Author name: Rukshan Mahendra

Top 7 Steps to Ease Your Freelance Career

Leave a Comment / Creative Blog /
Image by macrovector on Freepik
Freelancers mostly work alone or work with another few partners. When building a sustainable freelance career, I must say, yes freelance life is hard if your way of living is too complex and luxury. If you’re up to freelancing, there are few things that you should keep in your mind to be successful and avoid making your freelance life hard.

01. Simple lifestyle

Remember, having a simple lifestyle is important as a freelancer. When you do not need much to maintain yourself, it becomes easier to grow your freelance business fast, because every saving could become gold to reinvest on your freelance business or any other investment plans. Also, make the best out of the things you buy, it could be the things that are related to your business like a computer, phone etc. or even commodities like a pair of shoes, cloths etc. Give them proper care and they will last long and you won’t be needing to buy them more frequently. Also, remember that enjoying simple things in your life and making it a habit will not only eases your freelance life but also makes it easier to please yourself at a glance.

Image by pch.vector on Freepik

02. Improving Skills Continuously

It’s wise to improve your skills even if you think you’re really good at something. Ever evolving technologies always outdates your skills fast and if you don’t adapt to it, you’ll become an old fart regardless whatever your age suggests. It’s a continuous process since learning never ends. Always be open to grab new things and improve your skills upon it. Growing new skills and improving the skills you already have, will reserve a place for yourself in freelancing.

Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik

03. Self Confidence

Whatever you do physically, the most important part is the self-confidence. Without effectively putting your mind to what you do, you can never achieve what you envision. Make sure that you follow positive people and positive thoughts. As we now use social media more often, it is also a good practice to avoid following negativity on them too. Try to talk to yourself positively and be friendly as much as you can since you might not realize that the only person whom will be with you no matter what, is yourself. Remember, people with unbreakable confidence don’t live in the dark, they always follow the light.

Image by storyset on Freepik

04. Work Smart Instead of Hard

This is where most people miss the trick. It is okay to work hard but only working hard doesn’t get you to where you want to be. Even a food tastes good with a pinch of salt or while driving, smart gear changing makes the ride smooth. It is now apparent that you need good combinations to create something awesome. So, let’s add some smartness into your hard working routine which will make it less exhausting and more rewarding.

Image by Freepik

06. Self-Marketing

When you’re a freelancer, you’re mostly on your own. Will need to plan your marketing as well as improving on what you do. It doesn’t do any justice to your talent and skills, if you do not market them well enough. Try developing strategies, follow marketing experts and create some solid plans to increase your visibility to possible clients. If it’s hard to do things on your own there are freelance marketing experts who works exactly like you. Find them and use their expertise as well. It takes time, but patience and smart thinking will prove its worth.

Image by Freepik

05. Savings and Financial Control

Saving and financial control is very an important part when you’re running a freelance business or any business. Always be aware of the incomes and expenditures and keep track on those. Yes it’s boring and frustrating, but when you create goals for savings, it will become fun and interesting. For all the savings, plan something in your life and give some meaning to the money you earn. This will surely encourage you to keep a proper income and expenditure balance and get to your goals very fast and efficiently.
Image by pch.vector on Freepik

06. Diversify Your Income Streams

Not clinging to a single income stream is quite important as a freelancer since, your income basically varies in each month. Diversifying your income streams gives you the freedom to explore more opportunities or even demand your value of your products or services. I would suggest you to give some thoughts on creating passive income streams. As graphic designer, you could sell digital products, provide brand consultations, create online content on platforms like YouTube, writing blogs, which could bring in ad revenue etc. Also, think about investing the money you save on different things like stock market, index funds or even collaborating on projects where you think they have a possibility of success. As Warren Buffet said, “it’s wise not to put all eggs in one basket”.
Image by pch.vector on Freepik
In summary, you’re freelancing life is hard only as hard as you make it. If you just keep these simple steps in your mind and make it a habit, surely no one could stop you being successful. Okay, enough talk, let’s DANCE!

Top 7 Steps to Ease Your Freelance Career Read More »

Top 4 Ways to Generate Creative Ideas

Leave a Comment / Creative Blog /
Aren’t you used to watch clouds in the sky and imagine different things from their shapes but sometimes other people don’t see the same in that. Isn’t it creative thinking or generating new ideas. So there are methods you can use to be creative and don’t think there is just one method, you can create your own method too since in creativity there are no boundaries or hard and fast rules to follow.

01. Patience and Observation

Most people fail to find their inner peace while trying to be creative. Remember, you can never force creativity in you. You can only wait to be creative or provide catalysts to your thoughts, to be creative. It always bound to your emotions and thoughts, therefore you will explore yourself in the pursuit of creativity. Patiently observing things around you, and awakening your curiosity to explore more in what you’re doing, will surely open new perspectives. Please remember, this is something you need to practice everyday since most people are naturally not used to it. Few weeks of practice, makes it a habit. You can read the Atomic Habits book where I found it very helpful and at the same time it’s a practical guidance to your process of work. If you’re not much of a reader, you can watch the following video on youtube which gives a summery of it.

02. Start Simple

It’s pretty easy to start simple. Don’t think complex things starts as complex, since every complexity based on simplicity. When you design or creating something new, always start with the things that are most relatable to you, because as a creative you shouldn’t try to be someone else but yourself. Example: think of a cat, it can be any cat, what you imagine will be the cat you saw recently, maybe a real one or maybe a cartoon or something. So everybody is different from each other and allow yourself to be different from others as per your imagination and don’t forget, everything starts simple and simplicity creates magic.

03. Sketch Your Idea

Maybe you’re creating a piece of art, maybe creating a software or making something tangible like sculpture. Be anything, first make sure you sketch out your process and make plans for your each step. This always save time, effort and keep your process from becoming complex. See… simplicity avoids complexity.

04. Keep on Creating

Finally, keep on creating and stop being afraid to try something. If you’re listening to the haters, you’ll never be a creative person. Haters always hate. They always left un-noticed in the world. The only people get noticed will be the creatives, and to be a creative, let’s leave the haters behind. Keep on creating, never give up!

Top 4 Ways to Generate Creative Ideas Read More »

Vector and Raster Graphics Breakdown

Leave a Comment / Creative Blog /

If you’re new to the world of digital graphics, you may have heard the terms “vector” and “raster” thrown around, but you might not be sure what they mean. Well, let’s take a moment to break it down to bits and pieces and see what it really means and how it’ll be used in real life.

Vector Graphics

Image(a), this image shows a vector circle shape created on Adobe Illustrator.

Vector graphics are digital images that are created using mathematical equations. Instead of storing pixels like raster graphics, vector graphics store lines, curves, and other shapes. This means that vector graphics can be scaled up or down without losing quality, making them ideal for logos, icons, and other graphics that need to be resized frequently.

As illustrated from the small animation above, a vector graphic of a circle scaled up or in other terms zoomed in, the edges look sharp and clean. This is basically the main characteristic of a vector graphic. Technically the equations that make up the circle will simply recalculate to create a larger circle without any loss of quality. This is why vector graphics are also called “resolution-independent” graphics.

Raster Graphics

Image(b), this shows an image exported from the same vector circle shape created on Adobe Illustrator and imported back into the Adobe Illustrator in image format.

Raster graphics, on the other hand, are digital images that are made up of pixels. Each pixel contains a color value, and when you zoom in on a raster image, you can see the individual pixels that make up the image. This means that raster images can become blurry or pixelated when they are enlarged, as the pixels become more visible.

Imagine you have a raster graphic of a photo. When you zoom in on the photo, you’ll start to see individual pixels, which can make the photo look grainy or blurry. This is why raster graphics are also called “resolution-dependent” graphics.

Which Should I Use?

Both vector and raster graphics have their advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of which one to use will depend on the specific needs of your project. As a general rule, vector graphics are best for images that need to be resized frequently, while raster graphics are best for images that need to be highly detailed.

For example, a logo would be best created as a vector graphic since it needs to be scaled to different sizes without losing quality. A photograph, on the other hand, would be best created as a raster graphic since it contains intricate details that are best captured at a specific size and resolution.

In summary, vector and raster graphics are two types of digital images that are created and stored differently. Vector graphics use mathematical equations to store shapes and lines, while raster graphics use pixels to store color values. The choice between vector and raster graphics will depend on the specific needs of your project, but understanding the differences between these two types of graphics can help you make an informed decision and create high-quality digital images that meet your needs.

Vector and Raster Graphics Breakdown Read More »

How Do You Start Branding

Leave a Comment / Creative Blog /

Starting out something feels easy or simple to plan but… as soon as we initiate or start working, your brain runs dry. Sounds familiar…? Alright, let’s get into it.

Business Owners Perspective

I’m going to start the explanation in your perspective or in other words, in the business owner’s view. I have experienced that the business owners are more excited than being practical when they are to get their brand into the market. Why I say that is, most commonly they tend not to trust the designer, no matter how good the designer is and forcing them to be biased for their likes and dislikes which makes this process hard for the designer as well as to themselves. Therefore, before starting out anything, I suggest you to clear your mind and try to neutralize yourself to allow others to put in their ideas into your success. Example: We do trust doctors to treat us right…? We don’t try to treat ourselves or tell the doctors that I don’t want to trust you just do as I say… LOL (joke with a meaning I suppose).

That’s being said, we’ll move on to the next step. 

Business Plan

We are really good at planning, don’t we? Before starting a business, we tend to cover all the aspects and put the ideas together precisely to avoid any mistakes. It’s really good to be clear on what you’re going to do to make your venture successful. When creating a business plan for your business, the following guidelines would help you to prepare a clean and brief business plan.

  • Type of the business (Ex: Financial, Construction, Healthcare etc.)
  • Keywords that could define your business (Ex: If you’re starting out a financial business, you can define your business with keywords such as strategy, planning, investment, currency etc.)
  • Business Name (It’s always good make your name short and sweet if you’re not attached to any name that is more important)

Business Name

It’s advised to make your business name as unique as possible since identifying your business starts at this very point. Around the world there are many different companies under many different names though they stand out for their own in some way. In the modern age, we do know that, it’s extremely important to make your business visible on the internet and easy to be found on your niche market. Therefore, making your company name different but can be related to your industry is the way to go. It’s advised to define keywords which describe your business environment before thinking of a random name for your business. In this way, you can come up with many names and narrow them down till you get the perfect puzzle piece. 

Naming your company takes time but it’s worthy to have a good name to start with rather than changing the name after the branding process has been started. Why I said that is, when designing your logo, you could be going on with a letter mark logo such as IBM, NASA, Wanner Brothers, Louis Vuitton etc. or a wordmark logo such as Google, FedEx, Coca Cola, Mobil etc.

Changing your name at the middle of your logo design process or even after completing the whole branding process will waste your money and time for nothing, since creating a brand with an experienced designer is not cheap. With that in mind, we’ll be moving forward to the logo and its design process.

KEYWORDS:

In this case, relatable words that would define your business name

Logo

Once the company name has been finalized, we are moving on to the logo design. As we have been working on this industry for a very long time, it’s very important to do a thorough analysis on your niche market where you’ll be in competition with few or more competitors. Therefore, it’s quite important to decide the type of the logo design that benefits more. As a professional creative director and the co-founder of Design Nation Inc. I would be suggesting you to allow the designer to do the survey and decide what type of a logo design could really be the game changer.

Having said that, your input is also extremely important to the logo design process since it would give the designer some more insights. Also make sure that you give some breathing space to the designer to be creative, as there is a very fine line between contributing and disturbing the design process which affects your final product.

Branding Materials

A business is always supported by many other materials based on the logo design such as stationary, website, social media profiles, flyers, banner etc. All these individual sectors can be explained deeply under a separate topic. Apart from that, professional designers are capable of illustrating the logo on relative and realistic branding materials to get you the exact idea on how the designed logo would work on real life applications. They also define how to use the logo which avoids any complications. Therefore, it’s safe to follow the guidelines provided by your designer in any need. I would personally advise to follow a single designer or an agency for your branding process, because keeping the continuity of the brand which initiates with logo design is crucial.

Expose You to the World

Alright, we’ve come so far but yet it’s not finished. Creating all the necessary things precisely wouldn’t help you to get noted if you keep silent. Its utmost important to deliver a smart marketing campaign with full use of the branding materials we’ve been left with. Planning a smart marketing campaign is a whole new subject that can be run deep into, which I’m planning to discuss in a separate article.

Last but not least, I would like to leave you with few general keywords for your smart marketing:

KEYWORDS:

Social-media, smart-marketing, back-tracking, smart-advertising, influential-marketing, brand shout-outs, trend-listing

So, let’s tell the world about your business and reach your destiny.

How Do You Start Branding Read More »

Shopping Cart