I havent used Pixel myself but a client of mine used streamline and it seemed okay.
I could probably sought you out with your hosting needs however? If you can get me a list of the things youde need Ill put a bespoke price together for you.
webspace?
bandwidth?
any specifics on what you want running on it?
Ive read an article before saying that to get into freelance photography, as a full time job, your looking at around £20,000 worth of gear fi you are buying everything straight out at the beginning - assuming your going to be using digital.
I'll list the few I can remember for a digital freelancer:
Main DSLR camera
Backup DSLR camera
High end lense, maybe a 150-500mm? 300mm prime?
Mid fixed lense - 150mm?
Low zoom lense - 70-200mm?
Low prime - 50mm? (brilliant for portraits)
Accesories - filters, cleaning equip, shutter release etc
Good tripod
Bag for all gear
Day bag
Fast Memory cards (PLURAL!)
Flash
Laptop
Desktop computer for home
Editing software - Photoshop, Aperture
External hardrives
The list could go on...and depending on what sort of a photographer you want to be more or less things need to be aadded or taken away. For isntance, a sport photographer would need less lenses of 50mm butmore of 200mm, 500mm + whereas a portrait photographer would also need studio lighting kits and more!
Looks like you should work around a CMS in the future.
I wouldnt advise teaching someone to change the html code themselves unless it is an IT specialist or something.
They are basically asking you to teach them to become a web designer...I would either just say no, sorry, I am not a teacher or ask them for a monthly fee to update it - after all - there probably wasnt anything like this in your contract with them was there?
Ok, you definately want to use someone who will digitally print them.
But think of it this way...
For each flyer/invite, for them to be 150mm x 150mm you are going to need one sheet of paper/card whatever. That will therefore amount to 130 sheets of paper of 100gsm or more and then they will all be sliced down to the same size.
One of my local printers quotes £88 for 250 A4 flyers on 100gsm paper - all he would then have to do is quickly cut them down...
Hope it gives you an idea of price/how to go around it...
What your client needs is a Content Management System. Also referred to as a CMS.
I have recently used NanoCMS is which is brilliant and your client can not only change content but also add pages - to do so they simply login to their own website.
You need a little bit of knowledge about PHP to understand how it works and implement it in your site designs but it can all be done once the design is complete (with no content added yet).
Yeh...agreed - please please please do not offer work for free - especially publicly. Think about it...on a small scale, anyone who now comes on here looking for a designer wont bother thinking about using one of us who charge.....now multiply that ;)
If you avhe tog et work for a school project/college/uni etc atleast offer your services free to a company "behind the scenes" or privately in other words ;)
When I quote for a job, I ask the client what they will need doing and then sit down and estimate my hours at around £12 - £18 an hour give or take a bit.
As a general rule try and always state that its a flat rate that say includes three initial ideas and three ammendments etc.
No one wants anything to get to the small claims stage, but simply by threatening them with it (and knowing yourself that you wont actually take them there) can a lot of the time make them pay up as it is quite clear that it is them that are in the wrong.
Unfortunately, the deposit is half of the agreed sum, which is one of the invoices I'm waiting for them to pay.
A deposit is meant to be paid before any work starts taking place - that way you have something to fall back on at least if the main sum is not provided.
I called my contact yesterday, but reached voicemail.
If they really don't want to pay for the work you have done then they won't reply to your emails but also, could quite easily not pick up your calls if the phone number of you comes up on their handset - have you another phone you could ring from, maybe use a friends just to get in touch with them?
This may seem like a stupid idea, but if they are not too far away from ou then you could just drop by their offices/store etc.
Ok, first thing is - can you tell us who the company is?
In my opinion you have four options...
1. You send them a written letter stating that you are going to take them to the Small Claims Court unless they issue you with full payment within 7 days and say you will forget about the over-due payment charge if they do this.
2. You send them a written letter with a new invoice including the charge for the over-due payment and state that if they do not pay you within 7 days you will take them to the Small Claims Court
3. You send them a written letter and new invoice for the extra work you did for them and take the payment for this money and walk away from the job unless of course they pay up.
4. You walk away from the job now with the fact that you charged a deposit on the job for a reason...
If the company is large enough (or even if they are small) then a threat with the Small Claims Court should sort them out as it is very clear that they are in the wrong here and have no argument if they are taken to court.
Im not sure if you were aiming that at me as a 16 year old graphic designer with photoshop and illy cs3 (legit copies btw) but just for the record, I did a lot of research into downloading and using such illegal copies a while back and found out that adobe arent actually ully against it as they udnerstand young people cant afford legal version but know that thy will love it so much that they will eventually buy it.
Ive got a feeling you may be in for a little rant.........
First things - dont advertise your work/craft as:
I will do it cheaper, due to the fact its on Paint
As firstly - if your able to offer a "very high standard" of work then you shouldnt charge more or less dependant on the programme it was made in. Secondly in some ways your putting all us other designers on the back foot ;)
Oh, and as for desiging in Paint - I wouldnt do it...how are you going to add gradients for instant? Or add an outline to text or a shadow.........
I'de have a look into using GIMP - a free program that can do enarly as much as Photoshop. Just google it (just for the record Im not joking!)
I have made the mistake of supplying samples before and the client has run off! I now ask for a deposit up front - A client hasnt said no yet upon me requesting this.
I got my new imac 20inch in january, maxed out with RAM (4GB) , 2.0GHx processor, external hardrive (not from apple) - total amount of HD space including external is 500GB.
This cost me just over £1100 I think from an apple resellers in Plymouth, plus £50 for the EXHD.
Oh . . . and I couldnt ask for a better set up for graphic and website design - unless of course I went bigger and better 😉
Cant help you im affraid, but I can I can say that Ive worked at a clothing factory before and the design room there was a 4 walled room, 2 of which were almost completely glass to the outside...oh...and painted white of course (if anything, get them to paint the room white if it isint allready!)
!!
