Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

Interview with Giulio Costanzo of Firebrain Inc.

Even if you haven’t heard of Firebrain, there is no doubt that you have seen their work with clients like Motown, Geffen Music, Dreamworks, Vans, Metallica, Toyo Tires and the list goes on! Because Firebrain often works with UPrinting for printing services, we were able to score a great interview with the company’s founder, Giulio Costanzo.

7 Perfect WordPress Portfolio Themes

If you don’t have a portfolio site yet or are looking to create an easy to update, fast loading and slick looking portfolio than you should be using WordPress. Traditionally WordPress is a blogging content management system, but recently it has been used to be the back end for many cool types of sites such as portfolio sites for photographers and designers.

5 Business Card Photography Tips

1. Picking the Perfect Background

When photographing your business cards, spending some time picking out a great background can go a long way compared to just shooting them on your scratched up work desk. Look for something that compliments your business cards color, texture and style. Just make sure that the background does not overpower the actual design. A busy background will distract the viewer from the beauty of your work. Try using a neutral color, a contrasting color that makes your design pop or keep the focus sharp on the design and blur out the background a bit.

5 Ways to Become a Famous Graphic Designer

Not everyone wants to be “Famous”, but being a more well-known designer DOES have its benefits. Not only will your work get more exposure, but you will make more money! Becoming a famous designer does not happen over night, but there are things you can do to quicken the process and if you are lucky you should be able to gain a lot of recognition if the things you do turn out well. So I wanted to do a 3 part series just going over some cool things designers could do if they want to not only become more apart of the design community, but also gain a little recognition and help others at the same time.

8 Steps to Get Into Graphic Arts

Getting into the world of graphic arts can be an exciting venture where you not only get to express your creative talent, but also earn a great living doing what you love to do. It is a very flexible career choice with many paths to go down and combinations to master. For example you could start off being a graphic designer working for a company, then learn web design in addition to graphic design and start your own design business from the comfort of your home or you could just earn extra money on the side being a freelance graphic artist if you already have another job you want to keep.

10 Benefits of Being a Graphic Artist

1. Express Your Creativity

Probably the most important benefit of being a graphic artist is the ability to express your creativity, while still earning a great living. Many artists are moving towards graphic design because it’s easier to make a living as a graphic designer than it is in areas such as fine art.

3 Do or Die Graphic Design Business Tips

There are a lot of things that can turn an exciting new design project into a nightmare for a graphic design business. Many graphic design businesses have experienced these issues below, including myself. The best way to avoid stress and problems with clients is to educate yourself about what can go wrong ahead of time and take steps to protect your yourself.

7 Ways to Build Trust on a Portfolio Site

1. About Us Page

Clients will feel more comfortable working with you if they know a little bit more about you as a person or company. Let people get to know you instead of appearing as a distant entity with no emotions or history. You don’t have to tell them what you eat for breakfast, but let people know who you are, what you are about and how your business can benefit them.

Google Local Business Center for Designers

In a recent post we talked about how you can Optimize Your Site to attract local search engine traffic from Google. One of our readers mentioned Google Local Business Center as another option, so I thought I would expand on this useful comment.

5 Ways to Optimize Your Portfolio for Local Traffic

Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your site to rank better for certain keywords such as ” Business Card Designer ” in search engines such as Google. Many designers overlook this online marketing tactic and if your site is not optimized for keywords you could be missing out on gold mine of business opportunities!

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