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by d ay a b e t t e r

d e s i g n e r

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WHEN WORKING FROM HOME

MORE PRODUCTIVE BRAIN STORMINGS

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Planning Your OwnDesign Studio

Getting started in freelance web design is an exhilarating process. Along with the added stresses of daily work you actually become your own boss, set your own hours, and even choose who you will work with. It’s truly a great way to earn a living!

Now consider the steps required to move from a freelance artist into launching your own design studio. Under your own brand name you can land much higher-quality projects and build up a solid portfolio of works. In this guide I would like to share some tips for planning out your own web design studio. How

should you begin such a project and what are the most important tasks to complete?

Well there is certainly a laundry list of answers here, so I’ll focus on just a select few. But we should begin with discussing your rst steps in getting started.

Creating a Brand Build What you Can

When sitting down to plan your business model you’ll have to consider a number of factors. Of the most important ideas is your studio branding. This would include your company logo, domain name, and possibly alternative references(logos, mascots, etc).

The of cial branding for your agency may only take a few hours to complete. Except not a single brand was created and popularized in a day – or even a week or a month! Plan to be in this for the long haul if you venture into working professional design. Below are just a couple more ideas to consider when building your company branding:

The biggest factor in failure rates of startup design studios is overextending your workload. If you plan on starting out on a solo venture then you’ll be performing all of the web work by yourself. This includes wireframing, prototyping, building the design and coding the frontend interface in HTML/CSS/JS.

Be realistic with yourself and your clients. When rst getting started keep focused on one single project at a time. You’ll feel a lot better as you complete the work and you won’t be distracted by stress and looming due dates. It may be worthwhile to over-estimate the initial time frame to give yourself a bit of room for slack.

Working on demanding client projects is also the best time to force yourself into new areas of web development. We are all constantly learning new things and this requires a lot of patience to keep up. Don’t be afraid to accept a project which requires you to work in a new area such as PHP, MySQL, Flash, or even smaller topics like designing e-mail newsletters.

Custom pro le avatar photo

Accounts on social networks(Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest)

Business cards

Contact e-mail addresses

by Jake Rocheleau

The days of con ning jobs to bricks-and-mortar of ces are over. Working from home has become common nowadays, in fact, that’s how most of us at The Next Web work. Having the ability to work from the comfort of your own home introduces many advantages. Unfortunately, it also brings about many disadvantages that can cause problems when it comes to productivity.

The bene t of reducing commuting time and expenses to virtually zero and having a exible working schedule

comes with a price. People who work from home often face distractions from family members, errands, and, believe it or not, comforts all around the house.

1 - If you don’t have goals, you won’t get anything done.

2 - Take some time to socialize with your co-workers.

3 - Start the day properly.

As professionals, we can’t always bank on lightbulb moments and sparks of inspiration to get work done. The rst and most important thing to do before getting things done is knowing what your end results should be. Make SMA T goals Speci c, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Believe me, it works.

Then again, what good are goals if you don’t stick to them, right? That’s why making schedules and committing to it is equally important. Treat your days like “regular” work days. Many people have found that a 9-5 or 10-6 schedule really helps keep them on track and productive.

Just like in a real work environment, establishing good relationships with colleagues is just as important when working from home. Why? Because it can be motivating to get feedback from people you work with. Working from home could get a little lonely so it’s good to have healthy distractions as well.

Don’t just jump on your work desk unshaved and in pyjamas, start the day properly and treat yourself as a professional. Have breakfast, take a shower, and get dressed. It would de nitely help too if you could invest on a good working space and an ergonomic chair. These little things make all the difference to your state of mind.

Share interesting stories with your coworkers. Collaborate and help each other out when needed. Whenever someone does a good job, acknowledge it, or better yet, celebrate successes together. Not only will it help you do your job better, it can also make “going to work” every day enjoyable.

by Francis Tan

3 tips to be productive when working from home

tips all we need them

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1 - Create a Positive Atmosphere for Your Brainstorming Session

2 - Lay Out the Ground Rules

3 - Don’t Overlook Ideas that Aren’t Everyone’s Favorite

It’s easy to think of meetings as boring, dreadful, painful and anxiety-inducing periods of time. Oftentimes, as a meeting participant or facilitator, you wish you could be doing something else. Sometimes people get called out, put on the spot, and ngers get pointed. Meetings are frequently perceived to be boring because they’re repetitive and drudgingly systematic.

If you want to conduct an effective brainstorming session, it’s important that the atmosphere is fun, positive, welcoming and judgment-free. This way, the meeting participants won’t hesitate to share their ideas for fear of ridicule or reprimand from their peers.

As long as an idea adheres to the objectives and the goals of the project, it should be considered as a viable option.

At the very least, you should look at an idea as a jumping-off point for other ideas. Or you can take all these not-so-good ideas and synthesize them into one really good one; a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of an idea.

Clarity. It’s sort of become a buzzword around the of ce for us. Clarity is a virtue. It’s the starting point for most of what we do.

It’s often said that there are no bad ideas in brainstorming. This is true. But there are ideas that just waste time and produce no actionable outcomes at all. These are the “ideas” that people throw out there to be funny or to add levity with no real substance.Remember this: Respect the process of generating ideas. Otherwise, you’re just wasting everyone’s time.

You have to keep brainstorming focused. Do this by clarifying the objectives and the goals of a new project, and have everyone start from that point of clarity.If what we’re trying to achieve is clear, then every

by Isaac Gube (Design Instruct)

idea born out of a brainstorming session also inherits that same clarity.

At the end of your brainstorming session, you’ll be left with a few really good ideas, and the only decision you need to make is to pick out the best ones to move forward with.

6 tips for more productivebrainstorm sessions

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Working as a digital professional in any eld is tough. You have to constantly push towards gratifying clients and rushing through deadlines. Managing tasks in a team allows you to divide up the work much more evenly. However this also means it can be dif cult getting everybody on the same page.

Communication is the key to building a powerhouse freelance team. In this guide I’ll share some tips for keeping an open communication with your partners. Freelance designers and web developers especially need to express their ideas clearly. eep everybody talking amongst each-other and make it a point to stay on task!

Schedule a Meeting Space

eep Every ody pdatedWorking together is such a different environment compared to working alone by yourself. You can’t magically read everybody else’s thoughts, and they can’t read yours. The best course of action here is to schedule speci c meeting times to congregate ideas.

It’s good to plan anywhere from 30-60 minutes, or even longer if needed. Make sure that everyone’s ideas have been expressed and all pertinent issues are discussed. It also helps if the meetings are held in the same area each time. It offers a more familiar space where everybody can feel comfortable joining into the conversation.

If you have a small team of 2 or 3 members this idea may not be as important. But understand that each person in your team is specialized in working one area or another. It can be great to have one person helping with design and HTML and backend coding. But truthfully this would be way too much, and your team will burn out sooner than later.When initially accepting any freelance project make sure you contact everybody on the team in advance. Have a sit-down discussion where everybody can look at the project details and assign themselves with roles. This is the most straightforward approach since you can have everything organized well before even starting the design process.

Even if your team is working remotely in different areas of the world, your communication should not pay the price. There are plenty of free instant messaging services including Skype or Google Chat. These also let you send les or other important project data between computers with relative ease.When focusing on your speci c area of the project it’s all too easy forgetting to keep everyone else on the same page. This can lead to problems where one team mate was waiting on your work before proceeding, and now the project is behind deadline. Or even if this isn’t the case it can’t hurt having everybody on the same page.

by Francis Tan

efficient communication in afreelance design team

tips all we need them

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Use Common Workflow Practices

On the topic of web design there are many common practices we see among professionals in the community. Graphics designers and illustrators understand organizing their .psd and .ai les into separate groups and layers. Naming conventions are also important so that you can easily identify which layers contain which details.

Aside from the graphics you also have to consider working on the frontend code. Most freelance projects contain both a design and coding aspect. Be pertinent and document block areas of the layout which may be confusing to others. This is crucial in a team setting where you may be handing over HTML pages to many different people.

Inline JavaScript and CSS blocks are way too confusing and take up much more space than needed. Always move your custom stylesheets into separate les and organize them accordingly. Inline comments are perfect for delineating areas in your code which style targeted elements such as the body, inner wrapper, or content page text.

Creativity Abroad

The best project works will always be inspired by creative endeavors. Never limit the aspects of creativity until you have tried and exhausted all other ideas. I nd that teams with more than enough expendable energy can build some fantastic ideas without even touching a computer.

The best tips for this method of productivity include a healthy lifestyle and mentality towards your work. Be sure that you are eating healthy and getting plenty of sleep at night. Focusing on each project is important in its own time. But you must also be vicarious with your leisure space and inner creativity.

Messy oorsSlips, trips and falls are a big problem, especially when people are busy working to deadline - it’s easy to split on split coffee or a oor tha’s been mopped but not dried, or trip over trailing cables on boxes. People often leave things where they not supposed to be. You need good housekeeping and you should make sure you know where to nd a mop or cloth if it’s needed.

Hot drinksLiquids are a big issue with keyboards and elec-trical equipment, espe-cially if they’re sugary. You can take out a laptop with a cup of thea. It’s not just an aquipment safety issue, though: if you mix liquid and electricity, you are risking your personal safety as well. In addic-tion, be careful not to overload electrical sockets, especially if you work from home.

Heavy boxesBe careful with manual handling as this can lead to back pain of you con’t do it correctly. Always be careful when lifting and moving objects, or when putting things up at a height or reaching down to shelves. Poor manual handling puts you at risk of developing back pain and other muscularskeletal problems, so avoit it.

Of ce hazards to avoid