The Graphic Design Business Book, by Tad Crawford
by Adrian Hanft, (3 comments)
Who hasn’t thought about ditching their day job and going into business for themselves? You have the talent and ambition, so what is stopping you? Well, if you are like the majority of graphic design professionals, your design education probably didn’t prepare you with the business skills needed to start your own business. You need help. You need a guide that will teach you the basics of starting your own business, and provide you with the knowledge to help you avoid the pitfalls that could destroy the unprepared. Tad Crawford is the author of just such a guide. It is called “The Graphic Design Business Book,” and I was lucky enough to ask him some questions about his new book.
With your background in law, how did you become so passionate about design?
I became passionate about the rights of creative people early in my career. I was teaching writing at the School of Visual Arts and discovered the students knew nothing about business. This led to my creating a business course and then writing Legal Guide for the Visual Artist, which is still in print in its Fourth Edition. I became General Counsel to the Graphic Artists Guild and lobbied on both the state and federal level for rights for creators. In a sense, Allworth Press grew out of this passion.
I think that most designers fantasize about going into business for themselves, but your book doesn’t make it sound as glamorous as our dreams. Law suits, insurance, profit margins, taxes… that doesn’t sound like much fun at all. Is it really worth it?
It’s important that our dreams be grounded in reality. Being an entrepreneur is very different from being an employee. It has different challenges and different rewards. The entrepreneur has design skill, certainly, but also a vision of building a design business. Building any business requires a willingness to take responsibility and risk, to do the menial business chores as well as the exciting design work, to worry about money and perhaps be the beneficiary of a profitable business. When someone is ready to begin a design business, it can be terribly frustrating not to move ahead and get started—whatever the risks and however hard the work.
We had a pretty good discussion a while back about what to do when your graphic design career gets stuck. There was some consensus that it is important to get over the fear of leaving a comfortable situation if you want to find something better. Is there a secret to building the confidence needed to go out on your own?
Going out on your own requires a basic knowledge of how to do the business of design. This can be acquired through working first for another design firm, joining professional organizations, classes, books, and hanging out with friends in the profession. It certainly builds confidence and helps in making the transition out of a comfortable position to the next venue in the evolution of your career.
Do you have advice for a designer that works full time for a company, but takes on an occasional design job on the side? Should they be as concerned about copyrights, contracts, etc. as a person who is in business for themselves full time?
If a designer is employed and also working freelance, that person is in business for him- or herself. This means paying attention to copyright, contracts, building good relationships with clients, keeping records, and all the other requirements of a design business.
You don’t say anything about spec work in your book. Should this be avoided, or is there a time when it can be a good thing?
The Code of Fair Practice is included in the back of the book and basically indicates that designers should avoid working on speculation. Of course, no one should work without being paid a fee. The problem in design comes in terms of how much a design proposal for a client will include. Will the designer go beyond showing a portfolio of appropriate work? If so, will the designer do part of the actual assignment? This would generally be considered going too far and not a wise business practice. However, in advertising, where budgets can be large, firms may do work on speculation in the hope of landing big accounts. This makes little sense for most design firms.
Designers love to swap horror stories about terrible client experiences. From a business standpoint, is that a bad habit to get in to?
This isn’t a bad habit and might even be helpful in the sense that one learns who the bad clients are and what types of things can go wrong. What would not be good is to be in the habit of running down clients (who can be annoying, especially when they want changes).
My favorite part of the book is the section that talks about how to stay in control of a project. It reminds us that we are design experts and recommends that we shouldn’t be bashful about leading a project. That is pretty tough. Does it get easier with experience?
Most aspects of business become easier with experience, and project control is no exception. It’s very important that tight control be maintained over projects so that cost, deadline, and quality objectives can be met.
The Graphic Design Business Book is packed full of valuable information, but the design of the book itself didn’t really impress me. What’s the deal?
I love the cover. The interior is a clean format that I feel conveys information well. But then I’m the author (and the publisher), so my opinion is a bit subjective.
As President and Publisher for Allworth Press, you got a great view of the current state of the publishing industry. What’s your personal take on blogs? Are we a threat to traditional publishing, or a different beast all together?
For the next deluge, Noah’s Ark will certainly need a male and female blog as well as a male and female publishing house. The reason blogs and ebooks aren’t a threat to traditional publishing is the lack of a gatekeeper (in most cases) and also the wonder of a book’s physicality. Maybe that will change someday, but I don’t think it will be in the next decade.
Tad Crawford is founder, publisher, and president of Allworth Press. In addition to writing over a dozen books, Tad has represented many artists and arts organizations during his career as an attorney. For a complete list of Tad’s books, visit www.allworth.com/Authors/BioTC.htm. The Graphic Design Business Book is available on Amazon
Comments (3)
Ted68 said:
No offense, but was a graphic designer used to design the book cover? To be polite, it’s not as polished as it needs to be given its audience. While the book does sound legitimately interesting, the publisher is doing it a disservice with the choice of cover design.
Posted on December 13, 2005
Mayhem Studios said:
I find that most covers for design books suck. How ironic.
Posted on January 29, 2006
Lawton Chiles said:
I agree with Ted. At first, I was like, oh, different fonts and colors. It seems though, that they just thought it would be cute and they threw it together.
I’m a musician who has business skills and is getting into graphic design. Let’s remeber to keep things fun or we’ll go nuts.
Great blog!
Posted on November 3, 2006