graphic designadvice
Written By Loretta Jones

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first blog post here on Adored Studio.

There’s a number of things on my mind recently, specifically about what I wish I had known earlier on in my design career. This post will give some of you newer designers on the scene some advice, or some of you more established ones a refresh. I’ll mention some things to have in order before you start your first design job, and free (that’s right FREE) resources you can use to help further yourself!

So let’s get into it.

First and foremost, I’d recommend getting the business side of things in order.

Do you want to be know for you name, or do you want to be know a studio?
For example, my name is Loretta, but I didn’t want to be know as that. I chose to opt for a studio name, Adored Studio. (About the name & identity coming in a later blog post.) Follow suit with your personal branding, what services do you offer, target market, etc.

Nail down and secure your social names! Buy the web domain name, even if you don’t think you’ll use it just yet. Better to be safe than sorry.

Register your business name, and set up an ABN! It takes no time at all to get the nitty gritty stuff in order. I can’t stress enough when I say this, but get a CONTRACT (Terms & conditions) IN ORDER. This will not only protect you and your work but your clients also. This legal document will help cover things such as who owns the work, payment etc. I’ll link below a good free template, but I would strongly recommend going through, and adding or removing things that are relevant/not. Also get this checked over by a lawyer! This can actually be quite cost effective, and could potentially save you big bucks down the track.

Another big one that can be scary when starting out is making quotes, and invoicing. Luckily I was introduced to Streamtime early on in my studying days. Streamtime is free (for five projects at a time) online site, that helps you track your projects, and creates quotes and invoices for you. Streamtime linked below!
 

To summarise this section;

  • Name

  • Personal Branding

  • Social names & Channels

  • Register your Business Name

  • Set up an ABN

  • Contract (Terms and Conditions)

  • Quoting & invoicing



After getting the “Hard Work” out of the way Establish your self! Get your preferred social channels pumping! Interact with other creatives, and your target market!

Got some cool work, but not sure how to display it in sophisticated way? I highly recommend Mock Ups! They make your content look so polished, and professional. They take everything to the next level. All you need for these is an internet connection to download them, and photoshop to create the content. I’ll link at the bottom some of my favourite free sites you can get these from! Some more free sites I’ve found in handy, are online community based sites that people contribute free to use images! These can be great for images needed in a pitch document, mood boards or even social content! Again some of my personal favourites will be linked at the bottom.

Something else I’ve found super helpful along the way is planning out my social feeds!
With this I can recommend either two things, create a secondary account and make it private and post there. OR download some free apps from the app store and play around. One of my personal faves is “PLANN”.


If you have any questions, or just want to chat feel free to email me! I’d be happy to answer any pressing ones you may have.

Until next time,

Loretta x


links mentioned

Loretta Jones http://www.adoredstudio.com
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