graphic design, freelancing, illustration, advertising, web design

I came across a site called Imagekind which allows artists, designers and illustrators to sell prints of their designs online with no initial outlay. I know cafepress and similar sites offer the ability to customise a lot of different items but this site seems to specialise in prints and offers buyers the opportunity to have the prints framed for which the artist also receives a commission.

Designers can have a free account which allows them to upload a maximum of 24 images (you can pay to upload more). You then choose how much you want to mark up your print price (your commission). You then market your site - perhaps with a link from your design blog, images can also be found through a search on Imagekind itself.

I haven’t tried the service but would love to hear from anyone that has.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of free programs out there as an alternative to the commercial ones. NVU is an open source web design package that can be used in both design and code view. If you are looking for a WYSIWYG editor and don’t want to pay out a few hundred pounds/dollars for Dreamweaver NVU may be worth taking a look at, it’s available for Mac, PC and Linux to download for free.

Features as listed on the NVU site:

• WYSIWYG editing of pages, making web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor.
• Integrated file management via FTP. Simply login to your web site and navigate through your files, editing web pages on the fly, directly from your site.
• Reliable HTML code creation that will work with all of today’s most popular browsers.
• Jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and HTML using tabs.
• Tabbed editing to make working on multiple pages a snap.
• Powerful support for forms, tables, and templates.

Take a look also at Rachael at Calmbanana’s posts about designing a website for free and Design Vitality’s post on 25 Open Source Web Design Programs

I am looking for more people who would be interested in taking part in Freelancer Focus please see this post for details if you are interested. I am also interested in design case studies too.

Freelancer Focus is a regular feature, where freelance designers are invited to answer a series of questions about themselves and freelancing. This week Richard Baird (pictured left) is the freelance designer in question. If you would like to take part please read my previous post. Any designer or illustrator can also take part in Design Case Studies.

1. Your name?
Richard Baird

2. Where are you are based (Country/Area)?
Nottingham, UK

3. What type of work do you do? (design for print, web, multimedia etc)
Print and Web

4. How many years had you been working in the design industry before you went freelance?
0

5. How long have you been freelancing?
2 Years

6. Why did you decide to go freelance?
I always wanted to have full control of a design project from concept to final artwork and knew I wouldn’t get that at a consultancy for a few years.

7. How did you market yourself (find design work/new clients) in the beginning - (online portfolio/brochure/direct mail/email/phone etc)?
I started with a website and got every free online portfolio.

8. How do you market yourself (find design work) now?
I write design articles for magazines, try to get design related quotes in news papers and word of mouth

9. How did you decide what to charge? What was the process?
By working out what I ideally wanted earn per year and divided it up into a hourly charge and added an extra couple of pounds to make up for the time I don’t have work.

10. Do you work from home/have an office/work in-house at design agencies?
I work from home but often work in-house with other design consultancies.

11. How do you organise your workload, do you work long hours?
Sometimes there isn’t work for a few days and other days I work 10 hours a day. I often work with clients and manufactures abroad so have to adjust time I am awake.

12. How much holiday do you give yourself?
None

13. How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?
The internet, Computer Arts and Design Week magazines.

14. What blogs, magazines, podcasts etc do you subscribe to?
I don’t subscribe to any particular publication but do write my own blog.

15. How do you generate ideas/what techniques do you use to stimulate creativity?
Pencil and paper.

16. What about the business side of things, accounting, invoicing, bookkeeping, how do you manage it?
On a monthly basis I write up all of the months financial activities.

17. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone starting out freelancing?
Be prepared for the lowest of lows but the highest of highs.

18. Would you ever go back to fulltime work?
Never designed as a fulltime employee but would never say no for the right price in the right company.

19. Any thing else you would like to add?
Recently featured in Design Week under business insight.

20. Where can we see some of your work (URL)?
www.workinprogressdesign.co.uk blog - www.richardbaird.blogspot.com/