The internet is bursting at the seams with graphic designers who have started their careers from a whole heap of different backgrounds – tertiary education, self-taught, big corporates, and advertising agencies.

As the client, you need to find someone who ‘gets’ you and your business. Industry design experience is where we learn our trade and skills, so it is definitely worth knowing a bit more about the background of your designer.

Here at Two10, we have a mix of corporate and agency backgrounds. It is part of the reason we teamed up in the first place, so we could offer our clients the benefit of our complementary backgrounds.

So, what is  the difference between corporate and agency design, and why should it matter to you?

The agency environment is a tough and competitive niche, in which only the best will thrive. It's a bit like a Darwinian contest for survival, where only the creative and nimble survive - and the super-tough will flourish.

If your designer is ex-agency, chances are they will be:

Super creative
Agency working life is about working on and juggling lots of different projects for different clients. Coming up with new ideas is the agency designer’s job, day in and day out. Solid agency experience will produce a designer who will bring lots of creative richness to projects for your business.

Deadline driven
Advertising agencies are not for the faint hearted. Deadlines constantly loom, and often meeting these deadlines requires working long hours while being super-focused. If you work with a designer with an agency background, they will understand the importance of setting clear expectations with you and meeting your agreed deadlines.

A team player
The design process in an agency is a collaborative one. From the client, to the creative director, account managers and designers – lots of brains and (sometimes clashing!) personalities go into creating the final product. An agency designer knows how to listen to you, take on board your feedback, and cleverly incorporate it into their creative process.

Thick skinned
Working in an agency can be tough. With so much input from different team members, designers need to learn how to roll with the punches and not take criticism personally. Ultimately, the design process is a collaboration. The designer wants what you want - to create a visual piece that fits in with your business and brand.

Remember though, that you are hiring a designer for their expertise. Learning how to stand up for their ideas is also part of the game, and a good designer will not be afraid to challenge you when they feel it’s appropriate.

Highly skilled
Bringing design concepts to life is a slippery mix of pre-visualisation, and exceptional working knowledge of your tools. Knowing Photoshop does not a designer make, but without the right software skills the best ideas quickly slip away.

In an agency, designers will fall over themselves to show off to each other the best and quickest way to achieve an outcome. It’s a funny sort of competitiveness that’s not always pretty! However, this sharing of knowledge produces designers who can massage your idea into visual shape quick smart.

Corporate design departments can be as high-octane and stressful as their agency counterparts. Sure, you're dealing in only one brand, but the nuances and creative twists that apply to that brand require their own set of finely tuned skills.

If your designer is ex-agency, chances are they will:

Be expert at brand management
When you work in the design department of a corporation, brand is everything. Corporations spend thousands and millions of dollars getting their brand image just right, and one role of the design department is ensuring that the brand doesn’t get diluted.

Whether working on pitches to potential clients, creating marketing collateral, or rolling out reports and presentations, ensuring that not only the design team, but also other departments, are sticking to the brand guidelines, is paramount.

It does give rise to the ‘brand nazi’ (I think every corporate design department has at least one), but there is no better background for learning the importance of brand management .

Have a keen eye for detail
Keeping all documentation and collateral ‘to brand’ means that you have to have a super keen eye for detail. Alignment of text, positioning and size of logos, using approved colours. Knowing how to scan and spot discrepancies becomes second nature. This translates to consistent design on your projects.

Know how to juggle massive workloads
Corporations often have brand refreshes or other big design rollouts. Working on these projects can be very time intensive and stressful. Like agency work, deadlines need to be met and multiple projects juggled. Your designer will know how to work fast and furiously to meet your deadlines, while keeping all the key details in place.

Be confident and skilled
The design department often works across all levels of the business - working on projects for a Director or MD, or dealing directly with a client of the business. Good people skills are very important, as well as having deep confidence in their abilities.

Having this background means that your designer will have learned diplomacy and how to manage people and their expectations. They will bring this to your project, and help you to navigate your ideas through their creative process. 

Also, they will really know their stuff, and know how to communicate clearly and effectively with you.

When picking a freelance designer to work on your next project, it is worth asking some questions about their industry background. It doesn't need to be a full-on job interview, but knowing a bit more about their professional journey may give you some insight into how confident you can feel in hiring them to work with you.

On another note, I'd like to thank Kate Toon for the inspiration behind this blog post, and her kind permission to borrow the spirit of her post -  "Why should you choose an ex-agency copywriter". 

Your logo is the hub around which you build your brand, and as such really is one of the most important pieces in your marketing kit.

Your awesome business needs an awesome logo.

What is it that makes a logo awesome? We know the answer to that question - it’s our job!

If you would like to find out, just follow along…

A great logo is simple to look at, simple to understand and immediately recognisable. A quick glance and your clients know that it’s your logo and therefore they associate it with your business.

Simplicity of design is one thing. Executing a great logo concept, however, is anything but simple.

The hidden trick to great logo design is that what looks simple on the surface is actually quite complex. 

Good design is all about balance, and for your logo that means getting it just right - a simple (but strong) appearance tied up with a complex (and strong) concept.

In other words, your awesome logo needs to look simple, but in fact have lots of layers.

A lot like a good business idea really.

When starting up a business, the one key attribute you need to think about, and then articulate, is your uniqueness. Your proposition.

What is it about your business that is different to all of your competitors? 

Put another way, why should a potential client choose you over the next girl (or guy)?

A good answer to that initial question will send you heading off down the right path to creating an awesome brand for your business.

Your logo becomes the lynch–pin to build your brand around. So it goes without saying, really, that it needs to be unique.

Your logo should stand out from the crowd, and identify you separately from your competitors. It should be distinctive and unique. Just like your business.

Unique usually doesn’t mean off-the-wall though. Which brings me to the next point:

Although you do want your logo to represent your business in a unique way, it pays to not lose sight of who you are communicating with.

You might think of that as a strange way to look at things, but if you imagine your logo (and all your related branding) as part of your sales team, it becomes clearer that you need them to look a certain way, and to talk a certain way. A way that is appropriate for your clients.

To state an obvious example - a business moving in the corporate world will have a very different look and feel to their logo than a business selling kids clothes or toys.

The real magic is in knowing how to get a specific ‘feel’ into the design, while still coming up with a unique look for your business.

Yes, it is as tricky as it sounds. No-one said logo design was easy.

So, your logo needs to be relevant to your business, and your clients, your industry and your audience.

You are the best source for that industry-specific information, and that is why we have an initial consultation with our clients. We ask you some tightly focused questions, and use your answers as a springboard for our own further research.

One of the main functions of your logo (perhaps its main function), is that it can be used across all of your marketing tools. 

From the everyday (your business card) to the ginormous (a billboard), and down to the teeny weeny (your Twitter avatar) – your logo needs to be adaptable.

(Sure, you may never want to use billboard advertising, but the point is that a well-designed logo means you can if you want to).

It has to be able to be shrunk, and then stretched, sit on a white background or a colour background, print clearly onto paper and look great on a computer screen. It’s a busy life that your logo is going to lead, so it’s so important to make sure the design can cope with such a hectic existence.

Great logo design is distilling the essence of your business into a shape that can size-shift relentlessly without losing its soul. 

Technical tip:

When you receive your logo from your designer, you should receive it in lots of different formats (usually an EPS and/or AI file) as well as different sized JPGs and PNGs. If you don’t know what all these different files are for, don’t stress. Just make sure you double check that you’ve got the original vector file in there somewhere. And then file them in a safe place.

At some point in the future, you will have a designer work on a different project, and there’s a good chance it may not be the same designer who created the logo for you. 

When you receive an email requesting your ‘logo in vector format’ or your ‘logo EPS file’, just dig it out from wherever you’ve saved it, and send it on over to them. They know why they need it, you just need to be able to provide it.

Your logo needs to be easy to remember from a single glance. Recognition builds familiarity, which generates trust in a brand. Clients who trust your business will remain loyal.

Your marketing objective is to create associations around your brand that are relevant to your business. Tie in brilliant marketing campaigns with a memorable logo, and you will be well on the way to creating a strong foothold for your business idea in your industry marketplace.

Does it all sounds like lots of work? Well, that’s because it is! 

It takes experience, expertise and creativity to pull a great logo together. Our branding expert ticks all  of those essential boxes.

Take a look at some of our work, and feel confident that we will come up with a logo for your business that you will love.

Ready to get started?

That’s great! Fill out our contact form, and we’ll get back to you with what we need to do next.


If you found this article useful, please feel free to share it around!

Pretty awesome, right?

Take a look at some more branding ideas we came up with for the same client. Who knows, you might find some fun inspiration for your own business and brand. 

I love the internet, I find it a totally fascinating place, and I’ve been working online for many years now. As a result, I’ve got all sorts of projects scattered across the web - under different accounts, linked to different email addresses, using different blogging platforms. It’s a bit of a mess, if I’m honest.

(For the record, it’s nothing sordid. I am also a freelance photographer).

For better or worse, it's becoming increasingly clear that if you want to be taken seriously online, you need to start owning your internet identity. And so, I’m on a quest to streamline my various presences.

I started simple, and worked out how to juggle multiple Google accounts. Sometimes the simplest things can cause the biggest headaches! 

My next step has been working out how to unscramble my Google Analytics. I’ve set up Analytics for this website, for my photography website, and project-based photography blogs. In bursts of well-meaning but poorly-researched enthusiasm, I had gotten the whole shebang in quite a mess.

It was a mini-nightmare to unravel, but I did work it out, and during the process I realised that the shifting nature of the Google goalposts has serious implications for many businesses.

A good example are online marketers who are running into problems where they have set up client accounts under their own Google Analytics accounts, and are having trouble separating them out.

Let’s have a look at an example, where a mythical SEO company has been looking after the Analytics for Two10 Solutions, as well as other companies they run this service for.  

 SEOCompany has set up Analytics tracking for all their clients under the umbrella of their own account. It would seem to make sense to do that initially, so they don’t need to keep logging in and out of different accounts to do tweaking and reporting for their clients.

However, Two10 have decided to move control of their account in-house, so now the SEOCompany have a problem. They can’t just give Two10 access to their account, as the account contains all the information for other companies they are running Google Analytics for. 

Two10 can set up a new account under their own steam and start tracking from that point forward, but how do they access all the historical data and information?  

• Create a new Gmail account for Two10 (if they don’t already have one). 
• Log in to the over-arching Analytics account ([email protected]), and go down to the level of Two10 Analytics
  
• Add a User to the account ([email protected]), and make sure they are Administrator for this account. This is very important.
  

Two10 Analytics now has 2 Administrators.  

• Logout of [email protected] 

• Log in as [email protected] - because Two10 is an Administrator, they have total control over the account now.
  
• Demote [email protected] from Administrator to User
  
• Delete [email protected] from the account (you can’t delete an address associated with an account if they are still an Administrator, which is why you have to do the demote step first)
  

[email protected] is now in charge of their own Analytics Account, with all the historical data intact and migrated.  

So, it’s a bit fiddly and involves some logging-in/logging-out/logging-in nonsense. But it does mean that all is not lost if you initially started running Analytics without really understanding the bigger picture.

I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg for problems people are having while navigating the ever-changing currents of GoogleWorld. If you’ve got an easier way to do this, or any other suggestions or questions, just pop a comment below and let’s see what we can sort out together.

Me and Google go waaay back. I've got an email address that was set up back when Gmail was all beta. When only the cool kids got on board with an invite and 1 GB of data seemed like an outrageous amount of email space.

(Disclaimer: I was never a cool kid, I just worked with some geek-types who loved sharing all the new stuff.)

In brief,  my personal GoogleMess looked something like this:

• An old gmail account that had been gathering dust for about 10 years.
  
• A gmail account linked to my old photography website and business 
  
• Google Analytics set up under the photography email (running analytics for my current business AND photography website)
• Google Analytics set up under the resurrected email address (meant to be running analytics for my current business but not set up properly)
• Google + accounts for both email addresses
• Adwords account(s) that doesn't (don't) know WHO to play with!

I've been dancing a merry jig for the last few months, logging in and out of the different accounts. Checking email in one, but not being able to access Analytics at the same time.  I thought I had it cracked when I discovered this feature:

Basically, you can add any and all other Google accounts and addresses so that they're linked, which lets you swap around between them without the need to log in and out all the time. I use Google Chrome so I have the option to do this from the top corner of my browser, but you can do the same from inside Google +.

But, the behind the scenes mess with my Analytics and Adwords wasn't so easily resolved. 

Stay tuned for a future post on how you CAN move Google Analytics from one account to another, and then link your Adwords and Analytics accounts.

I am not pretending to have entirely cracked the Google mysteries, so if I've missed anything or there's an easier way, please leave a comment below! That way we all learn together.

Making the decision to set up small business, or even to become a sole trader, is a huge step in your life. Most small business owners will have had to generate funds by borrowing from friends and family, saving extensively for a while, or by taking out a start-up loan. So you’ll want to make sure your venture is successful and generates a nice profit so that you can clear your debts and move things onward and upwards. 

Here are my top tips to help you market your small business to potential customers:

It's advisable to do some research and find out what kind of customers you're already attracting. If you have shop premises it's a good idea to keep track of who is coming in and purchasing. Ask your customers how they found you and keep a record of simple data such as age groups, gender etc.

If you run your business solely through an ecommerce website then you could use the checkout process to ask some additional questions to help you to identify your customer base.

Try to piece together an image of who your customer is and how they are consuming and using your product or service. Once you know who your main customer base is you can target your marketing campaign towards them.

Then in the future you could try to attract a different demographic once you're more established.

Image is very important in business as it’s the first thing a customer will notice before they even find out what you do.

Ensure that your business always looks professional, no matter how big or small you are. If your business relies on selling products online then it’s important that you invest a decent portion of your budget into getting the best ecommerce website that you can afford. Nothing can put a potential customer off more than a poorly designed website that’s difficult to navigate.

If it takes too long to find the product they want then they’ll search for another company!

I would also recommend having your product range photographed professionally. No matter how stylish and professional your website is, if you have poor quality product images then you will
lose sales.

There are events and exhibitions taking throughout the year for almost every area of business. Look out for the events that suit your area of business and sign up to their mailing list so that they can keep you informed of upcoming events.

There’s usually a fee to have a stall or booth at an exhibition, but if you plan properly you can get a great return on investment (ROI) from these events.

For example if you are an architect you could look at having a booth at one of the many architectural events that take place in a city near you throughout the year. To fully show off your skills as an architect I would recommend finding a good 3D printing company and having some prototypes of your building designs created.

A 3D prototype that potential clients can pick up and touch can have much more impact than a computer aided image on a screen! 

Regular and varied communication with your customers will keep you on their radar and is more likely to encourage repeat sales.

Try to build up a database of email addresses and send out regular newsletters. Fortnightly to monthly should be often enough, you don’t want your customers to feel like they’re being spammed.

Social media is a fantastic way to communicate directly with your customers in real time. Facebook allows businesses to set up pages and schedule your posts, and there is software available that enables the same function on Twitter. Try to update Facebook around 3 to 4 times daily and Twitter around 6 to 10 times daily.

Use social media to remind your customers how great your products and services are, any special offers you have, links to your regularly-updated blog and website, and ask them questions to encourage their interaction and build up your customer community.

 I highly recommend keeping a record of who your customers are and where they’ve come from.

If most of your customers have found you via social media then it would be a good idea to invest more time and money into this method of marketing, perhaps by paying for Facebook adverts or sponsored Twitter posts.

If you’ve been running a regular advert in your local newspaper and it’s not generating enough revenue to cover the cost of the advertisement then it’s time to pull the plug on that method!

Most customers, when asked, will be more than happy to tell you who or what pointed them in your direction so try to get into the habit of asking. There’s no point wasting your hard-earned profit on ineffective methods of marketing, keep doing what works best for you and keep making money!

This guest  post is by Sergio Bonaducci - a freelance web developer and writer. In his spare time he updates his video games review website containing a variety of reviews and features.

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A website is a tool, and as with any tool there is no definitive 'perfect' option for everyone. When choosing how to build your website, it can be hard to work out which route to take. 

A Weebly website won't be for everyone and certainly not for every business, but as an affordable alternative to bespoke web development, it may be an option worth considering.

Want more information? Here are some pros and cons for using the Weebly builder for your template project.

Deciding to take the plunge to start working for yourself is a big step. It's a decision both exhilarating and terrifying, and you're going to be on that emotional roller coaster all along the journey.

I know that when I started down this path, I could hardly contain my excitement. The ideas were bubbling over, I was frantically scribbling down lists and notes, creating half-baked flowcharts to stick and admire on the walls.

Once the initial excitement calmed down a little bit, I quickly realised that enthusiasm alone wasn't going to keep me going in the long-term. Excitement is exhausting, and while great for brainstorming and getting lots of ideas flowing - for me at least - it works against me when I need to get things actually done.

My business much prefers me when I'm being calm, steady and disciplined. And while these personality traits aren't necessarily the ones that come most naturally (or sound the most glamorous), I am working very hard on nurturing them and letting them guide my daily schedule. 

So why do we put ourselves through this? What are some reasons for starting your own small business?

I suspect this is a biggie for most of us. It can be hard to work for someone else, and to see the results of your labours line someone else's pockets. To make matters worse, the often rigid working arrangements in most traditional companies means that you can feel like you have no control over your own life and destiny. 

Now I'm out of corporate-world, the full absurdity of that system has really struck me. We grow up into independent adults, yet our jobs require us to have to ask for permission to go on holiday, or restrict our ability to find our own best productive hours, or don't allow us to simply make a change to our working routine that will give us a better work/life balance.

I understand that some people thrive within this type of corporate structure, but some people just really don't. 

Working for yourself, however, you get to set your own hours and find out how you are most productive. Sounds great, right? All that freedom?

You need to bear in mind that your small business will only grow and flourish if you pay attention to it. You will probably find yourself working longer hours and having even less free time on your hands than when you were working for someone else.

Bu you know what? People aren't afraid of hard work. As long as we feel empowered through the work we are doing, most of us are thrilled to be busy and engaged. Running your own business - supporting yourself through your own ideas and execution of those ideas - is extremely empowering. The lines between home and work may become blurred, but you are in control of how you define and work with that boundary. 

The internet abounds with stories of entrepreneurs who came up with an idea, stormed in, built up a mega-empire and made scrillions of dollars, all in under 12 months.

Some of these stories may be true. I guess. If you dig a bit deeper, however, the get rich quick guys have actually been working long and hard behind the scenes for long before their meteoric 'rise' and success.

Which isn't to say that you and your business won't follow a similar trajectory. There is real money to be made through self-employment - and unlike a salaried job your earning potential isn't capped by what your boss or your company thinks you are worth.

On the other hand, selling your product or services - consistently -  is the key to building your own business and wealth. Anything is possible, but you will need lots of patience, a committment to the long-term goal, and a strong stomach to ride out the anxious days, weeks or months when your business slows down.

Have faith that you will arrive at your goals, and I'm willing to bet that you will see the financial return for all that hard work. It may not be easy money, but it will be money you funnelled towards you and your business through your own hard work and effort. That makes it satisfying money, in my book!

You see a niche in the market. It's a tiny little sliver that you noticed, and you're convinced that you know how to carve something substantial out of it.

If you truly have found a market niche, that is the best way of guaranteeing long term success with your business strategy. Of all the reasons to start a small business, this is probably the most relevant.

Just make sure you do the research. There not only needs to be a market for your product or service, but you also need to be sure that there are people out there willing to pay for it.

If you've done the research, and feel that you're onto a winner, then go for it! In many ways, it's easier to do your marketing for a niche than for a broad and ill-defined segment, and the speed and level of your success should hopefully reflect that.

This can be a tough one. I think we can all relate to the feelings of frustration and unhappiness associated with working in a job or industry that you feel is all wrong for you. I bet everyone has worked - at least once - in a job, or in a company, that was a completely wrong fit.

Perhaps you find yourself unemployed, another statistic of the global economic downturn.

The idea of starting up a business can be seductive in this situation, but as reasons go, you need to be careful with this one. Becoming self employed is a tough journey. You need enthusiasm and passion and a clear goal to keep you moving and engaged. Simply doing it as a default - because you think it will be better than the job you hate now - is probably not going to provide the motivation you need to see it through.

Think about why you want to do it, and what your motivations are. Don't rush into it. Explore some hobbies, do some research to find a niche, and maybe start off small and part-time. See if you and entrepreneurship are a good fit.

Starting up your own business enterprise should never be a 'safety net' or default choice. That's not to say you shouldn't try if you're not 100% sure. If all the signs from the universe are telling you that now is the time to throw yourself into a new venture, take a deep breath and plunge right it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

You have a burning desire to create, to innovate, to build.

Doing your creative ‘thing’ is often the easy part. Do you have the drive to knuckle down to the essential ‘boring’ tasks that your business requires? Marketing, book keeping, networking. All the nuts and bolts that keep your business together and functioning.

Are you ready for the idea that a lot of your time won't necessarily be spent on the creative stuff that you love doing? Have you thought about how to build that into the cost of your services? Long term, how will you help your business to grow if what you actually want to be doing is simply writing, or designing, or taking photographs.

It could be tricky to manage, but if you want to be the creative force in the business, maybe you could partner up with someone else. Or at the very least, start outsourcing the stuff you really don't like to do. 

On the other hand, you may discover that you have a whole side of you that you didn't suspect was lying dormant. Being a business owner allows you to wear lots of different professional hats, so you never know what type of job tickles your fancy.