In January 2011, it became necessary for us to grow quickly. We started out as a two person design & dev shop and, despite an impressive portfolio, we just weren’t making money. We made some hires (two designers and a new developer) and pivoted our business model. What was once a website design firm for bands became a UI/UX, Branding, and Software Development firm building web and mobile apps for startups. Quite a big leap.

I had built a very talented team around myself, and I knew we were up to the challenge. As a solo designer (the so-called “creative director”) I did fantastically well. I knew what needed to get done and what every deadline was. If I had a question, it was easy to contact the client with no middleman. Introducing a staff changed everything. Designers needed guidance and leadership. Every question, every revision, every deadline flowed through me. I had all of the accountability and quadruple the responsibility.

Anyone in a management position is probably rolling their eyes right now. Kudos to you folks… I had no idea how hard your job is, and the consequences when things go catastrophically wrong. Now I know…

->Read the rest at Wells Riley’s Design Blog

I’ve been reading Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. Having spent a VERY small amount of time in ‘product’ companies, some of his anecdotes and wild apartment rave stories are somewhat hard for me to relate with. Thankfully, 99% of his book is general “how to make your business totally kickass” advice rather than product advice, and it has profoundly changed the way I think about my business, my employees, and the companies we choose to do business with.

For one of the largest online retailers, Tony spent very little time talking about retail. The primary message was about company culture and customer service. I thought I had a fairly decent understanding going into this book, but no. I absolutely did not. Then I remembered my most recent interaction with Zappos (a pair of Blue Onisuka Tigers) and I understood the genius behind their customer service. I ordered free 7-day shipping, but was upgraded to next-day for free. What.

Zappos has 10 Core Values. #1 is “Deliver WOW through service”

Wow, indeed. Upgraded shipping is a small gesture, but it has such HUGE meaning. I mentally prepared myself to wear new shoes a week after buying them. Finding them on my doorstep the next afternoon was just unfathomable. I felt really special. I felt like Tony Hsieh himself was looking out for me and my blue shoes. Not only was I sold on the footwear, I was sold on Zappos. How could I ever shop elsewhere when such a magnificent company has my back?

And why the hell am I gushing about a shoe store? I’m a man. And a quite manly one, at that. There’s clearly some sort of witchcraft going on here.

So I started thinking. If a shoe store can make me weak in the knees, why not any other company?

And I kept thinking. Well? Why the hell NOT anyone else? Seriously! What is Zappos doing that even my favorite brands aren’t doing? How are they converting people from prospective customers to loyal customers in a flash? Is customer service really that blindingly powerful? How did Zappos get it so right?

I think I’ve narrowed down three things every company should understand to get some of that customer lovin’.

1: Be simple, fast, and easy to talk to

Another great example here is Amazon. When you call their Customer Support line, there are no phone trees. The interaction goes something like this:

Amazon: Thank you for calling Amazon Customer Service. A representative will take your call momentarily.
Amazon Rep: Thank you for calling Amazon. Are you calling about the order for bright blue socks you placed two hours ago?
Wells: Why yes. Yes I am. Can you change the shipping address to the other one I have on file?
Amazon Rep: One moment. Yep, all set. Is there anything else I can help you with?
Wells: Nope, thank you!
Amazon Rep: Thanks for calling Amazon! Have a great day!

iPhone: Call ended. Total call time : 58 seconds.

Anywhere else, I’d have to traverse a complex phone tree with “recently changed options”, clumsily punch in my order number, press #, wait on hold, then tell the CSR my order number, name, address, and credit card number. Again.

Why is this so difficult? Amazon isn’t special – almost every retailer I interact with has my phone number on file. Why can’t they use Caller ID to determine who I am and automatically look up my record? The chances someone stole my phone to hack my order for blue socks is pretty slim. Amazon gives me the benefit of the doubt and I save 20 minutes. I also write a fairly long blog post evangelizing them because of it.

The takeaway: Don’t waste anyone’s time. Technology makes mundane tasks blisteringly simple if you can use it right, so use it. Customers will be unbelievably delighted that you took the time to not waste theirs.

2: The ROI on Kindness is always higher than the investment

While shopping on HP’s webstore, you might be greeted with a popup asking you to take a brief survey. Personally, I hate surveys. Why can’t HP do their own research without blatantly annoying prospective customers with market research?

One time I decided to take the damn survey.

It took me 10 minutes, and after the last question I was offered a big “Thanks!”…. bye. What? No coupon? No raffle? Nothing? I find it hard to believe an interaction like this would fly in person. If you stopped a customer in your store to fill out paperwork, would a “thank you” suffice?

This person is GOLD to your company. They care enough to hand you research with no prior incentive. You need to pamper this customer because they’re at the tipping point of mind-blowing love for your company. Chances are that, if you gave this person a 20% coupon for their time they’d not only make a purchase, but they’ll probably tell their friends how great you are. You invested maybe $50-100, but that small investment could turn into thousands of dollars worth of sales.

I treat Bionic Hippo customers to free coffee, lunch, or drinks – often. It’s really expensive. I worked up an $80 tab with a client a few weeks ago and paid straight out of my own pocket. Have we received more than $80 worth of referral work with new customers gushing about how much their friend loves Bionic Hippo? You bet. I always wince at a high bar tab, but I know the personal touch is worth it. They’re my customers, and I love working with them. As a thank-you for a great relationship and spreading the good word, it’s the absolute least I can do.

3: Great customer service is more important than the product

Blasphemy! How could that possibly even be true? Wells, you are wrong and a liar.

Hear me out… it’s really obvious. Products and services are relatively straightforward, and there’s probably a handful of companies doing the exact same thing as you. Assuming you can’t create a technologically superior product than the competitor with $20m in funding and a three-year head start, how can you differentiate yourself? How can you beat a giant at their own game?

Let’s talk about Groupon.

Groupon is the undeniable leader in daily local deals. They OWN the market. But there’s a problem. Small businesses HATE Groupon because they’re slimy bastards. Groupon is completely self-serving and has no interest in the welfare of the small businesses they market themselves as trying to protect. They’ve created an unrealistic expectation for consumers – is 80% off even possible for a fledgeling business? No, absolutely not. That’s obvious, but what do you expect consumers to do? Ignore cupcakes at 80% off? It’s a vicious cycle, and Groupon takes it straight to the bank.

Google, Facebook, LivingSocial, Yelp, LevelUp, etc, etc, etc, have tried to replicate this exact model and all have failed. LivingSocial and LevelUp have pivoted to niche markets or different business models completely. Groupon completely owns the small-business-killing daily deals space. But Groupon has an expiration date. It won’t be long before small businesses ditch Groupon entirely in lieu of something more stable, lucrative, and honest.

The winner of the daily deals space isn’t going to have the highest discounts. It’s going to be the company who can offer excellent customer service to their bread-and-butter customers – the small businesses. To make a nod back to #2 above, kindness goes a long way. Rally behind local businesses, and they’ll rally behind you. Make them gush over how great it is to work with you, and everyone on Main Street will jump ship from Groupon. The expectation of ridiculous deals will die with their horrible service, sharky tactics, and bogus marketing. Once every local business is on your new deals service, consumers will have no choice but to buy deals through you. You’ll hit critical mass before Groupon can even pull it’s head out of it’s own ass.

The product doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling shoes, hedge clippers, or 20% off falafel at the shwarma place down the street. Customer service seems to be a lost art in this age of digital impersonality. Just because a customer is on the other end of a phone line or webpage doesn’t mean you don’t have the opportunity to delight and surprise them – WOW them, maybe? – with excellent service. The fact that companies with ‘excellent’ customer service is so rare really speaks to what businesses have become lately – but it also presents a fantastic opportunity to rise above the scruff and delight your customers.

I know it’s working here, anyways.

Their work is largely subjective and based on experience, insight, and inspiration. While developers (and bankers, construction workers, and mailmen for that matter) also rely on these traits, there’s a certain sense of ‘right and wrong’ in these professions. If a HTML form doesn’t work or a mobile app crashes at launch, it’s much more obviously “wrong code” than something would be a “wrong design.” Does such a phrase even exist? Not really.

Designers also have incredibly diverse starting points. Some are classically educated, others aren’t. Some start in large firms while some freelance exclusively. Whether you’re an experienced freelancer or a newbie designer, here are a few mistakes I’ve made and seen other designers make.

1. Undervaluing the Work

I once read a story about a wedding photographer who charged $1000 per shoot. It wasn’t a livable income, but she was only a freelancer and held a full-time job elsewhere. After a little while, she couldn’t justify the time expense for what she was charging and decided to double her rate. $2000 for the same shoot, same equipment, same photographer. She hadn’t gotten “better” (in the arbitrary nature of that word) but she knew her time and expertise was worth more.

She became better known due to the higher “non-amateur” rate and more couples began requesting her services. To make a long story short, a year later she was being flown around the world to exotic vistas and tropical islands to shoot weddings at $50,000 a pop.

So what happened here? Did she scam her customers by charging more? Is she a huge jerk? If you’re an aspiring photographer you might be thinking to yourself “Wow that’s ridiculous. I could shoot an awesome wedding for like… $500!”

Well yes, you could. If that’s what the work is worth to you. So many photographers (and designers) follow this mentality. They know the work – and maybe it comes naturally or they enjoy it – so they have a difficult time charging what seems like “exorbitantly high” rates for their services. It’s a psychological barrier preventing many freelancers from succeeding at all.

Give yourself an hourly rate (even if it’s just for yourself) and double it. If clients turn away, re-evaluate the project. Is it WORTH your ‘original’ rate? Do you want the project that badly? Do you need the work to pay rent? Will you enjoy spending time on it? If not, then maybe you should let it go. It may be hard to believe, but better work will come your way. I can’t explain how… it just ‘happens’.

If you’re feeling guilty, think about it this way. People need you because you have a highly desirable skill. You’re knowledgeable and have what it takes to execute on something they could only dream of. You also provide invaluable insight that they couldn’t possibly have from a non-designer position. How much would you pay a lawyer or developer per hour to do something you can’t do yourself? I doubt they’d work for $12/hr… ever.

2. Not Taking Charge of a Project

So we’re on the same page and you’re at least thinking about what you’re really worth, right? Let’s add some value to that price increase of yours. As a hired professional, customers look to you for insight and advice, whether they make that apparent or not (and if they’re not, then they’re not the kind of client you should be working with). If you’re dealing with something like this on a daily basis, then you’re not asserting yourself and not taking charge of your project.

Don’t be afraid to be frank and truthful with clients, even if it goes directly against a request, suggestion, or idea they’ve given you. If your dentist suggests you brush your teeth with toothpaste instead of table salt, who are you to argue? He’s the one with the education and experience. If you can command your project and demonstrate your authority over the subject, clients will listen. I was an abused peon for years before I wised up and acted like a professional.

3. Not Practicing

This one seems obvious but I see it happen a lot, especially with students. Once work (or classwork) is done,  you don’t touch Photoshop or a pencil until you have to again. Oh no.

Graphic design is a constantly evolving skill. You can’t get anywhere if you don’t practice, test your boundaries, and create constantly. The worst thing is to get into a creative slump or get stuck working all the time. I design out of passion and I’m constantly creating different things for myself. Most don’t even see the light of day, but it’s good to flex the creative muscle outside of ‘required work’ once in a while.

4. You Don’t Know How to Say No

This one is my favorite. Everyone says it – it’s like the Golden Rule of freelancing. “Know when to say ‘NO!’ to clients.” I used to be naïve less naïve and thought this didn’t apply to me. I wasn’t getting an overwhelming amount of work and could technically handle all of it. How could I possibly turn any project down?

I think this is one lesson that can only be learned from experience, because I think every freelancer or newbie designer disregards it. With experience comes knowledge and expectations. Bionic Hippo has carved out a nice niché in entrepreneurship and startup companies, and we’re surprisingly particular about which projects we take on. Clients need to have a certain attitude, a vision, and clear direction. We value our time (see #1 above) and prefer spending time on awesome boundary-pushing projects than those with no vision, no business, and no passion. It’s that specificity regarding clients that keeps us on task and constantly working towards the goals we want to achieve.

Great clients respect (and may even demand) this kind of attitude. They don’t want to be lumped in with the ‘least common denominator’ clients – you know, the people who pay you squat, disrespect the craft, and use your skills as a talking, emailing mouse cursor.

Life is scary. Finding a job – nay, a career – is a daunting task. It can be overwhelming. I usually find that breaking problems into chunks makes them seem less superhuman, and this is an example of that.

So what is this nonsense? Everyone wants a high paying job they enjoy doing well. This sweet-looking Venn Diagram is useless – or is it?

Using this diagram I was able to visualize that:

• There are some things I enjoy doing well, but can’t make any money doing
  
• There are some things I can be paid to do well, but completely despise
  
• There are some things I’d enjoy being paid to do, but can’t do them well
• There’s a lot of things a lot of people can do, but the ones that suit me represent a very small subset of the whole

Your dream job is out there waiting for you. Don’t freak out. Don’t break down. Don’t give up.

Break apart the problem, think about what you can be paid to enjoy doing well. Use the Diagram and find the coveted sweet spot. Why settle for a desk job in a cubicle farm when you could be astronauting, developing awesome apps, or starting your own company? The perfect balance of Skill, Happiness, and Income can never lead you astray.

Just a quick thought for your Friday. Have a great weekend!

I live in the digital realm –

– a poster child of the Computer and Information Age. Whether I’m reading Gizmodo on my Hackintosh or flipping through Flipboard on my iPad, I am constantly surrounded in digital media.

It makes sense that I’m a digital designer. I swoon for UX projects because it lets me solve an interactive problem visually. You’ve got to predict the unpredictable nature of end users because there’s no single way to use an app or interact with digital media.

I used to envy print design. A lot. There’s nothing quite like the smell of ink, the feel of an excellent paper stock, and the tangibility of the work. Print design is real. You can hold it, feel it, and it’s there. Don’t even get me started on embossing and UV coats. Metallic Pantone inks? Ohhhh god. Just pick up the December 2010 issue of WIRED and you’ll see (and feel) exactly why I’m getting so flustered over here.

As much as I love my iPad and the crazy new paper-thin flexible displays, it truly saddens me that print design is “dying.” I entered the world of Graphic Design about five years into the transition to ‘completely digital’ design. The only reason I even picked up an x-acto knife in college was to cut the white border off something I printed from Photoshop. I had the privilege of viewing a professors portfolio deck a few weeks ago – work that spanned thirty years. Work he cut, pasted, photographed, and lettered by hand.

And it’s all better than any print work I’ve ever done. Everything.

But WIRED on the iPad is amazingly cool. It’s print… but it’s not. It’s digital design influenced by print – an evolution of a medium introducing multimedia, links, animations, and everything that I love about digital (interactive) design.

It’s easy and immersive… no wonder magazine and newspaper subscriptions have dropped 5.9% since last year. Print isn’t going anywhere in the short term, but it won’t be long before print is shadowed by digital copies. I think 10 years is a pragmatic estimate.

So why are people entering college in 2011 expecting to graduate four years later as an up-and-coming print designer? Does it even make sense? They’ll be out of a job in ten years. Right?

Until recently, I was convinced print designers were doomed to obsolescence. I, for one, accept our digital billboard and iPad e-reader overlords. Minority Report-esque digital signage will one day litter our aluminum-and-glass cities and hovering warp speed cars. There is no question that digital design is going to become a dominant player in the world of graphic design. Some would argue that is already is.

The real question: Is print dead, or is it evolving?

Anyone can appreciate craft – the production quality and feel of an object. Boutiques still create masterful vinyl turntables, point-perfect book layouts, and unreal poster designs. People can make a lot of money and a successful career doing boutique-style pieces. There will always be a niche demand for crafted objects.

This doesn’t mean vinyl record players aren’t dead. It’s an outdated medium lovingly used by hipsters because of how dead it is. Artists create vinyl copies of new albums for niche and keepsake appeal, but not for mass market. It’s not sustainable… which is the big issue with print. Can thousands of new print designers fit into the niche once print “dies”?
Probably not.

But what of these digital subscriptions? WIRED and New York Times look great on the screen. They pay homage to their print counterparts but also respect the new medium with interactivity and a digital refresh. Can print designers evolve with demand?

Would they still be print designers? I don’t know.

Pop the bubble

Regardless of opinion, it’s obvious that print design is changing. Young designers need to know understand not only the history, but the future of “print”. Skipping out on a Computer Science or Programming class because “you’re a print designer” is no longer a valid excuse. If print means “iPad version” in ten years then programming knowledge, or at least a basic understanding of programming dynamics, isn’t going to be a “would-be-nice”, it will be a must have.

“Know your competition!”

“Outdo the competition.”

“Underdo the competition.” *

There’s a lot of talk about competition when it comes to startups.

And it’s all a lot to take in. It’s overwhelming – if you don’t believe me, try starting a company. Competition becomes real very quickly and the fear of competition (or more directly, the fear of failure at the benefit of someone outside of your control) has the potential to destroy even the most brilliant startups.

When I started Bandzu in early 2010 with Ian and Kevin, we knew we struck gold. The music industry was sexy and our product was going to revolutionize their convoluted and slapdash system. We were going to fix the lazy musicians! Power tools for the proactive ones! Yeah!

Until we found out that over fifteen companies were not only executing on the same idea, but their software was almost identical to our vision. Some had already been around for three years. One has pictures of their sweet warehouse loft office on their facebook.

Nooooooooooo!

Ian grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Get a grip man! Competition doesn’t matter!”

“Yeah it does! They’ve got all the customers already!”

“WHO CARES? We can still build Bandzu to be awesome, and we know the competition doesn’t have everyone. People will use our product, and ours can still be better.”

“Yeah but–”

You get the idea. Ian eventually calmed me down, but this argument came up weekly. Sometimes it was reversed, but it always nagged at us. It ran us down and eventually made us apathetic about the whole company. Not even six months in we shelved the idea.

Bionic Hippo has competition too. There are some awesome design and dev agencies in Boston alone – people who do fantastic work and whom I respect very much for their accomplishments. Look beyond Beantown and there are thousands of people doing exactly what I’m doing. Many are probably even writing blog posts right now too.

Stay cool.

This is totally backwards. Bandzu had maybe 15 competitors we knew about. Bionic Hippo has hundreds – if not thousands – competing in the exact same niche of web / application design. You’d think I’d be a nervous wreck… but I’m not. I’m confident, aggressive, and cool. Bionic Hippo gets a lot of great projects, and we create great work without breaking a sweat (sometimes).

After Bandzu, I observed an interesting phenomenon. I am an iTunes addict – I buy my music, listen on my computer, and sync with my iPhone. It fits into my workflow and makes music management effortless. I started using Lala and Grooveshark to sample artists I didn’t want to commit $10 on iTunes to. I started buying songs on Amazon MP3 to save a few bucks. I snuck my way into Spotify and paid for a subscription. My obvious loyalty to one service was fragmenting due to the unique value props of each service. iTunes is extensive, Amazon is cheap, Grooveshark is easy. Google now has their Music Beta service, throwing their hat into possibly the most crowded consumer market of all time.

“What’s the point?” I thought to myself. iTunes is the de facto standard for music purchasing. They have the highest volume of sales and profit by an insane margin. Why would anyone enter a space dominated by the most powerful brand in the world?

iTunes wears the pants in the Music Industry. (Courtesy of The Oatmeal)

Grooveshark, for example, is a total underdog. Unlike their competitors, their entire business is music streaming, and they have the most to lose. Why does everyone talk about them? More importantly, why do people use Grooveshark?

It’s unique, it has a clear value prop over iTunes and Amazon, and it’s easy to use. Moreover it is different. In a good way. A way that, at times, makes Grooveshark more useful and better than iTunes.

My point…

I realized something interesting about competition that wasn’t apparent at the micro level my company was at. When you’re small, competition seems like an impassable barrier. Observing companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft battle over dominance in various markets (and most importantly, the small companies that squeeze in and manage to take a moderate chunk for themselves) shows that competition is okay. Chances are you won’t be the next Facebook, but maybe you’ll be the next Grooveshark. And that ‘aint a bad thing at all.

Competitors aside, Grooveshark is doing damn well and they have a great product. I’m certain that iTunes is a constant monkey on their backs, and they will never have the luxury of being complacent in their industry. They fight for every user by building the best music platform they can imagine… competition be damned. Their product is awesome because they have no choice but to be awesome.

These guys are proof positive that, even in the most competitive digital consumer market, competition can’t stop you from creating a great product.

My advice: Be mindful of competitors – find out what they’re doing right, how you can do better, and don’t let any of it cloud your vision and your goals.

One last thing to think about:

“Be afraid of our customers, because those are the folks who have the money. Our competitors are never going to send us money.” – Jeff Bezos, Amazon

* An excerpt from 37signals’ excellent book “Getting Real“. Read it all.

What a lot of people don’t realize, is there is a definite process involved in logo design, although it may differ from designer to designer. Most designers will crank out at least 20-30 mockups on a logo before sending off the 3 or 4 as ‘initial concepts’ to later be refined after feedback from the client.

So what makes a logo good?  If you put those last five words in to Google I bet you’d find some pretty good advice no matter how generic or vague the articles may seem. The fact of the matter is design isn’t an industrial process that can be outlined in great detail. Design is a creative process. As a corollary, it’s not easily described in words.

Here is an incomplete list of the most common questions I’ll ask before designing a logo:

What is your product? Or what does your service provide? Or what does your company do? Be as specific as possible.

Seems like an obvious question and it is. This is basically the heart of the visual. It gives the viewer something to grab on to. I’ll sometimes spend a full day just thinking and sketching anything visual that relates to what the company or product does.

What is your target market?

I’ll use Toys “R” Us here, as an example not because I think it’s an amazing logo, but the typeface and color choices are appropriate.

The playful type and colors are appropriate for kids. It’s obvious, but to demonstrate the point further I’ll show you this:

Toys”R”Us set in Didot bold is a horrendous site.

How do you want your company, service, or product to be perceived?

I like to ask this to make sure my ideas of how the company or product should be perceived are the same as the client’s. It doesn’t make sense for me to spend hours on a logo to later find out there was a break down in communication between myself and the client. I’ll even ask the client if they had any colors or fonts they like and why? I may even ask what other logos they like of similar companies or products. Just be careful with this last one. Some companies enjoy another company’s logo so much; they want you to reproduce it with slight changes. This is helpful to no one. If they’re going to compete, they can’t look like another company.

Where will your logo be seen most?

This is also very important. An example of a great logo is the FedEx logo.

Its bold, sans serif, gothic typeface commands attention. It is durable and reliable. Furthermore, the counter form between the ‘E’ and the ‘x’ is an arrow communicating speed and efficiency. When I mail a package I am primarily concerned with two things: reliability and speed. The FedEx logo communicates both. It is also scalable and timeless. You can shrink or enlarge the logo to just about any size and it will still read. Finally, the logo has been around since 1994. Design trends move at a rapid pace, but the logo remains relevant today.

The FedEx logo is a great logo because it is appropriate. What if we put it in a setting in which it wasn’t intended? Let’s compare it to Gillette’s Mach 3 Turbo logo:

Now I know I am comparing apples to oranges here. One is a logistics services company and the other is a razor. The point I am trying to make is that Gillette’s Mach 3 Turbo logo is a point of purchase brand. It is designed to catch the viewers’ eyes to entice them to buy. It is much flashier and showy. It uses gradients and other effects. It does its job. By looking at it, I feel the Mach 3 Turbo razor is ahead of the game and more technologically advanced than the other razors beside it on the shelf. If FedEx were a product on a shelf, I’d walk right by it. Thus, where a logo will be seen is important and should always affect the final design. You don’t want to spend hours developing a logo that is really clever and successfully communicates many things only to find out its too muted or simple to compete with others.

So you see what works for one logo may not work for another. It all depends on a number of factors. Above, I’ve briefly outlined a few of these factors.  You can read other articles and blog posts online. They’re all probably valid in some way; just take the time to digest what they are saying for your own purposes. I’m a big fan of dribbble for inspiration. It is an online community of designers that upload real work and critique it. Working on fake logos is okay to get your thoughts flowing, but I wouldn’t recommend holding much value to those designs. Dreaming up a fake product in your head to create a logo usually leads you to thinking up a clever name that will lend itself easily to logo design. Real company and product names are usually never so friendly to design for. The more real work you do, the more you’ll stretch those creative muscles.

As I mentioned before, looking online for inspiration is always helpful. Even pulling ideas from other logos is harmless. Some of you may be cringing as I say this. Just be smart about it. No I’m not saying be a ‘smooth criminal’ so you don’t get caught directly copying something else. What I’m saying is never lose site of the reasons you are making the choices you are making in your logo designs. There is great design out there, but it can always be made better. Respect other designers’ cleverness and respect your own thoughts. I like to spend a day without any outside inspiration, creating on my own. Its only after I’ve done so that I look at what is out there, to push the design further. Everyone is different. Logos are fun to work on and they are fun to critique. Just remember, logo design is always deliberate. Respect the process.

Updated Semantics

With HTML5 web developers get some new tags that not only help visually, and mentally with the structure, but give developers a way to automatically have their content be easily digested by screen readers, printers, and other devices that before could not distinguish one <div> tag from the other in terms of hierarchy. Here’s a sample of some of the new tags and how they help:

• <header>, <footer>, <nav>: To quickly and easily distinguish the three most used sections of a website.
• <section>, <article>, <aside>, <figure>, <figcaption>: A sample of new tags for improved sectioning of content. This greatly helps with screen reader devices that are updated with HTML5 syntax.
• <command>, <datalist>:  Tags for helping with defining actions and datasets.
• <audio>, <video>: New media tags to simplify embedding audio and video files.
• form data: Some of the common form features such as required fields, date picker, and email validation are now available out-of-the-box without any extra JavaScript or backend code.

Another great addition to HTML5 is CSS3. With CSS3, styling common design elements that used to make development a pain, are now a thing of the past. Such styles include:

• border-radius, border-image, box-shadow: These help with common design elements such as rounded corners and drop shadows.
• background-clip, background-size: These styles allow for a little more flexibility with how images set as backgrounds are manipulated. You can specify whether or not the background extends into the border, and you can now change the width and height dimensions without uploading a new image.
• text-shadow, text-overflow, word-wrap: These are pretty self-explanatory with the exception of text-overflow. Text-overflow allows for automatic ellipsis to be added to text that extends beyond its bounding box, and can even reveal the overflowing text on hover.
• columns: These give the ability to have columns automatically formatted through CSS, along with several ways to customize their layout.
• @font-face: Allows for the use of custom fonts along with custom text highlighting colors without the need for extra JavaScript and Flash components.
  
• transform, transition, animation: These styles start to dive into more advanced content manipulation involving rotation, scale and tweening.

New Functionality

As mentioned earlier, HTML5 isn’t just about semantics, it’s also about new functionality. A brief rundown of some of the more intriguing new features are:

• <canvas>: A way to create JavaScript based interactions, that bring what use to be primarily Flash only to the web, without a third party plugin.
• local storage: This is essentially the new and improved cookie system. It allows web applications to save key/value pair data locally on the client’s machine to be retrieved and accessed later on. Now web applications can save “states” so that even after the browser closes, session information can be stored.
• device access: APIs are emerging that allow for such things as geolocation, camera/microphone access, and in mobile devices the ability to determine tilt and rotation.

Moving Forward

When everything is all said done, HTML5′s biggest hurdle is mass adoption. Even with its hip new logo, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and IE all treat various HTML5 elements their own way. The various browsers don’t even support everything that is outlined in the HTML5 spec. So as useful as most of HTML5 is, developers still need to pick and choose, or create degradation code, when they develop with the new standard.

However, HTML5 is being adopted and is gaining more and more support. Over the next couple of months, or possibly years (hopefully not), HTML5 will be fully integrated into the mainstream browsers and developers can finally enjoy a modern website development experience.

Check back later for our future posts on dealing with HTML5 and clients, as well as how HTML5 mobile apps compare to native apps.

I was doing what I loved and I was completely ignorant to the wealth of design and business knowledge I’ve garnered since. It’s a constant learning experience; one that I believe should begin as soon as possible. Freelancing during college is a fantastic opportunity to gain industry experience, expand your skillset, and build a kick-ass portfolio… but where do you begin?

Prerequisite:

If you don’t love doing what you’re about to freelance doing, think you know everything about it, or expect to make quick, easy money, stop right now. You’re about to waste a lot of time. Freelancers need to be passionate and eager to learn. That’s what its all about.

1. Read a lot (then read a lot more).

When I started out, I had no classical training in business or design. I had no idea what I was doing. I constructed a comprehensive reading list of blogs, periodicals, and design inspiration sites to follow on a weekly basis and search through when I had a specific freelancing question. It’s helpful to pull from a variety of sources ranging from design, business, freelancing, and finance. The more resources you have at your disposal, the better prepared you’ll be when something does come up… you’ll also be a lot less stressed.

Read as much as you can, and bookmark helpful articles for later. When a new clients asks for a W-9 and your EIN for a 1099 at the end of the year, you’ll be glad you did.

A few of my favorites:

FreelanceSwitch (insanely helpful… here, here, here, here… just read the whole archive.)
Unicornfree (simple, direct business advice)
PSDtuts (Photoshop techniques and tutorials)
LifeHacker (Work smarter)
Mashable Dev & Design (Industry updates, news, etc)
Abduzeedo (all around helpful)

2. Think about your goals

For some, the move to startups / freelancing is obvious. For others, taking a job at a big firm or high-end design agency is the way to go. Before you dev0te a good portion of your time to a freelancing career, think about your objectives.

What are you trying to accomplish? Where do you want to be in a year? In five?

If you can set a specific timetable (for example, “I want to become Creative Director of my own firm, and have it be profitable with employees within five years”) then you’re more likely to work towards it. I had a vision for Bionic Hippo and, while it has changed and matured over the years, we’re moving in the right direction. We avoid projects and work that doesn’t fit our niche or vision because they only serve to hold us back. Without a concise set of goals, you may end up treading water in the freelance realm forever – something you definitely do not want to do.

3. Get inspired, but maintain your integrity

This is a personal pet-peeve, but I think it’s worth sharing. There are hundreds of design inspiration and tutorial websites out there, and sometimes it’s very helpful to browse through others’ work to jog your brain and think differently. Unfortunately, I also see many junior designers copying directly off a tutorial and presenting it as their own work.

“Inspiration” (used in this context as ‘someone else’s work’) is best used sparingly. Find an element of something else you think is successful and generate something new based on your new knowledge. The result will be something distinctly yours. Don’t worry about being completely new and innovative – no one is. It’s all about having a style or technique that you can honestly call intentional. It’s what separates you from everyone else and helps you maintain rock-solid integrity as a designer.

4. Do real work

Another pet-peeve of mine is vapor design – that is, creating a logo, website, or ‘product’ for no one – as an example of your ‘skill’ as a designer. Design is about so much more than creating something aesthetic; it’s about solving problems. Creating fake problems you can easily solve yourself honestly doesn’t take much skill.

One of these logos was created as the face of an international brand, the other is a play on words. I’d say both have the same level of aesthetic competence, but only one has purpose. Only one of these logos solves a real problem, and that’s one of the most coveted skills a designer can have.

(Spoiler: Gillette has a superior logo)

A great portfolio goes beyond aesthetic. Real designers solve real problems, and that’s really, quite simply, what design is all about.

It can be hard at first to find awesome work, and rightly so. I spent several years in the trenches honing my skills and learning more about design. Awesome projects are not easy to find, and they never fall into your lap without any effort, despite what some on the Internet may make you believe.

The takeaway here is that you need to work hard to get good work. Working on real projects means you’re starting one step closer than those staring making useless crap like this. (protip: for a design inspiration site built on real work, check out dribbble)

5. Brand yourself

It’s decision-making time again! Your brand will determine how people perceive you, your work, and how you perceive yourself. You might not need a logo right away, but you do need to make some conscious choices about how you want the world to see you.

- Are you a small design firm? Larger than life? One-man operation?
- Design for the masses? Boutique? Elite? Expensive? Cheap and quick?
- What’s your angle? Why are you so special? Why should I NEED to work with you?

These are all questions (among many others) your brand needs to subconsciously answer.

Your brand should also lend itself to #2 – Your Goals. If you’re looking to start a design agency, can you start building the brand now? Do you even want to do that? Will the work you’re doing now lend itself to your future goals, or is this an experimental tangent? There’s no harm in either approach (and never any harm in branding yourself personally… you really can’t lose) but the goal is to be intentional and conscious of that decision and how it will affect you down the road. Brands aren’t built overnight, even if your logo is.  Have a plan and a destination, and work tirelessly towards it.

6. Be intentional, always. (bonus!)

I’ll say it again and put this in bold:
Design is not about aesthetic, it’s about solving problems.

Never forget this. Anyone can learn Photoshop, but it takes a designer to solve problems with it. Aesthetic is a tool – just like code, video, steel… the list goes on. Regardless of who you’re working for or what project you’re doing, always be intentional. Design for the sake of aesthetic (or a sweet brush you found online) isn’t design at all. A clever and practical solution to a design problem is almost always elegant and beautiful.

Throughout my college career, I have spent most of my time with the Swiss style of design. You know; the grid is essentially God, simplistic graphics and solid colors are the way to go, and Helvetica is totally best typeface evar!!1! If you alter the typeface, you better pray. I get it. The design of a book or poster or website aims to efficiently facilitate the message across to the consumer. The consumer in turn knows exactly how to interact with the material, be it reading through a passage or navigating an interface. It works, it makes sense and every designer should definitely study and utilize the “rules” in their own pieces. At the same time, I’m bored with it and I feel that it is getting to the point where it is limiting designers’ creativity.

Why am I so attracted to Baroque art? The real question is how could anyone not be mesmerized by it?? From paintings to sculptures to architecture, everything about Baroque art is expressive. Every surface was looked at and so much attention was paid by the artist. The people of the time used any material that they felt help add to the meaning of a piece, including actual light and shadows. They were free to explore with techniques, materials and style. The message and emotion conveyed by the art was obvious – possibly even more obvious than a great Swiss poster.

Some may think that it is unfair that I’m comparing graphic design to fine art, but why not? There is a lot to take away from Hellenistic and Baroque art. I think the greatest lesson is that it is okay to be very obvious, illustrative and extravagant in designs. Try incorporating different ideas and styles into your work. Recently, there have been a string of designs that I feel lack personality. Some that immediately comes to mind are the new logos of AOL, NBC Universal and of course the failed Tropicana and Gap redesigns. In their drive to appeal to the masses by using some modernistic fallback, they lose their individuality and ends up getting lost in the crowd. Nowadays, when I look at websites, the ones that impress me the most are the ones that manage to be both organized and fun to look at. Small details such as adding texture and illustrations go a long way. Logos that incorporate a double (or triple or even quadruple) meaning by way of intermixing type, imagery and bold colors are my favorite.

Being able to create something ornate is a great power, but good designers are the ones who have restraint and know how to balance the essentials with the decorative. Too much of one results in the design being gotti but by cutting the fat and taking away all those “nonessential” aspects in a piece, everything ends up looking too sterile. While no one can argue the effectiveness of the International Style, it seems as if we’ve forgotten that good designs, the ones that we love and remember, also provide a journey for eyes.