After a big search I still hadn’t found one and had little response from the Wordpress forum so I tried the forum over at blogging tips where help was much more forthcoming. Sarah from Stuff by Sarah kindly created a plugin called Page Menu Editor which did exactly what I needed and I am sure will be useful to many people. Sarah’s website also has a lot of other plugins and advice which are well worth a look.

Freelancer Focus is a regular feature, where freelance designers are invited to answer a series of questions about themselves and freelancing.
This week Belinda White (pictured left) is the freelance designer in question.

1. Your name?
Belinda White

2. Where are you are based (Country/Area)?
Newcastle upon Tyne

3. What type of work do you do? (design for print, web, multimedia etc)
All aspects of creative design - illustration, flash design, website design, packaging, advertising, retail display, literature, direct mail, logos and branding, magazines, presentations, motion graphics and flash games

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

5. How long have you been freelancing?
4 months

6. Why did you decide to go freelance?
Flexible working, I have two beautiful children, a four year old daughter and a one year old son.

7. How did you market yourself (find design work/new clients) in the beginning - (online portfolio/brochure/direct mail/email/phone etc)?
Website, direct mail, networking events, telephone calls.

8. How do you market yourself (find design work) now?
As above.

9. How did you decide what to charge? What was the process?
Work out all costs and outgoings and look at local market forces.

10. Do you work from home/have an office/work inhouse at design agencies?
Both.

11. How do you organise your workload, do you work long hours?
I have a bespoke Excel worksheet planner and I work long hours.

12. How much holiday do you give yourself?
None.

13. How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?
Trade magazines, networking events, online.

14. What blogs, magazines, podcasts etc do you subscribe to?
Creative Review, Computer Arts, .Net, Design Week, Drum plus networking sites online.

15. How do you generate ideas/what techniques do you use to stimulate creativity?
Visits to art galleries, general design magazines including architecture, interior design.

16. What about the business side of things, accounting, invoicing, bookkeeping, how do you manage it?
I have a complex Excel spreadsheet set-up.

17. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone starting out freelancing?
Promote yourself as much as possible, try to find different business angles and network, network, network!

18. Would you ever go back to fulltime work?
Yes. When my children are older.

19. Any thing else you would like to add?
Its hard work, but great to feel in control. Plus I get lots of family time.

20. Where can we see some of your work (URL)?
www.arttia.co.uk

My friend another freelance designer had recently started working with a new client who unfortunately had already had their logo design done by a cheap logo designer. He had now approached my friend to help with some design work after the problems they had had with the cheap logo. They had basically commissioned someone to do a really cheap logo, they were happy with the design and so had it printed on they stationery, literature and vans. The problem began when they found another local company in the same line of work had a very similar logo. I don’t know whether both logos were done by the same designer, or perhaps two different designers used some logo clip art, or the designer copied the other logo, but either way it was an expensive mistake. The cost of van graphics, literature and stationery could easily outweigh the costs of using a reputable graphic designer who charges realistic prices because they spend time thinking about and designing a logo and not just using clip art or copying designs.

Its a pretty embarrassing thing to be driving a van which looks very similar to your competitor too.

I did a quick google to see if there was any information about corporate guidelines and found a resource I thought could be very useful. At www.designerstalk.com they have a page with has loads of downloadable PDF files of different companies corporate ID guidelines which could be really helpful if you are trying to put something together yourself.

Also I have just found via David Airey’s logo design love another site with branding guideline examples

A little while a go I read about an extension which could be useful if you know how to use dreamweaver and want to use it to adapt wordpress templates. The extension is called Themedreamer and allows you to open wordpress templates from within Dreamweaver by temporarily replacing the dynamic content with text. You don’t even need to set up a local server according to the feature list.

ThemeDreamer is an extension for Adobe Dreamweaver that can accelerate WordPress theme and application development by providing WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) feedback within Dreamweaver’s Design View editor in real time. Simply put, you do not need to mess with a server or even have to upload your files to see the vast majority of CSS and WordPress Template layout changes. Alterations are immediately reflected within Dreamweaver’s Design View.

You can watch a few videos to see how the extension works.
There is a free trial you can download which gives you 15 days trial use. I downloaded it to try out, then got busy and didn’t get chance to try it properly, so I think I will purchase it soon (only $29.95) and give it a proper try out. If anyone else has tried it I would love to hear how you get on.

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

2. Where are you are based (Country/Area)?
Sacramento, California, USA

3. What type of work do you do? (design for print, web, multimedia etc)
Primarily web design, with supporting services like logo design and small print design projects (brochures, flyers, identity materials)

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

5. How long have you been freelancing?
Since 2006.

6. Why did you decide to go freelance?
I’ve always valued the idea of staying at home with my children during their early years. I have two children under 6 years old, and freelance is an excellent way to stay in the groove and bring in some income while nurturing and training impressionable young minds.

7. How did you market yourself (find design work/new clients) in the beginning - (online portfolio/brochure/direct mail/email/phone etc)?
I had an online portfolio, which brought in a few new clients, but most of my work came by word of mouth. Previous clients I’d worked with, friends and extended family or church contacts — people who knew I did web design were interested when they heard I was freelancing.

8. How do you market yourself (find design work) now?
Pretty much the same. Word of mouth usually brings enough clients to keep me busy, but occasionally I mention my work and drop a business card to people I run into casually who sound like they could use my skills.

9. How did you decide what to charge? What was the process?
It’s a work in progress. I’ve done the calculations that factor in annual expenses, taxes, desired profits and all that to determine an hourly rate. I’ve searched the Net to see what’s being charged for what quality work, what corporate web design salaries are like. With all that in mind, I consider at least two other factors: what is the client willing to pay (always a guessing game, but you get a sense for it after a while) and what is my time worth to me for this project? Some projects I charge more for simply because they’re not my favorite type of work. That’s my privilege — it’s the client’s privilege to look elsewhere for a cheaper designer on that project if they don’t like the quote. And above all, I *never* cheat the client or lie about my hours or break a contract. Trustworthiness and proven reliability is part of my “services”. If the client is willing to pay for that, then I don’t need to feel guilty charging more than the guy down the street. I know that I’m offering more than just the face value of a website.

10. Do you work from home/have an office/work inhouse at design agencies?
Currently work from home.

11. How do you organise your workload, do you work long hours?
I try to fit the bulk of my design work into my kids’ daily nap and play times. This gives me 2-4 hours a day as a starting point. When under time constraints on a project, I may work long hours — later into the night, weekends, etc. Our household is a geek place — my husband is a computer systems engineer / architect / programmer — so we don’t generally look at work as an 8am-5pm M-F sort of thing. We work extra when needed, and other days we don’t work at all. When I accept a project, I keep my preferred schedule in mind (no more than 2-4 hours a day, at the moment) and schedule things so I don’t have too many happening at once. I do a lot of personal Internet publishing projects, too, so it’s not just client time that I need to schedule, but all my computer-based projects. As the kids get older, I’ll have more time to devote.

12. How much holiday do you give yourself?
Holiday? What’s a holiday? Just kidding. We take family vacations (road trips, camping trips, day excursions) regularly — maybe 2-3 per year that are longer than 4 days. Maybe one every two months that are day or weekend excursions. Since I’m still so involved with my kids, we spend a lot of a time playing outside, going to the park, working in the garden, so I get time away from the computer whenever I need it.

13. How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?
Primarily reading online. Blogs and RSS are great tools for this. I’d love to network with fellow professionals in my area again someday, join some local user groups, etc, but it’s not a priority right now.
What blogs, magazines, podcasts etc do you subscribe to?
Whew. Let’s see. No paper magazines, except spiritual types. A sampling of my blog subscriptions:
www.laughingliondesign.net/
www.moleskinerie.com/
www.davidairey.com/ (and his www.logodesignlove.com)
www.10e20.com/blog/
www.writetodone.com/
www.courtneytuttle.com/
www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
www.webdesignerwall.com/
www.obsidiandawn.com/blog/

14. How do you generate ideas/what techniques do you use to stimulate creativity?
I often explore logopond.com, startdrawing.org, cssdrive.com, csszengarden.com, cgbrainchild.com and places like that for inspiration. Browsing the magazine section of a bookstore works, too. Then I sit down and sketch the ideas that appeal most to me for the project at hand.

15. What about the business side of things, accounting, invoicing, bookkeeping, how do you manage it?
Ugh. Not so fond of this side of things. But my business is small enough to do it all pretty easily through handwritten ledgers or Quicken Premier Business version.

16. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone starting out freelancing?
Be honest. With your clients and with yourself. Included in honesty (for me) is the idea of integrity — following through and doing what you say you’ll do.

17. Would you ever go back to fulltime work?
I’m not vehemently opposed to it, but it’s not in my current plans. Not at all.

18. Any thing else you would like to add?
Find a way to do what you love and keep working hard at it, and you won’t regret it.
Where can we see some of your work (URL)?
www.creativewebguru.com/

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