The Free Creatives

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Crystal

There are a lot of posts out there on creativity killers and motivation failures. However, few of them mention what seems to be one of the biggest motivation killers around: a lack of confidence in one’s own work. If you’ve ever doubted your work as a designer, ever started a project and given up, or turned down a client because you felt that their project was above your limits, than this article is for you.

In this post, we’ll look over some cues that you may have some low self-confidence tendencies. Be grateful, though, even the worst of habits, like poor confidence and negative self talk can be altered. It may be surprising to see how much believing in your own unique talents will eventually help your career as a designer.

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Crystal

We see a lot of web design portfolios around, and obviously, some better than others. Beyond our own designer eyes though, there are many that are better in the eyes of a client as well. How can one go from good to great in terms of their portfolio, and win over more clients?

Whether you’re just starting out and don’t know where to begin, or if you already do have a portfolio, this guide can help. Here is some insight to what does and doesn’t work for gaining clients, as well as some more tips to get you recognized in the design community.

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Crystal

Tutorials on how to specifically create a website design in Photoshop have grown in popularity, and for good reason. While it is also important to learn web design via general design principles and through best practices, sometimes following a good design from start to finish is the most efficient way to pick up on those skills.

This post is the second part of our series: Link Love. While we understand list posts can gain some negative attention (which is why we do them so infrequently, providing you with quality posts most often), we also love to give back links where we find the best quality on the web.

Previous Link Love Posts:

• Link Love 001: For Freelancer Designers Just Starting Out

Now onto some great, high-quality PSD web design tutorials:

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Crystal

Many web design hobbyists someday dream of venturing into the world of professional web design — clients, companies, and getting paid. However, whether you’ve jumped into that pool or not yet, there are a number of ‘web designers’ that just don’t know how to be a part of the profession just yet. Being a web designer is not just about knowing how to design websites. It’s about working in a business world, solving problems, and applying those web designs skills in a practical way.

In this post we’ll go over some of the core assets any professional web designer must know. Web design isn’t all about the aesthetics, so from essential design concepts to business concepts, we’ll cover how to go from hobbyist to professional.

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Crystal

John O’Nolan is a strong web designer who is running his own successful design and development firm at the age of 22. Lyrical Media is a design firm with an original yet practical style that focuses on their client’s business and success. On top of running his business, he runs a great blog on his experiences of being a web design professional, and is a very active, upcoming star within the design community.

The Free Creatives wanted to get an interview with John, so we could find out more about him and how he got to where he is today. Be sure to follow him on Twitter, add him on Facebook, and check out his blog!

Now onto the interview…