I remember my first client meeting…even though it was quite long time back, but the whole episode is still a distinct memory. Not because it was my very first client meeting, but the anxiety and nervousness that besieged me was unforgettable. Trembling hands, shaky knees and sweaty forehead…altogether it was a nerve-racking experience. I am sure most of the newbie graphic designers face the same situation in their first meet-up with clients.

However, this was just a onetime incident for me because with time I grew stronger in confidence after each client meeting. Having gone through the pains and troubles of trying to carry out an ideal client meeting, I have learnt a lot of things that are necessary to keep in mind. You must prepare yourself wisely for every situation in order to attain perfection as a graphic designer. Hence, today I wish to give a few pointers that are essential in meeting the client for the first time.

1. Prepare Yourself:

The first and foremost thing that you need to do before meeting a client is to prepare yourself. This involves physical as well as mental and psychological preparation. You must remember that your “first impression is the last impression” on your clients, so make it count. Looking professional is imperative especially when you are meeting a client for the first time. But equally essential is to sound professional which is possible only if you are mentally and emotionally fit. Never build on the pressure of a client meeting, hold onto your emotions and simply think of it as a normal routine task.

2. Research The Client:

I’m sure most of you have experienced the situation where your client is telling you about his business and you have no clue of what he’s talking about. This is a clear case of ignorance for graphic designers where your lack of knowledge and preparation may lead to embarrassment. A prudent tip is to research your client beforehand so that you are on level terms with your client during the meeting. Search about their company and its operations, its competitors and gather all other relevant information. A client will be impressed if you know about their business.

3. Organize Design Brief:

Going unprepared on a client meeting is the worst graphic design mistake you can commit. Some graphic designers stutter during the client meeting and are bogged by several unanswered queries in their mind. This happens when you don’t prepare a design brief in advance. Prior to your first meeting with the client, organize a design brief containing all possible queries and questions you may have regarding the project. This should include the design requirements, details and other fine points that will assist you the endeavor.

4. Arrange Your Portfolio:

Since it is your first meeting with a client, you must prepare your entire arsenal to impress them. For a graphic designer, their portfolio is a compilation of all previous design works that they have accomplished. You can either arrange your portfolio in a file folder or simply present it to the client on a laptop. But be sure to take out the best samples on your first meeting.

5. Engage With The Client:

In most cases, the first meeting with a client is always mired by instances of awkward silence. For example, when the client is going through your graphic design portfolio on paper, you are sitting there idle. Instead, we must engage with our clients and be proactive. Rather than sitting awkwardly, take the initiative of guiding the clients through your portfolio and work experience.

Share Your Experiences:

Benjamin Franklin

In most cases, graphic designers feel shy of admitting their ignorance on a particular subject. When a client comes up with a highly complex business nature, graphic designers pretend to know all just to avoid looking stupid. On the other hand, ignorance can also prove beneficial sometimes. There is a well-known saying that “A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool.”

Today, I shall discuss both aspects of ignorance for graphic designers and its impact on our professional careers.

‘Ignorance’ as a Blessing:

• Inquisitive Mind

Thomas Gray wrote in one his poems “Ignorance is bliss”. An ignorant designer will have an inquisitive mind…one who seeks to inquire about everything. Just like an ignorant child, he is curious to find out about everything that comes in his path. Similarly, an ignorant designer will have the courage to ask questions in order to completely understand things. Many a times, graphic designers pretend to be a ‘know-it-all’ and don’t ask for further clarifications from clients.

• Desire for Self-Learning
Being ignorant saves you from being overly complacent on your limited knowledge. If a designer doesn’t fully understand his client’s complex business nature, it’s better to admit it and learn about it.  If you pretend to know something that you are not capable of, it will lead to regret in the end. Not knowing something gives you the liberty and desire to learn about it in detail.

• Shows Your Honesty
	Last but not least, being candidly ignorant of something gives the client an impression that you are an honest person to deal with. One of the stepping stones of client-designer relationship is trust. Being frank with your client on what you are not accurately familiar will help you establish a sincere relationship with them.

‘Ignorance’ as a Curse:

• Takes Time in Comprehension:
A big drawback of ignorance is that the designer will take more time in understanding the design details accurately. When clients provide the design brief for the project, a designer with lack of knowledge or information will not completely comprehend what he is being asked for. For example, if clients’ business is related to a complicated industry that the designer has never heard of, it will take relatively more time to research and digest that particular industry mechanics.

• Will Look Stupid in front of Clients:
	Most clients consider graphic designers to be a ‘know-it-all’ guys who visualize everything very creatively. They would come up with a confused mind and ask for things that make no sense at all. So, the designer who is unaware of what client is talking about, will end looking up a stupid in front of clients.

• More Chances of Mistakes:

Another drawback of ignorance is that graphic designers are prone to make mistakes in their endeavors. For instance, you are working in a creative agency and your boss asked you to make copies of a document using the office photocopier machine. Being a graphic designer, it is not your job to make Xerox copies and you are ignorant of how the process is done. But since you couldn’t tell that to your boss, you ended up making the wrong photocopies.

Graphic designing is not just about using design skills and aesthetics. In order to succeed as professional graphic designers, you must also possess business sense and interpersonal skills to deal with clients. Those designers who are devoid of these skills are usually bullied around by clients. Being in the professional world, you cannot afford to be a pushover.

Most of us generally assume clients to be harmless and unknowledgeable people who can cause no trouble for graphic designers. But there are some bad client types that have the ability to take undue advantage of graphic designers who are vulnerable to client trickery. Hence, you must be aware of how to avoid being ripped off by shrewd clients.

Here are some common ways that clients try to dupe designers into going the extra mile. Also explained are the ways to avoid them.

1. Asks for Excessive Revisions:

Some clients use a shrewd approach to take designers for a ride. After having completed the final work, they will ask you to “Make Slight Adjustments”. Design revisions are acceptable to a certain extent, but when these requests keep piling up, you can be sure that you’re being ripped off your time and energy. The time that you could have spent in making money elsewhere is exhausted by the client who takes you for granted.

2. Demands Outright Plagiarism:

Copying someone else’s work is one thing, but to be forced by a client to implement an exactly similar design is downright wrong. Some would find it hard to believe, but I have myself encountered some clients who provide a sample design (mostly a famous one) and demand that I imitate it with slight modifications. Believe it or not, this happens and if you don’t stand up against this, you might end up creating a copied design that will eventually stain your graphic design portfolio.

3. Stipulates Unreasonable Deadline:

Another shrewd technique employed by clients is to give unreasonable deadlines to designers. Their trick here is that they will pay for a day’s worth and get work done for a month’s worth. Some designers who are subdued comply with this unreasonable demand and end up messing up their work. You simply cannot let the designer set an unrealistic and unfeasible cut-off date for the project.

4. Reluctant to Pay:

Some swindling clients tend to delay the payments with lame excuses. This happens mostly with newbie graphic designers who are desperate on earning from a design project. These clients take undue advantage of the designers who are pushovers and eventually end up absconding away with the design work without paying a cent.

5. Unwarranted Threats:

Blackmailing is one of the most despicable and contemptible acts by a client. When a dispute or serious issue arrives and it is the client’s fault, he will resort to hurling unwarranted threats at graphic designers. They would also threaten to take legal actions and demand that whatever they say be done. Those designers who are not aware of how to do business dealings bow down in front of these scheming clients.

Tip: How to Avoid Being Ripped Off by Clients

Some designers have a soft corner for clients and just cannot refuse the endless revisions. Others are simply inexperienced with the trade of business dealings and legal documentations. In order to save designers from being taken for a ride by these deceiving clients, a simple solution is to lay the ground rules before taking on a graphic design project. Sign a contract that stipulates the design brief, time, budget and number of revisions on the project. This will spare you time and energy trying to refuse the client for undue revisions. Moreover, it will also protect you from any legal complications with the clients.

The quality that distinguishes graphic designers from other professionals is the ability to think creatively. Designers are best known for their design aesthetics and sense of identity development. Now imagine if a graphic designer runs out flat of this exceptional trait…what would happen? Just consider for a second that your creativity and resourcefulness depletes to the extent that you cannot think of a single idea.

A graphic designer without creative instincts is like a locomotive without an engine. Your concept generation skills are paramount to your profession and you must make sure your creativity doesn’t dries out. So how does a graphic designer keep his creative juices flowing constantly?
Here are 8 simple yet effective ways of boosting your creative level in the field of graphic design:

1. Do Away With Pessimism:

The first thing that we need to do as graphic designers is stay optimistic. We must learn to believe in ourselves and our ability to think creatively. Most designers fail to think resourcefully because they lose their inner confidence. They fear that they might have reached a level of maturity where your creative skills diminish. But the truth of the matter is…creativity has no age limits.

2. Be an Entrepreneur – Take Risks:

In order to try something new, you must be daring and ready to take risks. Much like an entrepreneur, who never shies away from challenges and is willing to take risk in establishing a novel business venture. Likewise, graphic designers should also be willing to take risk in trying out new and different design concepts. So don’t be afraid, let your creativity run wild and you will find loads of fresh and novel logo design ideas and concepts.

3. Keep a ‘Creative Circle’:

There is a common saying “If you can’t beat them, join them”. Another easy way of staying creative is by surrounding yourself with a ‘creative circle’. A creative circle would include all the people and associates who are known for their dexterity and design intelligence. It is said that man learns from whatever environment he is exposed to. Hence, make sure that your environment is a creative and resourceful one.

4. Always Keep a Pen and Paper:

Many a times, you are sitting somewhere and a great idea pops into your mind. But you decide to work on it later and eventually forget it afterwards. In order to avoid wasting your creative thinking capacity, always carry a pen and paper with you. Or even more convenient in the age of technology is to use your notebooks and iPhones to jot down the bits and pieces of brilliance that come into your head.

5. Make Mistakes:

Another thing that stops most designers from thinking imaginatively is fear of making mistakes. Their apprehension is that if they think excessively, they might end up committing a major error. But in reality, one learns from his mistakes. It is well said that “The person that doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.”

6. Be Liberal with Other’s Opinions:

Creativity is not always inherited or inborn. Sometimes you have to learn from your environment and peers by listening to their opinions and suggestions. Some designers have a knack of not keeping an open-mind when it comes to other’s views. In order to stay creative, you must be welcoming and liberal to client criticism and feedback.

7. Don’t be a Workaholic:

I remember my early days as a graphic designer when I used to be an extreme workaholic. Being relatively new to the professional graphic design world, I used to panic a lot and work day in day out on my assignments. It used to drain the creative juices out of me. Hence, my advice is never to be a workaholic as your mind needs adequate rest to think productively.

8. Get Inspiration from Design Galleries:

Sometimes a little inspiration is what you need to get your creative spark back on track. In order to that, there is no dearth of inspiration spots on the internet these days. There are many sites like Behance and deviantart that showcase inspirational designs from aspiring graphic designers. These sites will help you get your creative engine running back again.

What methods do you employ to stay creative as a graphic designer?

With respect to photography, the term toning is a technique of transforming a monochrome photograph (usually black and white) to color form. This method has originally transported from the world of cinematography. But after being adopted in the digital graphic design world, the term split toning has evolved and gained more prominence.

• Origins of Split Toning:

Decades ago, our ancestors were exposed to only black and white film and photography as there was no other technology to capture color effects. But in the mid 19th century, hand-colored film processes were developed and many epic films and cartoons were re-created and re-distributed in color mode.

A famous example is the Three Stooges Movie that was colorized and re-distributed.

• How Does Split Toning Work?

The split toning used in photography these days, is relatively different from general method of toning. Firstly, it is done through digital software like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Secondly, it is not restricted to a particular tint of color. You can use split toning to add any tint of color to the black and white photography.

But the digital effects are not limited to photography. Even graphic designers should learn how to perform split toning as it may help in their endeavors. For those who have Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, there is a default option of “Split Toning” that makes life easier.

However, for new Photoshop users, here is a simple step-by-step tutorial on how to use split toning on Adobe Photoshop:

• Creative Examples of Split Toning Photography:

Train Station

Old Nikon

Wooden Bench

Black Beauty

Vertorama!!

Chess

Last Rays of Sunlight

Hazy Tracks

Rise in the Sky

Can the Kitty come

Step by Step

Headstone

Movement or Moment

Train Track

The Path

The first thing that pops up in graphic designers mind, when they get a project is how to get started? Should they start searching the internet for ideas or grabbing a paper and pencil will be a better way to kick off? Should he solely rely on inspiration to start with a graphic design project or should he work hard from scratch to conceive an original idea?

Based on the process of accomplishing a graphic design project, there are three major types of graphic designers. The first are the ‘Lazy Workers’ who directly scavenge the web for ‘inspiration’ and try to pass off the work as ‘original’. The other type is the ‘Hard Workers’ who toil and sweat to drain out original ideas from their brain. The last type of designers is what I would like to call the “Smart Workers” who combine the effects of both inspiration and hard work. Which type of graphic designer should you avoid being?

But before you reach to a conclusion, let us analyze the dual outcomes of both aspects… ‘inspiration’ and ‘hard work’.

• Outcomes of Inspiration in Graphic Design:

Each day, more and more sites are evolving that provide access to graphic design inspiration. No doubt, these sites provide graphic designers a lot of help to get their creative juices flowing, but they also pose some disadvantages. Following are the positive and negative effects of inspiration on graphic design.

1. Saves Time and Effort:

For those graphic designers who are looking for a quick guidance for their graphic design project, inspiration is a wonderful tool to save time and efforts. Although it is not prudent to rely solely on inspiration, nonetheless it does save your time on brainstorming and conjuring up logo design ideas. For those designers who like to procrastinate or run short of time, it is a shrewd way of getting the job done.

2. Limits Creative Power:

As said earlier, inspiration has its advantages but also yields some drawbacks too. When you become overly reliant of ‘inspirational sites’ to give you design ideas, your creative and thinking power becomes restricted. For any graphic designer, it is not a good sign and also limits your ability to grow as a designer.

3. Higher Chances of Plagiarism:

On the downside, using inspiration can cause serious issues of copyright and plagiarism. Since you are just amending some aspects of an already existing design, there are chances that your design will look similar. One of the biggest personality types of graphic designer is uniqueness. This cannot be achieved by solely using inspirational material.

4. Learn About New Trends:

Regardless of the fact that inspiration limits your creative thinking, it gives you a lot to learn as well. Since thousands of creative designers upload their design concepts and ideas on inspirational platforms, it gives you a diverse spectrum of graphic and logo design trends to learn.

5. Causes Distraction:

The thing about using internet for ideas is that it causes a significant distraction. Considering the myriad blogs and websites that offer design inspiration have chains of ‘related stuff’ on each page, graphic designers are bound to keep on clicking one after the other. Moreover, the social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook will always be a constant waste of time.

• Outcomes of Hard Work in Graphic Design:

Having discussed the dual effects of inspiration, let us now turn our focus to the other side of the story. Those designers who work hard using their brain to generate a concept from scratch also reap various benefits. But there are a few drawbacks to this as well. Following are the dual outcomes of only using your head in graphic design:

1. Generate Unique Ideas:

Firstly, when you don’t take aid from any source, you are bound to generate ideas that are unique, fresh and distinctive. The concept that you create using your head will be something that hasn’t been done before.

2. Boundless Creativity:

As I highlighted earlier, inspiration bounds your ability to think as a graphic designer. Hence, by working solely on the basis of your own intellect you can employ boundless creativity and ingenuity. Since your thinking is not limited to the designs you search on the net, you will have freedom over your creative though process. You can brainstorm for novel and fresh ideas, which is an important stage of developing a creative design idea.

3. Sense of Pride:

4. Create Your Own Trend:

Design inspiration is all about following already existing trends and movements in graphic design. But when you use your intellect and brain power, you create an entirely new trend. Instead of being a trend-follower, you will become a trend-setter.

5. Requires Relatively More Time:

On the downside, relying solely on your intellect is relatively more time taking. Since these types of designers follow a comprehensive process, it involves more time that the designers who directly take inspiration from various sites and finish off the project.