Beating Busters: How to Identify and Avoid Bad Clients

Hi Go Media faithful! Bill here! I’m back to deliver another teaser article from my book, Drawn to Business. This week’s piece deals with one simple fact: in business, you’re going to get ripped off. Get used to the idea. Over time, luckily, you will learn how to spot what I like to call a busters, or bad clients. Here is a list of the different types of busters I’ve come across over the last 15 years in business. Hopefully my bad experiences will spare you the same headache. Look out for these guys!

How to Create a Winning Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing is a great way to blast your brand to the millions of fans following your every move. But like anything else, there is an art to creating the perfect campaign that will not only be worth reading, but worth opening in the first place.

We asked our friend Fabio Carneiro, over at Mailchimp, to share with us some words of wisdom on this very topic. Read on for Fabio’s 7 tips to creating an email marketing campaign that matters.

5 Gigposter Process Videos You Need to See Now

There is an ever growing haul of poster process videos being uploaded online. Slowly, we are seeing many designers shed some light into the way they create some of their latest work. In this article, we will focus on gigposters only, but don’t be fooled; there are plenty of process videos for other posters out there.

I have selected these five videos as they show some of the variety of different ways in which you can create a gigposter. There are other great examples out there which I hope this article inspires you to seek out for yourselves, as well as view all the other videos these designers and illustrators have uploaded themselves.

50 Vintage Freebies for Designers

Hello!

You all know, I’m a sucker for freebies. Add “vintage” to the mix and well, I’m totally geeked out. I hope you enjoy these vintage finds – not only fonts, but also badges, frames, PSD retro layer styles and icons!

Help Us Share the Love for those in Need: Go Media Launches COSE’s Warm and Bright Campaign

The designers at Go Media are proud to approach each and every project with passion. But we must admit, our ongoing partnership with COSE and specifically, our assistance with the launch of their Warm and Bright campaign, has us feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

Not only did we have a ball coming up with the festive concepts for COSE, but more importantly, we wholeheartedly support the cause behind the designs. You see, when anyone visits COSE’s Warm and Bright landing page and clicks to share, COSE will donate $1 to families in need.

Fear of Making Money

This post was originally written on my personal blog Maker/Mistaker and I thought I should repost it here.

A while back I was having a conversation with a friend of mine Danielle Harper. We were discussing a lot of things that affect us as entrepreneurs. One of those was money. Danielle was describing a criticism she received but defended herself by saying, “and I didn’t even make any money on it.”

I stopped her right there because what she said made me realize something. She defended herself by reminding me that she didn’t make money. Why?

Check out her post on her blog about this very conversation.

So why did she resort to the “but I didn’t make money” defense? I notice this a lot with the people I surround myself with. Grown adults who grew up on punk rock that never quite fit into the system. The whole DIY movement is sort of a fuck-you to capitalism and corporate greed. There’s a certain badge of honor doing things yourself and trying to “stick it to the man.”

Life Without Limits: Constructing Creative Realism with Cinema 4D

When Barton Damer was given a tour of the manufacturing facility belonging to Tennessee-based Malibu Boats, his imagination went into high gear immediately. His design company, Already Been Chewed (ABC) had been tasked with creating and implementing a rebranding effort across numerous media platforms for Malibu and its sister company Axis Wake Research. The goal was to illustrate the slogan “Life Without Limits” and accentuate the active lifestyle that Malibu and Axis can offer their customers.

8 Detrimental Design Habits to Break Today

You’ve just landed that internship or job of your dreams and are ready to take on the world. Maybe you’ve been working at a firm or have been freelancing for years.

You’re sure you’ve got it under control. You’re got this in the bag!

But wait! There are just a few common mistakes that may be holding back from achieving your full potential.

We’d like to help. Thanks to some great names in our industry, we have a wealth of advice for you regarding some design habits to break now! Or, better, those to watch out for and nab before they become etched into stone.

Go Media Presents: On The Map 3

On The Map 3 is rapidly approaching! Below you can find the official event details in the Press Release, along with a peek behind the scenes of one of the new episodes – A day in the life at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. I hope to see you, our local readers, at the screening Friday, December 6th. And for all our readers, keep your eyes peeled for a follow up blog post that delves into the video creation process. Enjoy!

best poster design

Poster Design: 50 Excellent Inspirations

* Chance to win a Go Media poster pack inside

Need some poster design inspiration? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve gathered some good ones to get your creative juices flowing.

WMC Fest 4 Speaker Videos Release

We just released the first wave of speaker videos from WMC Fest 2013. Check them out here on the ‘Zine. They are also viewable in HD for free on our vimeo channel!

Included in the first batch are Brandon Rike, Rena Tom with Lisa Congdon, Troy DeShano, Stephanie Landes Burris, and These are Things.

Disclaimer: talks from Troy DeShano and These are Things many bring you to tears! They are examples of the type of humility and honesty we admire in our speakers.

Preparing for your Design Career: 5 Important Lessons

Having just graduated from college in the past few years, I am able to put into perspective exactly what I learned, and wish I learned, before I headed out into the real world. There are plenty of articles floating around the internet talking about what to put in your portfolio and how to send out resumes, so I won’t go too much into that. What I want to talk about are the things that surprised me about working on real projects here at our small Cleveland-based creative agency, Go Media, and how I wish I had been a little more prepared.

15 Stunningly Beautiful Landing Page Designs

It’s particularly difficult to design and build landing pages because they often need to appeal to several different types of people, as well as fulfil several different goals. Often they need to inform visitors, get them excited and interested in a product and help to show off the product in the best light possible. Not everyone looks at a landing page in the same way – some are extremely visually oriented and will respond better to imagery and bold headings, while others want to get down to the nitty gritty and will study everything you have to say. An effective and well-designed landing page will be built in a way that appeals to everyone. Of course, that’s significantly easier said than done.

How to Launch your Freelance Business: 9 Simple Tips

So, you’ve been fantasizing about taking the big leap in the freelance world. Maybe the three days at Weapons of Mass Creation Fest was just the little push over the edge you needed. Maybe the current job market looks so grim, that making it on your own seems like the best solution. Or is it that you just cannot stand living to create something you don’t believe in one minute longer?

You’re not alone. We chatted a bit with freelance designer Dan Stiles, known for his vibrant, bold and bright screen-print art prints and rock music posters honoring such acts as The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, Ray Lamontagne and Sonic Youth, about his decision to dive in head first. Rena Tom, of Makeshift Society in San Francisco (a sweet co-working space and clubhouse for creative freelancers), also contributed. And lastly, we drew some gems of knowledge from both our experience here at Go Media and Bill Beachy’s book, Drawn to Business.

Learn How to Build the Design Firm of Your Dreams with Drawn to Business!

Japanese Vintage Design Inspiration

When I was growing up, I’d play the Japanese card game Hanafuda with my grandparents. Mesmerized by the stunning yet simple designs on each card, I memorized each combination: ribbon, maple and deer, geese, moon and sky, boar and butterfly. At the kitchen table we’d play and snack on senbei, and at these moments I felt so happy and loved. I still remember my grandmother’s Japanese plates upon which she’d serve me tiny treats and tea. Surrounded deep in my family’s culture, I gained an appreciation for everything Japanese.

When I see vintage Japanese design, I feel warmly reminded of my grandparents and the love we shared. The gentle simplicity still embraces and inspires me. Via Pinterest, here are 25:

Vintage Design and Illustrations inspired by Japan

We Asked, You Answered: My Biggest Challenge Running a Design Business

How to Land the Design Job of Your Dreams

You’re knee deep in loans. You dream in Adobe. You crafted the-most-memorable video resume of all time.

Or so you think.

You’re knocking on doors and they just seem to be closing.

Slamming, really.

What is it that you’re missing?

We asked Dan Weiss, Talent Acquisition Specialist, from American Greetings and Taryn O’Bra, division director for the Creative Group in Seattle, to share with us some sure-fire ways to get hired at a creative agency.

Examples of Simple & Elegant Logo Designs

There are so many different design decisions that you can make when creating a logo that – at first – it can be a little overwhelming. Do you want something attention grabbing, colourful and brash? Do you follow the long shadow trend, or will that appear tired and overused in 6 months time? Do you go for something understated and that looks good in black and white? There are countless directions that you can go in, but my personal favourite is a logo that’s simple, clean and has a tiny hint of the brand’s personality behind it.

Melany Lane Script Font (full family) – only $17!

They say artists pour their hearts into their work. Same with writers. Well in the case of the Melany Lane font, Yellow Design Studio’s done both.

A beautifully fun and quirky font, Melany Lane is a pure delight to use and read. It elicits a feel-good, homey type of emotion that’s just full of flourish. And because we’re in such a good mood, you can not only get a good deal on Melany Lane, we’re offering a huge discount on the entire font family.

You can get the entire Melany Lane Font Family (that’s 5 robust sets) for 65% off! Seriously, by now there is no reason for you not to be smiling.

Modern-Yet-Retro Thirsty Script Font Family – only $9!

You always hear about starving artists. But what about thirsty ones? Not so much.

That’s probably because Web designers (hey, they’re modern day artists) are in on a little secret. They already know about YellowDesignStudio’s Thirsty Script font family.

Retro.

Modern Sans Serif.

All with a shot of caffeine.

That’s Thirsty Script for ya, and it’s also 80% off for a limited time thanks to the cool cats at Mighty Deals!

How to Extract a Budget from your Client

Hi Go Media faithful! Bill here! I’m back to deliver another teaser article from my book, Drawn to Business. This week’s piece looks at how to extract a budget from your client. Ready? Here goes.

Extracting a Budget from your Client

It’s a commonly held belief that giving a vendor your budget upfront is a fool’s approach. Because of this, many clients will play dumb when you ask them for a budget. That’s fine. Don’t be a jerk. It’s still important to have a money conversation early on. You need to qualify your clients before you spend a minute working on a proposal for them. In those cases where a client doesn’t give me a budget, I’ll give them my ballpark pricing. This starts with me asking enough questions to get a general sense of their project. Then I might say something along the lines of: “OK, Bob, this sounds like a fairly typical website design: Homepage with slideshow, About, Services, Contact Us and the whole site to be responsive, correct? Great. Obviously, we’re going to need to get into the nitty-gritty details about your website in order for us to provide you with an accurate time and cost estimate. However, just so I can make sure our firm will be a good fit for you, my very rough estimation on a website like this will probably be somewhere between $15K and $30K. Does that sound reasonable to you? I just want to make sure we’re not wasting each other’s time.”

Why a Custom Website is so Expensive (Part 2 of 2)

In short, because it takes a lot of time. More time than most outsiders can imagine. But why?

Web 1.0

Go Media’s founders started building custom websites in the 90’s. In those days, a typical website was comprised of the standard Home, About, Services & Contact. This is commonly referred to as a brochure site. It was often static html and rarely changed in a year. There was very little thought going into SEO. There were rarely contact forms. It might have had five graphic images, total. Publicizing your email address was considered perfectly safe. Javascript, on the other hand, was feared by the industry.

Essential Tips for Success from Designers We Trust