client relations
How To Go From Being A $25/Hour Freelancer To A $100.00/hour Freelancer
Do you feel like you’re stuck in a rut with your pricing? Do you want to charge more per hour or per project, but for
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Firing A Non-paying Client Is Not Burning A Bridge
From the Freelance Road Trip mailbag: A Freelance Road Trip (FRT) member shared an experience with a non-paying client. The member gave me permission to
Alvalyn Lundgren
client relations
Doing Good Work and Working for Good
On his Dear Design Student blog on Medium, Mike Monteiro, design director at Mule Design, author and speaker, discusses designers and their ethics. He addresses
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
4 Onboarding Steps For Successful Client Relationships
So you have a brand-new shiny client that you’re excited to be working with. You’re looking forward to helping them achieve their goals. They’ve accepted
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
The Art of Influence: 5 Ways to Affect Your Outcomes and Attract Clients
If you want to be successful, you need to be influential. Influence can be positive or negative, and everyone has influence. The key for success
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
A Freelancer’s Guide To Retainer Agreements
When you work project-to-project, you can experience inconsistencies in your schedule and revenue flow. One way to mitigate those gaps is with retainer agreements. These
Alvalyn Lundgren
design
What’s the Difference Between Pro Bono and Spec Work?
Is there a difference between pro bono and spec work? If so, what’s the difference? First, let’s compare them. With both, you work for free,
Alvalyn Lundgren
creativity
Show Your Work: How Sharing Your Process Increases Your Value
When a client is looking for a creative firm, process and procedures are not obvious priorities in evaluating performance. The prospect is going to look
Alvalyn Lundgren
How to Design Your Day
Creative freelancers spend a lot of time designing stuff. Good design is structured, organized and unified. When you juggle multiple projects, the ability to focus
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
Why Freelancers Should Not Pitch
As an independent creative, you get to decide how you will attract clients and projects. One option is via Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Whether or
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
No-Money Marketing Tips for Creative Freelancers
We are always marketing. From the quality of our work to how we talk about ourselves, we are constantly sending messages into the public square,
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
How To Get Clients To Pay You
What do you do when you a client refuses to pay you? According to Freelancers Union nearly 50% of freelancers were stiffed by clients in the past 12
Alvalyn Lundgren
client relations
How To Respond To Unusual Client Requests
An up and coming freelancer asked me about how to deal with unusual requests. We all get these from time to time. Once someone learns
Alvalyn Lundgren
advice
Stepping Out: How To Get Unstuck
Creativity requires action and effort to actually make something. We can mull over our ideas all we want, but to make a difference, at some point
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
7 Places to Find Freelance Clients Online and Offline
One of the huge differences between a salaried worker and a freelancer is that freelancers need to always be looking for work. Freelance work consists
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
How to Build Your Prospecting Pipeline
As an independent creative, prospecting is a practical and necessary business activity that needs focused attention to. It requires work to maintain a pipeline of
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
Property Rights
Although it’s a common assumption, clients are not automatically entitled to a designer’s working files. The tools, preliminary concepts and layouts remain the property of
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Budget For A Design Project
To answer the question, “How much will it cost?”, the question, “What do you want to accomplish?” needs to be asked first. Clients are often in the dark
Alvalyn Lundgren
5 Reasons Why I Can’t Be Your Designer
I wish I hadn’t said, “Yes” to certain design projects. It’s not that the projects were a problem, but something about the clients’ approaches, actions or expectations
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Value of the Design Brief
Recently, I met with a start-up business. As we discussed the scope of work and began putting the design brief together, it became clear that
Alvalyn Lundgren
advice
Creative Freedom Through Setting Boundaries
Working with clients can be likened to a downhill race: The designer moves along in her process and picks up momentum as she heads toward the finish line, and all
Alvalyn Lundgren
Good Success
The Practice and Principle of Accomplishing Something Upon learning about what I do by trade, an employed acquaintance asked with some concern, “But will you
Alvalyn Lundgren
Freedom Through Boundaries
During a downhill event at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, a contestant wiped out against the fence because she lost her footing on a turn.
Alvalyn Lundgren
design practice
Why You Can’t Have My Font Files
Business and creative culture now runs on creative rights and intellectual property. Theft, abuse and alteration of intellectual property is as rampant as ID theft,
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Designer and the Relief Pitcher
If you know me well, you know that baseball is my favorite sport, and I often employ baseball analogies to explain concepts to students and
Alvalyn Lundgren
Listening Is A Design Skill
Listening is related to empathy. Empathy is valuing another’s experience, and keeps the designer from creating something that is self-expressive.
Alvalyn Lundgren
I’m Not That Kind of Girl: Manage Perceptions To Do The Work You Love
Let’s begin with the premise that design, illustration and photography are service professions, and that being a professional means you’re in business. You’re making a
Alvalyn Lundgren
Briefly Stated: The Advantages of Getting It In Writing
Before working with a designer, a client should prepare for that relationship. Often, businesses will request a web site or a logo – a single
Alvalyn Lundgren
Skills You’re Not Taught In Design School
There ‘s a book in my library titled, 101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White. It’s full of truths that every designer
Alvalyn Lundgren
Spec Work Is Gambling
Working on spec directly contradicts good business practices and does not even promise payment for work performed.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Red Flags: Fire When Ready
Not every client relationship is a good fit, and it’s just good business to separate.
Alvalyn Lundgren
When It’s Time To Let Go
Being effective involves doing the right thing at the right time in the right place.
Alvalyn Lundgren
creativity
Green Scheduling: 6 Tips for Sustaining Your Creative Time
Design your time. Time is wasted when we do the wrong thing at the wrong time. It’s easier to keep your time boundaries and your well-being intact if you plan ahead.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Why Design Is Not Self-Expression
If we approach a design solution as an opportunity for self-expression, we’ll miss the point and risk not solving the problem.
Alvalyn Lundgren
design
The Internship Epidemic
It is the responsibility of design professionals, teachers and school administrators to value the next generation of designers so that the profession is respected, appreciated and thrives. Unpaid internships won’t accomplish that.
Alvalyn Lundgren
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From the Client’s Point of View
From the client’s point of view, there are two crucial criteria in deciding what designer is awarded the project: 1. Does the creative understand what’s
Alvalyn Lundgren