DISQUS

Alex · 1 year ago

Great series of articles!!

Thanks alot Jeff, and all the other designers for their advice. Much appreciated.

Shawn · 1 year ago

Yet another great post, Jeff - kudos! :)

George · 1 year ago

I don't know if it's from a lack of understanding or a respect for a designer's role, but it seems we're stretched in all conceivable directions from business to marketing. It's amazing to me that there are people like yourself that can do it all, and do it so well! Thank you for taking the time to write this post. Hopefully people will take note and learn from your experiences.

Vector art: Boston's Fenway Pa · 1 year ago

These posts are a wealth of knowledge. The music industry is something I would really like to break into, and this article sets some good guidelines to follow.

Thanks to you guys and all the contributors.

thomas bailey · 1 year ago

Very good conclusion to the series guys. The best point for me was not putting all your eggs in one basket, it is hard to say no when a huge chunk of your salary is in your face but you need to know when to stand your ground.

Great read!

JoMo · 1 year ago

This was a truly excellent tome of wisdom. Explaining one's past mistakes to a large audience just strikes me as the best way to truly further the progress in any specific field or specialty.

Of everything this post spoke of, #15 I think is the most relevant for pretty much any artist in any field. While the other mistakes listed seem very stringently associated with design and business, the final one about accepting criticism is a universal truth that once realized, and embraced, allows any artist to truly evolve and flourish within their field.

Seriously kudos on this whole list. As my company is still in it's infancy, these mishaps are truly invaluable for myself at the moment and for the future. So, a sincere THANK YOU is well in order.

ChequeredManiac · 1 year ago

Suweet, nice finisher.
This series will be my survival guide as a beginner.

And I'm sure I'll look back at it too when I've gotten too big for my boots with all the big clients and hang my head in shame "I should have listened".

I really appreciate all the help you've all given, so thanks to Jeff for the article and thanks to all the other designers for their advice, you're all great inspiration. I look forward to your criticism in the future, I will cry, but you'll never know.

Geoff May · 1 year ago

It was a pleasure contributing. Thanks for having me!

jaime.radar · 1 year ago

i actually did get a shout-out for my design work at a show once because the band was surprised to see me at their show. one of my favorite clients for sure.

putting a limit on revisions is something i had to learn the hard way from my less-than-favorable clients.

great article, all three parts!

Grant Friedman · 1 year ago

I spent a lot of time in my early days working for "exposure" I can't even count how many time I heard the term "national attention" in the beginning. Thankfully those days are over and people rarely ask me to do work for free.

Bryan · 1 year ago

Awesome serious Jeff. Great job as always

Bryan · 1 year ago

series*

G Zoli · 1 year ago

All 3 posts were great. Useful for desigers, shows how to behave and hopefully, some clients gonna read it too.

RandomEntity · 1 year ago

Nice conclusion, number 15 is suuuuuch a big one for new designers/artists.

Eric Thayne · 1 year ago

Those were great! Thank you much!

gio · 1 year ago

great set! i love the insights of the artists interviewed here. very good piece. looking forward to more in the future!

Androctonvs · 1 year ago

Awesome read.
Cheers from Portugal.

Tom Baker · 1 year ago

Thankyou Jeff! I have been looking forward to the concluding part, and it was worth waiting for. I often feel like this common sense and business side is forgotten about of Degree courses, its articles like this where some really meaty learning can be done. I have already made some of the mistakes you have mentioned, but hopefully..with this in my favourites, I can avoid further ones.

Again thankyou very much, and I am now a firm fan of GoMedia!

Tom

Jeff Finley · 1 year ago

@Tom - thanks so much. Glad to have you as a fan!

exigent · 1 year ago

Well played! Even though this is all "common knowlege" info for designers, it is good to hear that even the bigger firms have gone through what many of us still are... Not saying Go Media doesn't from time to time have hick-ups.

What is the terminology for clients who during the initial meeting, decide to take a leak mid sentence while showing their trailer needing a graphic.

Yeah, that was definately one for the books.

Olly Moss · 1 year ago

Great article! It changed my perspective on a few things.

Rude Retro · 1 year ago

Great series of articles. Thanks.
BTW, typo in conclusion. "Made by Desginers "

Avangelist · 1 year ago

As always this has been a fantastic series of articles.

The free exposure thing is something that has started to plague me of late with certain worldwide organisations taking complete piss with fee's for commissions claiming that a 14million worldwide readership is reward enough....

And other sites who carry my photographs for link credit and I am starting to question what the point of it all really is.

It is a sensible comment on the don't let 1 client be 40% of your business, but it can be hard to juggle other work around said client at the time.

NaldzGraphics · 1 year ago

great article:)i love reading it. and yeah i love it.all i can say is no one is perfect.even pro got mistakes sometimes

James Tryon · 1 year ago

Great post Jeff! Very Informative.

zimex · 1 year ago

is it important to have a site portfolio for a designer?cause i dont have one.

Simon Bondar · 1 year ago

These are a great set of posts!

I have experienced both the good and the bad that has been covered. Although a lot of it relates to print work, the same can be said of web work.

It's nice to know I am not the only one that has made some of these mistakes when starting out!

RoeBlogger · 1 year ago

Thanks for this advice. Its really a big help for me. im still starting out as a graphic designer, i would love to learn a lot of things from you

Jon Turner · 1 year ago

Thanks so much for these articles, Jeff and co- as someone making his first, very tentative steps into this arena the advice given in these blogs is invaluable, and very relevant. Awesome.