David Airey

Category: Business

  • Be brilliant at the basics

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    David Airey
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    Business tips from the mini-book Brilliant At The Basics of Business 100, by designer and teacher Nicholas Bate of Oxford-based Strategic Edge. Image via Thinkstock. Don’t try to accommodate every customer. The more you do, the more you can potentially dilute your initial strength that people loved you for. Sure, it’s a balance; just keep…

  • Amazon Associates: helping designers look sharp

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    David Airey
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    It’s hard to imagine someone clicking an Amazon link for a design book, then thinking to themselves, “Mmmm, peanut butter.” But it happens ($1.76 commission).

  • iMac buying tips

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    David Airey
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    I just bought a 27-inch iMac. Here are a few tips if you’re thinking of buying one, too. Before deciding to buy, check the product cycle on the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide. There might be an update about to launch (happens once or twice each year). If you’re self-employed or if you’ll use your iMac for…

  • Quality vs quantity

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    David Airey
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    I’d make a lot more money if I accepted every project on the table. But there’d be consequences. Pantone leaves by Chris Glass Each project would get less of my attention. The quality of my work would suffer. Clients would be less satisfied. I wouldn’t get as many future offers. So it’d be a short-term…

  • The Win Without Pitching Manifesto

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    David Airey
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    Blair Enns’ Win Without Pitching Manifesto gives advice for designers who deal directly with clients. In Blair’s words, “Only we present our work. Whenever our diagnostic findings, strategic recommendations, or creative solutions are presented to anyone in our client companies, it will be personnel from our firm that does so.” I’ve worked on projects where…

  • When small is good

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    David Airey
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    Just because you’re smaller than the businesses you look up to, doesn’t mean you can’t still delight your clients.

  • I wish I’d known that

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    David Airey
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    What advice would you give a design graduate? Chris Arnold, founder of Creative Orchestra and former creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, offers his pearls of wisdom. Image via Thinkstock It’s tough. Very tough. And there is a truth in the fact that only the toughest survive. The lazy ones fail. You need to be…

  • How to convince your clients they need a brand, not just a logo

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    David Airey
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    Written by London-based brand identity designer Andrew Sabatier. Explain that you should be employed to find a brand idea that will form the basis of all the company’s branding (and perhaps even future business decisions) of which a logo should only be one expression, an idea that is likely to form the basis of a…

  • How pro bono design improves your portfolio

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    David Airey
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    You’re a design student with a portfolio full of fictitious projects. You want to work with clients to build your experience, but you need to develop your portfolio to get those jobs. That’s when pro bono design can be a massive help. Pro bono publico (usually shortened to pro bono) is a Latin phrase that…

  • Studio Culture

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    David Airey
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    A brief look inside Studio Culture: The secret life of the graphic design studio, edited by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy.