The Designers Working With series is about getting real people to share opinions on how they work in, or with, the design industry. For the opinions, I went to designers from all walks of life, as well as the professionals who work with designers. For the guts of the series I requested tips and advice, known issues, anything to reflect how both sides work. Exactly what I asked for, in this series you’ll find professionals telling of their experiences with designers, designers with clients. Each will then go further with descriptions of how their profession works best.

A litany you’ll read on BoDo often is “Learning how to run a design company isn’t just about design, or even the clients we design for”. That’s right. It’s about the whole - organizing, bookkeeping, personality, dependability, marketing, management skills and more. They all come into play when running a successful business.

Visiting author Josh Jeffryes (Cube 2.0) joins the conversation with:

First off, your design talent doesn’t really matter. Sure, it matters as far as whether you’ll do good work, but it’s almost entirely meaningless when it comes to business success. There are plenty of terrible designers out there with clients lined up outside the door. The reality is that most of our clients don’t know anything about design, and wouldn’t know the difference between a genius and a talentless hack if they came pre-labeled and color-coded. Being talented might get you better clients, but it won’t make you a success, and lacking talent won’t hold you back.

You’ll be able to read Josh’s views in full in the next post, What does it take to run your own design business?

Apt to this series, in my first Podcast Humpday I quoted James Archer from Forty Media:

The creative side and working with clients are just a portion of your business … there is a lot of stuff you don’t want to learn, but you’ve just gotta learn … you have to do it because it’s what keeps your business operational.

A part of that “lot of stuff” (depending on your flavour), is learning how to work with the professions responsible (in various degrees) for getting a polished product to your clients - the professions working with and in the industry.

I asked 7 short questions of writers, photographers, illustrators, marketeers, programmers, printers and pre press specialists:

1. What are the main points that you’d expect / want designers to know before contacting you about a project?
2. When working with designers, what do you see as the top problem areas?
3. How do you work?
4. How should a company or individual in your profession be chosen?
5. At what point should your profession be brought into a project?
6. How do you charge?
7. How can a designer improve their skills in your industry?

I asked the same questions of designers, but with changes to question 1 and 2 (and a minor change to question 7):

1. As a professional designer, what are the main points you want clients (potential and present) to know before contacting you about a project?
2. When working with clients, what do you see as the top problem areas?

Months into research I came across the ‘Designers Survival Manual’ by Poppy Evans. The timing was perfect. I already had the series structure, so there wasn’t a blending of layout (although I will quote / plug Poppy as often as possible).

Starting with designers, followed by writers, I’ll work through the industries on my list. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for three weeks each, we’ll get personal insight into how writers, photographers, illustrators, marketeers, programmers, printers and pre press specialists work. Also scheduled for the series are account planners, design agents and bookkeepers.

Note: In keeping with the rest of BoDo, those interviewed will be in alphabetical order, by first name. Quirky? I imagine so. It comes from going through grade school as a ‘W’.

If you would like to be included in the series, contact me as I’d love to hear from you.

until the next
Designers WW,
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Welcome to BoDo’s first Podcast Humpday.

Midweek, on Wednesdays (hence the hump in Humpday), I’ll review podcasts on the business of design, running a business, pretty much anything to do with BoDo’s subject matter. Later on there will be a mix - BoDo podcasts, as well as those we feel are a ‘must hear’.

If you are a podcaster, contact me as I’d love to hear from you.

Now on to our first Podcast Humpday …

James, the internal entrepreneur, goes external.

You won’t find distractions on Sean Tierney’s (Grid7 Venturecast) interview with James Archer. What you will find is roughly 45 minutes of pure business talk. A near-on 45 minutes of James. Delivered, as promised.

The subject of this podcast is entrepreneur and owner of Forty Media, a web design, web development, award winning branding agency in Arizona, USA. Confident of their services, Forty Media invites visitors to shop around at their competition. Rare. I’m impressed.

An incomplete synopsis of the podcast (only enough to tantalize) is how James slide into web design via technical writing. How he moved into project management, where he learned how to work with clients, proposals, designers, etc. It goes on to tell how James reached a point where his fear of going out on his own and failing, was less than his fear of never doing it.

The conversation flows well, with tips business of design start-ups should pay special attention to - the kind of information seasoned business owners know well.

Listening to the podcast, I thought about the domain name been-there-done-that.com (btw - it’s taken) as that’s exactly what we’ll be doing here on BoDo. Bringing in advice from those like James, who have been there, done that.

Advice from James:

The creative side and working with clients are just a portion of your business … there is a lot of stuff you don’t want to learn, but you’ve just gotta learn … you have to do it because it’s what keeps your business operational.

The key to surviving in a small business is willing to take those hits, learn from them, and move on.

Lessons learned:

The value of a good contract and writing good proposals (as you never know where things are going to go).

A contract doesn’t do you a whole lot of good without guiding the client in what’s going to happen. Write contracts to allow flexibility, yet with clear guidelines.

What qualifies as an entrepreneur:

… the willingness to learn and change quickly … the ability to come in, see a situation, decide you want to do and conquer it … decide what you want to get done and just get it done … even if it’s not pleasant, do it anyway.

Elevator pitch:

40 media is a solid Branding and Creative firm. We understand how to get inside your customer’s head without being detached from the technical side.

An interesting and well-done podcast, it continues on with communication tools, modern compared to pre-google systems, project management applications, zoho creator, notepad, productivity, GTD, 37signals, Fruitcast, podcasts, 9rules, Arizona, the start up mentality, doing something different, bad clients, bad contractors, Refresh Phoenix and making a difference.

James Archer’s parting comment:

Get good at what you want to do and do it. No looking back.

Until the next
Podcast Humpday,
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