So you’ve been paying people to design things for you. Fliers, direct mail pieces, landing pages, everything. It’s usually a tedious process, a lot of back and forth. And it’s a fun challenge, one we’re always up for.
But we’ve been thinking: How do artists get away with just “throwing something together?” And why doesn’t this work when we’re working with our clients?
When we started out we charged next to nothing for logos. For work in general. As our portfolio and reputation grew, we charged more.
With time, a logo cost 3, 4, or 5k without question. The reason it got more expensive, is because as we grew, we worked with bigger companies. These companies had bigger boards of directors, marketing panels, etc.
In short, they were harder to deal with because they could not make up their minds. Our strategy of “work till you are happy” didn’t scale to a group of people that by definition could not be totally happy.
Our portfolio website is featured in the newly published Design:Portfolio Self Promotion at its Best by Craig Welsh.
Peter Saville entered the UK music scene in the late 70s after meeting Tony Wilson, journalist and TV presenter, by approaching him after a “very, very bad” Patti Smith show. Saville happened to be a brilliant designer, and was commissioned to do the logo for a small record label called Factory. Needless to say, you want to be this guy.
Everyone’s talking about it. Google went ahead and updated their design for Google+. Mashable’s talking about it. The Verge is talking about it.
Here’s a video outlining the new design features.
One thing you’ll want to jump on, though: MASTHEAD IMAGES. The size has expanded to an optimal size of 900 x 506 pixels. Google will help adjust images of different sizes to fit the specs, but these dimensions should look the best.
WARNING: If you don’t update this, you might end up with a big black space covering the top two-thirds of your masthead. That’s no good for business. Normally, we tell everyone to check everything on multiple devices, but as of now, the masthead is only relevant on a browser.
Oh, and if you’re updating your masthead, now’s a good time to check. Is it consistent with other marketing materials (business cards, menus, fliers, signage, etc.). Branding is about emotion, but consistency plays a big role—you want people to feel those positive, associated feelings about you EVERYWHERE they encounter you. Google+ should be no different.