Working with typefaces is about as basic as it gets for graphic designers. A solid knowledge of type, a keen eye for which fonts are appropriate for each project and an awareness of what’s available to us are rudimentary components of the job. Many fledging creatives use only what they have in their system fonts library and a handful of passable faces saved off a cracked disc of thousands of dubious free fonts. Working this way, a designer can produce perfectly good results (some say this can be achieved through Helvetica alone) but it’s the wise designer who maintains an awareness of modern-day type foundries. Between them, foundries release beautifully crafted, extensive and noteworthy font families year on year. Whilst many cost money (staff at foundries have to earn a living too) some are reasonably priced and others offered for free. And besides the fonts, through their websites type foundries offer all sorts of helpful advice and a glimpse into their fascinating profession, which is what I aim to show here, in the first of two articles on the topic.

James Victore is a man of action. He believes that knowing about jazz and wine and auto-racing can make you a better designer. That graphic design is about experiences and stories and using your hands. That the best designs punch you in the gut – or, at the very least, stop you in your tracks.

JUMP is an Australian national mentoring program for artists aged 18-30, who are in the first five years of their professional practice.

Mention the word ‘recruiter’ to a creative and you’ll always get a ‘marmite’ type reaction. You either love’em or you hate’em. Why such a strong reaction? Do you really need a recruiter to find a job, or is it better to just go it alone?

So you find yourself pitching for a job and have come up with an ingenious solution to a fiendishly tricky design conundrum, and all you want to do is get on the phone to the client and sing it to him from the bottom of your lungs. Slow down there pardner. To convince your client of the barnstorming excellence of your proposed solution, more often than not you’ll need to take him through things step-by-step in a presentation. Presentations are important to get right, and represent the ultimate test of your communication skills. Many a fine idea has been admonished or dismissed through poor presentation. Gulp down the words below to ensure this doesn’t happen to yours…

Save perhaps his personality, the freelance graphic designer’s portfolio is, undoubtedly, the most valuable asset in his professional life. I have written elsewhere that the portfolio is the freelancer’s shop window, an intimate glimpse into his or her being for all who view it. We have to love our portfolios, agonise over what goes into them, and tend and nurture them as we would a sapling we’d once planted. Nothing should be left to chance, not even tiny details, as it’s these, at times, that we may be judged on. So let us not delay any longer, but instead plunge into the sober, matte black folds of the portfolio…

At the same point each month, every month, an employed person receives a wage packet from his payroll department, and his his bank account is credited with his salary. Safe in this knowledge, he can plan his finances around this fixed point. For the intrepid freelancer things are a little different, for he must send out invoices to his clients, and then wait to be paid. So far so straightforward, but there are several factors to consider with regard to invoicing, which I’ll be taking you through below. After all, getting paid on time is what keeps us all afloat, and what freelance designer doesn’t desire that?

Woo hoo! You’ve finished college, you’ve put together your folio and you’re ready to take on the design world. Should you be looking for permanent or freelance roles, or just try and get whatever you can? Here are some things worth considering before you decide.

They come in all shapes and sizes, from all different professional backgrounds, and we rely on them to pay our fees. A large portion of the freelancer’s life is spent looking for them, bagging them, and spending a considerable amount of our daily slog trying to work out what they want. I’m speaking of course about clients, and this article is all about working with them…

This week’s article on professional design practice concerns project planning. Good, thoughtful project planning can be indispensable to the smooth running of your professional life as a freelancer. By running your business along well-oiled, well-organised lines you’ll be able to wring the most amount of time out of your days, maximise your profits, avoid mislaying things and generally inject some calm into your busy life. A modicum of planning, far from acting as a restraint on creativity, can in fact free us to spend more time on the creative process. It should therefore be an integral part of all our working lives. Follow the guides below, or a life of professional chaos awaits!

Knowing how to price jobs and what to charge clients is as essential a component of being a successful fledging graphic designer as any. It’s a delicate thing to get right. Price a job too high and you risk your prospective client remaining just that—prospective. Too low, and the person on the other end might view this as a reflection of the quality of the services you provide in a “you get what you pay for” sort of way. So there’s a balance to be struck, and it pays to have some systems in place. Here in the second lesson of our series on professional design practice I’ll do my best to provide you with some frameworks below. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!

In the first of a series of lessons entitled Professional Practice, we have sourced one of todays hottest working English based freelance designers to give you the leg up on building yourself a truly professional Graphic Design practice. Look out for the following in the new series; Freelance Fee Structures & How to Quote, Project Planning (Breaking Jobs Into Milestones), Dealing with Clients, Charging & Invoicing, Law in Design Practice, The Portfolio, A Conclusion of Sorts. Being Freelance. Benefits & Pitfalls.