The idea was to give my self a web presence however basic it may be. I choose to pick a very simple but effective way about doing this. The average internet user when looking for information spends from 5 to 20 seconds looking for that information if they don’t get it they leave. So I decided to keep my site in a blog format, just one page so that the information stares the user in the face without having to click from page to page to see work or get contact details it can also be updated quickly and everyday if needed. I feel this way of design is coming to the forefront as it is simple, clean and effective. This is also the tagline to 402 design.

As soon as you visit the site you are greeted by the 402 design logo and contact details. Below that there is a list of things I do, This immediately tells the user what the company is/does.  The there is an illustration of me and a little about who I am and what I do, giving a face to the company trying to build that first relationship.

I decided to use lightboxes to show my work because this saves room on the site looks smart and the user has no distractions, it also gives me space to write a comment about the work. At the bottom of the site there is a banner saying thanks. I think that is a nice touch.

It has already got good feedback for peers and past clients. Just need to get some e mails…

You know as you are a big influence on me and got me into graphic design who influences you?
Well I wouldn’t say one designer in particular has influenced me. I was blessed to have a fantastic art teacher who was very encouraging at school and used to show me cool graphics books of old movie posters and club flyers that inspired me. Now I do a lot of internet searching to see what people are coming up with. One particular guy I like who is a friend and always produces consistently good work: http://garyandcourtney.com.

What are your other influences, films photography, ect?
I love films and photography, the internet is a great source of inspiration. Particularly with the recent rise in popularity of blogs you can see some brilliant talent out there.

How did you get interested in this field?
At school Art and Media were my favourite subjects and what I was best at so I naturally headed that way. They were the only subjects that particularly excited me.

Where did you study? What?
BA Hons Multimedia Design- Northumbria University. Newcastle.

After you graduated what did you do?
I got offered a place at a firm in Newcastle ( Leighton Media) from our Graduate Degree Show. The placement was for 6 weeks and there was another guy from my course doing it as well. They had an opening for a job after the placement and I was delighted to get it. I worked there for a year and a half which was valuable for experience and I learnt a lot re. designing in the real world. Then I relocated to Belfast and got a job in Ion Online Marketing. I switched to part time last year when I moved to South Africa and I work for them from here now.

Do you freelance? How do you find work?
I do some freelance work, random graphic work and small websites. I have never advertised. It began with family and friends and then through work of mouth and recommendation.

If you do freelance do you have to add that to a contract if your with a company?
Because I am part time and the work my company does is generally on a  much larger scale they do not have a problem. It is not mentioned in my contract. ( However in previous jobs- freelance work was not allowed)

What do you charge (freelance)? (hourly or set price)
Depending on who it is for- I price accordingly as I do a lot of work for charities and don’t like to go too high. I usually work on about £35/40 pounds an hour or fix a price of a website between £500-£2000

Are there types of clients you like? Should avoid?
I love people who are happy to pay and not fussy It is also very helpful if they are prepared and have content and images ready to work off. I find it difficult to work with people who don’t really understand the internet and how it works and think they know better!

Do you find clients seem to come back again and again?
Yes usually. Especially for updates.

Do you enjoy company work or freelance more? Why?
I probably enjoy working with a team more at work as someone else handles the finances and the hassles. However the money is a big bonus of freelance.

Do you think it is better to specialise in one area or be good at everything?
I think its helpful to have basic knowlege in different mediums but specialise at one.

When working at a company do they put you in a specialist area? or do you work on a variety of projects?
I think every company is different, at mine I have to design the websites in Photoshop and then build them in Dreamweaver. Some firms only require you to  design and a developer does the building. I work on a big variety of clients from large multinational ones like ESPN to small local ones like Belfast Zoo. There are new projects to work on most weeks

What do you think is happening in the world of design?
The popularity of Apple Mac computers and software such as Pages and Imovie are making nice-looking presentations and printed work more accessible for anyone to create. However I think there will still be a demand for professional design by talented creatives. I think fresh designs are looking more simplistic and minimal these days with nice typography.

The logo I made for Sarah Tweed the model/ singer is now in a band called the Maximals they are on the edge of getting signed and need an EP cover. That they have asked me to design I have decided that I will charge them not sure how much yet but around 50 pounds I recon to cover the work that will go into it and upgrading my software.  I also had to put the logo on to some of Sarah’s photos.

Hi James,

Thanks for letting us know I will discuss with the team and see what we can do.

Kind Regards

Steve James

Not a bad thing to say so hopefully they will take me on even for a day or two and I would freelance in my spare time as well as continue with my part time job. After that year I want to apply to some other universities to finish my Ba honours, probably Bristol. I realise I haven’t blogged in a while but I have been doing my placement report.

They are designing a logo at the moment for one of their creations (all I’m allowed to say). It looks like it is 3d but it is just 2D with shades they could not get the shading right and I had mentioned that I use cinema 4D and downloaded the trial to make the logo 3D. It took a while to work out how to do it but I am happy with the results and hope that they do to. The lighting was quite difficult but I made it as close to the 2D version as I could. I hope that makes a good impression.

As they are a web design company I didn’t think that I would enjoy it so much as I like designing for brands or print and I’m not best friends with HTML or CSS even though I can use them. But I am enjoying it so far. I still don’t think I could be a web designer even if not the developer it seems quite repetitive, and I need change. Maybe I could work for a company and do all sorts of design… hmmm.

It has not put me off freelance yet and I thought it might, But its not very secure and you have no one to back you up or to bounce ideas off. Interesting….

I think phone calls work a lot better, they are more personal so the person feel like they know you, even in the digital world you can’t beat a good old chin wag.

As I am still not sure about what I want to do next year but ideally I would like a years placement, so hopefully all going well I could hint about it. If I got a years placement and it went well then I could just work, and if not I could go back to uni to finish my degree.

Fingers crossed….

They also talked about the three main types of clients, urgent; someone who rings you saying they need it done asap
normal; someone who has some time to complete the project and wants some help
smart; people who have thought about the project and want you to help plan and do the project.

The urgent people you should generally stay away from as they will try and rush the project so you will not get the best results and this could reflect bad on you. The normal clients are good because you will have time to complete the project as well as you can and the smart clients are rare but you should jump at the chance to take these jobs on because you will have time to plan then get the best work you can do. Also the normal clients and smart clients give you time to create relationships.

I met a printer called Fraser Moore, he gave me some good advice that you should always try and squeeze more money out of a client, by offering them more services. There is no point getting three small jobs when you can get one big one from a single client and build on that relationship.

Colin a speaker at the event made a pretty random analogy about coffee and fish and boots, what is was saying was that there are big fish who you want to talk to, small fish who are worth talking to and boots you don’t want to talk to you. He also said it is unlikely you will walk away with a job straight away but even if you walk away with three meetings for coffee that is a great start to build these relationships.

The best way to approach people is to ask them what they do rather than stuff a business card down their throat, this will take the edge ff and then people will ask me what i do. Take an interest in them and they will take one in you. We heard a lot of conflicting ways to say what you do some people think its good to be a jack of all trades and some say it is better to specialise in one thing. As I’m not entirely sure about what I want to specialise in, I say I’m a digital designer. I think of myself as good at everything we do in class, but not outstanding in any. I guess I want to work on a bit of everything to mix up my working life. So it will not always be the same old day, I think this would keep all your skills fresh too. I think this will make you more employable too.

I also got two more business cards that brings the hunt up to five! Win…