Start & Run a Creative Services Business. Susan Kirkland

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      The marketplace for creative services is like a big fishbowl. There’s only so much food in the bowl and everybody has to eat. You will be competing with some pretty big fish, so take a careful look at your experience and the competition before you decide who to tackle.

      For various reasons, clients in the bank business like to see samples of bank brochures while clients in the grocery business want to see food brochures. This stems from the perception that their industry is particular and requires a sensitive eye. It can be hard to communicate to these clients that design is the careful manipulation of white space, whether you’re moving copy that supports pictures of suits at a conference table or pickles in a jar. Even fewer clients realize the real art in scripting a phrase that moves an unwilling purchaser or grabs the attention of a customer for their product or service.

      Will you be the right freelancer to handle the challenges and tight cornering at high speeds required by this client? Depending on how fluid you can be in adapting to clients’ needs, you might be. One ad campaign I developed for an emerging medical products manufacturer said just that, “We adjust to our customer’s needs like water adjusts to the shape of its container.” If you can communicate this attitude when you meet a potential client, you’ve just discovered one of the secrets of landing the job. As a freelance designer,

      I have designed ads for unusual products such as bull semen, everyday items such as washers and dryers, a calendar for an architectural firm, a very different kind of calendar for the ladies’ club Chippendales, and a myriad of conservative corporate publications. I’ve done editorial illustrations, margin cartoons in a reference book, and a series of full-color ads for a couple of skyscrapers just to name a few. One thing for sure: I’ve never been bored. If you enjoy variety, you will be limited only by your fears and unwillingness to reach out. If you have the courage, an endless variety of projects await you.

      1. Know Your Skills and Resources

      Although opportunities to exercise your creativity are limitless, the flip side is that everybody in this business says they can do it all, especially printers. They don’t want to be left out of the game, but unless they plan to refer the work to someone who can do it, or subcontract the work out, they are stepping into the black hole of unfulfilled promises. If you say you can produce a particular piece when you know there’s no way, you may just find yourself accountable when the project fails. Remember, a client with a bad experience is a client who won’t call again.

      If you have the courage, an endless variety of projects awaits you.

      Here’s a story about one time I quite naively overstepped my own know-how. When I was still in art school, I accepted an illustration job for a small ad agency. The assignment was to create a pen-and-ink drawing of a man’s hand holding a hammer. How hard could that be? But when I was in high school, boys took “shop” (woodworking or mechanics) and girls took home economics, which didn’t cover the proper way to hold a hammer. After I dropped off the finished art I got an angry call from the art director — and justifiably so. He couldn’t use my perfectly executed illustration on a business card for his client, a professional carpenter, “unless the latest thing is holding a hammer like a spatula.”

      As this story shows, it pays to do a little research before you start a job. Even before you start freelancing, sit down and carefully examine your experience and capabilities. What is your education? Does your experience in the field fill in for the gaps in your formal education? Have you mastered communication skills that allow you to present your work in a professional manner, or would it be smarter for you to market yourself in places that don’t require personal presentations? Decide on your strengths and your limitations before you promote yourself to other people for hire.

      Managers and owners who rely on your skills are putting their reputations on the line. If you sell yourself as something you’re not, you risk your reputation and theirs if you fail to deliver. Before you start marketing your skills, take time to make a detailed evaluation of exactly what those skills are. Have a clear picture of your abilities and build the promotion of your skills from the hard facts. If you frequently use hyperbole or slide into “creative writing” rather easily, it might be prudent to ask one of your professional peers to do an objective evaluation of your skills.

      Honest representation of your skills will reveal your integrity and keep you out of trouble, as the following story illustrates. As the art director on an annual report for a major client, I knew all the tricks we employed for a particular photo shoot. The truth is, we had to invent a few new tricks to corral the subject of the shoot, protective gear. Made out of rubber, it just wouldn’t stay put, bouncing around every time someone took a breath. I had to use all kinds of tape and florist’s goop to get the rubber bits to stay in place long enough for the photographer to work.

      I showed this annual report to a prospective client and was asked some very pointed questions about it. I was puzzled by her intense curiosity about this particular piece. She explained, “Another person was just in here with this in his portfolio, but he couldn’t answer any of my technical questions, whereas you have.” It turns out a production trainee from the print shop handling the job was also pitching the client and grabbed a few finished pieces from his company’s sample drawer. Unfortunately, he had only been a trainee for a month and knew very little about actual production and nothing about art direction. By all means aspire to greatness, but don’t mislead people unless you have an extra $50,000 to reprint a botched job. And don’t ever sink to showing someone else’s work as your own.

      2. Welcome Variety and Challenge the Competition

      Now that you know what you can do, what do you enjoy? Remember all those times when the good jobs went to your superiors and you got the leftovers? Freelancing lets you pick and choose the type of assignment you want in good times. In bad times, when the pickings are slim, you’ll be surprised how much you enjoy putting together a car parts СКАЧАТЬ