120 Self Promotion Ideas for Graphic Designers & Freelancers
(1) Give Away Freebies With Your Design Business’s Name and Contact Information.
Go to where your target customers hang out and set up a booth or table. Give out some freebies and a flyer or leaflet as well. Some examples of freebies include free magnets, rubber bands, rulers, note pads, etc. All of these items should have your information printed on them.
(2) Free Demonstrations of Your Services.
Go to local print shops, office supply stores, and other local stores and offer to give free demonstrations of your services. You can also offer lessons as well.
(5) Speaking Engagements.
Contact local schools and associations about classes, colleges, seminars, lectures that you can speak or teach at.
(6) Go to Your Local Library or Book Store and Place Business Cards in Relevant Books.
This one is a little iffy. Go to your local book stores and libraries and find books that a potential customer might read and place your business card in it.
(7) Shave Your Logo into Your Hair or Get a Logo Tattoo.
Want to strike up conversation easily? Shave your logo into your hair or get a tattoo.
(6) Flyer / Business Card Exchanges.
Network with other local non-competitive businesses. See if they will display your business card or flyer in exchange for referrals, etc.
(7) Incorporate a Referral Incentive Program.
Offer your customers an incentive for referring customers to you. An incentive could be a discount on future business, a gift certificate, a gift, or whatever you decide that they incentive should be. You might also consider implementing a referral fee.
(8) Hold a Contest.
Offer a contest with a grand prize that would interest your target audience. Promote your contest through flyers, local newspapers, and local radio stations. This will get the word out about your business and will more than pay for itself. (however you have to have the startup cash to place ads in local newspapers and on the radio. If you don’t have startup cash, just use hand printed flyers and place them all over your the place (such as libraries, grocery stores, malls, etc). By holding a contest, you can also get your site listed on dozens of online contest directories.
(9) Directory Listings.
Make sure to list your company in all appropriate free directories. If you can afford it, get yourself listed in directories that require a fee (as long as you have researched that directory and it is a directory that will land you business).
(10) Wear Your Business Information.
Create t-shirts, hats, buttons, and bags with your company’s information and web site listed on them. You might feel like a walking advertisement but that is the point. 
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How Much Should a Web Design Cost?
Article by: Pearsonified
Every week, I get emails from potential clients who all want to know one thing: How much for a design?
Nine times out of ten, my answer causes them to run for the hills. Scary thing is, based on industry buzz, my prices could actually be considered totally reasonable by comparison. Don’t believe me? Well, today you get the whole scoop – my prices, their prices, and my always-priceless editorial commentary on the subject 
My Prices
For the sake of argument, I’m going to constrain today’s post to blog design only.
When people email me and ask for a quote, I always follow the same process. I visit their current site and determine the following:
- The current CMS platform (WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, etc.)
- The scope of the site – how many unique styling elements will be required for specialty pages?
- The perceived complexity of the re-design. Does this person want a graphical masterpiece with all kinds of bells and whistles?
Generally speaking, there’s not a whole lot of variance in these areas from blog to blog, so after checking out the site in question, I usually have a good idea of how much to charge. Now, to answer the question you all want to hear…How much is all this gonna run ya?
At this time, blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design.
In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a pimped out blog could run as much as $3000. Rest assured, though, that it would be totally badass, and the recipient of the design would receive mad props for having such a killer online abode.
Love or Hate Comic Sans?
Comic Sans
Comic Sans from Sam and Anita on Vimeo.
We read this interesting article about Comic Sans on The Wall Street Journal and we thought it would be a good idea to show it here too, for the people who missed it.
This article was written by: Emily Steel
Vincent Connare designed the ubiquitous, bubbly Comic Sans typeface, but he sympathizes with the world-wide movement to ban it.
Mr. Connare has looked on, alternately amused and mortified, as Comic Sans has spread from a software project at Microsoft Corp. 15 years ago to grade-school fliers and holiday newsletters, Disney ads and Beanie Baby tags, business emails, street signs, Bibles, porn sites, gravestones and hospital posters about bowel cancer.
The font, a casual script designed to look like comic-book lettering, is the bane of graphic designers, other aesthetes and Internet geeks. It is a punch line: “Comic Sans walks into a bar, bartender says, ‘We don’t serve your type.’” On social-messaging site Twitter, complaints about the font pop up every minute or two. An online comic strip shows a gang kicking and swearing at Mr. Connare.
The jolly typeface has spawned the Ban Comic Sans movement, nearly a decade old but stronger now than ever, thanks to the Web. The mission: “to eradicate this font” and the “evil of typographical ignorance.”
“If you love it, you don’t know much about typography,” Mr. Connare says. But, he adds, “if you hate it, you really don’t know much about typography, either, and you should get another hobby.”
Sorry about the poor updates!!
We are sorry that we haven’t updated the site since last month, but we have been very busy here at Eri Design. April is our busiest month, and its very important that we focus on our clients, since they are our first priority. But we haven’t forgot about you, our regular blog visitors. Please visit us back soon and we will have new articles.
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