Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Generating resudual income as a designer

These last few months I've been a struggling business owner. I've been bombarded for so long with people needing websites, that I never stopped to think what would happen when the flow stopped. The answer is to find ways I can make money doing what I love that would continually fund my business.

I met with a printer last week who wants me to design greeting cards for a print on-demand personalized greeting card business he's starting. So, that got me thinking... he can't be the only one that needs designers to do things like that.

I googled residual income for designers and found this information:
Times are tough for many businesses and hiring a graphic designer is probably not at the top of their priority list. They can easily bypass you and recycle old logos and advertisements.

If you’re like many, you have a day job to supplement your income from your graphic designs. For most designers however, anything that takes time away from designing is absolute torment. So what’s a designer to do? How do you keep the cash flowing in while continuing to do what you love best?

The simple answer is PODs. Print On Demand companies will allow you to build a portfolio of graphic designs, upload them to a website and sell them over and over again on t-shirts, coffee mugs, calendars, hats, and other products creating a residual income for you.

Most Print On Demand companies carry dozens of different products that your graphic designs can sell on. T-shirts, mouse pads, cutting boards, coasters, sneakers, neckties, posters, skateboards, coffee mugs and tote bags are just a few of the products you can sell via Print On Demand. The best part is that you carry no inventory, make no cash investment, and you don’t have to deal with sales, customers, shipping or returns.

All you do is upload a graphic design to their website, choose which products you want it sold on, give your design a title and description, set your own markup, and let the Print On Demand company handle the business details. Once your cleared commissions reach a certain amount, usually $25, you’ll get a check the following month.

Each design has unlimited potential to keep selling and on occasion, your graphic design might appeal to a buyer who is looking to purchase dozens of a single item, such as t-shirts for a charity event or campaign pins for a political rally.
Many Print On Demand companies have a marketplace on their website that allow customers to shop the designs, bringing you customers and sales. In addition, your customer base isn’t limited to your own city or country. Virtually anyone on the internet can order your products and the POD company will handle money conversions and overseas shipping, leaving you to do what you do best, create graphic designs.

Some of the more successful graphic designers also have their own website to help bring traffic to their POD store. While it is not necessary to have your own website, the more people that see your product, the more sales you will make. There are graphic designers who make their living from POD income without having a website of their own.

You can earn residual income from a POD company even if you aren’t a graphic designer by selling the products and designs created by others. In other words, you can become an affiliate at virtually any POD company and sell t-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, neckties, coasters, ornaments and other Print On Demand products. The affiliate makes money, the Print On Demand company makes money, and the graphic designer makes money. The customer gets a choice of unique designs that he cannot find at the local store covering virtually every subject imaginable.


Many Print On Demand companies have a marketplace on their website that allow customers to shop the designs, bringing you customers and sales. In addition, your customer base isn’t limited to your own city or country. Virtually anyone on the internet can order your products and the POD company will handle money conversions and overseas shipping, leaving you to do what you do best, create graphic designs.

Some of the more successful graphic designers also have their own website to help bring traffic to their POD store. While it is not necessary to have your own website, the more people that see your product, the more sales you will make. There are graphic designers who make their living from POD income without having a website of their own.

You can earn residual income from a POD company even if you aren’t a graphic designer by selling the products and designs created by others. In other words, you can become an affiliate at virtually any POD company and sell t-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, neckties, coasters, ornaments and other Print On Demand products. The affiliate makes money, the Print On Demand company makes money, and the graphic designer makes money. The customer gets a choice of unique designs that he cannot find at the local store covering virtually every subject imaginable.

visit my website for a look at my designs, maybe you'll see something you'd like to use on a promotional item.

www.designchefstudios.com

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Universal ways of naming a company

... and cool logos to go along with them.


Ever wondered how great names like Nike, Mercedes and Google come from? Did they just pop out of nowhere? Or was there a premeditated strategy behind their evolution? I remember reading this great quote by Thomas C. Haliburton


“Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive.”


See some famous brands names, where they came from and their logos here.



Interested in a logo design...come to the chef http://designchefstudios.com/

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Challenges for graphic designers in print advertising

Creating print ads is quiet a challenging job for designers.

There are a few reasons that cause the making of print ads a little tricky, e.g:

Say more in Less Space: For starters, a print medium has less space than any other advertising medium. You need to communicate efficiently and effectively.

Lack of Emotions: Print ads lack the emotions that TV ads carry. You need to manipulate the words and pictures to create an attractive copy.

No Sound or Visual effects: In creating a print ad there are no visual aids or sound effects, you use an immovable media to create a moving ad.

Interested in seeing a few of my "word play" designs? http://designchefstudios.com/

MUCH MORE cool ads and rest of article here...http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/cool-typography-print-ads/

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

For my fellow designers out there


10 ways to AVOID becoming a work-a-holic

1. Earn to live, don't live to earn
2. Everyday is NOT Monday
3. The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time
4. Spouse is also in the house, REMEMBER?
5. When nothing goes right, go left
6. All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy!
7. Your future depends on your dreams...go to sleep
8. Think before you ink
9. For god sake...TURN OFF YOUR MONITOR
10. Be your own mommy, set restrictions

Friday, November 5, 2010

Sample list of questions when I design a logo

Come to me for all your logo needs http://designchefstudios.com/

  • Your company name and tag line – as it should be used on the logo design. Also, do you want your full name in the logo, acronyms or just an image?
  • What does your company do?
  • Key words that describe your company – eg. friendly, reliable
  • What do you like/dislike about your current logo (if you have one)?
  • Who are your competitors in your area?
  • “Look and feel” required such as contemporary/traditional/minimal/corporate/fun?
  • Do you have any definite ideas about the logo design + examples of logo design you like/dislike (links if possible)?
  • Who is your Target audience?
  • What is your color preference if any. Should the logo be single color/two color/full color?
  • How/where will the logo be used (just on business cards or will it be displayed on ads, letter head, websites etc)?