100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers

Table of contents

1. Cover
2. Title
3. Contents
4. Introduction
5. Chapter 1. Self-Promotion
   1. 1 Let the work speak for itself
   2. 2 Create promotions that reflect the goals of your company
   3. 3 Keep in touch with your clients, past and present
   4. 4 Let someone publish your work
   5. 5 Win and keep clients with a multi-pronged approach to self-promotion
   6. 6 Use cultural relevance to create ongoing momentum
   7. 7 Create self-promotional materials that are deceptively simple
   8. 8 Do an extra-good job on tiny projects
   9. 9 Distribute your work through respected channels to gain client confidence
   10. 10 Everything you do promotes yourself
   11. 11 Walk around a book fair and hand out your book designs to publishers
   12. 12 Create after-the-fact flyers
6. Chapter 2. Working with Clients
   1. 13 Visit the client’s site–physical and virtual
   2. 14 Research client decision-making systems
   3. 15 Spend time with your client to build consensus and create shared goals
   4. 16 Expand your audience by doing public art projects
   5. 17 Don’t talk about CD art in a CD art meeting
   6. 18 All work has its own unique client
   7. 19 Learn the language of the client
   8. 20 Teach the client your language
   9. 21 Seek out creative clients for successful collaborations
   10. 22 Build small projects into engaging, ongoing work
   11. 23 Work for the government
   12. 24 Develop a clear ethic of client interaction that works for you
7. Chapter 3. Workflow and In-House Dynamics
   1. 25 Find an emotional connection with your audience
   2. 26 Demand respect, creative license, and fair pay
   3. 27 Expand with your clients
   4. 28 Develop brands that both reflect and influence culture
   5. 29 Help save electricity
   6. 30 If you are a designer, design; if you are a manager, manage
   7. 31 Accessible can be smart; smart can be funny
   8. 32 Hire interesting, creative people–and listen to them
   9. 33 Always keep the valve in the open position
   10. 34 Cultivate a workplace with a specific look and sound
   11. 35 Keep decision making simple and nonhierarchical
   12. 36 Creative directors need to stay creative
   13. 37 Look far and wide for your sources in the creative process
8. Chapter 4. Continuing Education and Professional Development
   1. 38 Avoid design conferences
   2. 39 Support young designers
   3. 40 When you retire, deal with the possibilities, not the necessities
   4. 41 Go back to school no matter how old you are
   5. 42 Start a magazine
   6. 43 Make a low-budget project look expensive
   7. 44 Read it all, forget it all, and do your own thing
   8. 45 Actively pursue intellectual subjects that resonate with you
   9. 46 Learn the vernacular of a new field
   10. 47 Continue your own education by teaching
   11. 48 Develop and sustain an art practice throughout your life
   12. 49 Never stop learning; don’t start teaching
   13. 50 Encourage young people to make art
9. Chapter 5. Community Involvement
   1. 51 Develop a social agenda
   2. 52 Develop long-term relationships with nonprofit organizations
   3. 53 Address local, immediate needs
   4. 54 Use the Robin Hood theory
   5. 55 Minimize travel expenses—work with your neighbors
   6. 56 Create highly visible and culturally consequential design by working for clients in education and the arts
   7. 57 Integrate your politics with your creation
   8. 58 Teach
   9. 59 Don’t feel obligated to do charity work
   10. 60 Keep in touch with your nonprofit clients
   11. 61 Partner with like-minded firms
   12. 62 Use client work to collaborate with young new artists
   13. 63 Provide service to your design community
10. Chapter 6. Technology
    1. 64 Acknowledge the value of the analog process
    2. 65 Use computers to communicate with stone masons
    3. 66 Make design invisible
    4. 67 Recognize the limits of digital technology for creative work
    5. 68 Let your small shop thrive on high-tech
    6. 69 Whatever you think, technology is in control
    7. 70 Remember that technology serves you; you do not serve technology
    8. 71 Use technology in unexpected ways
    9. 72 Work with emerging technologies
    10. 73 Make friends with people who know a technology that you want to learn
    11. 74 Develop an overarching technology metaphor
    12. 75 It’s OK to not go multimedia
    13. 76 Use the computer as a business tool as well as a creative tool
11. Chapter 7. Personal Growth and Keeping Creativity Alive
    1. 77 Travel as much as possible
    2. 78 Look at the everyday world for inspiration
    3. 79 Watch videos of comedians
    4. 80 Practice and preach, don’t theorize and teach
    5. 81 Change your environment
    6. 82 Have conversations with great talents
    7. 83 Keep creativity alive by any means
    8. 84 Read a good book
    9. 85 Set up shop in a foreign country during a recession
    10. 86 Work with visual artists
    11. 87 Take some time off
    12. 88 Develop personal growth and personal taste; you are what you eat
    13. 89 Take risks with your career
12. Chapter 8. Partnerships and Strategic Synergies
    1. 90 The secret of a successful partnership is to never compromise
    2. 91 Collaborate with someone in a different field
    3. 92 Collaborate with someone whose skills complement your own
    4. 93 Collaboration does not depend on compromise but rather on good decisions about whom you work with
    5. 94 Find a mutually beneficial relationship
    6. 95 Allow each creative team to determine its collaborative approach
    7. 96 Take a risk in choosing collaborative partners
    8. 97 Partner with companies willing to take risks
    9. 98 Partner with civic organizations
    10. 99 Forge partnerships that broaden your cultural horizons
    11. 100 Help other people collaborate
13. About the Contributors
14. About the Author and Designer