF!

I often get a lot of people that reach out to me wanting a cheap and quick logo for their company but may not understand exactly what goes into creating one or why it is so important. Then they frown at the quote that we give them. Here is a great article that I came across this morning that talks about the importance of branding.

I’ve had several clients and small business owners tell me lately that they can’t start any new branding initiatives because they are cutting costs and streamlining their operations to help navigate the economic challenges. While I’ll be the first to admit that the current economic situation should cause all of us to take a good, hard look at our business model, and that cutting costs and reducing expenses is a wise endeavor - I think there’s a fundamental mistake in that line of reasoning. Branding shouldn’t be considered a cost - and therefore be subject to ‘reduction’ - instead, branding should be viewed as an investment.

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Singer/Songwriter/Producer Ryan Leslie is a genius! I never really like dude because he discovered singer Cassie on youtube, and I don’t like her. Plus I’m a hater. But he really is a talented dude, and watching him work is amazing. (pause)

And for those that may not be familiar Leslie’s story, he skipped his senior year of high school and graduated a junior. Went straight to Harvard in the fall of 1994 at 15 years old, graduated at the age of 19 with a degree in Government and Economics. So its safe to say dude’s a prodigy.

Get familiar!

For my iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ix5dicdL7c

More on Leslie, Grinding at the age of 15, in 94′ (youtube)

These are always good to see. Shows just how creative ad agencies and designers can be. Incredible stuff that I probably would not have thought of [YET]. Imagine what they charge for something like that!!!!!!

I’ll be there in a minute.

Share your thoughts!

Here are a few of my favorites from the post: (After the jump)

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I don’t know any one with an iPhone that hasn’t jailbroken in to run 3rd Party Apps. And now, since Jailbraking has become so easy to do and with iPhone 2.0 on the way, people have forgotten about the wonderful little web apps that excited us and held us down from the beginning of iPhone time. Web Apps need love too!!!

So here’s my dedication to the useful iPhone Web Apps that I still use regularly. (after the jump)
I’m sure there’s a ton of them out there that I may not even know about, or just forgotten, but feel free to suggest.

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Another great read! Its funny because my wife and I were just talking about some of these same points. Specifically, the point about Deciding Work Hours. For me, there’s has been plenty of times when I can be doing something with my family, at church or just out and about on a Satuday morning and I’d get a call. Because I never set a time for when I can be reached, the client did nothing wrong,. So in the near future, I will be giving myself work days and work hours so clients will know what days I will be in the office working on projects and know the best time to reach me. And this will help me develop better time management techniques. But of course, if something need my immediate attention, make sure you give me a call!

So my office hours will consist of NO WIFE (my wife’s understanding), NO TV, NO PS3, NO BLU-RAY and NO FACEBOOK. Just a cup of coffee, my laptop and a locked door. I’ll call this my black out time.

So here’s some good pointers about staying motivated and productive from a write at the Freelance Folder, after the jump.

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GREAT READ for those who want to get a better understanding on why web design can be expensive, or don’t believe that our prices are more the reasonable. Maybe too reasonable.

Every week, I get emails from potential clients who all want to know one thing: How much for a design?

Nine times out of ten, my answer causes them to run for the hills. Scary thing is, based on industry buzz, my prices could actually be considered totally reasonable by comparison. Don’t believe me? Well, today you get the whole scoop - my prices, their prices, and my always-priceless editorial commentary on the subject

My Prices
For the sake of argument, I’m going to constrain today’s post to blog design only.

When people email me and ask for a quote, I always follow the same process. I visit their current site and determine the following:

The current CMS platform (WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, etc.)
The scope of the site - how many unique styling elements will be required for specialty pages?
The perceived complexity of the re-design. Does this person want a graphical masterpiece with all kinds of bells and whistles?
Generally speaking, there’s not a whole lot of variance in these areas from blog to blog, so after checking out the site in question, I usually have a good idea of how much to charge. Now, to answer the question you all want to hear…How much is all this gonna run ya?

At this time, blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design.

In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a pimped out blog could run as much as $3000. Rest assured, though, that it would be totally badass, and the recipient of the design would receive mad props for having such a killer online abode.

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