The Graphic Designer's Guide to Creative Marketing: Finding & Keeping Your Best Clients

The Graphic Designer's Guide to Creative Marketing: Finding & Keeping Your Best Clients
by Linda Cooper Bowen

The Graphic Designer's Guide to Creative Marketing: Finding & Keeping Your Best Clients
List Price: $70.00
Our Price: $30.15
You Save: $39.85 (57%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.49 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Linda Cooper Bowen
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-02-22
ISBN: 0471293148
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Wiley

Book Reviews of The Graphic Designer's Guide to Creative Marketing: Finding & Keeping Your Best Clients

Book Review: A practical, chatty, well-informed guide to selling design.
Summary: 3 Stars

Cooper-Bowen, much-published writer on the business of graphic design, usually addresses designers who are more comfortable with art than with profit-making. This book is no exception, but from that don't assume that the contents are either condescending or superficial. You should also not assume, if you already think of your practice as a sophisticated business, that this text will tell you nothing new. While we're not talking advanced economics here, the best advice Creative Marketing offers may be its frank assessment of when to rely on outside experts, and when to trust yourself. In plain language, the book tells you all the things you never learned in school about building a design business, with as much consideration for the artistic and personal rewards as the financial. Far from trying to force designers to fit a cold, big-business model, Cooper-Bowen's approach has everything to do with knowing exactly who you are. She encourages directness, individuality, and honesty as the best tools for long-term success. She presents experience-based (as opposed to theoretical) outlines for business plans, marketing plans, prospecting, and sales: explicit, 1-2-3 checklists structure a process most of us approach intuitively. That structure can help you stay objective as you define your own strengths, weakness, and goals-one of the hardest tasks of entrepreneuring. These nuts-and-bolts proceedures are illustrated by case studies of actual studios, showing Cooper-Bowen's ideas in action. The situations and personalities sound very familiar, and the solutions may elicit a few sighs of relief from those who've been struggling to remake themselves in some corporate mold. Creative Marketing gives great attention to personal and written communication, an area in which many visual communicators tend not to shine. Her clear guidelines for good letter, telephone, and personal presentation, backed by relevant and convincing examples, set realistic goals for effectively polishing your own image. Although I have to admit that, as an editor, I wish the author had given her own text-particularly her punctuation-another round of revision, the content itself is unusually realistic, and so precisely tailored to its audience as to be well worth the small investment for any small studio owner who suspects they could be doing better. I wish I'd read a book like this-and taken its advice-when I was struggling to make my freelance business fly. (from Nancy Bernard, Managing Editor of Critique Magazine.)

Summary of The Graphic Designer's Guide to Creative Marketing: Finding & Keeping Your Best Clients

You know you've got the talent, now let them know it-your complete guide to finding, winning, and keeping good clients Written by a graphic designer and successful marketing consultant, this book is the most complete guide available to marketing your services, with clear, practical, step-by-step instructions on every aspect of graphic design marketing, including:
* Developing and implementing a marketing plan
* Researching prospective clients
* Creating effective marketing materials
* Cold calling and follow-ups
* Effective communication
* Dressing for success
* Resumes, cover letters, and portfolios
* Proposals, bids, and contracts
* Keeping good clients-account management
Also included are sample business forms, contracts, proposals, letters, and checklists, along with stunning full-color examples of successful self-promotion campaigns for every budget. Throughout the book, there are fascinating and instructive interviews with clients as well as graphic designers from across the country who share what they've learned about marketing and managing graphic design services.

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in General Books
Package Design Workbook: The Art and Science of Successful Packaging ImagePackage Design Workbook: The Art and Science of Successful Packaging
by Steven DuPuis, John Silva
Rockport Publishers; Published: 2008-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.08
Price in other shops: $40.00
Business Graphics: 500 Designs that Link Graphic Aesthetic and Business Savvy ImageBusiness Graphics: 500 Designs that Link Graphic Aesthetic and Business Savvy
by Steve Liska
Rockport Publishers; Published: 2007-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $31.50
Price in other shops: $50.00
The Art of Ancient Egypt ImageThe Art of Ancient Egypt
by Gay Robins
Harvard University Press; Published: 1997-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: $42.00
LogoLounge 2 (mini): 2,000 International Identities by Leading Designers (v. 2) ImageLogoLounge 2 (mini): 2,000 International Identities by Leading Designers (v. 2)
by Bill Gardner, Catharine Fishel
Rockport Publishers; Published: 2007-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops: $19.99
Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album ImageFactory Records: The Complete Graphic Album
by Matthew Robertson
Thames & Hudson Ltd; Published: 2006-06; Hardcover; Book
Fashion Illustration for Designers ImageFashion Illustration for Designers
by Kathryn Hagen-Kelly
Prentice Hall; Published: 2004-03-22; Spiral-bound; Book
Best price: $79.87
Price in other shops: $96.20
Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change ImageDesign for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change
by Victor Papanek
Thames & Hudson Ltd; Published: 1985-02-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.14
Price in other shops: $26.75
Becoming a Graphic Designer: A Guide to Careers in Design ImageBecoming a Graphic Designer: A Guide to Careers in Design
by Steven Heller, Teresa Fernandes
John Wiley & Sons; Published: 1999-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.24
Price in other shops: $29.95
Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century ImageFashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century
by Kyoto Costume Institute
Taschen; Published: 2002-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $124.94
The Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide for Running a Graphic Design or Communications Business ImageThe Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide for Running a Graphic Design or Communications Business
by Cameron S. Foote
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1999-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: $25.00
Similar Books and other products
The Designer's Guide To Marketing And Pricing: How To Win Clients And What To Charge Them ImageThe Designer's Guide To Marketing And Pricing: How To Win Clients And What To Charge Them
by Ilise Benun, Peleg Top
How; Published: 2008-03-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.19
Price in other shops: $19.99
Graphic Designer's Guide to Clients: How to Make Clients Happy and Do Great Work ImageGraphic Designer's Guide to Clients: How to Make Clients Happy and Do Great Work
by Ellen M. Shapiro, Allworth Press
Allworth Press; Published: 2003-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.31
Price in other shops: $19.95
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines) ImageGraphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines)
by Graphic Artists Guild
Graphic Artists Guild; Published: 2007-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.05
Price in other shops: $35.00
The Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide to Running a Small Graphics Design or Communications Business (Third Updated Edition) ImageThe Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide to Running a Small Graphics Design or Communications Business (Third Updated Edition)
by Cameron Foote
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2006-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.79
Price in other shops: $35.00
The Graphic Designer's and Illustrator's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion ImageThe Graphic Designer's and Illustrator's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion
by Maria Piscopo
Allworth Press; Published: 2004-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.87
Price in other shops: $19.95
100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers: Insider Secrets from Top Designers on Working Smart and Staying Creative Image100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers: Insider Secrets from Top Designers on Working Smart and Staying Creative
by Josh Berger, Sarah Dougher, Plazm
Rockport Publishers; Published: 2005-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.68
Price in other shops: $25.00
The Graphic Designer's Guide to Portfolio Design ImageThe Graphic Designer's Guide to Portfolio Design
by Debbie Rose Myers
Wiley; Published: 2008-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.05
Price in other shops: $45.00
Inside the Business of Graphic Design: 60 Leaders Share Their Secrets of Success ImageInside the Business of Graphic Design: 60 Leaders Share Their Secrets of Success
by Catharine Fishel
Allworth Press; Published: 2002-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $19.95
How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul ImageHow To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
by Adrian Shaughnessy
Princeton Architectural Press; Published: 2005-09-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.38
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business ImageThe Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business
by Cameron S. Foote
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2004-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.79
Price in other shops: $29.95