Your Guide to Typography, Logos, and Selling Your Designs

1. Your Guide to
Typography, Logos and
Selling Your Designs

2. 2 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Your Guide to Typography,
Logos and Selling Your Design
It’s safe to say that graphic designers
have never been more in demand.
We live in a world that is obsessed
with visuals - from logos to immersive
web experiences - and so much of the
magic that goes into these things is
the work of talented designers.
Because of this, finding design work is
easy. Just ask your cousin who wants
you to design her wedding invitations,
or the friend of a friend who could use
some help coming up with an idea for
their website. But what’s not so easy is
finding a way to profit off your talents as
a graphic designer. This eBook will walk
you through the basics of making a living
as a designer, from determining how
much you need to get paid to mastering
and marketing your talents in a way that
will connect with potential customers.
If you’re a graphic designer who is
looking to make money off your designs,
you need to figure out what kind of
design projects are most likely to make
you money. To kick things off, we’ll look
at a few options so you can figure out
where your talents lie and how you want
to earn some extra cash.

3. 3 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Logos
When done right, a logo can encapsulate so much of a brand’s identity. Think about the Nike swoosh or the Apple
apple that decorates the back of every iPhone and Macbook air. These logos are iconic. Even seeing them out of
context - on a computer screen, a billboard, or a hand drawn on a piece of paper - calls to mind so many things about
the brand. For Nike, the swoosh stands for many things, including fitness, hip-hop culture, and fashion; Apple’s apple
stands for innovation, great design, and new ways of thinking about how we communicate.

4. 4 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Logos
Logo design represents both a unique
opportunity and a challenge for designers.
They get to encapsulate a brand’s value and
offerings through their design talents. But
because there is so much riding on a nicely
design logo, you need to be plugged in to
what you potential customer wants. You also
need to be prepared to go through many
iterations of a design to make sure it’s what
he or she is looking for.
If you plan on making money off your logo
designs, you’ll want to have a solid portfolio of
logos that show potential customers just how
good you are at your craft. So at first you may
want to take on customers at a lower rate in
order to boost your portfolio. The benefit of
this is that it will help you build your portfolio,
as well as get you some experience creating a
logo for a potentially tricky client.

5. 5 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Web Design
We all spent plenty of time surfing the web on
our phones, tablets, and laptops. But what you
may not have considered is the fact that all of
these things require a designer who can breathe
life into their form and function.
There are many different kinds of web design,
some of which involve backend design which
is basically building the guts of a website so
that, say, that order you placed from Amazon is
properly billed to your credit card, or that record
you downloaded actually downloads when you
click the buy button.
Front-end development involves more traditional
graphic design. When it comes to websites,
design encapsulates much more than you may
initially think. For instance, designing a website

6. 6 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Web Design
does definitely involve choosing a
color scheme, but it also includes
designing buttons, the menu, and
maybe even using Photoshop on
your photos.
Just as with logos, if you want to make
money designing websites, you’ll
want to start by having a portfolio of
sites you’ve designed. One of easiest
ways to start doing this is by creating
a great looking website for yourself
that will attract customers and show
what you’re capable of doing. Then, as
you design websites, be sure to keep a
details list of your creations so you can
show potential customers what your
talents are and the things you have to
offer them.

7. 7 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Typography
Typography is an art form that involves arranging letters
in a way that is both attractive and easy to read. If you’re
a designer and you want typography to be your specialty,
you’ll need to use a different part of your brain than you
would for, say, designing a logo.
With typography, the most important thing to have is a wide
range of work. You want to be able to show that your capable
of creating a large statement at the top of a website, while
also being adept at laying out large chunks of smaller text in
a way that makes it easy to read and consume.
As is the case with most types of design, you’ll want to get
a lot of practice as typography before you start selling your
services. Typography isn’t something you can fake or just be
so-so at - you need to be great, otherwise your customers’
customers won’t be able to read what they’re offering! And
nobody wants that.

8. This last way of making money has little
to do with actually designing. Instead, it’s
all about writing and educating others.
Having a blog on your websites can
serve as a powerful tool for winning new
customers by showing what you know
about the latest trends in design.If you’re
afraid you won’t be able to have enough
content, consider the fact that there is
design literally everywhere around you.
Sample blog posts might include the best
movie opening credits ever, the most
beautifully designed kitchen products of all
time, or just a random sampling of things
you recently stumbled across the perfect
encapsulate your design aesthetic.
8 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Blogging

9. 9 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Payment
Once you’ve decided you’re going
to make money by being a designer,
you’ll need to figure out the business
aspect of it. Of course, the most
important decision is deciding how
much you want to charge people for
your services. This will generally
depend on what kind of work you’re
doing and the length of time you’ll
spend on each project.
For smaller jobs like a simple logo
design, you may want to bill by the
hour. If it’s a larger project like building a
website or some other web experience,
you may want to charge a day rate. For
more packaged offerings, like designing
stationary, you may charge a flat fee per
order. It all depends on what you think is
right for you.
To settle on an actual number, you need
to look at your past experience and how
much your time is worth. If you’re just
getting starting in the world of design,
you’ re going to have a hard time
charging people a premium price for
your services. Plus, the jobs you get as
a beginner will most likely be much less
challenging than the ones you’ll come
across as a more seasoned designer.
When you’ve got more experience
under your belt, then you can start
thinking about charging according to
what you’d be making at a full time job,
maybe a bit more.

10. 10 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Marketing
In order to sell designs there’s one very important
thing you need: customers. Once you’ve decided to
make money as a designer, you’re going to want to let
people know about your offering. Create dedicated
social channels for your designs that will help people
easily discover you.
The platforms you settle on will depend on your
services. Facebook is a great way to potentially connect
with the most people. Instagram’s inherently visual
nature makes it a great way to show off you work. And
Twitter can be great for letting people now timely news,
like a showing of your work at a design fair.
You may also want to join online communities where
fellow designers trade information and ideas, and
websites that connect designers with individuals who
need design work.

11. 11 | Your Guide to Typography, Logos and Selling Your Design
Keep at it!
Being able to make money doing what you love is something that very few people are able to do. It takes a lot of hard
work and time to make it happen. So if you don’t immediately find success selling your designers, or your logo or
typography work, don’t fret. Chances are you just need to spend a little bit more time working at it! Eventually, you’ll
be a great designer getting the work you deserve.
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