graphic design, freelancing, illustration, advertising, web design

I was recently contacted by a designer who had been out of the industry a little while and wanted some advice on what sort of computer/software set up I would suggest. As a designer who deals more predominantly with print design I would definitely go for a Mac. Although design for print software is now readily available on the PC from my experience more designers who design for print use Apple Macs.

Computer
The new Imacs with computer and thin screen all in one are great giving you a nice large screen (19″ or 24″) without taking up to much space. I would go for at least 2GB memory, the more the better if you are using Photoshop a lot and any 3D packages.

Printer
An A3+ Inkjet printer is ideal for printing out any visuals required, possibly postscript colour management software - Iproof (gave me loads of problems) or Print Fab, try out the demos of these before you buy them (I wish I had). I was using an Epson Stylus R1800 but was having problems with colour casts and have now swapped to a Canon iX400. You can also get round a non postscript inkjet printer by creating a PDF first and then printing that, though the colours may need some tweaking.

Fonts and Font Management
Mac system software now comes with built in Fontbook for managing fonts or you could look at a third party font management system such as Suitcase

Several fonts will come with your Mac and software packages. More can be bought from many sources such as linotype and Faces. Free fonts are also available from many sites such as Dafont, though I wouldn’t generally use these for main body copy as they don’t always have a full character set or good kerning.

Software
Adobe Creative Suite can give you all the packages you would need for most design for print jobs - Photoshop for image manipulation, Illustrator for vector work, Logo design etc, InDesign for page layout, Acrobat for creating print ready PDFs.

I still prefer Quark Xpress for page layout over InDesign but many designers are now swapping/have swapped over to Indesign. As a package Creative Suite works out far more cost effective than having to buy Quark Xpress plus Photoshop and Illustrator.

Also for pulling in supplied Word/Excel files into layouts is the Open Source (free) Office Suite NeoOffice which I use regularly and saves having to pay for Microsoft Office.

If you are going to do some web design work the standard packages are Dreamweaver and Flash, which you could buy along with the other Adobe software in a bundle if you need them. If you intend hand coding there are lots of free text editors out there - Note Pad, Crimson Edit etc etc.

Scanner
Most images these days are supplied digitally so a fairly basic scanner is usually fine. Mostly I use mine for scanning in sketches of logos etc. I would go for an all in one black and white laser, copier, scanner.

Backing Up
An external hardrive or some free online storage space if ideal for backing up your work

Other things to consider
Virus/firewall software and Mac Maintenance software

What about free open source design software?
For print graphics I there are some open source packages that you could use, though personally I haven’t tried them and don’t know of anyone who uses then professionally. If you are going to be working for other design agencies you really need to be using the professional packages so that you can pass documents between each other. If however you are going to be designing directly for clients and no-one else needs to be able to edit your files I guess Open Source Options would be possible to use as long as you could output them to print ready PDF.

• Scribus - Open Source layout/desk top publishing
• Gimp - Open Source Image Manipulation other free photo manipulation software can be read about here - mac, pc
• Inkscape - Open Source Vector Graphics Software
• Komposer - Free WYSIWYG web design software
• Aptana Studio - Open Source web development software
• Blender - Open source 3D design and animation software other free 3D software is listed here
• Synfig - Open source vector animation
• NeoOffice/Open Office - A free open source Office suite

What would be your suggested set up for a graphic designer?

Freelancer Focus is a regular feature, where freelance designers are invited to answer a series of questions about themselves and freelancing. This week Erin Behrenhausen (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?
Erin Behrenhausen

2. Where are you are based (Country/Area)?
Denver, CO, USA

3. What type of work do you do? (design for print, web, multimedia etc)
I basically do it all, but tend to do more print work than anything else.

4. How many years had you been working in the design industry before you went freelance?
I’ve been freelancing since I graduated from college 11 years ago. (yikes!) I’ve also been working full time at an in-house creative department for 10 years.

5. How long have you been freelancing?
11 years

6. Why did you decide to go freelance?
I haven’t cut the salary job umbilical cord yet, but ideally I’d love to just be doing freelance design work. There’s nothing better than working for yourself.

7. How did you market yourself (find design work/new clients) in the beginning - (online portfolio/brochure/direct mail/email/phone etc)?
I’ve left my business cards everywhere, scoured freelance websites and job websites, and encourage friends to drop my name to potential clients. I also sent out emails to small businesses and individuals, which usually resulted in people angrily telling me to stop emailing them.

8. How do you market yourself (find design work) now?
The same way. Only now networking has become a little easier with a larger client base. Also, I’ve joined a couple freelancing websites, which I DON’T recommend. Employers on those sites usually want you to do work for next to nothing.

9. How did you decide what to charge? What was the process?
Usually I charge by the hour, however I will also charge on a per-project basis. If I’m really interested in the work, I’ll offer to negotiate my rate if it’s too high for the potential client.

10. Do you work from home/have an office/work in-house at design agencies?
For my freelance jobs I work out of my home office. My full time job, as I mentioned before, is an in-house creative department downtown.

11. How do you organise your workload, do you work long hours?
I work regular hours for my full time job, but my freelance hours are sporadic.
Most of the freelance work I do happens on weeknights and during weekends.

12. How much holiday do you give yourself?
4 weeks

13. How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?
Surf the net, attend occasional AIGA meetings, chat with other designers in town, read design mags.

14. What blogs, magazines, podcasts etc do you subscribe to?
A billion it seems. To name a few: blogs - Design-Muse, Design Observer, HOWDesign blog, ENN, Design Sponge, Decor8, Tiki Central : magazines - HOW, Print, Sunset, Entertainment Weekly. Not into podcasts.

15. How do you generate ideas/what techniques do you use to stimulate creativity?
A good cup of coffee usually gets the wheels spinning. But usually I either peruse through a HOW or Print mag for inspiration, or even just surf the net.

16. What about the business side of things, accounting, invoicing, bookkeeping, how do you manage it?
I try to keep everything digital as much as possible, as I’m a strong advocate for green business practices. As a result, I find it much easier to keep track of these sorts of things when they’re in my computer and not in piles on my file cabinets.

17. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone starting out freelancing?
Pimp yourself out. Seriously. Look everywhere for work - the net, friends, business associates, the newspaper, craigslist. Leave your card at coffeehouses. Start your own blogs and MOST importantly, give yourself a serious presence online - aka. your own website complete with resume, client list and portfolio. Do it right, don’t be half-ass about it. Make it look great.

18. Would you ever go back to full-time work?
Like I said, I’m still working full-time at present, in addition to freelancing. And honestly, I’m not sure I’m ready to leave the cushy corporate world just yet. My plan is to build up enough clientele to justify striking out on my own.

19. Any thing else you would like to add?
Lots of individuals, small businesses and even corporations will try to get you to do design work for next to nothing. Don’t subscribe to this mentality. Your time is valuable, just as much as theirs. Agree to only what you think is fair and worthy of your time. If the tables were turned, these businesses would do the same.

20. Where can we see some of your work (URL)?
My personal design site is at www.erin-b.com
My freelance business site is at www.villaindesign.net
And my blogs are at www.dorkusmilorkus.com and www.designgeeks.wordpress.com

MTV are looking for entrants for their graphic design reality competition. Each week the teams are given a brief that they need to produce media for. The results are then judged by a panel of experts.

The experts names have not yet been released but there’ll be someone from the world of business who’ll play the client, there’ll be an artist who’ll play the designer, an advertising or music promo director, etc… The experts will judge the teams work and give comments and critique based on the quality of the final product and the ways different mediums are used - each team will have a designer, a film maker, an animator and a sound designer on it.

The designers chosen to take part will be flown to NY and put up in accommodation. There’s also a top team prize of $400,000 US Dollars and a load of HP design gear to win.

or more info on the competition visit www.mtvengineroom.com