Useful vs. Valuable as an Employee
As a Graphic Designer, one is hired because his/her education and skills are useful to company to perform job duties. However with hard economic times, jobs are not as secure which means being not only useful, but a valuable asset can help to prevent your position from reaching the chopping block of layoffs and even possible advancement. Here are some suggestions whether at a design firm or in-house department on how you can build your value with a company.
Design Firms and Agencies
At design firms that make their money through client work, one can be an asset by bringing in new business. The position may not require it, but going beyond and bringing business would be a huge benefit and maybe even a commission can be offered, an added value for both parties. Before venturing out searching for new business you could go to your employer and inquire if there are commissions for bringing sales. Ask if they have any tips, what type of business they are looking for and any sales material you can use.
Ways to bring in sales, the first and easiest avenue; Who do you know? Do any of your friends or family who work at companies that outsource design? Let them know you would get a commission, an added incentive for your friend or family member to send business your way. They may not need work, but they might know someone who does.
Networking: there are tons of free events you can attend at groups or chamber of commerce. Nervous? Then read my Article, Networking When You’re the Young Person in the Room. If the event is free, what do you have to lose?
Social Media is also another source, specifically you can post updates offering services, but a more direct approach is to search for people already looking. Typing need keywords like “Need Designer”, “Logo design” and then responding to the person directly.
In-house Design Departments
If you work in an in-house department and sales are not the issue then here are some other options. Poke your head out of your cubicle and speak up and offer ideas! Suggest ways to improve your department’s productivity or project ideas to improve the company’s design and/or marketing. Make yourself the “Idea Person”. Offering to take the lead on a project or other non-project related tasks shows you pitch in and do more than is required. Volunteering and contributing can go a long way.
Own your tasks. The less your manager has to supervise you the better. Submit updates and reports before you’re asked to show you’re on top of it and can be trusted. Follow up with them if you need something instead of just waiting on them. They will be grateful for less work and headaches.
This is your career and you can’t treat it as you’re just punching the clock to get a paycheck. You’re not in college anymore, waiting tables or working at a Starbucks. More is expected of you, especially if you want to secure your position and even advance. Otherwise, my advice to you is to start practicing the phrase, “May I take your order?”
How to Make Clients Appreciate You
I am not saying, even if your try really hard, that all clients will appreciate you. If not then you might want to rethink the business relationship, but if you try then you are more likely to have continued business. Let’s face it, there are hundreds of firms and designers, they don’t have to be in the same state or even country. Why do they want to work with you? Talent? Yes, but again there are hundreds of talented designers out there. Many clients will leave and find another designer over very basic business principles that are not even design related.
If you break promises, miss deadlines or not deliver everything that was promised, you will be asked to see the door. Think about it, how would you feel? It’s that simple. Sometimes unexpected things go wrong, but the second you know that a deadline needs to be extended tell the client immediately, BEFORE the deadline. Explaining the issue and reassuring them you are doing everything you can. That way you have adjusted their expectations and they feel they are being kept in the loop. Don’t run and hide, dodging their calls, it’s unprofessional and cowardly.
Don’t lock yourself in a windowless room. The project make take four weeks and you won’t have anything to show until that last week, but at least send quick updates, “We just completed phase one, we are on schedule.” Otherwise in the client’s mind you are sitting their twiddling your fingers, not doing any work. They don’t know what is involved and that is why they hired you, but you must make them understand.
Answer the phone! Promptly respond to emails. You might now have the answer right away and you may need to get back to them, but at least they know you are reachable and will respond. Also taking that extra time to explain things in terms they can understand makes them feel more confident about the project and the money they are spending. Again dodging their calls or emails makes a client feel ignored and treated poorly.
You may dread these tasks, but they are imperative. It’s the nature of business. You may not consider yourself to be Customer Service, but you’re providing a service to a customer and part of that is communication. If you’re cold and unfriendly, then the client will be less inclined to want to work with you. You can even build up a more friendly relationship joking around (P.C. mind you) and talking about their kids, which will make your interactions more enjoyable as well. Bottom line it always good to feel appreciated, but you need to deserve it.
Print Designer’s Guide to Web Design
Web design is very different from print design, working within an environment where programming, Internet Browsers and Search Engine Optimization have requirements. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) has made the ability to design within these restrictions easier. However, there are still limitations and differences from print design that need to be considered and followed for a successful website.
Success for a website is not only the engaging graphics, but also user friendly navigation to find information and a search engine’s ability to read the keywords to rank the content. If a website does not appear under key terms for potential customers, then it’s failed at its primary purpose.
First off, websites are RGB, size increments are in pixels. Current standard browser size is 1024px x 768px, but I recommend the width no wider than 1000px, surrounded by a background color or pattern to give the edges a little space. If your website extends in width a scroll bar will automatically appear and shift the browser window from left to right, which is unnecessary and can be distracting to the user.
The priority of the designer is to control what the user sees and experiences, but the user is not the only consideration for websites, it’s also how the search engines “sees” or rather reads the information as well, which is part of the code and design. The code should read like a grade school report (Heading, Outline, etc.), to see what the browser reads you remove the link to the CSS and view the web page in a browser. Sticking to web standards for coding content can be limited, but it gives you a search friendly site. It’s the designer’s challenge to work within restrictions and create something amazing. Do you like a challenge? Then become a web designer.
When you build a site, you need to check each and every browser (i.e., Safari, Chrome, FireFox, Mozilla) on both MAC and PC to see if something is not displaying properly. There might be subtle differences you cannot avoid like spacing and it can be a real pain, but a professional does not publish sloppy work and should check to make sure the website is as consistent as possible in each browser.
While CSS3 is in the works and will open up even more creative flexibility, it has not been fully implemented or adopted as the new standard on all browsers. (Thanks IE!) Also, not ever user has updated their Internet browser, Internet Explorer 6 is still rearing its evil little head. So CSS3 will not work in every browser, you can implement it, but you would need to add extra coding for those browsers that do not have it to get a desired look. This means extra work, you have to determine if it’s worth the effort.
Common habits of print designers are creating websites are using non-standard fonts, the solution typically is images of the text, which is not readable by search engines. In most cases it can be done, but ask yourself this, “Will this hurt the Search Engine Friendliness?”, “Will this layout work if the content grows over time?” Websites are not static/permanent layouts, they are dynamic content, continuously added to, always changing. You need to think about how your design will affect the growth of the website.
For non-standard fonts there is a solution or alternative is Google Fonts a wonderful new endeavor by Google to offer non-standard fonts with more character than your typical options, viewable in every browser. A simple piece of code opens up a world of options. Want to find out more? Google it. 
Websites are the new medium for designers and even better a website will typically need to be redesigned and developed every 3-5 years, an on-going need for designers. I love the eloquent nature of print, however, it is less and less the major marketing tool. I encourage every designer to learn, excel and explore the wonders of the web. It is the new growing medium for design, more importantly, the web needs a designer’s touch. To develop not only your knowledge of designing for web, but to also learn the skills to program CSS for PHP and/or .NET will increase your value to become a Front-End Developer, which is a hot commodity in the job world today.
