I personally don’t have anything against freelance designers, I’m pretty much as freelance as they get, but a friend of mine recently hired a freelance graphic designer for a small job, mainly because I was down with the flu and she was too shy to call the office and ask for one of my designers.

Her experience fell in the “I hate freelancers” category which to me was a low blow. I have always tried my best to keep the freelancing general reputation (on my end anyway) as high as possible, but some people, some low life good for nothing design bums have to go and add to the bad name that is slowly being forced upon the freelance community.

To all you new freelance designers out there, please read the following tips with care and carve into the inside of your eyelids;

If you don’t know your clients Gender, for the love of everything holy do NOT guess. After my friend and the Freelance Designer (who i shall call Design Bum here on in) emailed a few times, Design Bum called her, and asked for Mr Murphy. She was at work, and simply said “There is no Mr Murphy.” To which he replies “Oh alright, I thought you were a man.” What a moron, a sexist assumption like this could loose any freelancer a client, in a heart beat. Be careful when talking to a client, word things right, take your time, think before you spit bull shit out of your mouth.

Follow the clients instructions to the bone. Don’t cut corners, don’t be creative, don’t crap where you eat, you’re a designer, not fucking Houdini. Client has a vision, but does not know how to bring it to life, as a designer, that is you job. Sure, sometimes you will see a fatal mistake or decision the client is making, as a designer, it is your obligation to note that so and so could be done in a more efficient way, or adding something here or there would be to the clients interest. Give feedback because the client will feel better that way. Why else would they be paying?!

DO NOT take jobs if you can not meet a clients deadline. This is a big NO NO. The client has a deadline, you don’t meet that deadline the client looses time and money, now instead of helping the client profit, and making money off the project, you’re hurting the client and with any luck will not get paid. Simple math, are you freelancers following me here? 1 + 1 = 2. yes, 2 not 8 or 0.827, just fucking 2. Client says blue text you do the text blue.

Remember, if you run out of time and you’re not done yet, tell the client, don’t hide it and play them for fools. They know what they want, so if it’s not there or not finished they’ll notice!

Don’t rip other peoples work. I wont go into detail on this because I plan to make a full blog post later on this very same matter, but remember, rip a template, you hurt the client and end up loosing all credibility. After being found out you might as ell just kill yourself. Gun to the head, pull trigger.

Just be honest and make a decent living and name for yourself - Michael Kane

I received an email from an old client today. She wanted to thank me again for the t-shirt design I did for her non-profit organization. What they were after was a t shirt, to protest the spread of Hate all over the world, and they wanted to do this in a friendly way. The design took me all of 2 minutes to come up with, simple and to the point.

That’s the thing, designers today underestimate what they are capable of. They don’t realize that a small idea can give birth to an explosion of creativity, which in some cases leads to things far beyond the scope of any normal designer. It’s as they say, a picture really does speak louder than words. Why should people write letters to congress in protest of certain things, why is design not given the respect it rightfully deserves.

As designers, we have the ability to create, to destroy, to deceive or tell the truth in ways no one dared to do so before, all with a simple graphic, be it a funny one, a simple one, serious, detailed, abstract or 3d, we can spark emotion. We can anger people, we can please them, make some cry and others laugh, we have so much influence over the general public, as designers today, we blind ourselves from the truth. We can make a difference.
No need for long speeches, money or power to get on TV and say what we have to say, we just use our creative skills, and create, beautiful designs, that speak for themselves, louder than any words ever can.

We need to realize this, and do something about it. I’m tired of hearing people say they care, designers saying they would love to make a difference, and really not giving a damn. If you truly care about something, however talentless or talented you are, prove it now.

Be Passionate - Michael Kane

Free Templates these days are not at all hard to come by, but they suck really bad. Those that are worth buying are over priced and usually flash based with annoying splash pages and bad navigation, found mainly over at . Now the Web Templates there will cost you anywhere around $50 for a simple html template with absolutely no life or personality, to $200 for an equaly distasteful unoriginal design, keep in mind this very same template your paying for could have been downloaded hundreds of times before. Now, you could pay for the Unique template and become the soul owner of it (if no one has purchased it before) for usually $1500+ but you’re still not getting a unique custom designed template to fit your needs, but if you’re alright with that then go for it

I don’t like ready made templates, I don’t have anything against them, they do the job when you’re in need of something to slap content in and move on, but to run your business off a template that litters the internet, and is as unique as a yellow cab in NYC is not a smart move.

My point is, get a custom template, they cost a lot less than those templates over at TM and at the end of the day, you’re getting something your mind creates, for your business, something that does no exist anywhere else. Not to mention that if every template sold over at is available for free. Yes, absolute free, shocking isn’t it? Here are a few templates I picked out to share with you, feel free to download them.

I have about 40 comments for the previouse two blogs to moderate and I really can’t be botherd as most consist of several links to the said posters website, so I will start fresh. Sorry to those who were contructive in their comments. From here on in, any comment with more than 1 link will be disregarded, and I shall try to accept the comments on a daily bases.

If you want a free TM template just comment and add it’s number, if I have time I’ll get you it.

Remember, creative, unique websites are the answer, but, it never hurts to use a ready made one every now and again, just don’t pay a silly price for it - Michael Kane 

I was asked by a client, who owns an amazing domain name, what she should do with it. My answer, “Start an online business.” I think that confused her because of the way she cringed her face and looked at me, “What online business?” she replied 30 seconds later. The story went on for 2 hours before she decided to sell her domain name for some profit, but that’s not the point of this blog post.

When you decided to start your own online business, it’s really important to decide on something you excel in, or at least are passionate about in some way. For example, a mother, may decided to start an online business selling something she’s good at making, like baskets or scarfs and so on, better off doing that than hiring some one to help you set up say, an online hosting company, or online directory (the stupid craze these days) and driving you into the ground.

Don’t take other peoples opinions either, not with much weight anyway, just do something you know most about, make a list, then search online and see who your competitors would be, don’t go starting an online software company and expect to make a living by head butting Microsoft and other tycoons, that will never work out for you.

Why don’t you start a p2p site, sell advertising and channel all the money to zurich, get caught and go to prison, by the time you’re out the interest alone will net you a nice nest egg right? you can spend all your time watching shows you missed (Take this advice at your own risk, I may not, in any way shape or form be held responsible for your stupid actions)

Anyway, at the end of the day, a simple site, with a good eye catching design, yes, a good design is required however small your business is, an idea you feel passionate about or have knowledge in, and a lot of patience is all you need to start off on the right foot.

Making it a success is a whole different story! - Michael Kane

Be it in graphics, web design or even writing, freelancers these days are multiplying at an alarming rate, it’s not even funny. Many of these so called freelancers are popping up all over the place from all over the world don’t even know what they are getting themselves into. Now I am not a writer, so I will refrain from commenting on the Freelance Writers out there today, those that provide so called original articles and content, so I will talk about what I know, graphic and web design.

I am a designer, so I have high expectations of designers. Just last month, I worked with a designer, James Croft on a clients site, islandmix that can be found in my design portfolio. I expected him to know how to listen to my ideas, then take my sketches and concepts combining them with his own to present me with at least three sketches of possible solutions to the design problem at hand, then collaborate together some more. I expected him to know something about the website in general–what they were supposed to accomplish–and to balance his creative urges with the clients needs. I expected him to be prepared to go back and forth with me and our client as we refined the design, and to complete his assignments as agreed.

James, by the way, did all of these things and we produced a striking and effective website design that blew the clients minds away (literally speaking of course, no not really.)

My point is, you can’t just hire the first freelancer that sounds cheap and seems to know what he/she is doing. Always ask around, google up his/her portfolio, ask to see sites that are online that he/she has worked on, and if there is not a “Designed by; designers name” somewhere on that site, email the site owner and ask for confirmation. Most of the time, using one of the ways I suggested above, will end up saving you a lot of time, heart ache, and money.

So many kids are popping up these days calling them selves designers, just because they downloaded a 30 day trail of Photoshop and have a couple fonts under their belt to flash at client in an attempt to impress them. It’s a sad truth, but clients that look for a designer, usually know very little about design, therefor get sucked into a whirl pool of banana manoosha (which means bull shit in baby language). Beware of fake designers, they are everywhere, behind you, under your bed, in the mail box. Sniff them out with common sense.

Another thing when hiring a freelance designer is Ego. A designer needs to have a rather large ego, but needs to keep it under control in service of his/her client. Many do not do this well. When working with a new client, it’s wrong to force ones opinion on a client, but one should rather give it, and better explain the point at hand, accepting anything the paying client has to say of course. If a designer can’t do these basic tasks, then you’re better off without them.

Inability to listen and really hear, inability to surface assumptions (his/hers or the client’s) or to clarify them are all things that you should watch out for in a freelance designer. And, of course, many designers are simply poor communicators, either in writing, phone or face-to-face. However that’s not always a sign that the free lancer is not a talented designer, but I promise you, it will not be an easy task when it comes to communicating with him/her about the project.

There is no room to trust your gut instinct when it comes to hiring a freelance designer, just go with the facts and what you see in front of you. Reputation plays a big role, so do past projects, check and check again, get a phone number if you can, check the contact page on their portfolio for an address. Only then can you be sure that you’re getting what you paid for!

“Happy freelancer hunting!” - Michael Kane