Freelance Photoshop Skills, Hiring Photoshop Professionals and Photoshop Areas of Expertise!
So
below are some of the things to consider in regards to Photoshop and
that we will cover for the next 2 to 3 months. Realize that your need
will depend solely on the sizer of your project and your budget. But
graphics and graphic design being the representation of a company should
not get second chair marketing for example. How can you market with bad
graphics since it is the first thing that all potential clients see.
- Photoshop artists and the skills they posses!
- How to hire a Photoshop
artist?
- How much do you pay Photoshop artists?
- How to be fair when getting an estimate for Photoshop Graphics and Design Artists?
- What are the costs of doing business as a Photoshop artist or graphics designer?
- Should I be paying the Photoshop artist by the job/project or and hourly rate?
- When do I need a a graphic design team for a project rather then just a single artist?
- How do I hire multiple Photoshop Graphic Designers and Artists, rather then a one man band?
- Is
it better to hire a Photoshop Generalist or a Photoshop artist or
designer for each specific task or field of graphics work ?
- Whats the big difference in website graphics designers and web developers?
- What is the difference between Freelance Graphic Designers and Artists?
- What
files should my Photoshop artist or graphic designer be providing for
my graphics project when it is all done and finished for me the graphic
design client?
- What files do I actually own that our photoshop artist crteated for us ?
- Why is it in by best interest using a milestone style of payment method for my graphic artist?
- Why is it important to have an understanding of creative process of a design project ?
- Should a graphic designer write out and estimate right away for a project proposal ? Why ?
- 10 of the most insulting comments you should never make to your graphic designer !
- The top 10 things that you the art clients should never say to and Artist.
- Why do Photoshop artists want to charge extra for pictures when the internet has all they need?
- Why is our graphics artist telling us that plugins, actions and software needed will cost extra?
- Never
tell a artist or designer that you could have done the work but had
them do it because you did not have the time! (this I have heard more
then once,Yes it could be true but the last time I heard it and as well
in the web design and development stages and fields in regards to Java
scripts, shopping carts etc etc ... in reality the last guy that made
the comment could not even install a Paypal logo on his site, and this
was supposed to be a friend that ended up stiffing me on over half the
price of the job. Had it not been a personal friend I had grown up with,
he would have never been able to stiff me cause I would have gotten
paid first )
- This being told about artists getting paid up
front, which if they are a pro and if you work with them or find them
via professional means then yes this is something many artists require
including myself. One way to work with artists that are unknown is to
use O desk or Freelancer to deal with the payments. It may cost a few
dollars extra but you also have some protection in this situation
whether you are the artist or the client.I will include and article in
the coming weeks explaining how to do this for and artist and make a
closed job that only they can see.
Now
some of these in the list will be covered via one post while others
will be in a combination of multiple posts in the series of Freelance
artists and Photoshop designers. People seldom realize that graphics
designers and artists can spend many hours and even
weeks on a single project that consists of only a single image or photo
design. One single image due to render times may have required
from 4 to 5 hours of work or more at any given stage depending on the
project and they can all use
more work in one spot or another. More often then not people have very
specific jobs that they require in Photoshop for each project. Sometimes
it may be color correction or color grading in 20 pictures they have of
family or from a wedding, and other times it may photo retouching or
airbrushing as well other digital photo manipulations of 3 or 4 images
for a print ad in a magazine or website or advertising creative. Then
again you also may get someone that wants or needs the backgrounds
removed from images to be used in a eCommerce shopping cart or catalog,
while the next person just needs 3 images touched up and converted into
both vectors image files which will be done in Illustrator and then
into .png formats, again as I mentioned before there are so many
different things that can be done with Photoshop and so many assorted
skills not ever person has them all unless they have been using
Photoshop for years as a Photoshop generalist, which is a category that I
fall into as well I do have some abilities other then just Photoshop
and I am always learning and honing my skills in many different areas of
expertise and also adding other Adobe Creative Suite & Cloud
applications ( Illustrator, Aftereffects, In Design, Fireworks,
Dreamweaver, Lightroom) and skills as well as programs like Autodesks 3d
design and graphics packages ( Maya, 3DS Max, Soft Image, Sketchbook
and Mudbox) , Zbrush, Blender, and even Windows programs for designing
presentations and productivity, print and also collaborating with your
team and working with clients that adobe will actually be used in tandem
with these programs from the Microsoft 360 office suite such as
PowerPoint for presentations to the use of Microsoft's One Note program
to help in the with the literal and communications/ collaborations side
of working with clients, from notes to access of clients and
contractors cloud folders, scheduling calendars, screen sharing
functions via Google hangouts or adobes meeting and presentation room
etc...
If you visit my business websites you will
see the wide array of skills I posses in web development and programming
experience to graphics design, Networking and Security, information
technology, computer repair, software installation and development,
operating system repair upgrades and repair, and 3d modeling, concept
designs, 3d print and prototyping, search engine and social media
marketing and much more. I have worked for companies worldwide as a
contractor from well know tech companies like Microsoft to smaller niche
businesses and take pride in getting jobs done on schedule to meet
deadlines ranging from creatives and setup of convention booths
graphics, layouts concepts to providing tech support and IT support for
company staff to actual implementation and testing of large networks
such as affiliate programs development to actual live in production
stages. I have had companies ask me to install pirated software back in
the old days trying to cut corners and costs .... Which you as a
designer and developer have every right to refuse and as well can report
seeing that is asking you to break many laws. I have had smaller
clients try to tell me that any image you find on Facebook or Google is
public domain. Just one image can cost the company found in offense
hundreds to hundred, thousands of dollars in fines as well the
embarrassment of finding out said clients were totally wrong and had
pulled you into there scheme of internet outlaws. As a graphics artist
and designer you will have this experience more than once in your career
and it happens more often than most people realize, just as clients
often do not realize that you as and artist reserve the right to how
your graphics designs are used, depending how the creative license is
worded and how your agreements are written.
So as a
client
and as a freelance artist I will go over all the crucial information
that I can in regards to graphics designers, Photoshop artists and
designers, 3d artists, concept artists as well much more. But first and
foremost get some of the money issues covered and out of the way. I am
not saying pay a 3 month project up front in full before the work
begins, but pay the artists retainer fee and what is expected for the
first milestone of the projects as well as the business costs such as
the textures and images, 3d models for rendering, travel if that is
party of the deal etc. For example I have been flown to Miami, the
Bahamas, Las Vegas, New York, Costa Rica, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago and
as well even had numerous affiliate cruises paid for by clients as it
is part of the costs for doing business. As well I have had clients fly
in and drive from all over North America, Europe, South Africa, South
America, Canada, Australia, Japan, London and the UK, Israel and even
Russia for team meetings, projects and jobs in the last 15 to 20 years.
But this costs money and if you are worth the time for a huge
multimillion dollar job / project then this is part of that cost of
doing business, and should be covered or discussed ahead of time. If
they are not covering your travel and housing in situations of this
manner then you need to know what is expected and the solutions you have
for the job you are doing in order to make it profitable and worthy of
your best effort and work while being able to cover the costs of living
for you and your family. If your work is used for a multi million dollar
ad campaign you deserve a profit and that does not mean if the company
make money, this is whether they do or not. But again remember that you
need to use common sense in this manner if it looks like a dead horse
type of idea from a well know company well it is the money of the
company but you do not want to have to many smelly fish ideas stacked in
the closet against you, but at times good money is hard to pass up, as
well being told you will get exposure is another fib told to get graphic
artists to work cheap when reality is that advertisements and even
films never have your seal or signature anywhere except in maybe a films
credit roll at the beginning or end. You will not have your name in and
advertisement whether its in a magazine or between episodes of this
years sitcom, and as proof just take the Geico Gecko for and example. I
bet know one knows who created the Geiko Gecko or the Staypuff
Marshmallow Man, or even the Michelin Tire Man or even better yet even
one of the animated versions of Mr. Clean ? If you can guess one of
these in the comments I will Photoshop a selfie for you to use on your
social media profile picture.
I have to limit this offer the
first 3 correct answers ... So let me hear these answers as it is a
great way for you as potential clients to get and idea of what I can do
with Photoshop.
Please visit some of my other websites and pages related to web design etc ...
3D Modeling and Art
Blog
Freelance IT
Blog
http://freelance-it-web-app-design.blogspot.com/
