Hello everyone,

it's been a while since i've been here but i always enjoy coming back for the wonderful advice.

i recently got laid off of work in the IT field and i have been contemplating whether or not i should dive into a graphics design business. i created a sample page with some of my logos on there for viewing purposes.

i have posted about 4 ads on craigslist and have only received 2 responses, 1 in which i successfully created an image for the client that they were very happy with. i do see a competitor on there who charges right above my rates but with a solid website. i also posted an "ad" on a University of Texas website i frequent and got an overwhelming response.

if you guys could check out what i have to offer and give me any advice on how to make it better i would greatly appreciate it. i'm also thinking of working with an artist who can sketch out a logo for me to digitize through my software. if anyone knows of someone, please send them my way. thanks for everyone's help with this!

http://www.fatalerrorclan.com/img/logosamples.jpg

Tmaculate1,

I have one suggestion to offer. Logo design primarily pays you one time, unless you can get additional fees for re-sizing, converting to other formats, or designing the ad copy that goes with it for various uses.

However, if you added promotional advertising to your business, then your logo clients could order their coffee mugs, T-shirts, mouse pads, calendars, ink pens, and other products from you, with their name and logo. Typical orders might generate as much commission as you made for the original artwork, and you can build a base of customers who continue with you for the life of your business.

I let others do the artwork, and focus on the promotional items.

If you aren't interested in adding promos to your site, we could consider exchanging links to refer our visitors to each others site.

Dennis

Dennis is right.

Since we started marketing our hot sauces as private label promotional items, we've been getting some wonderful repeat business.

Consider making relationships with companies who require outsourcing labels. We contract manufacture (co-pack) food products for companies and sometimes they have a recipe, a marketing plan but a crappy logo, so we recommend them several different designers to choose from for their labels. If you had several such relationships, you could find referral business filling your calendar.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Hi Dennis. thanks for the reply! offering promotional items with their logo is a great idea and something i never thought of. how does one get established with that though? for example, if i use your services, do i get a % for recommending the customer to your site? my email is tmaculate1@yahoo.com if we can talk more about this. ;-)

Tina! you may not remember but we spoke via email around a year ago. you also mentioned the labeling thing to me but at that time i did not have a portfolio (still don't) but perhaps now is a good time for me to start on that. i'm pretty versatile with graphics so i'm sure creating beautiful labels wouldn't be a problem for me. can you send me an email explaining how to get in the door as a featured artist? i certainly appreciate it!

travis

Travis,

I sent you an email with the information on starting your own promotional advertising dealership.

Dennis
www.CuttingEdgeAdvertising.com

It's pretty easy, all I need is a one-page collage of your work, your contact infomation and a base-line price.

I'll add your collage to my portfolio. We currently have four different designers. One is very floral in style, one is caracaturish/cartoony, one is mechanical and the other is very contemporary. Lots of room for your style, even if it's similar to one of the designers we currently recommend.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!