The design industry

[phen3N]

i just switched from the laptop to desktop lifestyle and i'm looking for a new mouse. i'm also using the magic mouse at work and i looove how you scroll on it with so much ease. its perfect for designing since im scrolling left/right as much i am up/down. but besides that, its really not comfortable or functional.

along with the scrolling, the only other designer-specific need is a quick way to switch dpi. you know when you need to move something one pixel but your mouse is too sensitive? a dpi switch button would solve the problem

i'm tryna decide between the razer mamba and logitech performance mx. the logitech is prob the better choice cuz its cheaper, but the mamba LOOKS SO GOOD. im a sucker for good product design and im a razer fanboy. prob shouldnt be buying a $130 gaming mouse to use for designing though...

[DüM]

I always use my keyboard for small shit like that, wouldn't that make more sense?

tap once for one pixel

[phen3N]

true, imma change my nudge settings. right now it nudges like 3 or 4 pixels per tap

[Magsåvningsreserven]

zoom in for precise nudgery.

[phen3N]

thats actually the reason i want a mouse with dpi toggle, so i can do precise shit without zooming in and then zooming back out. tryna increase efficiency

[Midnight Marauders]

I have a question regarding charging clients. How much do you guys charge and how to do it. I had a Uni lecturer who use to say he charged around $100AUD per hour he was working on a project. What are the kind of rates most designers charge for clients. The work I'm doing isn't difficult, it's just a Branding/Identity job.

Also, how do you log the hours you're working on something. I know most designers charge hourly rates. Do the clients just trust you?

Some basic questions I know but I'd appreciate some knowledge.

[Magsåvningsreserven]

thats actually the reason i want a mouse with dpi toggle, so i can do precise shit without zooming in and then zooming back out. tryna increase efficiency

won't help, still need to zoom in. adobe software is really fucking stupid in a lot of regards.

i have a mouse with a dpi toggle button and it's fucking useless. You don't need the high dpi for anything. Gaming-wise, it's all about low-sensitivity and outside of that what could you possibly want that kind of retarded sensitivity for? Certainly not for any real world applications. I can't justify a new mouse purchase yet, but i'm going back to optical too. laser is bullshit.

[DüM]

I'm usually working on pretty small-scale stuff, but Ive been charging $50/hour for my web work. Sometimes for friends or friends of friends I'll just throw out an estimate and go with that. So far I've been stupid lucky to mostly work with creatives and shit so no one's had an issue with paying me [eventually for a few clients].

If I continue to do freelance work I think get sonething to produce incoices and I actually already have a contract I have't used yet, but a lawyer friend looked at it abd it's good.

[Midnight Marauders]

yeah sweet man, thats helpful. This is a dude I work with so I just wanted a ballpark figure and i'll work around that. I'm generally a pretty slow on my projects too as im anally retentive so I think that might need to come into consideration. I spend hours on kerning

[Magsåvningsreserven]

I spend hours on kerning

you shouldn't

[phen3N]

won't help, still need to zoom in. adobe software is really fucking stupid in a lot of regards.

i have a mouse with a dpi toggle button and it's fucking useless. You don't need the high dpi for anything. Gaming-wise, it's all about low-sensitivity and outside of that what could you possibly want that kind of retarded sensitivity for? Certainly not for any real world applications. I can't justify a new mouse purchase yet, but i'm going back to optical too. laser is bullshit.

yeah ive realized this is true, theres no getting around zooming in for precision. i'll drop the dpi toggle from my mouse necessities, itll give me more choices to shop for

[phen3N]

as far as pricing goes, what i do is set an hourly rate and then estimate how many hours itll take me to finish the project. then calculate and show the client the total project cost beforehand for approval

[funkdoobi]

you shouldn't

wrong. he should only take like 5-10 mins to kern properly

[Magsåvningsreserven]

so how was I wrong?

[funkdoobi]

so how was I wrong?

you weren't specific. slut.

[yea!]

Billings is decent if you're on a mac. Keeps track of hours and specific tasks if your client is about that kind of stuff. but like DUM said, it varies... with creatives and most clients it's always been a project cost instead of hourly rate. figure things into that, what you need to make your "yearly salary", etc.

also while I was in school, I was told to overcharge as much as I can.

fuck it.

[Desaturated]

Any font packs you guys would recommend? Are you guys generally very familiar with fonts; can identify them by looking?

[phen3N]

also while I was in school, I was told to overcharge as much as I can.

fuck it.

from what ive seen, most designers undervalue and therefore undercharge for their work.

ive been told to never ever work pro bono, but i dunno if i agree. i mean if youre confident your work will impress the client, then it could mean paid projects down the road. but i guess theres never any guarantee, regardless of how good you are

and yeah, i identify fonts just for fun haha. Klavika and Archer are everywhere right now

[Midnight Marauders]

yeah that Billings looks pretty good, seems easy to manage. Thanks for the heads up man

[yea!]

:crickets:

[yea!]

this is pretty awesome,

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/

can we make this Thee Thread we find thought-provoking and useful things in?

[yea!]

hehh... comments are ridiculous, most likely from fellow American designers.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/omg_its_ovg.php

[Magsåvningsreserven]

^

the problem i have with design blogs, is that they fawn over really whored out stuff. I think it's their job to find and exhibit fresh ideas, because at the moment I think all of the popular outlets are displaying a kind homogeny in regards to the work. A couple years ago I used to fawn over that stuff too (when i was even more of a noob), but we should try to move on.

So, when we do get something new and exciting, a genuine evolution, what happens? people hate. and hate. and hate.

it isn't just blogs, we saw it with a design-oriented community in the form of yayhooray who loathed the UO rebrand - even though it was pretty fucking good. So it has to be a wider issue. Majority of graduates come from a corporate-minded syllabus? Apprehension about change?

I think it could really be that, designers see 'anti-design' as total insolence towards the established rules, whereas - imo - the point is to use those very rules to create something new.

^^

tcan we make this Thee Thread we find thought-provoking and useful things in?

that's what i was thinking/hoping for.

[jl3969]

I work as a digital media planner at a pretty sizable agency. Being in control of marketing dollars and where they should go, I deal with a lot of "design as added value" in my media buys.

In my experience, it will rarely be up to par with what the client was expecting. The worst thing to do is to let designers run free without strict guidelines and criteria. Doing so only leads to disagreements between the client and backs everything up in the approval timeline.

True designers that embrace problem solving and approach each project's restrictions from an objective logical standpoint get my $.

[yea!]

^^ definitely agreed.

i sense the majority of the hate and corporate minds comes from the disconnect between traditional designer vs. ad designer, vs. design as art, even. form and context are completely overlooked in that case on Brand New....to an advertising CD i don't feel like they mean much.

^ this is speculative - i've noticed it a LOT in client work - but i feel there's a major difference in the type of relationships clients have with their studios/agencies compared to the work produced. what you're speaking of sounds like design-as-service.

service-based design where the client dictates the outcome and deliverables always seems to fall short...designers execute an idea rather than be a part of it. whereas when studios are approached almost as an artist is commissioned the results are much richer, unexpected, and new. i believe problem solving and restrictions can be achieved in any case, though.

[Midnight Marauders]

I've been having a bit of trouble lately in regards to exporting logos and type for display on websites. I'm exporting these logos from Illustrator as png-24 as I have been told it is the best format for web display. However, I am still getting a slightly fuzzy outline on my text.

If anyone has any experience with this can you share some insight into creating logo's for web that are really crisp and clean.

below is a screenshot of a particular logo (you'll have to enlarge it to see properly) and below that are the settings I have exported with.

[Magsåvningsreserven]

http://cintiq24hd.com/news/news/recent-news/new-cintiq-24hd-photos-from-china

i'll take 2

[yea!]

^ that's insaane

i just imagined you designing on 2 of them like an orchestra conductor

^^ i'd just export as a JPG, 72dpi...not through Web & Devices.

[Magsåvningsreserven]

lols, i don't even want to find out how much it costs

+

any new design books coming/come out that are essential?

[DüM]

what are you guys' favorite design/art books?

I'll prob snap a pic of mine, but mostly basic stuff.