As a freelance graphic designer, one of my ‘jobs’ (or perks!) is that I have to keep my creative juices flowing, even if I’m not working on anything particularly inspiring at the moment. My latest personal project has been a series of hand-lettered illustrations featuring popular sayings. Below are some of my favorites, as well as links to download the wallpaper. Enjoy! Got a saying or something else you’d like to see turned into wallpaper? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it featured here!

It’s All Good

Download the free It’s All Good desktop wallpaper here:
1920×1200, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×1024 (iPad), 320×480 (iPhone)

Get ‘Er Done

Download the free Get ‘Er Done desktop wallpaper here:
1920×1200, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×1024 (iPad), 320×480 (iPhone)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Download the free Girls Just Wanna Have Fun desktop wallpaper here:
1920×1200, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×1024 (iPad), 320×480 (iPhone)

Looking for a custom illustration for your project? Contact me for a quote.

© 2011 All Katy Dwyer Design Wallpapers are copyrighted by Katy Dwyer Design. Wallpapers distributed here are available for non-commercial use only, and may not reproduced in any way without expressed written permission.

I’ve written before about why every business should have an online presence. I’ve talked about the benefits social media can have for your business. I’ve even talked about how you can take advantage of do-it-yourself email services to create targeted email campaigns. But Copyblogger.com has an excellent article on why it is absolutely essential that your business not rely on social media websites, like Facebook, as your only online presence. They call it digital sharecropping. Social media sites are still great support for small business marketing. But are you using your Facebook page as your sole website? After reading this article, you may think twice about that. Call your local web designer and get started on your website now!

“Katy was spot on in identifying and translating graphically how our logo should represent us.”

Find out more about Andrade Architecture.

Your budget matters. It is important to you, since neither you nor your business is made of money. You may not be aware of what your budget is, but you know that how much you spend on graphic design services and marketing efforts affects your bottom line. Your budget is also important to the graphic designer or local design firm you are looking to hire. Knowing your budget ahead of time will help the designer formulate a plan up front of how they will address all your marketing needs. Why would you expect to enter into any purchase—whether it’s material or service-oriented—without a predetermined budget?

Determining your budget

So you are a small business owner, and you just don’t know where to begin when planning for a marketing budget. One of the most common questions asked of me at the start of a project is “What does it cost to do a website?” (or a logo, brochure, business cards… you get the picture). The answer is: It depends. There are many variables involved in any graphic design project.

Start by looking at the scope of your project. Do you need a complete marketing package? Logo, full website (how many pages? Is it an e-commerce site?), brochure (how large of a brochure?), stationery, etc.? Or are your needs much smaller: a single postcard? A website landing page? The amount of work will of course affect your budget. The larger the project, the more hours it will take a designer to complete, and therefore, the more expensive it will be.

Next, what’s your deadline? Are you in a rush? Need a logo by the end of the week? Expect to pay more for a quicker turnaround.

Finally, think about what you will need beyond just the graphic design of the project. Does your project include something that needs to be printed? There will be production costs involved. Will you need copy written (or edited) for your project? Do you need photos taken of your products or whatever you are advertising? Will you want to include stock photography or illustrations in your piece/s? Do you want your website to be editable by you (are you creating a blog? you’ll need a content management system). These are just a few variables that will affect how much you should be ready to spend.

Matching your budget to a designer

Are you on a very tight budget? Chances are you’d be better off hiring a freelance design expert. A design firm or marketing agency will have overhead costs (such as rent for office space, worker’s comp, and unemployment insurance) that a freelance designer won’t have. So the freelance designer can charge a lower hourly cost, or charge less on a per-project basis.

Have a larger project and a generous budget? A design firm may better suit your needs. They will have more resources and a larger pool of creatives that can manage your project and get it done faster. You may even have a designer or art director assigned to you. So that designer is focused only on your project, whereas a freelance designer will likely be juggling your project, as well as other clients.

Why be upfront about your budget?

A designer needs to know your budget ahead of time. It builds trust and open communication between yourself and the designer. A good designer or design firm will spell out for you what is included in their estimate. Beware of a designer who simply tells you your logo will cost $X, and doesn’t tell you anything beyond that. How many options will you have to choose from? How many rounds of edits does this get you? What will you be supplied with at the end of the project? These are all variables that you can negotiate with a designer to find the price that fits.

I believe graphic design and marketing are all about problem solving. The challenge is how can I, as a designer, supply you, the client, with the best and most effective graphic design solution to your unique situation? A large part of that is finding the best way to work within your design budget. And the only way I, or any other freelance designer, can do that is knowing from the start what your graphic design budget is.

YouTube is just one more way that you can market yourself online. Even if you already have a website, Facebook page, and Twitter stream, adding a YouTube page to your online presence can help your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It’s a low-to-no-cost way to gain more customers/clients/followers. Any business can benefit from a YouTube page, and many businesses you’d never even think of are taking advantage of YouTube successfully. So why not give it a shot? I know I will, now that I’ve watched the videos and read the tips at Mashable.com on how to get started marketing on YouTube. You’ll learn how to create custom-designed YouTube pages and use YouTube tags to help your page and videos get found, among other useful tips. Still a little confused about how to plan and realize your own online marketing strategies? Get in touch with your local marketing expert, or contact me using this simple online form.

Have you ever been tasked with designing a flyer or advertisement for your company, and you find yourself feeling lost? In most cases, I would suggest calling your local freelance graphic designer (why not try Katy Dwyer Design?). But we all recognize that sometimes the budget for the project is $0, so you are stuck creating your next promotional campaign using nothing but your desktop PC and Microsoft Word. My advice to you: Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of using the wrong font! Every font has a personality, and whether you believe in soulmates or not, your message or headline has it’s own true love in a font. Certain fonts are meant to convey certain messages, and Comic Sans (a widely overused font) is no exception. Check out this witty public service announcement about the appropriate (and more importantly inappropriate) uses of Comic Sans. And pledge to never become a Comic Sans Criminal!

A recent report from Symantec indicated that the number of spam emails being sent worldwide is significantly down since 2008. Don’t get too excited! Spam still accounts for 73.7% of all emails sent in the United States. Email marketing is a low-cost and effective way to communicate with your customer base. But is your latest email marketing campaign considered spam? Make sure it’s not with these useful tips.

1. Build a subscriber list comprised only of people who WANT to receive your emails.

Spam is email that wasn’t solicited. Create a place on your website for users to sign up to receive emails. As long as they signed up, you email isn’t spam.

2. Include an UNSUBSCRIBE link

You also must allow subscribers to unsubscribe in order to not be considered spam.

3. Make the subject meaningful

Get to the point! Don’t make your subject so long that most email systems won’t reveal the whole subject. And be sure the subject is enticing enough for the reader to want to open it.

4. Put your logo up top

Part of marketing is brand recognition. Reinforce your brand right from the start. Put your logo where your customers are sure to see it.

5. Make it clear who the email is from

Make sure you send your emails from an email address that indicates who you are. For instance, don’t use your personal email address (like Joe3529@yahoo.com) as the sender of the campaign. Use your business email instead (such as YourName@YourBusiness.com). Just starting out? At least set up an email address for free using your business name (such as YourBusinessName@gmail.com).

6. Use an email service for a more professional look

Sending an e-blast that’s just a jpeg and some copy will not look as great as that email you got from Apple the other day. But guess what? It CAN look that great! Most email services (such as MailChimp, ConstantContact, or JangoMail) offer the ability to send campaigns for FREE, and they provide templates to help you design the campaign as well (no coding required!).

Don’t spend valuable time and money on an email campaign that is destined for the trash. By following these simple tips, you can ensure your email marketing efforts aren’t a waste. Have an email marketing tip that isn’t mentioned above? Add it in the comments section!

“Katy Dwyer is one of the most gifted designers I’ve ever worked with—and I’ve worked with plenty. Whether the project at hand is a logo, print ad or website, Katy consistently brings smart, fresh creative thinking to everything she does. What’s more, she understands how to develop and build on sound marketing strategies. You can always rely on Katy to meet— if not surpass—your objectives. Plus, she’s great to work with!”

Find out more about Horn Creative.

Every field has it’s own set of terms—words that when thrown around in conversation with people outside your expertise just sound like a foreign language. Graphic Design is no different. Below you’ll find a list of 10 words or abbreviations I use frequently, and their definition in layman’s terms.

CMYK

CMYK stands for Cyan Magenta Yellow Black. It’s these basic four colors which a printing press mixes to produce all colors. For instance, a mix of 100% Cyan and 100% Yellow (and 0% magenta and black) will produce a green color. CMYK color breakdowns are primarily used for printing.

RGB

RGB stands for Red Green Blue. Red, green, and blue light are added together to make the array of colors seen on our computer screen. RGB color breakdowns are primarily used for websites, or anything you might be viewing on a screen.

PMS

A PMS color is a specially mixed color from the Pantone Matching System®. Using a PMS color means that the specified color is not printed using a mix of CMYK (as described above). There is more control available when specifying a PMS color, and the color that goes on the paper will often look richer than the CMYK counterpart. There are also many colors that you can achieve in PMS which you cannot achieve in CMYK.

4-Color Process

This is a printing term. It refers to printing using CMYK.

Spot Color

Another printing term. A spot color typically refers to any color that is used outside of the CMYK spectrum (most often, this means a PMS color).

Vector File / Vector Art

A vector file is any illustrated image that can be scaled infinitely without loss of quality. A photo cannot be a vector file. Typical types of vector files include .ai files (a file created in Adobe Illustrator) and .eps files.

Stock Art

Stock art is a photo or illustration which you can purchase for use. Stock art is typically a less costly alternative to hiring a photographer or illustrator. Stock art is classified in one of two ways, as either royalty-free or rights-managed (see subsequent entries).

Royalty-Free

Royalty-free refers to stock art that can be purchased and used however you like, as often as you want. For instance, you can purchase a royalty-free photo and use it on the cover of your brochure, your website, and your billboards, and all you pay is a one-time fee.

Rights-Managed

Rights-managed refers to stock art that you purchase selective rights to. For instance, you can choose the amount of time you will use the image, the size it will be, the number of places it will appear, and the industry it will promote. All these factors affect the cost. If you choose to then use the photo somewhere you didn’t initially specify (let’s say you purchase a photo to use on your brochure, but then later decide you also would like to use it on your website), you have to re-purchase the image.

Bleed

Bleed is a printing term which refers to color that runs off the edge of the page. When you print anything with ‘bleed’, you have to print a page that is larger than the size it will be cut down to. The designer extends the color beyond the boundaries of the page, so when the page is trimmed, the color extends right to the edge. If your design has white all the way around it (for instance, a business card with a white border), it has no bleed.

Wondering the meaning behind another graphic design term? Leave a comment below and I’ll add it to future glossary posts!

With all the talk of social media and marketing yourself online, we sometimes forget that your marketing efforts truly begin in your own backyard. As a graphic designer living in Kingston, New York, I’m constantly thinking about ways to promote myself locally. When I started my business, the first thing I did when I got my business cards was distribute them. That meant giving them to friends and family in hopes that they’d pass them around, handing them out to people I met, and displaying them in local establishments where dozens of other local businesses were displaying their cards. Now I’ve developed a way to stand out among all the other business cards, and I’m sharing it with you.

Promote yourself and stand out from the crowd

It’s an easy way to gain more attention for your business on community bulletin boards. The do-it-yourself business card display has a pocket large enough to hold at least 10 of your business cards, and you can print, make, and display as many as you want all over your town.

Download a FREE pdf of the printable business card display now! The art prints on a standard 8 ½ x 11 inch (letter-size) sheet. For best results, I recommend that you print on a heavier white card stock. Then just follow the included instructions—cut, fold, glue—and begin displaying your cards on bulletin boards everywhere.

The display holds standard-size business cards (3.5 inches x 2 inches).
The finished display measures 3.75 inches x 3.625 inches.

Interested in adding a little customization to your business card display? Get your choice of 5 colors (gray, red, green, blue, or orange) and I’ll add your profession for a small fee. Want a display even more customized? Perhaps you want to add your logo, contact info, and other colors or patterns? Contact me with your needs and I’ll get back to you with a personalized quote.

What other ways do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? Leave your tips and tricks in the comment section.