Here’s an oldie but goodie about the secret of success in creative work. It was a talk given by Ira Glass which was then turned into an animation by David Shiyang Liu. It’s less than 2-minutes long and has some fantastic advice for creatives. I have witnessed a lot of friends in the industry really struggling with their own work right now and so I thought sharing this would be relevant for all those in the same position. Read after the jump for the entire quote.
I have read this book and would like to share a few secrets with you on how to use knowledge about emotions in website creation and in the promotion of your products and services. To understand the issue better you can watch Don Norman’s video "3 Ways Good Designs Make You Happy" , one more experienced specialist in this field.
Graphic designing is a kind of visual communication that makes use of a word, symbol, or any visual item and designs it in a way to communicate the underlying message of the design to the public. Graphics designs might be created by grouping together visual images, texts, words, different sized shapes, color combinations, layouts, lines, and dot patterns. A graphic designer plays with these elements in a productive way so as to convey the philosophy and idea of its client effectively to the target population. A graphic designer actually gives life to a clients’ concept. He creates graphic designs that are truly reflective of the client’s product, brand or business.
When I was younger I used to assume that if a sign was hanging up in a public space it must have passed a rigorous editing and testing phase before being let out the creative studio door. To my naive eye storefront signs, roadside billboards and corporate building logos were authoritative by virtue of someone having spent lots of money to have them professionally printed. I have since learned that my early thinking was quite misguided.
Nowadays I see graphic design in a different light. I recognize a clear distinction between sign material and sign content. A beautiful plank of expensive vintage timber can, sadly, play host to an unexceptional design.
There are not very many billion-dollar consumer Internet companies in the U.S.
Greylock Partners VC James Slavet recently dove head-first into the data, and found that there are only 24 publicly traded consumer Internet companies worth $1 billion or more in the U.S.
Of those 24 companies, two-thirds of them are digital transaction firms, including Priceline, Expedia, Groupon, Amazon, eBay, and Netflix.
“I’ve been getting ready to make the switch to freelancing for months now, and I think I’m almost ready to take the leap.”
Today, I want to crush all the excuses you’ve been making (maybe some you don’t even realize you’re making) so that you can literally make the switch to freelancing today!
If you agree with this post, give it a tweet and help save all the “wish-I-were-a-freelancer”s in your circle of influence.
Identity theft has always been a concern, but with more and more details of our private lives openly accessible on the Internet, it's easier than ever for cybercriminals to steal somebody's identity — which is worth $5,000.
Criminals are also getting more sophisticated and tech savvy, but sometimes, we do most of the job for them. After all, "password" is still one of the most popular passwords on the Internet. And there's no need to tell you why that's a bad idea.
Logo is basically an iconic representation of any business brand, which is designed to create a quick recognition. A powerful logo helps in making any business brand visible in the market for a longer run. With an effective logo design, you can improve the visibility of the company and at the same time by the virtue of its uniqueness it can become a brand identifier in the market.
I picked up a book recently called The $100 Start-Up. The name alone was enough to hook me — it sounded perfect for someone interested in the startup scene, and the title implied that it was flying in the face of the VC-funded status quo.
Unfortunately, after just a few pages, it became clear that the book wasn’t about startups at all; it was about starting a lifestyle business. Nothing wrong with that, but a lifestyle business just isn’t the same as a startup. The title misrepresented the product, in the hopes of cashing in on the popularity of a word.
The world of startups has attained such mystique that people are scrambling to get involved. The word alone can sell a book, even if that book is about something only tangentially related. Somehow, entrepreneurship has become de rigeur, and everybody wants a piece of the pie.
Everyone — and I mean everyone — is working on a book. For some, it's just a spark of an idea that hasn't quite made it to paper; for others, it's thousands of words socked away in a drawer or saved on an old laptop. Either way, the same question is bound to come up eventually: What does it take to get this thing published?
There is no easy way to get published and become a successful author. I can safely say this after years of reading submissions for a literary agency and a Big Six publisher (including everything from amazing books that bombed to titles I hated but everyone else in the world loved). Writing books is a weird, long haul, but — thankfully! — there are a few things you can do to help you on your journey. Here's the advice that I give every aspiring author.
There are lots of ways you can create your blog, and the beauty of the process is that you are allowed to be as creative and original as you like. You can follow the guidelines and rules of others but there is nothing stopping you from trying something new and running with it.
Just because other blog posts are 500 words does not mean you cannot create one that is 2000 words. Just because other blogs have one picture does not mean you cannot add 12 pictures and turn the blog into a comic book style.
Your freedom from restriction is what makes blogging so fun. Here are some tips for blogging, but they are not rules (and even if they were, you should still break them at your discretion).
A logo is usually the linchpin of a brand and can be more recognisable than a company’s name, so it is vital to create a successful logo design. That means designing something that is appropriate, memorable, distinctive and flexible. Here are 7 tips to help you achieve that.
Deadlines can be a nasty thorn for many freelancers. I personally feel that deadlines make me more concerned with the outcome, rather than the job itself. Also, many freelancers have to face quality issues, just because they had to stick to deadlines.
Unfortunately, everything in life comes with an expiry date, and whether you like it or not, deadlines will continue to haunt you if you don’t keep them in check.
Are you having trouble balancing your project time and pay?
As a freelance writer, I have a horrible tendency to spend way too much time on a single writing project. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I often catch myself still editing long after I should have finished. Simply put, most freelance writing rates simply do not allow room for this extra time. I have to learn how to write faster or be comfortable with my longer pay to time ratio on a given writing task.
Those of you in freelance journalism, and other freelance writing gigs, need to write faster without losing quality. After all, there’s no point in learning how to write faster if you can’t provide the quality of work that real writing jobs require.
The following 10 tips are an expansion of Leo Babauta’s list of ways to crank out articles. Hopefully between Leo and me, you will find which methods work for you in improving both the speed and quality of your writing. It’s time to earn more as freelance writers.
Reid Hoffman started his professional life with the intention of becoming an academic.
But then he realized: "in order to be a professional scholar, you have to dedicate a vast majority of your career to writing esoteric books that only 50 people will understand."
So instead, he got into the technology industry with a job at Apple, where he helped build eWorld, Apple's version of America Online.
Next, he started a company called SocialNet. It failed.
A friend of Hoffman's, Peter Thiel, recruited him to join a startup, PayPal. It sold to eBay in 2002.
Then Hoffman went on a long trip to Australia. There, he decided to create an Internet company.
It's still around.
It's LinkedIn.
Today, it's worth $19 billion – and Hoffman is its biggest shareholder.
Simply signing up for Facebook is no longer enough to connect with the modern-day customer. This year marketing strategies need to be adjusted to properly deliver your message in this content-driven world. Not only will you need to adjust to the many new social media opportunities like Instagram and Pinterest, but you will also need to focus on your company’s brick-and-mortar location. Custom interactive or digital signs allow customers a personalized and unique experience, and they give you a step above the competition.
Typography is a crucial component of great designs involving text, so knowing as much as you can about it is an important step to becoming a great designer. This roundup of infographics will help you discover new and interesting things (as well as reinforce and reiterate stuff you already know) about typography.
The best logos make an impact. They are memorable and they instantly evoke images of the brand with which they are associated. Think of the Golden Arches in the McDonald’s logo or the classic script in the Coca-Cola logo. Think of the peacock feathers in the NBC logo or the swoosh in the Nike logo.
On the other hand, bad logos are forgettable. They look unprofessional and they don’t tell you anything about the brand.
Creating a successful logo can influence the overall success of your brand. Whether you are a logo designer yourself or if you are looking to hire a designer to create your logo, it is important to understand the qualities of a great logo so you can get one that encourages the success of your business. Here are 5 keys to successful logo design...
There are a lot of awesome things about going to work for yourself. You make your own schedule, you get to work from anywhere, you can decide who you work with and what projects you take on, you get to create a culture that is in line with your core beliefs and most importantly you get to put something in the world that is a product of you.
There are a lot of things that aren't spoken about before people take the jump to be an entrepreneur. Like how most of us wrap ourselves so deeply in our work and let it define us; how we throw ourselves so head first into the fire, we don't have time to think about getting burned; how our relationships, emotions and exhaustion come second to our employees, our clients and our investors; and how the money coming in is a product of everything we put out and everything we put out is a product of us. I have a lot of conversations with entrepreneurs, want-rapreuners and those who are in full-time positions with large companies looking to leave and start their own initiative, and everyone is pretty much asking each other the same questions.
Before taking the jump, I tell people a few things that I have learned and am consistently learning every day. While I try to do these things, there are still days where I forget to eat until 3 p.m. and have to call a "lifeline" for advice and support. But these are the most valuable lessons I've learned so far...
It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it. I am pretty sure the majority of you are familiar with this quote. It’s applied in freelance writing career as well. Providing writing services are amongst the easiest ways of generating income online, although it may take a while to start building up confidence and earn a decent income you can live on.
