Businesses are slowly moving away from brick and mortar stores to more robust solutions, such as online stores.

One of the main reasons of this is because they are easier to run and also have the potential of doing business globally.

Etsy is one solution and gives people the ability to run online stores at the comfort of their living rooms.

But even for the online stores, the basic concepts of branding and marketing remains.

If you want to attract more clients to come to your online stores, you have to stand out from the crowd with effective branding strategies.

Below are the various tips and tricks you can employ to design a logo for your Etsy store and bring you all the benefits you need.

Simplicity rules

A glance at the world’s leading eCommerce store will be a clear testament to the fact that simple logos work well for online stores.

Amazon’s logo is nicely designed and it has been a major driving force behind the company’s branding success.

Etsy store owners can be pick few tips from this logo and implement them in their designs.

For instance, the logo is largely text-based and it is clearly formatted and well organized.

If such a design is adopted, the logo will be memorable to the current store users and potential customers will also notice it quite easily.

Optimize for mobile

It is no longer a convenience but rather a necessity for online stores to be mobile friendly so that mobile users can also have a chance to access the stores online.

It will interest you to know that the number of mobile users has grown so immensely, thus making mobile traffic a major source for most of the eCommerce stores.

In regards to logo design for Etsy stores, the logo should have the versatility to render in mobile devices as well, so that mobile users don’t miss a chance to recognize the store simply because the logo is not mobile friendly.

But the logo shouldn’t be just optimized for mobile alone.

The versatility should also be depicted when you need to scale it up or down.

For instance, you may be interested in creating various marketing materials such as posters, flyers, business cards, email signatures etc.

In putting the logo in such materials, it is imperative for it to maintain its legibility and not lose any of its qualities.

Use images or tagline to reveal your unique selling points

To run a successful Etsy store or any other eCommerce store, it is imperative to distinguish yourself from the competition by providing a truly unique selling point.

Since there are several stores competing for the same audiences in the internet, your logo should inform your target audience of the kind of value they will get when they purchase from your store.

The best way to do this is to use images or your tagline to reveal your unique selling points to the target audiences.

Because the potential customers may not have time to go through your website in detail, by revealing your USP in the logo, they will feel compelled to check out your store.

Consider horizontal designs

When designing a logo for your Etsy store, it may be tempting to keep the design to just one corner of the website, usually the top left corner.

Whereas this is the norm and almost every store is doing it that way, to attract more attention, you should consider using as much as possible the horizontal length of the web page.

If you minimize the vertical space and instead stretch the text and the graphics of the logo to cover the horizontal plane, the logo will be easily recognizable, thus contributing to the branding efforts of your Etsy store.

Additionally, such an alignment will give you the chance to showcase more of your products on the store.

Use images properly

Finally, you should make good use of the images.

From well performing online stores like Amazon, it is not possible to think about the logo without the upward pointing arrow coming to mind.

Again, such logos use art minimally, hence it is important to use images that are unquestionably related to the kinds of goods you are selling on your Etsy store.

Look for a clean and a minimalist image that is simple enough and will have the ability to stick in the minds of your customers or potential clients who visit the website.

These tips, if used religiously, will enable you to create an outstanding logo for your Etsy store.

Remember, the competition among fellow Etsy stores is very high and you need to do everything necessary to stand out.

One of these ways is to have a nicely designed, unique, and original logo.

Use these color tools with your logo!

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The other way of enhancing the branding is to have a powerful logo to act as a perpetual reminder to the current and potential clients about the business. In this piece, we highlight certain fundamental tips for barbershop logo design to set your shop apart from the rest and ensure you can you have a consistent stream of clients.

Adopt a simple and clean design

Simplicity and cleanliness are must-have features for any successful logo. They will make the logo look attractive and reflect on the barbershop in an uncluttered way. By being simple and clean, the logo should have balanced graphics, proper fonts, complimentary colors and a cleverly crafted tagline to pass across the main marketing message in a clear and concise manner. To know how to come up with such a logo, take time and brainstorm on the words that you think best describe your barbershop philosophy, services, values and generally what motivates you to give your best to your clients.

Let the logo reflect your barbershop style

One effective way of branding for any business is to target a niche audience. In the beauty or hair care industry, there is a plethora of styles offered by both the salons and barbershops. Identify your specific niche or style and incorporate some of its elements into the logo. For instance, is your style more hip-urban or do you cater for a specific type of clients such as black Americans? When you are able to reflect your style in the logo, it will make it easy for people to tell what they are likely to get when visiting your shop and you will also attract quality prospects because they already know what they want and they have an idea that they might get it from your barbershop.

Intelligent use of colors

There is no logo design which will ever be discussed without reference being made to the color psychology. This owes to the immense importance of color use in logo design. People react differently when they see colors and this call for the intelligent use of colors in your logo design. With regards to designing a logo for barbershop, the choice of color could be determined by a number of factors.

For instance, you may decide to use earth tones to reflect your hair care services or if you are an urban or trendy barber, then going with simple colors such as black and white would still work. Suppose you use organic hair care products and you would want to use this as a selling point, then you may use nature colors such as green, purple or orange.

The size and format of the logo

It is important to remember that the logo will be used in a myriad of places for marketing your barbershop. Probably, you are likely to use it in the social media, in your website, on posters inside and out of your shop and on stationery amongst others. Due to these, it is imperative to consider the size and the format of the logo. Because of the diverse nature of the intended use, the logo shouldn’t lose its quality when printed on small items like stationery or on large items such as banners and poster for the shop.

The symbols or objects

The symbols should be able to let anyone know that the logo is for a barbershop. In this regard, your choice of symbol should be related to the industry. Mostly, some people will prefer to use haircut styles or tools used such as scissors. While searching for the appropriate symbol to use for the logo, don’t be too generic or copy another person’s exact same style. Instead, use them for inspiration and add your tweaks to make it original and unique.

Consider using the services of a professional designer

It is true that you can use a plethora of the online tools and free logo generators to create a logo for your barbershop. However, these options have some inherent limitations which might work against you in the long run. For instance, you won’t have the flexibility to create an entirely unique logo and besides, other people in different parts of the world are using the same tools and same resources, hence there is no originality. The antidote to this is to use the services of professional logo designers who will create for you unique and original logo for your business. You may have to part with some money, but it is worth it for the long term branding of your business.

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Raster Graphics

Raster is the commonly used type of graphics. They comprise of tiny continuous of colored boxes known as dots or pixels. When creating images or graphics for print, Raster graphics are usually measured in dots per inch (dpi), but when the images are meant for use in the web then they are measured in pixel per inch (ppi). These measurements allow the designers to measure the amount of color information contained in a specific image. The most popular file formats for Raster graphics include jpg, png, tiff, gif, psd and bmp. In the creation of Raster graphics, there are lots of tools which can be used, with Adobe Photoshop being the preferred one by the majority.

Pros and cons of Raster images

One of the greatest advantages of Raster graphics is that they offer greater color detail because they are pixel based. With this, Raster images have a finite number of pixels. Therefore, should you attempt to enlarge the graphic; the computer will try to fill in the gaps of the missing pixels with the colors which it thinks matches the spaces. This interpolation of data is what will make the images appear blurry or pixilated, since the computer cannot guess correctly the exactly colors which ought to be in those spaces.

The second advantage of using Raster is the precise editing that they allow the editors to have. When working with Raster graphics, designers have more precise editing control over the details and the color information. It will interest you to know that all the individual pixels with the color information in Raster images can be edited one by one, therefore, if you are a perfectionist designer, then Raster images gives you the highest levels of customization possible. The editing possibilities are simply endless.

On the other hand, there are certain characteristic of Raster images that are not admirable at all. The first con of these graphics is that they are blurry or get pixilated when enlarged. This is because the images are made of a finite number of pixels and when they are enlarged, the computer tries to guess the right color that should be in the additional gaps. The image will thus appear blurry because the computer has no way of telling the right color which should be filled in the gaps.

The second con for Raster graphics lies on their size. They are large in nature and might sometimes compromise the processing powers of the computers, even for faster machines.

Vector Graphics

Unlike Raster graphics which are comprised of individual pixels, vector graphics uses math to draw shapes in form of dots, curves and lines and they are infinitely scalable. The graphics uses the original math equation to create consistent shapes irrespective of whether they are being scaled up or down. This is why vector graphics are preferred for logos and large scale printing. For creating graphics meant for the web, you are free to use vector or Raster graphics since it is possible to export vector images to popular Raster formats such as png, jpg, etc.

Pros and cons of vector graphics

As indicated earlier, one of the pros of vector graphics is that they can be scaled infinitely without them compromising the image quality in any way. With them, you don’t have to worry about missing pixels, since the original mathematic equation will be applied to the shape consistently at all times.

Secondly, vector images are relatively smaller thus easy to work with and will not affect the processing power of computers as is the case with large Raster files. And finally, unlike their Raster based counterparts, vector graphics are never flattened and this simply implies that the original shapes exist in different layers, giving you the power to modify each element individually.

One of the limitations of vectors is their unsuitability for complex images that might require exact coloring. This is owing to the mathematical nature of how data is remembered by vectors. Though it may be possible to create basic color gradients with vectors, it will not be possible to match the color details available in Raster images, where you can edit each individual pixel.

Learn more common file formats for graphic designers here!

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PNG: Portable Network Graphics

This is one of the most common graphic design formats you will ever come across. Files in this format will have the extension .png and it is majorly used when dealing with photos. Its use is also rampant when working on projects destined for websites and other online uses because of its low resolution. The files in PNG format are mostly bitmap images which use lossless data compression. It is also important to point out the fact that files in this format can have a transparent background.

TIF: Tagged Image File Format

Tagged Image Format is used for the storage of images, art or photography. Files in this format are predominantly used in commercial printing or professional environments. The TIFF graphics design format also happens to be the most widely supported format across most of the platforms. If you want high quality images, then this is the format you will have to work with. Though it is considered as large in size, it offers superior reliability when dealing with high quality images compared to the other formats you will ever come across.

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format

GIF is another common graphic design format you have probably come across multiple times. GIF formats are known to have low resolutions and are majorly used for website and email purposes. Almost all browsers support this format, and it employs the use of compression scheme to keep all the files small. Just like the PNG files, GIF files can also be created with transparent backgrounds.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group

You have probably heard of the JPEG graphics design format and maybe used it for a couple of times. JPEG refers to a compressed image file which offers no support for transparent backgrounds. The levels of compression in such files, however, vary with regards to resolution, and also depending on the quality of the printing. Repeated compression will compromise the final quality of JPEG files.

PSD: Photoshop Document

PSD graphics design format is probably known to every graphic designer, especially those who use Photoshop in their designs. This format is usually a raster format, and it is found in graphics and photos created using the Adobe Photoshop image editing software. It is commonly used by designers and printers and files in this format can only be opened using the software program. It is also worth noting that files in PSD file format can be created in separate and distinct layers thus making it one of the most robust graphic design formats available for the designers.

AI: Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a common graphics design tool used by millions of designers across the globe. The AI graphics design format comprises of vector files that designers and commercial printers can use to produce files in other different file formats as well as sizes. Just like the PSD files, AI files can only be opened using Adobe Illustrator, and they also allow for the creation of files in layers. It is the AI graphics file format that is most preferred by promotional product companies, printers, sign and banner companies as well as other third-party creatives.

PDF: Portable Document Format

PDF is considered a universal graphics design format that embeds and preserver the fonts, layout, graphics and images for all source documents irrespective of the application that was used in creating them. It is thus possible to share and view these files as well as print them with any free Adobe Reader software program. Some of the files in this format are also suitable for use in digital, commercial or desktop printing.

EPS: Encapsulated Post Script

The EPS graphics design format is mostly used in the transfer of artwork or images by designers, from vector files into other applications. EPS files can be scaled to any size and can also be opened with various applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop or Freehand. EPS graphic design format is another preferred format by printers, sign and banner companies, silk screeners and other third-party creatives due to its versatility when it comes to printing.

These are some of the common graphics design formats which will give you the flexibility when working with various files meant for various applications.

Learn about the basics of branding for designers here!

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Other than the prizes offered in the design contests, the possibility of landing clients is another reason people enter such contests. This is also why the contests are always swarmed with lots of new designers or the less experienced ones because they hope to win and attract new clients to jump start their design careers.

If you think of contests as a marketing platform, then you are very wrong and you will be disappointed at the end of each design contest. Especially if you are not among the winners, and this will be the case most of the times. To illustrate to you why it is not worth it entering the design contests, consider the following.

You risk not being paid

A typical graphics design contest will attract participants in their hundreds if not thousands. Most of the time, every participant will be required to submit more than one design, with ten being the average number for most of them. It implies that you will have to spend your time working on all the designs and submit them within the deadline. With the large number of participants, your chances of becoming the winner or even the first or second runners up are very slim.

Since these are the people who will be rewarded in the graphic design contests, there are no guarantees that you will make it to the final list. And if you are lucky enough to be among the winners, still there are no guarantees that you will be paid or get the designated prize for the winner. Therefore, there is no need to spend your precious time doing some great work, and ultimately get nothing for your sweat.

No other industry holds contests like the design industry

I know you think of the graphics design contests positively, but have you taken time to think if the same is happening in other industries? Would you go to five different dentists to fill your tooth then decide the one you will be paying? Or would you invite ten different plumbers to clear your kitchen sink then decide to pay the one whom you think did a great job in clearing the clog. Or, would you walk into a restaurant and order ten different dishes, try each one to find the one you enjoy the most then request to pay only for the one which you think satisfy you the most?

This is exactly what is going in with the design contests. Taking part in such contests is allowing yourself to get exploited by some ruthless people who probably don’t even care how your face looks like. It is only in this industry that it happens, and it should be stopped.

Design Contest makes the industry cheaper and also compromises quality

With the lack of guarantee of payment and the fact that not everyone’s design will be picked, there is a tendency for the participating designers to relax and not give their best in the design works. If you want clients to value your work, time, and skills in graphics design so that they can pay good money for your services, then you must stop thinking of contests as the best places to find such people.

Design Contests can be addicting – bad for the psychology

When you enter too many contests and you don’t win, you will get discouraged and disheartened and doubt your skills and abilities as a graphics designer. For many people, this is always the norm until they win one. When this happens, you feel very happy and elated so that you enter more contents, hoping to win again.

This creates a cycle of highs and lows in your psychology such that all your emotions and inspirations will be pegged around the design contests. Eventually, you will lose the focus needed to concentrate on your professions and develop your skills to become a better designer.

Lazy shortcut

Finally, the design contest is nothing but a lazy and time costly shortcut to getting clients. This is because nothing is required to enter the contests other than the click of a mouse, which you can do while sugaring your coffee at home. It comes with no obligations whatsoever, and you don’t have to do the designs if you don’t want.

The Solution

Get yourself out of those contests and work on proper approaches to enhancing your skills so that you can get high paying clients. Simply say goodbye to the contests.

Use these tools for color combination inspiration!

The post Is it Worth Entering a Graphic Design Contest? appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

However, there are certain instances when the designer can really get mad. In most cases, it happens when they get a feeling that their intelligence in graphics design has been insulted or if the client if being unnecessarily stubborn. Here are some of the ways by which a client can really annoy their graphic designers-:

Ask them to work for free

The fastest and the easiest way a client can get their designers mad is to ask them to work for free with the promise of a positive review or helping them build their portfolio. This is not just derogatory but also insulting. The designer has taken his time and resources to learn his trade with the main reason of using the skills for financial gains and here you are asking for free services! However new or inexperienced the designer might appear, their intention is to give the client value for their money, and they will always be mad if you ask for free services.

Compare them with other designers

This is a complete turn off for many designers and if you ever try to compare them to other designers, they are likely to reject your offer. It is a fact that there are millions of other designers in the world, and you need to understand that each one is unique regarding quality and pricing amongst other attributes. Before you tell a designer about others offering $5 services on the internet or producing ten logos in one day, take a moment and look at their portfolio because you annoy them with such comparisons.

Haggle Forever

It is okay for a client to haggle so that they can services at rates which they can comfortably afford. However, haggling is only allowed at the beginning of the project. Once the designer has completed your work, you should know that you will be getting what you had paid for. Certain clients are fond of haggling even when the project has commenced and the designer is already deep in the design. Understand that the design industry is a creative market and not some fish market where you can haggle and make changes as much as you want.

Ask them to edit flat files

This usually arises from the client’s ignorance of the various files formats with regards to the ones which can be edited and the ones which are not editable. Most of the flat files are not editable so don’t send them over to your designer and ask them to edit them. The way to avoid annoying your graphic designer in this manner is to send original files with the editable layers. Most of the final artworks will be saved in PDF, some of which are editable but most of them can’t be edited. JPEGS and PNG files are also not editable.

Send them low-resolution images

In most of the graphic design assignments, the graphic designer may need to scale images and it is very difficult to do so without compromising on the sharpness of the image. To avert this, it is imperative to use high-resolution images. However, most clients send their graphic designers images in word formats or ask them to download from websites on the internet.

This is annoying because the customer may to ask that the logo be made bigger, yet the image sent can’t allow for that. Due to this, the designers are usually very mad when they receive low-resolution images from you, yet you will expect high quality work from them.

Ask them to make the logo bigger

Related to the above, a graphic designer does not like hearing the clients asking them to make the logo bigger. It is important to understand that the logo is part of the artwork and the whitespace at times may be a deliberate move by the designer to give the design some breathing space. Therefore, asking the designer to make the logo bigger is like guiding them on how to do the design yet they are the professionals. They find this to be demeaning to them, and most of them will get mad.

Expect unlimited revisions

The other way to annoy your graphic designer is to expect that they will offer you unlimited revisions. Before every project, there is a brief. The designer uses the brief to quote the project and give timelines depending on how long the project would take. Once you mutually agree on the terms of the project, how then can you expect unlimited revisions, unless you want to annoy the designer?

Use these 10 tips for better logo designs!

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This is rather appalling, given that you can have the clients look for you and not you go hunting for them if you decided take your time and build a freelancer designer brand. If this has always been your interest but you have never had a clear way of how to build your freelance designer brand, here is how to do it without spending a lot of time or money for marketing.

Create a website or a blog

The first process in building a freelance designer brand is to a create website or have a personal blog. Through the blog, you will have an easy medium to share you work with the entire world and those interested in your services will also have an easy way of getting in touch with you. In the blog, you should not just provide a portfolio of all the works you have done, but also remember to offer useful design tips that will make potential customers perceive you as a highly skilled designer and be ready and willing to buy your gigs.

It is true that you can have your portfolio hosted in other several places on the internet, but having your blog will set you apart from the rest of the designers and portray you as a real and serious professional. Besides, you will have total control over the use of the blog and you can used it for other things like showcasing your design videos, which may be possible with the other third party portfolio websites.

Take advantage of the wider design community

The wider online design community is another place to consider when building your freelance designer brand. These communities bring together designers of all levels and from different parts of the world. They can be a source for clients since most the clients usually head over to such places looking of the right designers to do their works.

With the online design communities, you need to establish yourself as a trusted authority so that you can get the attention of your peers as well that of the potential clients. You should share some of your best work in the community. Not only this, but also you need to participate actively by taking part in the discussions going on, offering helpful tips and engaging with other members.

You should however avoid all temptations to be a bother like spamming or commenting on every thread or post. Such behaviour might work against you as you try to build your freelance designer brand.

Let your work be seen across other channels

In building a freelance designer brand, the objective is to position yourself strategically so that you can attract quality design clients. You should therefore strive to get your works out to as many channels as possible. In addition to your website and the online design communities, think about other places where you can get exposure.

For instance, you can create account with all the social media channels to help increase the exposure on your projects which will ultimately help you get more clients. But while using the various channels, it is imperative to maintain uniformity for the sake of building a uniform freelance designer brand.

Use the freelancing websites

Many skilled designers tend to shun the freelancing websites in the process of building a freelance designer brand. But these online workplaces can offer a great launch pad for your career as a freelance designer. A lot of people who need design services usually flock to the freelancing websites in search of potential designers. By being present in such sites therefore, you increase your exposure to lots of quality clients.

Additionally, most of the freelancing websites have a review system where customers can post either positive or negative reviews depending on the services they received. If you can maintain to get consistent positive reviews, it will be only a matter of time before you swarmed with orders from people seeking your services. Therefore, you should never bypass the freelancing website when building your freelance designer brand.

Introduce a value-added Giveaway

Using incentives is another powerful method you can employ in building your freelance designer brand. You can promise to offer value added complimentary services for every gig purchased from you. For instance, if someone orders a logo design, you can promise to offer them a free business card design as a giveaway. You are not just giving them something for free, but whatever you offer them will add real value to their business.

As you try to build your freelance designer brand, it is important to remember that it takes time and effort to have the brand off its feet. Be ready to do the hard work now and you will reap the benefits later on when your freelance designer brand will be doing all the marketing for you.

Here is how you can create a great graphic design resume!

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Most of the white collar jobs seem to offer very little regarding rewards other than the monetary aspect. If you are looking to pay your bills, then the daily grind might be sufficient, but if you want something more fulfilling and inspiring, then you will have to look for a career which will offer you with more than just what the daily grind has to offer. The graphic design industry offers you with an alternative route to getting more fulfilled in your career with exciting remunerations compared to what you may have gotten the blue chip companies.

The daily challenges and the constant demands to produce quality results are some of the attributes that make a career in graphic design more endearing and appealing to those who are keen on getting ahead with their professions in life. Here are some of the reasons why being a graphic designer might as well be the best thing that will ever happen in your life-:

Impressive Salaries

There is a wide salary range for graphic designers with those who are just starting out earning the least. As one advances in skills and experiences, the salary also keeps on increasing. But before you argue this happens in every other profession, the graphic design industry is unique in a number of ways and which will ultimately add to the final perk that a designer will carry home.

It is important to realize that billions of dollars are spent in marketing and advertising each and every year and there would be no marketing or even advertising if graphic design were not there. Hence, so long as businesses need to marketing, branding and advertising, the graphic designer will always have work, which will be well remunerated because the clients want quality work.

Potential Career Growth

A career in graphic design has enticing prospects for one to advance in their careers and build very impressive portfolios. Being a challenging profession, there is a lot to learn and experience once one is done with the basic education. You get a chance to meet and interact with different personalities, and you also get a chance to work on wide and diversified projects, all of which will help you become a better and more fulfilled graphic designer.

Wide Range of Industry Sectors

A career in graphic design will open a plethora of doors for you and enable you practice your trade in a wide range of industry sectors. You will be at liberty to choose whether you want to branch out to advertising and marketing, web design or you want to major in corporate brand identity. With such a wide range of choices to make, you will be at liberty to choose the one that appeal to you the most and which you believe will give you the greatest satisfaction. Besides, you are not limited in practice, and you also have the freedom to practice in more than one field, thus increasing your versatility and value as a graphic designer.

Challenging and interesting assignment

One beautiful thing you will love with a career in graphic design is that there are no two projects that will be the same. For every project, you will be working with a completely new set of demands and conditions and probably new clients as well. Every day will be a unique day where you will be required to make fresh decisions in coming up with the various designs. Due to this challenging while at the same time interesting nature of assignments, a career in graphic design will never leave you feeling bored at work since you will be working on something interesting each and every day.

Self-Fulfillment

Self-fulfillment is not just important for the sake of your satisfaction at work, but also, it affects other areas of your life. When you are self-fulfilled, you are happy to the fact that through your skills, you were able to make a difference to your clients and the world around you in general. A career in graphic design is one of the most self fulfilling careers you will ever come across. You deal with practical clients, and every project is a chance for you to make a difference and make the client meet their objectives. When your clients come to you and express gratitude for what you did for them, this makes you feel fulfilled and really happy that you did what you did.

Easily be your own boss

Most people dream of being self employed. They admire the freedom and the earning potentials that come with self-employment. However, this is not a familiarity you will find with most of the other careers. However, with a career in graphic designs, once you have gained the experience, skills and the connections to clients, you need nothing else to start your own company or start freelancing on the internet. Therefore, if you have ever dreamt of being your own boss, then you need to think deeply about choosing a career in graphic design.

Check out how to design app logos here!

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Logo design is a skill and profession just like any other career out there. Every designer aspires to use their skills to grow as professionals and also as a source of income. The choice to give away logo for free or offer free logo design services is thus a prerogative of the service provider, in which case, it should never happen. The following are some of the reasons to discourage all graphic designers from giving away logos for free-:

It takes work to design a logo

Even though there are plenty of free logo design tools that can be used to create good looking logos within minutes, it takes more than tools for the creation of stellar logos. A considerable amount of time is expended in planning on how to create a versatile logo that will attract the attention of the target audience. And since time is money, giving away logo for free is just like giving away money or throwing your valuable time to the drains. You should therefore never think about free logo design.

You went to school to become a professional graphic designer

It is true that there are self-taught graphic designers, but this is just an exception and not the rule. Most of the professional designers attended some training or schooling to learn how to design professional logos. Such training definitely cost some money, commitment, and time. Hence, there is no logical reason to undergo all that only to come and give free logo designs. You shall have wasted your time and undermined the sacrifices you made to become a graphics designer.

The equipment and software used don’t come for free

The tools of the trade in logo design are not available for free. You need a computer and various software to make professional logos. You will have to spend money to acquire all these. Even if you rely on free tools from the Internet, you will still need resources to access the internet connection, and these will cost you money. Why, therefore, should you think about free logo design services?

Designing a professional logo is not a child’s play

The process of designing a professional logo takes time and a great deal of creative imagination. You need to think about the colors, fonts, target audience, images, etc. then bring them together to form a design. It is a skill that is continuously improved, and not everyone can comprehend and learn how to make professional logos. Footballers, athletes, doctors, Engineers are all paid for their skills, why should a graphic designer give away a logo for free?

You need to be paid for your experience

Perhaps you can give away a logo for free when you are still an amateur trying to attract clients and get their feet wet with graphics design. But for the seasoned professional, you have spent thousands of hours practicing and mastering your craft until now you can be called a professionals. It not that you started to design logos yesterday so that you give free logo designs. If every professional is paid for their experience, why is a graphics designer specializing in logos not compensated commensurately?

Success in your business will build on the logo

The logo is one of the most powerful marketing arsenals any business can have. Every success you get will be due to effective branding and marketing, of which the logo will play an instrumental role. Due to this, does it make any sense to offer logo design when it has the potential to take the business or the organization to greater heights of success?

Your logo will be there for many years

As the business grows, so does the brand, hence the logo. It implies that your logo will not be in use for just a short period, unless you are thinking of rebranding too soon. It will be there for as long as the business is in operation, continuing to sell your brand to all that sees it. Due to this, offering logo design services will be unfair since it will be beneficial to the business for many more years to come, yet you give it away from nothing.

However, there are certain cases when a designer might be tempted to offer free logo design services. For instance, when you are new in the market, and you are trying to build your portfolio, you can use free logo design as a low hanging fruit to win first customers and build your portfolio. Additionally, you can give free logo design services as an incentive to clients who purchase other graphic design services from you. Also, you can give away a logo for free is you decide to give back to the society by designing a professional logo to help a charity in furthering their course. However, you should never give away a logo for free.

Use this previous article to learn more about protecting the work you produce!

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Survival in the graphic design industry can be elusive if you don’t have a portfolio to show your work. Clients will in most cases want to have a look at your previous designs to gauge your competency and suitability of you doing them a great job. Without a portfolio, you will have nothing to show, and it will be tough to land a gig in this highly lucrative and equally skeptical industry.

The good news, however, is that it is possible to have a graphic design portfolio from scratch that you can use it to market your design services. This is ideal when you are new in the industry and still struggling to win new clients. It is also applicable when you have been in the industry for some time, but you need to attract high-end customers who will pay more for your services. Use the tips given below to build your graphic design portfolio from nothing.

Start with what you have

As a new designer interested in building a portfolio from scratch, you need not look further than to begin with yourself. Your main reason for building a portfolio is to market your design skills to get a stream of clients for continued work. Since you are essentially running businesses, start by creating various marketing materials for your business then display them on your online profile.

For instance, you can make business cards, logo, brochures, and marketing flyers for your graphic design business then tell people that you are the one who made them when displaying them on your profile. Though you may not have handled any paid projects, potential clients will see what you did for your brand if they are convinced, they may be interested in hiring your services. This is the easiest way to start building your graphic design portfolio from scratch.

Redesign other projects

Your aim here in building graphic design portfolio from scratch is to display your skills and what you can do when given a real assignment. To do this, redesign other works, adding in your unique design intuition to make such look fresh and unique. You can then display such redesigns on your website or portfolio to show to the potential clients. This won’t just expose your artistic prowess but also will speed up the process of building your graphic design portfolio from scratch.

Target poor designs and make them look great

The other way to hasten the process of building your graphic design portfolio from scratch is to target local business with poorly designed logos and other marketing materials. Make a list of such businesses and dedicate your time to making their designs look great. Once you finish, approach them and show them that you can improve on their designs and give them a better image to the clients.

If your work is good, most of them will be pleased and might consider hiring your services. With this approach, you will have chances of landing real clients while at the same time adding to your graphic design portfolio paid project you did to your customers.

Volunteer free services for the very first clients

Offering your services for free is another method you can use to create a graphic design portfolio from scratch. With this method, you agree to offer free services for a limited number of clients, especially those who come first or those who order multiple services. If you already have some cool designs in your portfolio, clients will be tempted to take in your offer of free design services.

Make perfect designs for these clients; add them to your portfolio. Besides this method helping you to create your graphic design portfolio from scratch, you will increase your chances of getting hired by the same clients if they are pleased with your work.

Consider Community involvement

The community is a great non-digital dimension you can use in building your graphic design portfolio from scratch. For instance, you can create a poster for your local meet up group or a church event or just about anything that will be taking place around you. Once done, all you have to do is to include the piece of work in your portfolio and make reference to the community activity. This is an awesome strategy if you are targeting local clients with your services.

Additionally, you may find other participants in the event who might be pleased with your design and consider using your services for their marketing materials. These will be good clients for you since you are in the same group already; they will feel more comfortable in dealing with you as opposed to approaching new designers for their design works. When used wisely, community involvement can make building your graphic design on steroids due to the exposure the trust you can get.

Take some inspiration from these recognizable brands while building from scratch!

The post How to Build a Portfolio From Scratch appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.