Sara Cowley, Designer, Cowley Design joins hosts Scott Sheppard & Gene Gable for an in-depth look at her work which includes packaging and surface design. Her unique designs and focus present creative challenges as often her designs, unlike an ad or a logo, are often the final saleable product. Sara describes her journey from graduating art school to learning the ropes of running a business and ultimately starting her own firm. Sara shares some tips on selectively growing your client base and possible pitfalls to avoid when first starting out as an independent.

Sara explores some of the inspiration and creative process involved in her surface design work which includes bookmarks, wine tags, bookplates, mousepads, and more. Unlike other client work, this type of design involves creating the products first and then pitching the final concepts to clients for fulfillment and retail.

Sara also teaches typography at the Creative Circus, a portfolio school in Atlanta.

Find out more about her work, or read her blog at: http://cowleydesign.com/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay joins us this week to discuss some upcoming design focused “Road Shows” which are exciting events that can help you get up to speed on your favorite applications. Jay’s list includes offerings by Mogo Media, Rocky Mountain School of Photography, Adobe Events, Apple Store Events, Noble Desktop,

Jay maintains a special industry calendar with more details, dates, locations, and links at: http://www.design-tools.com/events/

For more on Jay Nelson and his Design Tools topics visit: http://www.design-tools.com

James Westbrooks, Owner, J2 Creative joins hosts Scott Sheppard andGene Gable to discuss how they take their designs to a range of mediums and some of the benefits of working in a small studio providing personalized services for their clients. J2 Creative studios consists primarily of James and his wife, who has a background in industrial design. J2 recently completed a project for Indiana Glass that allowed them to work on intricate designs for their product lines, James shares some tips and explains some of the workflow and other considerations when taking on such projects. James also discusses some of the factors to consider when working with your spouse and also the decision to work in a small firm vs. a larger agency.

To find out more about J2 Creative visit their site at: http://www.j2creative.us/

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson joins us this week with an update on 2008 Adobe® Design Achievement Awards which is a global competition designed to showcase student work. Adobe brought the winners on an expense paid trip to New York City and even hosted tours of local design studios. Jay also shares some notes from AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries, which is done annually and provides some tools and great compensation information. Visit: http://www.designsalaries.com

For more information about Jay and Design Tools visit: http://www.design-tools.com.

Art Director, DJ Webb joins Inside Digital Design to share his experiences as a designer who recently left a large agency, DDB, and discusses some tips and ideas on the steps he is taking to make a mark as an independant freelance designer and art director. Leveraging his contacts within the agency space, DJ works with various clients expanding his portfolio mostly by word of mouth. DJ is a true creative who has had an interest in art and design since his early childhood. His passion and creativity now come through a broad range of projects including ideas for TV, interactive, radio, branding an alternative media (billboards, kiosk, bus shelters, etc) in addition to branding projects some local start-ups.

If you would like to connect with him about his work or experiences send him a note at: djwbrands at gmail dot com. You can see his gallery of work at: http://djwebbcreative.com/

Freelance Designer, Donna Berger joins hosts Scott Sheppard and Gene Gable to share some tips on finding success as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. Donna spent much of her career in technical roles at various prepress and publishing industry suppliers including Agfa, Scitex, and Kodak but transitioned back to her love of design and is now working independantly from her Lowell, MA studio. She has also done extensive illustration work for children’s books. Donna explains that her background in marketing and PR helps her maintain her contact base and reach out to potential clients via ads, direct mailings, promotions, and networking conferences.

Donna shares some tips about how and where to advertise including listing your services and contacts in industry sourcebooks. She explains how your personal portfolios can help define your style, even if you have a broad background but consistancy helps leave your impression on your clients when they are looking for something specific.

To contact her and see more of her work visit: http://www.donnaberger.com

Design News of the Week with Jay Nelson

This week Jeff Gamut fills in for Jay with some news that QuarkXpress 8 is actually shipping. After announcing the upgrade and new features the product is now hitting the shelves. Jeff also shares a tip about creating a book of your typefaces using Veenix Software’s Type Book Creator. Find out more at http://www.veenix.com.

For more information about Jay and Design Tools visit: http://www.design-tools.com.

Mary Gay Marchese, Marketing Manager, Markzware joins Inside Digital Design to discuss some of the features available in their conversion tools products that allow you to seamlessly exchange file contents and layouts between popular layout programs including QuarkXpress, InDesign, and even Microsoft Publisher. These time saving tools can help designers and prepress operators maintain the integrity of the files and also easily make last minute edits.

Mary Gay also explains some of their other popular pre-flighting and conversion tools and shares some examples of how having access to these utilities have saved the day with some of their key clients. They are constantly developing new tools and are recruiting beta testers to be involved in their development process. If you would like to sign up simply send Mary Gay a note at pr (at) markzware (dot) com.

See their full line of products at: http://www.markzware.com