Protect Your Designs and Time From Run-Away Clients

  

from coolbusinesssideas.com

 This is NOT how freelancers handle business! 

As freelancers, we dedicate a set number of hours each day to work with clients or to promote our business. Right? If you are anything like me, you don’t like your time being wasted, especially if you’re not being compensated for it.

When I was approached to do a small design, I immediately jumped into it without a doubt I would be paid for my services. After investing time on the design and emailing the client a proof, I received an email informing me they decided to take another route and didn’t need my design services any longer.  Ouch! 

Not to my surprise, I received no response to my request to be paid for my time invested.  So how do you protect yourself from run-away clients? Here are a few tips:

Ask For An Upfront Fee

 No matter how much you are charging for your services, ask for a small portion of the project cost up front. If the company is serious about hiring you they will have no problem doing this. If they change their mind midway through the project, you at least have been paid for hours you invested.

 

 Milestone Payments

If you are working on a lengthy project, don’t be afraid to ask for payment at different milestones. If you are designing a magazine or developing a large website, at the completion of major steps, ask for a small payment from the cost that is due. This is also convenient for your client to stay on budget by paying you in installments vs. paying you in two or three big lump sums. It also keeps the client involved with the project, which is sometimes the reason why designers get “dumped”, they’ve allowed too much time for the client to “get away.”  Once a client is invested in a project, they are almost certain to stay with it to the end.

 

 Sign a Contract

Have the client sign a contract or agreement detailing the terms of payment.  Indicate what is due up front, when the final payment is due, and what is expected if they terminate a job before it’s completed. If they “dump” you and refuse to pay, you have a legal binding document that will stand up in court if it goes that far.

 

Protect Your Proofs

 

Luckily I put a simple watermark on the proof I emailed, otherwise, I fear my design would had been used anyway without them paying for it. I can not suggest strong enough that you should place transparent text or an image over your design to make sure it is unusable for anything except for proofing.  You can create Watermark Signature Actions in Photoshop by following these steps on ShutterFreaks, but it’s really simple to do in just about any image program that has transparency settings.  If you like technology to do your legwork for you, there are some free online applications to help you.

• PicMarkr – add a watermark to your photos online
• Add Watermark to PDF Files online

If your client insists on seeing a high quality proof without watermarks, there is a trick to keeping them from running away with your design.

• Place dummy text, email and mailing address in place until the final is completed.
• Try not to use flat colors as a background, they are easy to mask over. Textured backgrounds on the other hand could be tricky for non-graphic designers.
• Load the proof to a secure web page and add script so the image can’t be right-clicked and saved. Then take the web page down after a few hours. Beware of using scripts. They are not 100% fool proof, as the user could still use the “print screen” or “CTRL+C” to copy selected images and text.

Here are some more links on specialized software that walks you through protecting your images. 

• Digimarc Web Site
• Signum Digital Watermarking Technology
• Blue Spike Digital Copyright Protection
• Adobe Web Site
• ArtistScope
• SafeImage Image Protection Software
• Mike Chen’s Weblock Pro

 

Don’t Waste Time Guessing

from tegloff.wordpress.com

 

Here’s another advantage in having a contract. Get in writing the full specs of the job. Know what your client expects from you and what you can expect to deliver. If you are unclear of what the client wants, you will waste valuable time fixing and re-fixing your design; This can be frustrating for you as the designer but really bad for the client, as they will start to believe you are incapable of doing the work. This kind of client frustration will lead to the dreaded, “your services are no longer needed” email.  

 In my experience, most clients understand my steps to protecting myself, and have no problem with my techniques. If you come across a client who has a big fat cow about it, they probably aren’t worth your time and headaches anyway.

 I want to hear your story, ideas and techniques for protecting your designs and your time.

About the Author:
Kathryn Robinson is a freelance graphic designer and owner of Feechi. For more information visit http://www.feechi.com

 

 

 

4 Events in 2010, You Don’t Want To Miss

If you haven’t started planning yet, you still have time. Here are some great Graphic Design conferences happening in 2010, you don’t want to miss. Register early for discounts!

In Control 2010 Orlando
Web Design Workshop Conference
February 22-23, 2010 in Orlando, FL

Learn from a diverse array of Web experts to use modern tools and techniques to refine your Web design craft now. Harness creative inspiration to unlock your potential, amplify innovation, and broaden your reach. Immerse yourself in two days of idea exchange with potential business partners who are as forward-thinking as you are.

Visit WebSite

 

 

Photoshop World Orlando 2010
March 24-26, 2010 in Orlando, FL

Visit WebSite

Photoshop World is the ONLY Photoshop and digital photography conference designed to put you at the top of your game with fast and furious classes from the world’s leading experts. Photoshop World is where Photoshop users go to learn hard and play even harder!

For the last four years, Photoshop World has been fortunate to have one man as its keynote speaker, John Loiacono – senior vice president and general manager of the Adobe Creative Solutions Business Unit.

Photoshop World Orlando 2010 Topics and Sessions

Optional Pre-Conference Workshops
Shoot, Design, Print: Create a Movie Poster From Start to Finish
Real World Concert Photography
Photoshop Channels & Masks
The Art of Portrait: A Photo Painting Journey
Real World HDR
On Location Wedding Shoot
Canon Live Shoot
NAPP Photo Safari
Photoshop For Beginners

General Photoshop
Dreamweaver, Photoshop & Lightroom
Building Online Photo Galleries
Exploring 3D with Photoshop CS4 Extended
Creative Thinking in a Commercial Setting
Drawing With Light: Dodging & Burning
Fantastic Portraits: It’s All Smoke, Mirrors & Photoshop
Fix It in Photoshop
Top 10 Things You Should Know in Photoshop
Portrait Retouching Techniques
Seeing the Light
Understanding the Calculations Command
Photography for Photoshop

Photoshop 101
Painting With Photoshop
Work Faster with Smart Objects & More
Retouching Faces Step-by-Step

Design
Graphic Secrets: Totally Text
Illustrator Down & Dirty Tricks
The Designer’s Lifesavers

Photoshop Fixes
Photoshop Creative Effects
Portrait Retouching Techniques
The Lazarus Effect: Raising the Dead Pixel

Productivity
Fixing Common Image Problems
Anatomy of a Photo Shoot
What You Missed When You Skipped Photoshop CS4
Image Compositing for Advertising Illustration
The Newest on HDR
Flashing for Fun & Profit
Nice Glass
Creative Integration & Photoshop
Concert Photography From Capture To Client
Skin, Skin, Skin
There Are No Bad Originals
The Art of Digital Photography  

It’sLightroom ®
Lightroom Basic Training
Creative Lightroom
Organizing Strategies Using Photoshop Lightroom
Lightroom for Wedding Photographers
Using The Development Module
Lightroom & Photoshop Integration
Lightroom Tips & Tricks
From Lightroom to Dreamweaver
Lightroom for Landscape & Travel Photography
Lightroom Instant Enhancing & Effects With Presets
Printing From Lightroom
Create Print Layouts in Lightroom

Techniques
The Russell Brown Show
Mastering the New Adjustments & Masks Panels
Textures, Special Effects & Making Them Look Real
Don’t Fear the LAB Mode
The Perfect Panoramic
Mastering Curves

Creative Suite
Real World Image Sharpening
Real World Camera Raw
Introduction to InDesign CS4
Photoshop Restoration Rescue
InDesign CS4: Beyond the Basics
Empower Your Creative Discoveries 4

Creativity
The Art of Animal Photo Painting
The Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul
Photoshop for Designers
Enhancing Color To Create A Signature Style
The World in 3D
And Then There Was Light
Tips for the Working Photographer
Light, Gesture & Color
Color Management for Photographers
Using Photoshop CS4

Photography Live
Location Lighting
Still Life Photography Shoot “Live”
The ABCs of Digital Portraiture
How to Light for Shooting Food
The Lone Ranger
One Light for Real People

Motion Graphics
Using Panoramic Photos for Motion Graphics/Video
Creative Chroma Keying
Motion Design Recipes
Animation Design Techniques in Photoshop
Commercial Effects Using Adobe After Effects
Advanced Motion Control 3D

Digital Photography
Practical B&W Conversion for the Common User
Lighting On a Laptop
Exposure Triangle

Print/Prepress
The Picture Postcard Workflow
Quick Photo Color Fixes

For a full schedule visit Photoshop World Orlando 2010 Conference

***Photoshop World Expo!***

Where can you get a first look at tomorrow’s, mind-blowing Photoshop technology? At the Photoshop World Expo!

Browse the latest hardware, software, cameras, printers, and more from the biggest names in the business for three innovation-filled days.

 

THE 99% CONFERENCE – 2010
April 15-16, 2010 @ The Times Center, New York City 

Visit WebSite

Ten top creative visionaries come together to present a series of punchy, revelatory 20-minute talks. Rather than merely showing past work, 99% speakers focus on sharing real tips and insights culled from their extensive experience with translating ideas from vision to reality.

 

 

20th Annual HOW Design Conference
June 6-9, 2010 in Denver, CO

 

Visit WebSite

Be sure to set aside June 6-9, 2010 for next year’s HOW Conference in Denver, CO. You’ll get four days packed with the inspiration, information and instruction you need to build a successful career and create outstanding work.

 

Thanks for reading my post and please leave a comment if you recommend an upcoming design conferences, seminars or workshops.

Kathryn Robinson

Kathryn is CEO and Lead Graphic Designer of Feechi. For more information visit www.feechi.com

Live Broadcasting To Entice Your Website Visitors

What better way to get the word out about what ever it is you do… rather it be in Web Development, Design, Do it yourself related topic’s, time and money saving tip’s. People want information as easy and as quickly as they can get it. So today I’ll be telling you of a free service called Livestream.

Livestream offers you the ability to broadcast live, on-demand, and streaming videos on your site, sign up is free. You can broadcast from their site or download the Livestream Procaster to broadcast from your computer live. You can display your computer screen as the video. This comes in handy if you are doing self help or step by step tutorials, you can broadcast from your web cam.  Set up multiple users / channels. If you have a Youtube account you can import those video’s as well. One cool feature of the site is to be able to download content you have uploaded to their site. You may ask why I would want to do that.  It will download the media into a .swf (originally standing for “Small Web Format”) if you needed to make a flash video yu could then use that file.

There are many features offered and it can look a bit overwhelming at first glance, but once you get the hang of it, it just takes a snap to put together high quality videos for your website!

Here are a couple snapshot of the Studio & Webcaster.

Studio

 

Webcaster

 

• If your channel is unverified you are limited to 50 viewers max.
• If you are verified then you get Unlimited views  there are ads placed on the video’s (sort of like youtube video’s they pop over the bottom of the video yet you can still see through them)
• 10 GB Limit
• SD (standard definition), up to 0.5 Mbps

If  you find you need more space and want to remove ads they do have a few paid plans that remove ads, offer HD rather than SD and more space.

All in all I can say I’ve been using the free service for over a year with no troubles at all.

So give it a try and give your web visiters something new to look forward to. And as always give us a shout and tell us what you think of it.

Thanks for reading this post.

 Angela R

 For more information about Angela, visit Feechi online.

 

DIY Series: 7 Free Photo Editing Software

I talk to a lot of individuals and professionals who need photo editing or special photo designs but in this weak economy, they just can’t afford to pay a professional for the services. I did some research and compiled the following list of photo editing software that are 100% Free. I have included links to the software website but they are also available for download at CNET Download.  Enjoy and look for more DIY posts in the future.

> Photobie Design Studio

Edit photos, capture screenshots, and create 3D graphics.

Download it on website

Download it on CNET

 

> Google SketchUp

Create 3D models and upload them to Google Earth.

Download it on website

Download it on CNET

 

> Photo Pos Pro

Photo Pos Pro allows you easily create, edit, enhance, print, and manipulate your digital photos and computer graphics, and easily create eye-catching graphics, beautiful collages, greeting cards, business cards, website designs, buttons and much more. 

Download it on website

Download it on CNET

 

 

> PhotoScape

View, edit, print, or add frames to your photos. 

Download it on website  

Download it on CNET

• Viewer: View your folders photos, slideshow
• Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
• Batch editor: Batch editing multiple photos
• Page: Make one photo by merging multiple photos at the page frame
• Combine: Make one photo by attaching multiple photos vertically or horizontally
• Animated GIF: Make one animation photo with multiple photos
• Print: Print portrait shot, carte de visite, passport photo
• Splitter: Divide a photo into multiple parts
• Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
• Color Picker: Zoom in screen on images, search and pick the color
• Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
• Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
• Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music, calendar papers
• Face Search: Find similar faces on the internet

 

> Paint.NET

Create and alter photos using layers, effects, and other tools. An intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Download it on website  

Download it on CNET

> Avery DesignPro Limited Edition 

Make professionally looking mailing labels, CD/DVD labels, business cards.

Download it on website

Download it on CNET

Print professionally looking mailing labels, CD/DVD labels, business cards, dividers, t-shirt transfers, and much more. Includes step-by-step Wizard, 600+ Avery product templates, hundreds of professional quality images, photo editing tool, mail merge, postal bar codes, and much more.

 

> FlipAlbum Standard

Create 3D page-flipping photo albums with flipping pages.

Download it on website

Download it on CNET

 

NOTE:  As always when downloading software from the internet, make sure you read reviews and you trust your download source. Although I am posting this list, I have not personally tested them nor do I endorse them in any way. Download at your own risk.

“The Business Card Goes Round-N-Round”: A Collection of Inspiring Round Business Cards Part 1

Whatsup with this business card?  Doug Sayers in a world-class juggler, so that’s whatsup!  www.whatsupjuggling.com

Basta.bg is a studio where you will find Kristina Miletieva who says she made the cards round with the tear off edge so that the card would fit into a cardholder.  www.kpucu.com

Stefan St. Jarquez of www.phonomat.ca

You guessed it. Jennifer Reed is at the Cafe Java in New York.

Christine Cerniglia is co-owner of a graphic design business in Orlando, Florida, “Treefrog Cinegraphix, LLC” 

Sarah Lavin at Graphic Zing

Tedde is a designer plush company based in New York City. They make modern, designer-made bears stuffed with personality. 

Lawrence and Schiller Marketing Firm in Sioux Falls, SD.

I’ve yet to find out what company this is… Geeeesh!

 

Found any interesting “Round” business cards? Let us know!

Free Scripts To Help Build Your Website

This is one of my favorite topic’s free stuff… I can write scripts and edit them and so on. On a realistic note I don’t always have the time to do so for my own websites.

The first time I went looking for free or open source scripts I had to weed through many sites… some I never cared to venture back to as they had malware (short for malicious software) some had very intrusive pop-up ads that would over run my computer. So after much digging I found a site and never looked back. A safe site with no malware or pop-up ads, if you make a modification to a script or add to it in any way you get credit for it.

So the site I’m speaking of is called MAIAN SCRIPT WORLD

Some scripts they offer are listed below…. (The ones with an * at the end are ones I have installed and use on my sites. I also wanted to mention with little work these can be custom designed and the themes changed around a bit to better fit into your site!)

PHP Scripts:

• Maian Cart *
• Maian Events
• Maian Friend
• Maian Gallery *
• Maian Greetings
• Maian Guestbook *
• Maian Links *
• Maian Mail *
• Maian Music
• Maian Recipe
• Maian Search
• Maian Uploader
• Maian Weblog

Note these scripts do require a MySQL database. He also offers help with setting up the scripts for a small donation.

Some question’s asked and answered are…

Are these scripts really free? What is the catch?

There is no catch. I enjoy writing PHP scripts in my spare time and I enjoy sharing them, you are free to use and adapt the scripts, but you must retain a link back to my site. See the licence page for more information.

Do any of your scripts contain spyware?

No, absolutely not. None of my projects will ever contain any form of spyware.

Do your scripts work on Windows servers?

There is no reason why any of my projects should fail on a Windows server, but I cannot give a 100% guarantee as all my projects are tested within Apache environments. Easiest way to find out is to download a script and try it out. “

Full list of FAQ’s from MAIAN SCRIPT WORLD

So swing by their site and check it out. And give us a shout back here to let us know you thoughts on the scripts and what ones you liked best.

Thanks for reading this post.

Angela R.

About the Author: 

Angela R. is a staff writer for Feechi. For more information about Angela, visit Feechi.

Are You Paying Too Much For Business Cards?

Have you ever wondered what the cost of printing for business cards is?   Are you paying too much? Well I got wondering this very thing and headed off to do some searching.   I’d also been wondering about green printing? Anything to help mother Earth you know!

I’ve compiled a comparison chart based on 1000 double-sided Full Color UV Coated or Glossy Business Cards (shipping based on Alabama zip code).

	Cost	Shipping	Estimated Total
Gotprint	$17.55	$8.75 Ground	$26.30
Uprinting	$21.91	$8.89 Ground	$30.80
Printplace	$26.50	$9.14 Ground	$35.64
123print	$60.95	$9.97 Ground	$70.92
Vistaprint	$80.97	$17.81 Ground	$98.78
PKGraphics	$30.00	$69.00 DeltaCargo	$99.00

WOW!  There are a lot of great printing services out there on the internet with prices that range from, well… cheap to not-so-cheap. Do your research and find the best fit for your budget and printing needs.

 Know of another printing service for business cards? 

Share your tips on getting the best quality for the money!

 

Here are a couple of specials I found while researching…

 

PKGraphics.com – 5000 flyers (4×6 postcards) $99

Overnightprints.com – Free Halloween Safety Cards

Gotprint.net – 5000 one-sided business cards $38.55

 

Want to Go Green?  Here are a few printing companies that are all about going green…

 Greenprinter.com

Psprint.com

Uprinting.com

Gotprint.net

 

 About the Authors: 

 Kathryn Robinson, CEO and Lead Graphic Designer
 Angela R., Web Development and SEO Specialist
For information about the authors, visit Feechi.

Domain and Web Hosting – Paid vs. Free

Free web hosting…

Some web hosts offer free hosting services but with limited space, limited choice on naming your URL, to be truthful there are many limitations to customers who don’t want to pay for hosting.

This holds many risks and insecurity for the following reasons:

The Host may at any time close your account for any or no reason.

The Host could decide to change all the free accounts into paid accounts at any time.

Your site would also have limited visibility, and therefore be much harder to market your products or services.

As well as these problems mentioned above the host may add ads to your pages.  They will make money off these ads and you on the other hand will not. You may not even want ads on your site at all, and some of the ads may be offensive to your visitors!  With free hosting you would have very limited if any control over the type of ads on your free hosted website.

If you want a site mainly for family & friends to be able to check out photos or a way to stay in-touch free hosting maybe the way to go.

 

Paid web hosting…

With paid hosting you have so many option and 100% control of all content on your site.

You will also be able to create the domain name / URL of your choice.

Say you have a free plan the URL might look something like this

http://www.mycatblog.at_freehosting_site.com  or http://www.freehosting_site.com/mycatblog.html

With owning your own domain name it will be 100% yours!  When choosing your domain name consider something easy to remember and catchy that’s a great way to go on getting visitors back to your site.

So a paid domain name would look something like this

http://mycatblog.com or http://www.mycatblog.com

You can also pick rather you want a .com, .biz, .info, .me there are many to choose from each ranging in different prices.  Or if you want to really protect your domain name many people buy them all (.com, .biz, .info, .me)

I have my sites hosted through Godaddy so I’ll give you some ideas on the prices and cost of hosting.

Here’s an image of the prices for domain hosting at Godaddy.com. 

They have 3 packages Economy (3 month at $4.99 a month), Deluxe (1 month at $6.99 a month), and Unlimited (1 month at 14.99 a month).

As you can see in the image above each hosting has set limits on disk space, email accounts, and MySQL databases.  I myself tend to stick with the deluxe plan it suites my needs and is very cost effective. It also has a few more perks than the economy plan.

Now with buying your domain hosting you get a HUGE discount on the purchase of your domain name (your URL address) if you were to purchase just the domain name it would run you $10.69, if you have a domain name you have already purchased it would cost $6.99 for .com transfers, if you get a hosting plan your domain name would cost $1.99 for 1 year.

So say you decide on getting the deluxe hosting plan and your domain name for 1 full year that would be a total of $81.67 (before tax)  Not a bad deal if you are looking for a site and services for a business website. Also Godaddy offers application that can be installed on your site with a click of a button depending upon what type of hosting you have rather it is Linux hosting or Windows hosting.

So a run down of why you may want to get a paid hosting plan rather than a free one.

100% control over your domain

That means you would have what is called top level access to your files and the content being placed on your site.

If you choose to run ads you make 100% of the profit, you control what type of ads run and when and how (Google ads, or Click bank is just a couple that come to mind)

You can set your site to be seen easier on the web, with 100% control of Meta tags.

If you wanted to be able to track your visit, and be able to see which content is generating more traffic you can do so, it’s much easier to implement tools into your site when you own it. 

Also you’ll have control over how much interaction your visitors have when viewing your site (rather they need to sign up to see the content… if the sign up is free or paid, if anonymous visitors can post reply’s to topic’s or not and so on)

 

Upcoming Topic’s…

I’ll be making more post on this type of topic in the near future. Some topic’s I want to touch on will be…

What type of Hosting Linux or Windows and what’s the difference between the two?

 I’ll also be going over some aspects of Google and how that can help your site and your business in general.

So check back soon for more information on the above topic’s mentioned.

Also if you know of a hosting plan that you have used in the past and would like to mention that as an option please do. All input is welcomed.

Thanks for checking out this post.

Angela

About the Author: 

Angela R. is a staff writer for Feechi. For more information about the author, please visit Feechi.

5 Steps to Create a Dotted Stroke in Adobe Illustrator CS4

Here’s 5 easy steps to create a dotted stroke in Adobe Illustrator CS4

 

 

(1) With the Line Segment tool (\), click and drag to create your line

 

(2) With your line selected, go to your stroke panel, and make the weight 5 pt

(3) Apply a rounded cap in the caps section of the panel (right of the weight field)  

 

(4) Check the dashed line option

(5) Create a dash of 0 pts and a gap of 10 pts

For bigger dots, make the weight heaver  
For dots spaced further apart increase the gaps

Wah Lah. You have a dotted stroke!

For more information about creating dotted strokes, visit Adobe Illustrator

About the Author:

 Kathryn Robinson is the CEO and Lead Designer of Feechi

‘Bowl-a-thon’ raises money for sickle cell research

A fundraiser for sickle cell anemia research netted sponsors about $1,000 Saturday during a “bowl-a-thon” held at the Brunswick Woodmere Lanes.

Organized by Angela Green and Rebecca Barlow, the event was the third fundraiser by the two in Montgomery in recent months.

“Our goal was to raise at least $1,000, and we’ve been able to do just that,” Green said Saturday afternoon as the event ended. “We’re very happy with the response we’ve received.”

Supporters from as far away as Auburn spent four hours at the facility. A $50 charge for a team of five bowlers drew competitors from throughout the area.

Green said funds from the bowling event, along with another activity last month, will be donated to the Sickle Cell Foundation of Greater Montgomery during Hot 105.7’s radio-thon this afternoon.

“Rebecca and I are longtime friends, and we’ve been raising funds for years to help people,” said Green.

Five members of the Alpha Phi Alpha chapter at Auburn University — Zach Gilbert, Joshua Agee, Clearthur Billingsley Jr., Abel Abraham and Cory Glasgow — drove to Montgomery to take part in the fundraiser.

“When we heard about this we wanted to take part,” said Gilbert, who was a defensive back on the AU football team last season. “We do whatever we can to help worthy causes, and this certainly is one of them.”

Some area residents who have sickle cell anemia attended the fundraiser and talked about the incurable disease.

Sickle cell anemia is a disease in which the body makes sickle-shaped, or C-shaped, red blood cells. Normal red blood cells are disc-shaped. The sickle-shaped anomaly can cause anemia and block blood flow to limbs and organs.

Gina Thomas does not have sickle cell, but her two children — Sharele Moton, 19, and Kalvin Thomas Jr., 17, — were diagnosed with it as youngsters.

“When I was young I was told I had the trait but did not have sickle cell,” Gina Thomas said. “Today, babies are automatically tested to see if they have it. That wasn’t the case when my children were young.”

Green thanked Montgomery contractor Owen Burnell and Brunswick Woodmere lanes manager Mary Wicker for helping with the fundraiser.

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Brown Shades Media: http://ping.fm/1P9jR

source: Montgomery Advertiser tp://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990711008