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The business of building websites is one of constant change, adaptation and strategy. The way designers and developers build websites is often informed by the methods of others and their own trial and error. In light of this, we can draw a number of parallels — some philosophical, to a certain extent — between Web professionals and one of the oldest and most popular board games of all time (counting traditional and digital games). This game is chess.

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In this article, we’ll explore the relationship between the game of chess and the Web industry. We’ll learn fundamental lessons from the pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen and king, and we’ll highlight the factors — both offline and online — that determine best practices. The game is beloved by many professionals, so it seems fitting to apply its great strategy and elegance to the digital age; certain practices might help you lead a more successful working life.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #2 is Successful Freelancing for Web Designers, 260 pages for just $9,90.]

Pawns

Of all the pieces on a chessboard, the most abundant and least strategically useful are the pawns. Acting as soldiers on the front line, these men of honor advance across the board in an attempt to reach the end of the opponent’s side and transform into a more useful piece (i.e. another queen). While this doesn’t happen often, pawns nevertheless play a fundamental role in shielding higher-ranking pieces from attack, and these simple pieces are also used at the outset to gain positions of advantage.

Always Move Forward

Pawns can only move forward. They can get a quick start; players have the option of moving the pawns up to two spaces on their first move and subsequently moving them one space at a time. When you work on projects in a business environment, the principle of moving forward without back-tracking is an inspirational perspective. If you cease to constantly drive your ideas forward, they can become stagnant; progress is critical to a website’s development.

Here are some tips you can use to adopt this mindset:

• Don’t get stuck using deprecated practices when structuring website code.
• Examine your community to determine needed features for future upgrades.
• Change a website’s interface only if it would benefit the user experience.

Be Willing to Sacrifice

The ideal of giving something up in exchange for a greater good is realized by pawns, which, though limited in function, are plentiful and can protect others. In design, shielding the end user from issues that can damage the usability of the website is a worthwhile sacrifice. Having to let go of something that took time and energy is always unfortunate, but knowing when to say goodbye could mean the difference between success and failure.

Here are some tips for internalizing this attitude:

• Ensure that your Web layouts are flexible enough to meet the needs of various devices.
• Weigh the benefits of features against their pitfalls before eliminating them.
• Content is more valuable than design; never dilute its quality for eye candy.

Aim for Change

The pawn’s greatest moment is arriving at the opponent’s side of the board. Striving for betterment and aiming for your goals are behavioral ideals firmly upheld by professionals. This requires dedication and careful planning. When undertaking a creative project, it’s important to think beyond the current ask and consider the long-term project.

Here are some tips to get into this mode:

• The website-building process is never complete; ensure that you maintain a steady flow of updates.
• Think of ways to enhance the website to better cater to your visitors’ changing needs.
• It never hurts to have a business plan when scoping out a Web-based project.

Rooks

Rooks (or castles, as some people call them) are fortresses of strength that move across the board either horizontally or vertically. Their nature is similar to that of bishops in that they move in a straight line (although bishops move diagonally). Progress can be hindered by barriers, and interaction with other pieces is sometimes required, but the rook’s overall benefit is stamina and longevity.

When working on Web projects, we often put a great deal of thought into things like conventions and patterns and their theory and implementation. The nature of semantics and following recognized pathways in order to structure a document properly is reminiscent of the way that chess pieces such as the rook have a particular function and invariably carry out unique tasks. Only with logical thought can we hope to change the ultimate goals of an event and avoid obstruction.

Structure With Purpose

A rook represents strength and structure. The castle of stone might be restricted in its interactions on the chessboard, but its value is in its character. Websites need to be constructed well in order to survive the trials of everyday use. Considering how such needs should be met will ensure a sturdy and durable display of data. Take great care when structuring your work to reduce “illegal moves” and syntax.

Here are some tips for strengthening your outlook and code:

• Always validate your code; it will reduce the number of bugs.
• Use the right element for the job to improve your code’s semantic value.
• Keep code minimal to reduce file size and loading time.

Assist Those in Need

Like the other pieces on a chessboard, the rook is always on hand to help out by attacking or defending. Working with others to accomplish a task is only part of their job. In a Web environment, the same is true: if you take the time to assist those who use your website or service, not only will you increase your value, but you will gain the gratitude of the visitors, whom your website requires in order to keep running.

Here are some tips that might be of assistance:

• Providing ways for people to contact you is important to maintaining trust.
• Negative feedback can still be constructive; don’t dismiss it as “bashing.”
• Provide social interaction aids to help visitors feel involved in your community.

Take Precautions

Sometimes things don’t go as planned, in which case you’ll want to hold the strongest position possible. Rooks, like all other critical pieces, are only tools to protect other pieces in play, but caution is fundamental to remaining in a position of power. Thinking of how future scenarios might challenge your strategy can help future-proof your work from obvious flaws. You don’t want visitors to encounter obstacles that make them miss out on the benefits of your website!

Below are some tips for fortifying your website:

• Turn off scripts and styles to test whether your website is still usable.
• Test your websites on mobile devices, a market that is proliferating.

Knights

Knights are unique in their movement, going forward two spaces and then taking a single side-step. This means they can weave past other pieces and take up positions of singular advantage. Strategically, knights are most often used to pin hard-to-reach pieces in place through a clever attack. While this unique movement has its advantages, the knight does not replace the other pieces, which have their own strategic benefits.

Our uniqueness, whether as it is applies to our creative process, our products or our ability to solve common problems, is something we as professionals take for granted. We are able to incorporate creative flourishes when we forge applications, flourishes that can be tracked through the code (such as conditional comments, which give stylistic flavor to Internet Explorer). Like a white knight saving our sanity, our uniqueness helps us side-step issues that could otherwise become complicated.

Be Brave in Adversity

Mythology has taught us the familiar attributes of the knight: bravery, strength and honor. Thoughtful reflection on the Web-building process teaches us to be courteous to others and brave, while sticking to our guns when faced with the prospect of compromising in order to gain market share.

Here are some tips to make yourself more knight-like:

• Never take criticism personally; negative feedback is often the most useful kind.
• Don’t resign in the face of competition; the only failure in life is to quit trying.
• Try to rally support for your project; there’s strength in numbers.

Have a Selling Point

The knight is the only chess piece that move in two directions in one turn; even the queen can’t do this! This attribute teaches us the value of having a selling point. Selling points give visitors a reason to choose one product or service over others that perform the same function.

Here are some tips on finding your selling point:

• Draw from other people’s work, but never steal anything outright.
• Improving on existing services is a kind of innovation in its own right.
• Be focused in what you offer; reinventing too much increases complexity.

Avoid Barriers to Access

The knight is the only piece that can pass over others in its movement. This ability to navigate past barriers is somewhat reminiscent of standard recommendations for accessibility, which ask us to remove barriers to access on our websites. The goal is to allow freedom of movement and access to content.

Below are some tips on removing barriers:

• Consider the types of people who are not as able as you are online.
• Testing your work on an audience is better than going solo.
• Make sure your website works in different browsers to avoid serious breakages.

Bishops

The bishop is a piece that moves diagonally across the chessboard. The bishop scans the board for its next move, minding pieces that block its path, in the same way that a visitor scans content until a barrier prevent their progress. A bishop cannot step off the tile color to which it was initially assigned, ensuring a kind of vendor lock-in.

As Web professionals, we tend to get caught up in arguments about whether frameworks are useful, given their disadvantages (and even with graceful degradation, for example). The benefits of frameworks for certain situations occasionally outweigh their downsides (like trapping users in the environment), so make the most of what you have; dismissing less powerful options is not always the best way to go — in fact it could increase the amount of work required.

Have Faith in Your Work

The bishop, of course, is religious in nature, an agent in the battle between two sides. Faith in a religious sense is not needed to practice Web design, but as a quality of character it does play a part in one’s identity. Faith affects motivation and makes you believe in the project you’re spending so much time and effort on. If you have no faith in your craft, the job is doomed from the outset.

Here are some tips for building faith in your work:

• Create a list of benefits to focus on your website’s potential.
• Set realistic, structured goals to achieve success.
• Encourage visitors to recommend your work to people they know.

Know Your Limits

It may seem frustrating that each bishop is trapped on its own color, limited in impact. But if you make the most of it, bishops can still be useful. Know your own strengths and limitations, so that you don’t attempt the impossible or unachievable — if you do, the result will surely be flawed.

Here are some tips on knowing your limits:

• Get external support or advice when you hit a wall.
• If something can’t be achieved the way you hoped, look for alternatives.
• Reduce your weaknesses by learning new skills regularly.

Stick to Your Guns

While being able only to move diagonally may seem like a disadvantage, this can prove useful on occasion. Having sheer determination to carry out a job in a certain way is admirable. We humans are sometimes stubborn, and we stick to our guns when possible. This can cause us to make mistakes… or motivate us to persevere.

Here are some tips on being determined:

• Reflect on a project’s overall goals whenever possible in order to reassess a plan’s feasibility.
• Mistakes happen, and no one is perfect, but that’s no reason to stop trying.

The Queen

The queen is the second-most important piece on the chessboard. She can move horizontally, vertically and diagonally across any distance, and her power spans the entire board. She is the king’s most agile bodyguard, and losing her can be devastating. You have to use your power responsibly, both on the chessboard and in your profession; misusing your tools could cause you to lose visitors to the competition.

Sometimes we find ourselves swatting a fly off a nuclear warhead. Knowing exactly what to use, when to use it and how to use it appropriately is what ultimately distinguishes professionals from amateurs. In addition, taking advantage of the powerful tools at our disposal can speed up progress and eliminate the complexities that come with attempting the impossible with simple tools.

Realize Your Potential

A potent force, the queen moves freely about the chessboard, with few restrictions. The queen is a powerful piece and reminds us to exert the greatest effort to reach our potential. Rather than staying in our comfort zone, we must always learn new skills and achieve more than what is expected of us.

Here are some tips to stretch your skills:

• Everyone has the capacity to learn; keep your skill set up to date.
• Push yourself to become a better professional and to exceed your own expectations.
• Try not to let any of your skills go to waste when creating something.

Cover All Bases

In our work, we try to minimize error by viewing every situation from multiple angles — this is important. In chess, players use the queen in much the same way, exploiting her power yet shielding her from harm. In the creative process, your only real limitation is being blind to critical elements, which is why getting some perspective from outside testers and users never hurts.

Here are some tips to cover your bases:

• The more time you spend planning a project, the better the results usually will be.
• Information architecture is your friend; make use of wireframes and mock-ups.
• Spend time testing your website intensively for critical flaws.

Strategy and Learning

You have two knights, two rooks, two bishops and many pawns, but only one queen. Her value lies in her singularity; each move of the queen requires strategy and consideration of consequences. We become better players — and professionals — through trial and error, constant learning and foresight. Being cautious in the game teaches us to be wise in business.

Here are some tips to help you strategize:

• Read blogs, books, tutorials, magazines and anything else that can help guide you.
• Analyze your target audience to get ideas on what your website might need in future.
• Researching the competition gives you a sense of what potential visitors need.

The King

No piece is as important as the king; it is the one piece that must evade capture. The king moves only one space at a time, in any direction, and whenever it is in immediate danger, either a piece must be moved to block the attack or the king must be moved to avoid it. The king has no equal and cannot be restored by a pawn — sacrifice, and so prevention is imperative.

Web professionals have to protect what is important, too. We deal with payment details, databases, passwords and other sensitive information. If we lose any of that through carelessness or a lack of preventative measures, we end up losing something greater: the customer. Establishing trust takes time, but it can be lost as quickly as a surprise checkmate!

Avoid Traps

Protecting the king is the primary concern of every chess player. Gaining advantage to prevent loss is important. While Web professionals usually have no reason to evade capture (unless they’re doing something wrong), the benefit of avoiding common traps (the equivalent of “foolsmate” in chess) becomes apparent when testing the cross-browser functionality of a website.

Here are some tips on avoiding traps:

• Try to reduce the intrusiveness and obtrusiveness of your website to enhance the visitor’s experience.
• Actively seek out errors in your work to improve your service.
• Internet Explorer is a pain. Watch out for its rendering faults.

Value and Importance

A common tactic in chess is to weigh the value of the pieces against the benefits they represent. The king is critical because the game is lost without it. Comparing value has an important role in the Web industry, too, especially when losing mission-critical features would undermine the entire process. Comparing value also helps when prioritizing maintenance work or scheduling upgrades.

Here are some ways to tip the scale:

• Accurately pinpoint the value of your service.
• Upgrades are avoidable, but reduce downtime as much as possible.
• Price your service fairly; prices that are either too high or too low create problems.

Know When to Resign

Sometimes we get so excited — or stressed, as the case may be — about complex or next-to-impossible projects that we forget the option of saying “no.” We never like to resign or throw down our sword; we feel as though we have failed because we couldn’t meet the client’s needs. But firing bad clients and knowing when to scrap weak ideas is a part of being a professional. You can’t win every fight.

Here are some tips on recognizing when to throw in the towel:

• Trust your instincts when deciding whether to undertake a project.
• Salvage something from anything you work on.
• Learn how to deal with “clients from hell.”

Chessboard

Chess players focus on the pieces in play and on capturing the king, but they must also understand the chessboard as a battleground on which this drama plays out. This relates to the website-creation process (and to a lesser extent, the Web industry): lessons are to be learned from the chessboard itself.

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Light and Dark

Like a chessboard, the Web industry is full of light and dark, good and bad. We weigh benefits and pitfalls when performing our roles. A chess game tells a story; likewise, the fruits of our labor and our highlights and disappointments all appear online.

Think Ahead

One of chess’ biggest lessons is to think ahead, instead of in the moment. Being able to predict how your opponent will move helps you gain advantage. This is also true of the website-building process. Unjustified decision-making leads to problems, whereas well-planned strategies that entice people to visit and use your service lead to faster results and greater rewards.

Weigh Your Options

In chess, there are literally millions of ways a game can play out, and with every move the number of potential outcomes decreases. Knowing your options and which route affords the best opportunity for success is a critical skill. Website creators have many different methods of production and implementation as well, but missing the mark with scalability or usability can diminish a website’s user-friendliness and jeopardize its success.

Make Your Move

Decision-making can be tricky; in chess, a wrong move can cause you to lose a piece, a good position, an advantage or even the game. The same could be said of building a website. Preparing for different projects, services and eventualities is one thing, but having the courage, skill and understanding to carry them out successfully takes practice. After examining your options, make your move: put all your careful planning into action.

Checkmate!

So many useful lessons can be learned from chess. If you haven’t played it before, visualizing what we’ve gone over might be hard, but the fundamental principles of the game — how the pieces interact and the role of strategy in the big picture — should not be ignored. The game actively promotes logical thinking and strategy — both useful skills.

More lessons could certainly be drawn from the game, but hopefully this article will serve as a source of inspiration, especially if you feel your goals are out of reach. We often learn the most from making mistakes, losing a battle and then returning to win the war. Nowhere is this been truer than in chess, where a mixture of practice, skill and occasional luck is required to become the grandmaster.

So many aspects of the Web industry (such as syntax, design and ideals) change constantly, but the fundamental principles of learning, growing and trying your best often mean the difference between failure and success. Try to incorporate lessons from the chessboard into your own work; while having all the pieces doesn’t guarantee victory, having the basic skills will give you the confidence and awareness that you need to succeed.

(al)

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© Alexander Dawson for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
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By no means do I encourage stalking of any kind. However, some of these communities are so amazingly good, its great for observing and learning from the sidelines and then if you feel your ready – you can jump right in and contribute to the community.

Behance Network

Behance is a powerhouse of some of the worlds top creative talent. Members can form a group and invite other members to join, groups can be public or private, and can be used to work together, share tips and media, get feedback, and more. So when your work is at its best, submit and promote. If you just want to follow the talent you can even go as far as to create a Follower Account.

Abduzeedo

Designm.ag

DesignM.ag is a community-based website for web designers and developers. The site includes a popular blog, a user-submitted news section, a design gallery, and a design job board.

Dribble

Dribbble is show and tell for designers, developers and other creatives. Share sneak peeks of your work as “shots” — small screenshots of the designs and applications you’re working on. Dribble may be the one you want to jump in right away with some sneak peaks at those designs your working on, because it is all about feedback and the community seems pretty positive in helping each member grow creatively.

There are so many great communities, some are filled to the brim with serious talent. What do you think are the best art & design related communities out there and when do you think the best time to jump in is?

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You know how important getting new clients is for your business. Getting a constant new stream of clients is often the #1 challenge for most freelancers. Unfortunately, most of the advice provided online on this topic is often filled with ambiguity and doesn’t give you clear tips and instructions you  can use to start getting web design clients NOW.

I’ll assume 2 things here:

1. You’re a web designer and provide web-design related services
2. You’re competent in what you do. If you can’t provide at least a decent service for your clients then this article is not for you

No worries if you never had a client before. There’s a section of this article for you as well.

How to Use Your Existing Clients to Get New Ones

Without doubt, word of mouth is one of the most powerful types of marketing in existence. Many studies have shown that people trust friends recommendations over ads and even genuine review sites.

There’s a good probability that many of your clients know someone who might need or currently needs a web design service (I’ll assume most of your clients are some type of business owners so they know other business owners as well). How can you make sure your existing clients recommend you to their friends? There are certain things you can do:

- Service Excellence

You do this by providing an excellent service your customers love. You fulfill their expectations or go way beyond them. This is an ongoing process and not a destination. You’re constantly adjusting/coming up with and testing new ideas and seeing how those ideas appeal to your clients etc.

How can you over deliver on your service? One way is to stand out. I assume you already know most of the basics on web design. What about usability? What about the science and the art of colors and copy writing? Or behavioral psychology? There are a lot of things you can learn from many other disciplines that can help you excel in this web design business.

- Customer support excellence

This is an entire process of communicating with the client till completion. Focusing on over delivering here doesn’t help as much as focusing on making the whole interaction as effortless as possible for the client.

For example:

• Reduce the waiting time for answering his question (if it’s a common question, make a FAQ and send that FAQ once he contacts you with that question)
• Make it easy for him to give you feedback. Give him easy-to-follow instructions so he knows how to give you suggestions on the finished design.
• Reduce the number of times your client needs to repeat the question. If you have to redirect him to another department, you should redirect the question and not tell him to go to that department and ask the question again.

‘Customer effort’ has been found to be a pretty strong predictor of customer loyalty .

How to Get New Clients (if you’re starting from scratch)

One word comes to mind here: EXPERIMENT. First, start by going to as many websites as possible. Here are some ideas:

- Freelancing sites

oDesk, Guru, Freelancer or eLance, these are the 4 biggest freelance sites on the world wide web. Try them all. Create a simple profile and start bidding for some jobs. Bid for cheap and expensive projects…don’t just think ‘they’ll never hire me for this expensive project’ because that isn’t true. You simply don’t know…test and experiment (and in this case, testing = just bidding for the project and seeing the results). You’ll learn a lot at least.

There are also some not so obvious sites you can use to get clients…

- Internet business sites/forums

Most of your clients are probably small/medium businesses who want to establish a presence online. Why not go to them directly where they hang out?

Check out the WickedFire Design section, for example. There are many people who pitch their design services there for a price higher than many ordinary freelance sites. And guess what…people are willing to pay that price (if they get a decent service).

WickedFire is just one example of many. Try writing related:http://www.wickedfire.com on Google to find some similar sites. Many of them have a ’services’ section where you can offer your web design services.

- Classified ads, job boards

You could try these as well. The important thing here is to experiment with different websites and see what’s working for you. For example, you might find that e-business forums are ideal for you because you realized you’re looking for a steady job and projects from the same client. Or maybe freelance sites are ideal because you want to get very diverse tasks.

- Long-term Approaches to Getting New Clients

Over time, you’ll want to increase the probability of getting new clients that will come to you. This is a long-term process and it takes time…but trust me, it pays off.

- Have a website

The most important element to having a good web design website are:

• Good web design (duh!)
• Good PORTFOLIO – most of your clients will first take a look at this so be sure to keep it updated regularly and feature the best projects at the top.

- Get involved in the web design community

You have various web design forums (again, experiment to see which ones are best for you). By participating on web design forums you’ll meet new people who do the same you do, learn more about the trends in web design and, guess what, many business owners go to web design forums to find people to do various web design jobs (so you should find projects to work on there as well)

- Learn how people make decisions / behavioral psychology

Why learn this? Because, ultimately, you’re dealing with people and you need to know more about them overall, on how they make decisions. You can use this knowledge to influence them (ethically!) so you get more clients and gain other advantages as well.

Some of the best books for starters are:

Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini

After you read influence, take a look at 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by the same author

Prediction Irrational by Dan Ariely, explores some mind-blowing principles on why people behave irrationally sometimes when they buy stuff.

- Focus on the 3 most important aspects in your business

I wanted to finish this article with this concept, and although I know it doesn’t directly helps to get new clients, I feel I need to share it because it’s the most important lesson I’ve learned while having my own online business. In order to get the most out of your business, focusing on these 3 things simultaneously helps a lot (most businesses focus on 1 or 2 but not on all 3):

a) Your PRODUCT (or in this case your service) – making it better, etc.

b) Your PROMOTION - experimenting with ways of getting new clients, getting more referrals from existing clients

c) Your MONETIZATION - experimenting with different ways to make money like selling web design templates, logo creation services and so on.
There’s no magic pill to having a successful web design business and getting new clients. It mostly involves working consistently (notice I haven’t said ‘hard work’, working regularly for 10 days is better than working ‘hard’ for 1 day and then doing nothing for 9 days) and working smart.

What’s your feedback? Share it with us in articles.

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It’s a familiar situation for any freelancer — you open your email inbox, scan through the day’s spam and auto-responder messages, and come across a request for proposal.

It’s the same as the other design requests, aside from one small detail — instead of the standard "we can pay [this much]" message, there’s a line at the end asking how much you think the project will cost.

Being asked to name your own price might seem like a miracle situation, but it’s rarely a relaxing experience for freelance designers, particularly those without a solid and secure price structure for their services.

That one request can end up triggering anxiety and worry, as even the most skilled designer begins to wonder just how much their work time is really worth.

I’ve been in that situation before. We’ve all been in that situation before. It’s not easy, and it’s not the type of situation you want to find yourself in without solid pricing guidelines.

These seven tips can help you give an effective, accurate, and clear project quote that’s neither a sales killer nor a risk to your freelance longevity. Give ‘em a shot.

1. Always Remember How Much Your Time is Worth

There are two ways to price projects: by time, and by output. Both are frequently used by freelance designers and other service workers, although the two are typically employed for different reasons.

Quoting by time (as in an hourly rate) is the preferred option for projects without a clear time requirement and level of scope. Large projects are often impossibly complex and difficult to provide a set price for — what may look simple in an email can often end up being a Herculean effort requiring several weeks of dedicated work.

Prevent your time from being undervalued and give a quote that accounts for your hourly rate, not a per-project quote that eliminates any time-based security.

On the other hand, small projects and one-off requests might require very little time and be largely process dependent. Prevent minor projects and thankless tasks from becoming a cost drain by using a pricing structure that’s built around output. With clear requirements and no need for revisions, a project-based pricing structure can end up saving time for you and stress for your clients.

2. Consider Long-Term Income Potential and Return Business

Retailers have perfected the loss leader concept — the art of luring buyers into stores with a discount product, special service, or sale in the hopes that buyers will purchase other things in the store at regular price. It’s a classic marketing method that’s rarely used by service businesses, perhaps due to the amount of wasted time it can attract. Thanks to relative anonymity, online loss leaders can be a major time-related risk for designers.

But they’re also a risk that’s worth taking, provided you’re reasonably certain of a project’s potential for long-term growth and development. If a major prospective client approaches you with a one-time request for a project, treat it like the introduction to a major project and you could end up winning their business.

Quote with long-term potential in mind.

3. Factor in Administrative Work Time

Sit down and grind through work and you’ll quickly find yourself worn out and lacking ideas. It’s a situation that all creative workers find themselves in, and it’s one that’s rarely accounted for in most billing structures. Accounting for downtime in your billing structure can be difficult, particularly if you’re accustomed to working on a per-project basis.

The simple truth is that any project is going to attract busywork such as emailing, organizing, filing paperwork, and so forth, be it a design project or one that’s built around coding a new application.

Factor for this time in your per-project pricing guidelines and you’ll end up with a more scalable and effective billing structure — one that doesn’t result in wasted hours and time that’s spent endlessly fine tuning small details.

4. Highlight Extra Costs

If you’re a new designer, giving a quote can sometimes be a little scary. There’s a feeling of power and ability, but for most, it’s paired with a small tingling of nervousness and a fear that your pricing might be a little too high, a little too low, or just wrong in some immeasurable way.

It’s a fear that’s present everywhere online — with no face-to-face contact, judging small details can be difficult.

Beat the fear by being completely transparent and straightforward about your pricing. Include every extra cost, quote clients for every possible situation, and provide a quote that’s as close to your final price as it possibly can be.

Clients rarely reject proposals based on their price, but they can and will reject your proposal when it’s loaded with ambiguity. Be clear, be courageous, and price on exactly what you can deliver.

5. Convey the Concept of Value and Quality

There’s an unspoken rule amongst contractors when it comes to large projects: no one judges the quality of applicants, providers, and design firms by the price that they’re bidding.

Low-cost bids aren’t instantly rewarded, high-price providers are rarely penalized, and mid-range designers just don’t operate at an advantage to the big guns. It’s not about price — it’s about what they get for that price.

When the difference between a high-end provider and the cheaper alternative is a better result, any large business is going to spend the extra cash.

If you’re given the opportunity of placing a bid on a major project or multi-stage corporate design deal, go out of your way to explain how you can add value to the project, not how you can help save money.

Ability is rewarded, frugality isn’t.

6. Know Your Competitors and Understand Market Rates

There’s a slight danger in pricing yourself according to others in your industry, particularly when your design services are focused on a particular geographical area or online niche.

When you let other people control your pricing, you’re inevitably forced to compete with them, battling for the same clients and bidding endlessly on the same projects.

However, it’s important to know how much your competitors are charging, even if only to best them in quality and offer a premium service.

Keep in contact with other design agencies in your field or area, understand their pricing and ensure that you can offer a greater deal of value at the same rate.

Don’t let the market dictate your pricing, but do let it create guidelines for what you can offer.

7. Always Consider Growth and Overheads

Great branding goes beyond having an attractive website, a clean business card, and a portfolio of clients that are remarkable at what they do. It’s a discipline that’s steeped as much in pricing as it is in visual identity, and without a price guideline that reflects your ability, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to grow, both as a designer and as a business.

Factor growth and overheads into your per-project or per-hour quotes, and always think of projects with opportunity costs in mind.

Grinding through every possible project at a laughable rate will lead to short-term success, but it’s almost always at the expense of long-term growth and progress.

If you want to bid on major design projects and truly grow your design business, think of low-cost projects and one-off assignments as a stepping stone, not as a destination for your business.

Related Content

• How to Create an Effective Web Design Questionnaire
• How to Start a Freelance Company
• 5 Unconventional Places to Scout for Web Work
• Related categories: Project Management and Resources

Mathew Carpenter is an 18-year-old business owner and entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia. Mathew is the owner of Design-Newz, the premier source for aggregated design news. Follow Mathew on Twitter: @matcarpenter.

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Motivation, ability, and triggers influence users’ website behavior, according to this research paper by Stanford researcher BJ Fogg. This is important if you’re targeting specific behavioral action (e.g., filling out a lead form). Before a user takes a desired action, she must be sufficiently motivated to perform the desired action, have the ability to do so, and be appropriately triggered to take action.

Fogg’s model is fairly easy to digest. For example, let’s say you want to drive more listing appointments (the target behavior), there is a trade-off between motivation and ability. In this scenario, a user’s motivation is somewhat variable (either they are interested in the property or not). Thus, as website designer you should concentrate on the “ability” side of the equation: do you make it a simple fill-in-your-email-address form, or do you make users fill out more detailed information prior to submitting their request? On this issue, Fogg concludes:

The implication for designers is clear: Increasing motivation is not always the solution. Often increasing ability (making the behavior simpler) is the path for increasing behavior performance.

Contemplating appropriate triggers is where it gets really interesting for website designers. According to Fogg, without an appropriate trigger, targeted behavior will not occur even if motivation and ability is high. There are three elements of a successful trigger: the trigger must be noticed, the trigger is associated with the targeted behavior, and the trigger occurs WHEN we are both motivated and able to perform the targeted behavior. Fogg argues that timing is THE critical element and is often missing:

In fact, this element is so important the ancient Greeks had a name for it: kairos – the opportune moment to persuade. As I see it, the opportune moment for behavior performance is any time motivation and ability put people above the behavior activation threshold.

Poorly-timed triggers (e.g., pop-ups) generally do not drive a user to take a targeted action and can even cause a negative emotion. Thus, Fogg argues that proper triggers will align with collaborative CRM concepts (which I earlier discussed), functioning mostly as “signals” or “facilitators”. I encourage you to read Fogg’s research paper (all 7 pages) as he further details the discreet elements under motivation, ability, and triggers that influence website behavior.

Photo credit: ell brown (off to Italy)

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Professionals in any field should always keep business cards on them because you never know when you’ll meet a potential client, partner or like-minded person. Despite their small size, business cards are one of the most powerful and handiest marketing tools. Not only do they create a link between you and your new contact, they’re also a quick way to give a great first impression. Business cards promote your skills and achievements and serve as a little container for big ideas.

Don’t underestimate the process of designing business cards; a well-made card does not just share your contact details: it generates further sharing and buzz. Like any self-promotion tool, designing a business card requires solid brainstorming and careful implementation to get the best effect.

This post targets a diverse audience. It features a collection of remarkable business card designs that could help you in your search for creative ideas. The round-up of fresh tutorials and business card templates further down might come in handy for those who don’t have the skills or experience to design their own.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the Smashing Book?]

Showcase Of Original And Memorable Business Cards

Letterpress Cards

Letterpress printing has actually been the only form of printing text and images since it was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. Because of its distinctive qualities, such as crisp and tangible impression onto paper, letterpress work is now widely used for branding and identity development. Letterpress gives stronger visual definition to type and artwork and has a special touch, which is why it’s a popular technique for business card printing. Below you can see some beautiful examples of letterpress business cards.

John Henry Donovan
On this business card, the fine design created by Irish designer and developer John Henry Donovan is complemented by the printer’s excellent choice of paper and inking.

Greg Anderson
This card works because of the stylish dirty texture, good use of color and, of course, letterpress. Designed by Thomas Guy.

Chris Piascik
The funky typography of freelance graphic designer Chris Piascik is set off well by the letterpress work on his business card.

Space 150
This stylish letterpress business card was designed for the creative agency Space150 by designer Evan Nagan. The card is part of the agency’s periodic general redesign, which it conducts every 150 days. The elegant constellation theme and high-quality letterpress printing make for an excellent card.

White Rabbit
This card promotes the portfolio of the German photographer Florian Muller (aka the White Rabbit). The use of the negatives pattern incorporates the card owner’s occupation well, and the surface is enhanced by an embossed rabbit.

One in Zero
The business card of Hong Kong-based idea firm OneinZero is minimalist: the focus is on the letterpress type and paper texture.

Christian Garibaldi
The effective combination of blind and ink debossing, along with the subtle coloring along the edge, makes for a clean and exquisite business card that perfectly conveys the aesthetic of the photographer’s online portfolio.

Montage
Dallas Graham of Montage Creative has a simple and strong business card.

Paper Monkey Press
Some filigree letterpressing is evident on the card of Paper Monkey Press.

Second World Design
The guys over at Second World took their branding very seriously, resulting in the clean beautiful letterpress card you see below.

Kinetic Lens
This card was designed by photographer Riley Maclean for his company Kinetic Lens. Combining various letterpress techniques and a great set of red tones, this business card has a multi-dimensional feel. It’s printed on thick 220-pound-bond cotton paper.

Laura Moretz
A good use of letterpress on the front and back of this card and the labels make this card memorable. It’s printed on French Speckletone #140 stock.

23rd And 5th
Here is a beautiful business card showing fine typography and two-color letterpress. It was designed for the staff of the 23rd & 5th branding agency. This business card for the Director of Development features a QR code that drives contacts to a dedicated mobile website optimized for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android.

Die-Cut Business Cards

Something else that determines a business card’s memorability and appeal is shape. Today many individuals, businesses and organizations die-cut their cards, going beyond traditional dimensions. Die-cutting is an effective way to make a business card eye-catching, unique and even interactive. But remember that a die-cut card should still be compact enough to fit in a standard wallet or card holder. Alternatively, you could suggest some other way to carry or hold your card. Some noteworthy die-cut business cards are showcased below.

Derrick Mitchell
Derrick Mitchell, a designer from Kalispell, Montana, creates his business cards by hand with chip board, screen printing, labels and stamps.

Popupology
This cute die-cut business card is done entirely in-house by designer Elod Beregszaszi.

Dyalect
The chic design of this business card is accentuated by the custom shape and 16-point silk matte finish card stock.

Kaman
This concept-based business card was designed by Mehdi Tuchak for the Iranian multimedia company Kaman.

Sean Gerety
This lovely business card mimics a Moleskine notebook. While the front is glossy, the back is matted and can be used as a note card.

Amundson Films
Cheap card stock and moderate-quality print wonderfully fit the aesthetic of this vintage movie ticket business card. Great job, Alice Cho!

Alteroy
This die-cut masterpiece belongs to the Israel-based designer Alteroy. The cardboard icons can be separated. Much effort was put into this business card, and the result is absolutely worth it.

Carlos Vazquez
This super-cute business card might be the shortest route to any Mac fan’s heart.

Herbert Martin
Besides containing the contact info of German dentist Herbert Martin, this business card has another cool function: it helps you check your bite by way of a die-cut stencil. Designed by Petra Penz.

Truf
The business card is square and “combines a hand-crafted feel with the style of Russian propaganda posters.”

Classic, With a Twist

Most of the business cards below have a classic rectangular shape and standard dimensions… but that is where their classic-ness ends. Creative ideas and skillful implementation make these cards look anything but ordinary.

Coco
The amazing identity concept for COCO was created by Polish designer “Wallstreet Different Creature.” This business card, as part of the overall branding, is pure style and beauty.

Erich Hartmann
Erich Hartmann designed his business card to spell out a bunch of his skills, along with his main occupation. This clever idea is nicely visualized by way of a two-sided card, with an offset logo on the front and letterpress on the back.

Fran Rosa
Motion and graphics designer Fran Rosa takes different angles on both his website and business cards… literally.

Grill Me
To see the info on this business card, grill it against a fire, because the card is stamped with lemon juice for ink. Quite an original idea, but using this effect for non-essential information or for an image, rather than contact info, might be more reasonable.

Luciano Ferreira
A lovely typographic business card made by Brazilian graphic designer Luciano Ferreira for promotional purposes.

Sandra Boils
This elegant business card was made for Spanish jazz vocalist Sandra Boils by graphic design studio Estudio Menta.

Stepan Prokop
A beautiful artistic business card by graphic designer Stepan Prokop.

Synchromatik
The rich grass texture makes the card of designer Marko Manojlovic look fresh and beautiful.

Van Der Buzz
This transparent business card, mimicking an X-ray, belongs to Ukrainian advertising agency Van Der Buzz.

What What
These cool playful business cards were created by twin brothers, designers John and Edward Harrison, also known as What What.

Combining Techniques

When it comes to developing promotional material for a brand today, the variety of choice is impressive. With all the different printing techniques, the loads of diverse paper and material available and relatively cheap digital technology, the process of designing a business card is limited only by the designer’s imagination. The following business cards rely on both paper quality and printing methods to create a memorable experience.

TAM Cargo
Traditional at first glance, this business card can be transformed into a little cargo transport box. The card was design by Brazilian advertising agency Y&R for TAM Airlines.

Cinch Creative
Design company Cinch Creative printed its business cards on 60-point Blotter paper with a fine natural texture. Thanks to this and the debossed logo and text, the card is a pleasure for both the eyes and hands.

Feelme Crew
This creative business card in the shape of a clapper board was designed by Ralev.com for Bulgarian multimedia agency Feelme Crew.

Fiverr
Here’s a green approach to business card design. The cards for Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman are made from recycled paper and cardboard. Moreover, the cards are completely hand-made. See details on Kaufman’s Facebook page.

Groundflights
This card, inspired by a boarding pass stub, was created by creative agency R3M1X3D for transportation company Groundflights. It is a successful mix of letterpress printing and die-cutting.

Herofilm
A beautiful business card stylized as a film frame. It was designed by Jimmituanart for Herofilm Productions.

Philosophy Communications
With a squeezable circle built in, the business card of PR company Philosophy Communications is a two-in-one solution. Brilliant work, wouldn’t you agree?

Rhino Studio
Premium paper, imitation rhino skin and a stylized typographic logo make this card chic indeed. Designed by Contreforme.

Paper Fortress
This vintage-looking business card, which features die-cutting, embossing and high-quality paper, was designed by the studio Second World for the film production company Paper Fortress.

Hear
This fancy silk-laminated card, featuring a spot UV coating, was designed by social media and design company Hear.

Gita Ayu
The cool illusion on this business card was achieved with a thin transparent plate that makes it look as though this faux-3D brick is broken. The amazing card was created by Saatchi & Saatchi, Indonesia, for a karate club.

Something Completely Different

The cards showcased below considerably expand the parameters of the business card format. It seems that business cards can be grown, played with and even eaten! Look at the craziest business card concepts around.

MODhair
Not only can you comb your hair with this business card, you can also play a classic rock song on it with your fingernail. The card was designed by Fabio Milito for a Rome-based hair salon.

Gitam BBDO Spicy
The Gitam BBDO agency uses spice sachets as business cards, associating each of its departments with a particular condiment.

BC Adventure Survival Training
The cards of BC Adventure remain extremely useful even in situations where a business card is useless. They are made of organic beef jerky and are good to eat for up to a year.

RDA
To promote one of his projects (an interactive chopping board), designer Sam Gough created 20 wooden business cards, carving his project’s title and contact info neatly into each.

Dept of Energy
With its business “cords,” Dept of Energy shows a skillful play on its identity and style.

Lush
This business card is a thin envelope stuffed with grass seed. The clean design, clever copy and sneaky seed surprise make for an adorable card. Designed by Brandon Knowlden.

Taberu Me
For the most desperate self-promoters, peanut business cards are not a bad idea. Taberu Me uses innovative CO2 laser engraving technology to print on the peanuts. But before you hands yours out, make sure no squirrels or chipmunks are around.

Wes Thomas
This business card design is an ongoing project of Philadelphia-based industrial designer Wes Thomas. The laser-cut card can be quickly transformed in a cute desktop toy. This is no ordinary concept and is pretty labor-intensive, but who would refuse such a business toy for their desk?

Business Card Galleries

Only the truly unique are remembered. When designing anything for yourself, it’s always useful to look around for fresh ideas. Here are permanent showcase galleries where you can find trends and best practices for business card design.

• Card Observer
• Cardonizer
• Card Nerd
• Cardview
• CardGala
• Creattica
• CardsPress
• The Art of the Business Card (Flickr pool)
• BusinessCardCritic

Tutorials

To get you started on your own business card, we’ve selected some fresh and useful tutorials and guides that cover various issues you might deal with in this area.

Create a Print-Ready Business Card in Illustrator
In this tutorial, well-known designer and blogger Chris Spooner walks you through the process of creating a fun business card with a sketched illustration.

How to Create a Stylish Business Card Template in Adobe Photoshop
In this tutorial, you learn how to create an elegant minimalist business card design in Photoshop. The source files are available for free downloading.

Create a Grunge Print-Ready Business Card
Use this tutorial to create a business card with nifty faded brush strokes in Photoshop.

How to Create a Nebula Background in Photoshop
Learn how to design a business card with an astral background.

Print-Ready Business Card Tutorial
This tutorial explains how to create a print-ready business card with a clean dark design in Photoshop.

How to Make a Print-Ready Business Card in Photoshop
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a two-sided business card with crop marks and bleed.

How to Design Your Business Card
This article discusses the basics of business card design and covers some best practices.

Business Card Design Walkthrough
Along with other step-by-step tutorials, a detailed case study like this one might be useful to you.

PSD Tutorial: Design a Dirty Business Card
Learn how to create a simple business card, complete with grungy texture.

Business Card Tutorial in Inkscape
Here is a detailed guide on how to design a business card in Inkscape. While the result shown does not look that great, the principles of working in Inkscape are described quite well, so you can get a better result using this open-source graphics editor.

Business Card
If you like the business card shown below, learn how to create it in Photoshop in this tutorial.

Making Creative Business Card
This tutorial shows how to make a nice business card in a matter of minutes.

How to Design a Print-Ready Business Card Design in Photoshop
This business card tutorial includes a couple of bonus templates, which you can download in PSD format and use for free.

How to Design Business Card
Learn how to create the unconventional and attractive business card below.

Grungy Business Card
Another variation of the grunge design is explained in this guide. The image preview and PSD file are free to download.

How to Make your Own Photographic Negative Business Cards
Now, here’s a completely different take on business card design. Photographer Steph Goralnik shares his technique for crafting a unique photographic negative business card.

How to Choose Business Card Paper
Paper is an important consideration when printing business cards. The right paper can make your card shine, while poor-quality stock can spoil even a top-notch design. Read this article to learn the key points and differences between various types of paper.

How to Choose the Right Paper
Although quite old, this article contains some useful tips on choosing the right paper for your business card. A solidly written article.

Templates

A template is definitely a great option for those who don’t have the skill to create a business card on their own. But even if you’re a professional designer, you may need the job done very fast or simply want to save time making customizations. This is when a template comes in handy. Below you’ll find a selection of well-designed free and commercial business card templates that you can take advantage of in your own projects.

Free Templates

Most of the templates in this category are free for personal and commercial use, but please be sure to read all accompanying legal usage notes before downloading the files.

Free Business Card Design from IceTemplates
A simple yet attractive business card design, ready to print and customizable. The ZIP container includes two PSD files and a font folder.

I love dA Business Card

This nifty business card design was created by graphic designer depart on the occasion of deviantArt’s birthday. The template is available for free download in both PSD and Ai formats.

FreelanceSwitch Business Card Template
This Adobe Illustrator template can be customized for any freelance profession. The pack comes with templates for writers, coders and designers.

Bokeh Business Card | More
The PSD template for this business card is available in high resolution and is ready to print.

Free Business Card Template for Photoshop (PSD) | More
This minimalist grayscale business card template is available as a free download at DeviantArt.

Free Business Card Design Pumpkin
This “Pumpkin” business card template features 300 DPI resolution and CMYK color mode for professional printing, front and back sides and four color schemes: pumpkin, cream, Indian pink and brown.

Construction Hazard Stripes Theme | More
This print-ready business card template is in Photoshop format.

Free Abstract Blue Business Card Template
This double-sided PSD card template includes well-organized layers and is in CMYK color mode for easy editing.

Die Gallery
In this gallery, you’ll find some unusual card shapes, all for free. All files are in EPS format.

Business Card Template
Here is a blank template for a standard US business card. Both JPEG and PSD versions of the template are available for free downloading.

Noise Modern Card | More
This download pack includes two full-layered PSD files for the front and back. The dimensions are 3.5 x 2 inches, and the resolution is 300 DPI.

Minimax Positivo Business Card Template
The template has six color variations and features a letterpress effect. The template package includes a PSD file, PDF help file and preview image.

Business Card Template (Vector) | More
A free Adobe Illustrator business card template in 3.5 x 2 inch format.

Vertical Business Card Vectors | More
An EPS file containing 18 vertical business card templates with JPG preview.

Free business card templates
10 free business card designs in PSD and TIFF formats.

Seextwood Business Card | More
A minimalist template in CMYK mode and 300 DPI resolution. The dimensions are 3.5 x 2.5 inches.

4 Blue Personal Business Card Templates | More
A set of four PSD business card templates in blue. The dimensions are 3 x 2 inches, and the resolution 300 DPI.

Premium Templates

Pure Style Business Card Template | More
A minimalist two-sided business card design (3.5 x 2 inches) that can fit practically any profession or brand. The template comes in high resolution and requires Adobe Photoshop 8 or higher for editing. Price: $7

Blue Monster Business Card Template | More
This funny template is ready to print and can be easily customized in a vector graphics editor. Price: $4

Business card (set 17) | More business card templates
These cheerful business cards might appeal to people in creative fields. Three license types are available; the basic one gives you this set for $5.

Typography Mini Business Card | More
These bright typographic mini-cards come in two styles, grungy and clean, and include a black and white version for low-cost printing. The templates are print-ready and can be edited in Photoshop. Price: $6

Tender Flowers Business Card | More
An original floral design that would work well for wedding photographers. It is print-ready and can be customized in Photoshop. Price: $7

Blue Bubble business card | More
This clean and airy design will appeal to fans of minimalism. It is in print-ready CMYK, 300 DPI, and includes two PSD files and two high-quality JPG images. Price: $5

Black Business Card Template | More
This business card has a rather universal design and would serve a personal brand, company or other project equally well. It is print ready; all you need to do is change the default text. Price: $7

The Black Family business Card Pack | More
These super-original and cute business cards might be good for showing off members of a creative team. They are two-sided, in CMYK and 300 DPI, easy to edit and print-ready. Price: $6

Related Posts

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Business Card Design: Better Than A Plain Ol’ Business Card
• The Ultimate Round-Up of Print Design Tutorials

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© Julia May for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: business, card, Design

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