Posts Tagged "resources"

I’ve been seeing some great logos, and I wish to have you guys along with me on this design journey.

I’ll always be searching for logos in these galleries: Logopond, Logo Faves, Logo Moose, Logo from Dreams, Logo Gala, WS Logos, The Logo Mix and Wolda. If you know any more galleries or logos, or even if you own one and wanna be listed here as a source for the series, please drop me a link! I’d love to hear from you. I hope you all enjoy our selection of T logos! Cheers. 😉

Logo Design A to Z - T

Logo Design A to Z - T

Logo Design A to Z - T

Logo Design A to Z - T

Logo Design A to Z - T

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For picture to be perfect, sometimes it lacks some of the details. And then the questions arise. Where to look? What to look for? To speed up this photo editing process, people often choose the easy method of using resources. But the thing is – they are hard to find and costs you valuable time. Of course, most of us already know that a lot of things come from deviantART, but what will you do in the case you don’t find what you need?

I searched for a fairly long time, until finally gathered these resource sites and I hope that it will be useful not only for me but for you too.

1. deviantART

Here you can find almost everything and of course there are plenty of free PSD resources, icons, layouts, textures and much more available. You just need to take your time and do research and I am sure you’ll find what you looking for there.

deviant-art-photoshop-psd-resource-sites

2. Photoshop Candy

photoshop-candy-photoshop-psd-resource-sites

3. FreePSD

free-psd-photoshop-psd-resource-sites

4. Official PSDs

official-psd-photoshop-psd-resource-sites

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Over the last year (2009) we’ve been collecting high-quality fonts created by talented designers and type foundries.

In this collection, I’d like to present an overview of 50 of the best Free, New and High-quality Modern, Handwritten, grunge, Cartoon style fonts for clean and professional designs in 2009.

Note:

Please read the license agreements carefully before using the fonts. Some of these fonts are for personal use only, make sure you always check the license before using the font.

Modern

Museo Slab

7 days

Circled Font

Pronounce

Technical Forest

Fertigo Pro

Star Avenue

WalkWay

Harabara

Lane

Ripe

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I know that you love Adobe products and I’m sure that you love even more the things that you are able to create using the Adobe products. That’s why, I’ve collected some easy to understand and very useful Adobe Illustrator video tutorials created by top Illustrator designers from all around the web. Most people consider that Photoshop is everything and they don’t actually need another product for their design projects. I strongly recommend you to take a look at this great Adobe Illustrator tutorials and you will understand why I say that you also need to use AI for more professional and artistic creations.

1. The Illustrator CS3 Interface

Learn about the User Interface and where you can find the tools you need.

2. Everything about Masking in Illustrator

One very important thing in Adobe Illustrator: – The Masking properties.

3. How to use the pen tool in Illustrator CS2

Use the pen tool to make things more interesting

4. CS 4 Video Training

A complete CS4 Video for Beginners

5. A Comprehensive Guide to the Pathfinder Panel

Learn how to use the Pathfinder in Illustrator.

6. Opacity Mask Tutorial

Hiding a part of your illustration can make more important another part of it.

7. Create an Ipod

We all love Apple products and this tutorial help you to customize the famous ipod in no time.

8. Metal Lightning Tutorial

Metal inspires professionals and this tutorial is 100% pro and free.

9. Make a 3D Logo in Illustrator

3D Logos are much more interesting than simple plain ones…so check this great tutorial to see how you can create one.

10. Adding Texture in Illustrator

Any type of texture for any type of Illustration.

11. Creating an Eye-Ball

Eyes are very important for any human character, and that’s why this is a very important tutorial.

12. Create a raw logo design

Professional Logo design for your company.

13. Create a neon glow in CS 3

This is a pro glowing effect.

14. Live Color

Choose most interesting and inspiring colors for your creations.

15. Drawing a gell progressbar

A progressbar is very important for Flash animations and applications.

16. Draw Gear

Drawing a gear is just the title, but this tutorial will help you to create many types of illustrations.

17. Create a Helix in Ai

A helix can be useful in many ways and that’s why you should take a look at this tutorial.

18. How to design a professional logo using Adobe Illustrator

Create a custom logo for your company.

19. Draw a Valentine’s Day e-card

I know that it isn’t february yet, but you definitely should know how to draw a valentine.

20. Shiny Text

Shiny text was always interesting and with this tutorial you will be able to create it too.

21. About Transformation Tools

Restizing, croping and wrapping can improve your works and make them more attractive.

22. Tribal Sun

Famous and cool sign created in illustrator.

23. The Gradient Tool

24. Blob Brush: Shape Objects

A cool new feature for Illustrator.

25. Artboards in CS4

Artboards feature for CS4.

26. Blending Gradients

“Play” with gradients to create interesting designs.

27. Create a fusion between Adobe Illustrate and Photoshop

Use Photoshop and Illustrator components to build better and powerful designs.

28. Create a metal like button

A very nice looking metal button.

29. Cool Award Badge

Vey useful illustration for any type of activity which includes competition or quality review.

30. Wood Effect with gradients

Bring the nature into your creations.

31. Background Effects Illustrator Way

Even if you are a beginner with this tutorial you will be able to create pro background effects.

32. Create Ribbons

Cool and instant ribbons.

33. Spacing Boxes in Illustrator

This will make your job a whole lot easier.

34. 3D Effects Graph

Create a cool stats graph in 3D.

35. Wraping in Illustrator

Modelate your images and illustrations in no time.

36. Using The Paint Brush Tool

The most essential drawing tool available in Illustrator and Photoshop.

37. Draw Fluffy Clouds

Funny and flower-power clouds.

38. How to draw Batman’s logo

One of the coolest Cartoon hero sign can now be easily reproduced in Illustrator

39. Intricate Patterns

Create cool backgrounds for your design projects.

40. Using Live Paint

Bring life into your Illustrator creations.

41. Line Draw for Cartoons

Make your cartoon creations more interesting for everyone.

There are a lot of factors that play a role in determining the success of a freelance web designer. Obviously, design ability and technical skills are needed, but other factors like customer service, marketing, networking, and work ethic will have a significant influence. In this article we’ll take a look at customer service as it applies to freelance designers.

Providing high-quality customer service can at times be frustrating for freelancers, but taking good care of your clients is critical for client retention and for encouraging word-of-mouth referrals. Here we will look at 10 aspects that should be considered by freelancers who aspire to provide a high level of customer service.

1. Being Reachable

When clients have a question or a problem, they want to know that there is someone they can contact to get help. Of course, freelancers don’t have a team of customer service people ready to handle calls and emails around the clock, but in general it’s necessary to be accessible to clients. Clients should know the best ways to contact you (office phone, cell phone, email, through a customer service portal, IM, Twitter, etc.) and when they can expect to get a response if they are not able to speak with you immediately. Most clients understand that freelancers will not be available 24 hours a day, but they should know that you are interested in helping them and the best way to go about it.

2. Timely Response

Since it’s very common to deal with customer service via email and voice mail, the client should be able to know that you will get back to them as quickly as possible. The amount of time will vary, but clients should not feel like their messages are falling through the cracks and only answered whenever you have the spare time. Clients will appreciate customer service that involves a prompt response, which shows that service is a priority to you.

3. Organization

Organization is important in order to be able to provide quality customer service with timely responses. Working on multiple projects at any given time, plus some questions/issues from other clients needing maintenance, means that without organization it will be difficult to stay on top of things. Some freelancers use a CRM (see 12 CRM Options for Freelancers), while others institute their own system for organization. Organization also has a major impact on the ability to meet deadlines, which is a critical aspect of keeping your clients satisfied with your work.

4. Patience with Explanations

Clients like to work with designers who are willing and able to meet them at their level, where the designer will explain things in a way that makes sense to the client. There will be plenty of situations where you will need to explain your reasoning to the client, whether it be in response to a question or suggestion from them, or whether it is something that you feel needs to be pointed out. Taking the time to explain things without technical jargon will help to educate your clients and should help to make your job easier going forward.

5. A System for Quotes/Estimates

Some designers use packages with set prices for specific types of projects, but many designers will provide a quote specifically based on the needs of each client. Even for those designers that offer prices by packages, there will be situations where a client’s needs do not quite fit into one of the existing packages and a quote will be needed anyway. Pricing design services is a hot topic that gets a lot of attention, but the quote/estimate process doesn’t get as much attention.

The quote involves more than just being able to price your services. It should also help you to evaluate exactly what the clients needs and what you can offer, the specific details of what is included in the price and what is not, any deadlines and/or project milestones that are involved, and any other relevant details. Having a system will help you to get information from the client that will help you to make better estimates, provide a timely response, and to cover all bases so that both the designer and client understand the specifics of what is being offered.

6. Effective In-Take Process

One of the most critical aspects to a successful design project is getting to know and understand the client’s specific needs, their business, their customers, and what is needed from the website. In order to get this right, it is necessary to dedicate the needed time upfront before the design work begins. Many designers have standard approach to client in-take that helps them to make sure all the right questions are asked.

Putting more effort in to the early stages of the designer/client relationship will help to improve the customer service down the road. A project that involves a solid in-take process will result in a more effective and efficient use of your time, and fewer issues that will need to be resolved at later stages of the process, which will make your customer service much easier.

7. Clear Contracts and Terms

Contracts not only serve to protect everyone involved from a legal perspective, but having contracts and clear terms with clients will help to reduce the potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding about pricing, payment terms, what is included in the price, and the responsibilities of the designer and the client. A lack of clarity in any of these areas can lead to problems and lots of customer service work.

8. A System for Working with Feedback

Every client project will involve some sort of feedback, and many will require revisions from the designer. In some cases, the feedback may be coming from a few different sources, and it could involve a number of different people. This contributes to making it even more important to have a system to deal with feedback and to incorporate it into the project.

There are a number of different resources out there, such as Proof HQ, that are available to make the process more streamlined and effective.

9. Concern for the Client’s Best Interest

In order to provide the highest level of customer service possible, it is necessary to have the client’s best interest in mind. There will be situations where you could recommend something to a client that would involve more money for you, but it may not be in the best interest of the client. While putting the client’s interests in priority may cause you to miss out on some income opportunities in the short-term, it’s a necessary part of providing good customer service. Clients will recognize when you are truly looking out for them and it will lead to increased trust in you, a greater chance of getting repeat business, and more referrals from current and former clients.

10. Respect for Your Time

Just like you need to respect your clients, you also need to respect your own work and time. Simply catering to unreasonable requests or doing endless revisions for clients that keep changing their mind is not required to provide good customer service. The ideal designer/client relationship involves mutual respect and a concern for being fair on both sides. There will be times when providing some type of service to your customer is outside the scope of the contract. In these situations the best customer service will involve a willingness to help the client get the service that they want, but at an additional fee.

Provide the best customer service that you can, but also have a respect for your time that prevents you from getting walked on. A healthy designer/client relationship will produce the best results for the client, improve the chances of a long-term working relationship, and promote a genuine interest in working together for success.

What’s Your Experience?

From your experience, what do you feel are the most essential aspects to customer service for freelancers?

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