5 simple ways to make time for your passion projects
When business is booming, personal projects sometimes take a back seat. Here’s how to find more creative me-time within your design career.
Client briefs are pouring in, the phone’s ringing and the inbox is buzzing, Good problems, right?
It’s fantastic to have plenty of work coming in, but a flurry of briefs can often stop you from working on those personal projects that you’re really passionate about – whether that’s trying out a new medium, or just working on something super-creative for the joy of it.
Fortunately, you can prioritize your clients while staying connected to your personal work. Here’s 5 simple ways to make room in your day for both.
1. Get inspiration on tap
Keep one eye on your personal inspiration sources by turning your social channels into mini fountains of creative joy. Set up an feed on Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit or anywhere you habitually check in every day, and curate it with content to fire up your imagination. That way, you can always stay connected to what inspires you.
Following artists and designers is a definite win, but why stop there? Quotations from authors you love, news stories, fashion and interiors, landscapes or even Insta-famous puppies could all be the secret sauce that sends your creative right-brain in the direction of its next masterpiece.
2. Try micro-learning
Want to develop your knowledge but don’t have time to study? We hear you. How about a ten-minute tutorial video? Or a five-minute TED talk? Bite-sized learning isn’t only convenient, in fact, some say that with human attention spans shrinking, it could even be a more effective way to learn than traditional methods.
When time is short, you need to make your activities count. There’s more on how to fit your passion projects around paid work in our guide to 6-11 working.
3. Get into the rhythm
Making something a part of your daily routine is one of the surest ways to form a habit, and to make sure it happens even when your schedule is tight. That’s why developing a daily practice that’s focused on your own creative work is a great way to keep energy flowing into your personal projects.
Identify a creative practice that you know you enjoy – it could be sketching, modelling, vector drawing or something else entirely – and slot it into your daily routine. It can be a short session, but the important part is to do it regularly and at the same time. Lifehack.org recommends repeating a practice every day for 30 days to turn it into a habit.
4. Find your creative community
There’s strength in numbers, and that’s especially true when it comes to making, doing and designing. Linking up with a creative community can be a fantastic way to nurture your personal projects, and maybe even cross-pollinate them with other people’s ideas and skill sets.
Do some research online to find out whether there are meetups or drop-in groups in your local community. If not, you could always set one up yourself and add community organizing to your resume as a bonus benefit). You can also connect with fellow design professionals online using social networks and groups. Design-specific member sites like Behance, or a professional association like the Graphic Artists Guild are both good places to start.
For more on finding your creative tribe, check out our post on joining guilds and societies.
5. Define your personal and professional brands
Maybe your professional specializm is – or has turned out to be – something quite different to your personal passion. One way to make the most of this is to treat the two things as separate brands. By doing this, you’re not just telling the world there’s more than one string to your bow. You’re also giving yourself more structure and making a defined space in your life for personal work
Maybe your day job involves making infographics or designing diagrams for corporate clients, but in your heart is a penchant for psychedelic illustration and wild color. Give both of your design personas a distinct brand (including website, socials and your online portfolio, if you choose) and commit to spending a set period of your time on each.
Of course, there’s also a benefit to combining your different styles in a single portfolio to show your versatility. But if you’re working in a way that seems to be pulling you in two directions, multiple brands could be the way forward. You could try both approaches and see what works best for you and your clients.
Hectic schedule? Recharge with a bit of self-care time.
Stock images aren’t all generic photos of people in suits shaking hands. Here’s how to find the gems in a stock image library – and make them truly reflect your brand.
With the right eye and a few savvy search skills, a good library image can be a true asset to your design project. And it can save you and your clients a lot of money if the alternative is hiring a photographer.
Whether you’re working directly from a stock image site or using a selection that clients have provided, we’ve got tips to help you make stock pictures look natural, professional and unique, while avoiding a few common hiccups.
1. Look out for the competition
Step into your client’s shoes when browsing a potential image and give it an eagle-eyed once-over to make sure it doesn’t portray any competitor products or technologies. Look out for brand colors (even if the logos are blurred) and distinctive product shapes or designs. Yes, we are thinking of a certain iconic brand with a silvery-colored fruit-themed laptop…
2. Keep it local
Stock images come from all around the world, which is one reason they’re so numerous and varied. When you’re picking out a photo for a client, make sure the picture’s content is in line with the rules and customs for their territory.
Currency is an obvious one – you wouldn’t give a US client an image of people at a cafe where the prices are in euros. Weather is another one to watch – skip the sun-drenched Californian snaps when working for a client based in snowy Stockholm.
Finally, if there are vehicles or road markings in the picture, check which side of the road cars are driving on and whether they’re left-hand or right-hand drive. For most of the world cars keep to the right and drivers are on the left of the car, but in Australia, India, the UK and a few other places, these rules are reversed.
Quick trick: sometimes a single image can be cropped in different ways to give you a set of pictures with complementing colour and theme. Great for maintaining consistency within a small project.
3. Be brand-savvy
Many companies have brand guidelines related to imagery, and hopefully you’ve had the chance to check these out along with examples from their website and printed materials.
But sometimes there are unwritten rules too, based on individual preferences or strategic priorities within their business. If possible, see if you can grab a chat with a friendly in-house designer or brand executive to get a deeper sense of what look and feel they prefer.
Some stock images are processed and have a heavily stylized, filtered look. Whether you use these is an area worth checking with your client before you start your selection process. On the one hand, they’re in keeping with modern trends. (Hi, Instagram!) On the other, they may not be a fit for your client’s brand, and if they are, there’s probably a rule about things like color temperature, vignetting, and saturation.
4. Keep the stock cliches at bay
You probably don’t need us to tell you that overly posed images aren’t going to look great. For most clients, it’s best to avoid people looking directly at the camera or sporting a facial expression that has no relationship to what they’re doing – such as the infamous ‘women laughing alone with salad’.
Symbolic cliches, those images that have been staged to help illustrate an abstract concept, are best approached with caution too. For example, the crossroads sign to indicate making choices, the piggy bank as a shorthand for savings, or the businessperson with a megaphone to represent communication issues in the workplace.
5. Work those keywords
There’s a special art to finding the images you want from a large stock library. The search terms you use can really make the difference between hours of scouring and a quick decision-making process. Using a ‘long tailed’ search, with multiple keywords, will help you narrow down a search quickly. You can also choose to exclude certain keywords, which can be as important as what you leave in.
Finally, make full use of the stock image site’s filters when you start to search. On the larger sites these can be impressively detailed, covering everything from image orientation to aspect ratio, country of origin or number of people featured.
6. Use all your senses to find pictures that pop
Texture and sensory cues can be powerful in stock images, Whether you’re designing an event flyer, an email graphic, a webpage or a Business Card. A snuggly-looking blanket, a fresh vase of flowers or a luscious-looking dessert will generate positive associations. And on the flipside, photos taken in dated or cheap-looking interiors, or posed with unappealing props can make an image that’s otherwise right feel wrong to your client.
Quick trick: Always choose the highest resolution available within your budget. This will give you lots of options for zooming and cropping the image, and will make sure you avoid the dreaded pixelated look.
For more smart tips on photography, try our guide to taking great product photos.
When you’re new to interviewing candidates, there can be nerves on both sides of the table. Here’s how to get the best out of that crucial first conversation.
Whether you’re getting ready to hire your first employee or you’re taking on interviewing as part of a new job role, the first time can feel a little overwhelming. Fortunately, you can get off to a confident start with just a little forward planning.
1. Set your goals beforehand
An interview is a tiny window into another person’s professional life. When you’re peeking through it, you need to know what you’re looking for. You can’t really get to know that person in the space of an hour or less, so you need to focus on a few specific goals.
As well as the competency and experience side of things, which you should already have a sense of from their application and resume, you’re looking for the emotional and social factors, i.e. the stuff you can only really explore face to face.
Jot down a list of things you want to achieve, from the specific, like ‘find out about the project they did on x’ to the general, e.g. ‘feel sure if they would fit into the sales team’.
2. Warm up gently with resume-based questions
At this point you’ve already read up on the candidate, so you know roughly how their career has panned out so far. What an interview can help you to do is dig deeper into the areas you’re interested in and clear up any questions.
These kind of questions, such as ‘tell me more about your time in X role’ can be handy ice-breakers to start the interview off with and make you both feel more at ease with each other. By making them feel more comfortable, you’ll get the best out of them and make the interview as valuable as possible.
Background-based questions can help you gauge the person’s understanding of their current company’s business goals and how their work fits in, which will show you how strategic their thinking is and whether they’re commercially-minded. For example, ‘how does your work help your company stay ahead of the competition?’
Choose just two or three resume-based questions. That way you can avoid rehashing what you already know or covering areas that aren’t relevant to the role.
3. Align your questions to the job description
Your candidate has already read the job description and will (hopefully) have prepared some answers based on it.
As with the resume, your aim is not just to recap what’s already down on paper, but to dig deeper and sound out any potential gaps between their experience and what you need. For example:
‘We’re looking for x, and I noticed you don’t have any direct experience of that. Can you tell me how you’d approach that challenge?’
Talking about the job description can also be a good prompt for them to ask you any questions about the role.
‘What did you find most appealing about the job description? Are there any areas you’d like more information on?’
4. Consider competency-based questions
The competency-based question can be a useful tool, and thanks to its popularity your candidate may well have prepared some answers based on this format, too.
By asking ‘tell me about a time when…’ you’re getting them to not just tell you about their experience, but prove how they’ve used their abilities in a specific real-world situation similar to what pops up in your own business.
Competency-based questions can also help you delve into their personality and style of working – for example how well they operate as part of a team, whether they thrive under pressure, or if they prefer novel challenges vs. order and routine.
Some handy competency-based question structures:
- ‘Tell me about a time…’
- ‘Give me an example…’
- ‘What’s the most x situation you’ve ever been in?’
- ‘What was your biggest challenge during x role?’
From a candidate’s perspective, this type of question can be stressful to answer, so unless you want to really grill them, try mixing these up with other question styles.
5. Notice the non-verbal
You can take it as a given that there will be some nerves flying around, so your candidate’s body language won’t necessarily be in their normal range. However, it’s worth looking out for things like:
- Eye contact – are they making it? This is really important, especially if the role involves dealing with customers or suppliers.
- They look relaxed but engaged – open body language – and leaning in slightly too – is a really positive sign that your candidate is keen and actively listening
- Taking notes – is your interviewee scribbling away? This shows that they value the information you’re giving them and are genuinely interested.
As The Balance points out, this kind of observation isn’t limited to the interview room. The reception staff, or whoever greets the candidate when they come in, can also note how the candidate comes across. Are they smiley and friendly when they sign in?
6. Keep an open mind
Although it’s important to listen to your gut, the decisions you make about employing someone have to be about more than a personal preference. You’re interviewing on behalf of your company, so it’s important to stay objective and focused on what they can offer the business.
As Talentlens explains, we have certain innate biases when we meet people, and first impressions made on an emotional or subconscious basis can skew the whole interview. That’s why it’s a really good idea to invite your candidate back for another chat with someone else after a positive first round.
7. Make sure it’s a culture fit
While your company may be in the early stages of growth, it’s important to start thinking about what your company culture will be. Will your first employer mesh well with others as you grow? Do they fit in with the brand values you’ve put in place?
Save your competency questions for the first round interview, which should determine if the the candidate is right for the job. If all goes well, then schedule a second round interview specifically for a culture interview. This could be an informal setting where you just chat with the candidate about their interests outside of work or what their sense of humor is like, for example. When people feel more comfortable in the interview process, it can give you a better indication of how they will fit in once they join your team.
Once you’ve found your perfect match, why not welcome them to the gang with an amazing onboarding experience?
Help your company stand out as a great place to work so you can attract – and hire – the best and brightest talent for your team.
First things first – what is an employer brand?
In short, your employer brand is how you’re perceived as a place to work in the eyes of potential job candidates.
It’s closely related to the idea of employee experience, but with employer branding, you’re keeping an eye on outward perception of your company, not just the wellbeing of the people already working there.
As an employer, you have public visibility – which means you already have an employer brand. But building a strong one is all about taking ownership of what’s already there and using it to your advantage.
How is it different from a ‘normal’ brand?
Your employer brand forms part of your overall brand identity and ties in with it closely, but the strategic emphasis is a little different.
Instead of thinking about external audiences who may want to do business with your company, focus on people who may want to work for you. Working at your company is the product, and they’re your customers.
When you develop your employer brand, you enhance and promoting the things you have to offer as an employer, from the quality of your canteen to the salary benefits and work-life balance your staff enjoy.
Employer brand touchpoints
Like your company brand, your employer brand will come across in every aspect of your business. But there are certain points where it can really make or break a hire, and it’s worth focusing your efforts here.
Pay special attention to your employer brand:
When writing job ads
Make sure your job ad isn’t just a list of requirements and benefits. Instead, make it a taster for life in your company. Describe the kind of job satisfaction your staff experience, the pace of work and the team dynamic to help candidates picture working for you.
You can also include some small but vivid details like the sunny office, the range of backgrounds in the team, or staff events like lunches and away-days. If you have a company tone of voice guide, you can add a section with tips on how to write job ads and other employer brand content.
When designing the application process
Your online application process needs to be as smooth and stress-free as possible. If you use an online application form, look out for UX stumbling blocks like mandatory questions or character limits that could frustrate candidates and cause drop-outs.If you’re providing a contact for questions about the role, make sure that person is available and ready to answer emails and phone calls promptly, so that candidates can see you’re well-organized and easy to work with.
On the careers section of your website
This is your employer brand HQ, and you can use it to really expand on what you have to offer. Photos, videos, testimonials and case studies can all work well here.
On third-party sites
Make sure you’ve registered as an employer on career-focused sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn, where candidates will be researching you. Having a presence on third-party sites means you can answer any questions and respond to reviews.
Your social channels are also rich ground for employer brand building. You can post behind-the-scenes content, day-to-day employee experiences and early heads-ups on forthcoming vacancies.
At interviews
Your job interview process is a big part of your employer brand, and it’s probably the part most likely to stick in people’s minds when they apply for a role. If you’re friendly and welcoming, you follow up with feedback (even if the candidate wasn’t the right fit) and you’re respectful of their time and effort to attend, you’re on to a winner. Keeping candidates hanging around, cancelling and rearranging a lot or failing to answer follow-up emails are not so good for your brand.
Remember, the people who didn’t get the job will also have an impact on your employer brand. They’re likely to share their experiences with friends, colleagues and recruiters they talk to, which will all have a knock-on effect in how you’re perceived.
Ways to get it right
Make staff your stars
Authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to employer branding, and who better to paint a truthful picture than your existing staff members? They can act as ambassadors for your company on social media, provide testimonials and stories for your careers page, and be available to answer questions from potential candidates (e.g. on an Ask Me Anything page or a social media takeover.)
Actively seek feedback
Employee or candidate experience is like customer experience – it gets better based on the feedback you receive. Try following up interviews with a short online survey about the application experience, or make it part of your onboarding process for new hires.
Know your value
What makes you different from other companies? Knowing your strengths as an employer means you can play to them – both by promoting them to potential candidates, and developing your employment offering into something desirably unique.
For more on making your company a fabulous place to work, check out our guide to building your brand culture
The host of the first Friday Night Sketch at the Design Museum speaks to MOO about what inspires her bold and inclusive artwork.
Working from her studio in East London, illustrator Erin Aniker’s dual Turkish and British heritage has fuelled a fascination with the diverse narratives found across her home city.
Her bold designs portray strong individuals and voices, from Malala Yousafzai to forgotten Egyptian queens, tackling topics including human rights, animal testing and immigration.
Erin’s work has been commissioned for print, editorial and online by high-profile clients including Vice, Stylist Magazine and The Huffington Post. In November, she was asked to host the first Friday Night Sketch evening at The Design Museum, on the subject of home and identity.
We caught up with Erin to discuss the process of turning a passion for illustration into a full-time career, how her sense of identity inspires her work, and how she approaches her high-profile collaborations.
Tell us about your background. How did you get into illustration and design?
From a young age, I was taken to exhibitions, libraries and protest marches, and although my family had no connections in the creative industries, they encouraged me to be creative.
I studied art, including a BA in illustration, which helped me to develop my research skills and think more academically about how I could convey ideas and concepts through an illustration.
Unlike professions such as law or medicine, there isn’t a set way of getting a job or a career as an artist – you have to create your own path. When I graduated, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was going to do, so I drew in the evenings and at weekends to gradually build up a portfolio.
I started posting my work online on Instagram – which, along with The Dots platform, is great for attracting new clients – created a website, and met a lot of people through events in London.
Very slowly, I began to get the odd commission as an editorial illustrator, and I learned quickly on the job. It’s grown from there, and I eventually turned to full-time illustration this year.
In what ways have your dual Turkish and British heritage informed your evolution as an artist?
I grew up surrounded by Turkish and Iznik ceramics and textiles – you’ll often see the blues and purples echoed throughout my work – as well as a wide variety of films, music, posters and art from different countries. Being exposed to such a rich variety of art that echoes my dual heritage has been hugely influential.
I identify more as a Londoner than anything else, and I’ve always appreciated the inclusivity of London in terms of having a mix of people from different backgrounds, cultures and professions.
I’m very aware of wanting my illustrations to be inclusive of the many people that inhabit the world, and not focus on telling one type of narrative or on portraying one type of person.
My editorial illustrations portray a range of people; men, women, trans and non-binary and non-gender conforming people too. I think having roots in two cultures has helped shape this interest in learning about new cultures, heritages and people. I’m also trying to make sure I represent more body types and people without abled privilege in my work, too.
What’s your design process when working on collaborations?
My primary fascination is working with writers, journalists and artists to help bring their stories to life through my illustrations. That’s the thing I love most about illustration – you aren’t telling someone’s story for them, you’re working with them to figure out how best to illustrate it.
This collaborative process – coming up with the concept for an illustrator and the direction it’s taking – is one of my favorites, as the actual drawing process can be quite solitary.
I’m happy to illustrate a wide range of topics and issues, including those I have no personal interest in. It can be just as rewarding and interesting to research and come up with a concept for something you know nothing about, alongside those issues you’re really passionate about.
I usually start off with a few pencil sketches, like visual brainstorming. Then I pick the concept I think is the strongest, and do some more sketches to refine the concept, before drawing it from scratch using my Wacom drawing tablet.
You recently hosted the first Friday Night Sketch at The Design Museum. In what ways does the subject, ‘home and identity,’ resonate with you?
It’s something I’ve always explored, possibly inspired by coming from two different heritages, identities and ‘homes’ myself. Although I think it’s mostly something to celebrate, it can sometimes leave you feeling a bit confused.
I’m really interested in understanding and discussing this concept with people, as I think immigration can quite literally cause your sense of home and identity to shift.
In today’s current climate of ‘othering’, I wanted to create a safe space where people felt comfortable to talk about and explore their identity and ideas of home.
As a freelance artist, how do you structure your day?
No day is ever the same. I might be completely swamped with deadlines, so I have to barricade myself in my studio for a bit. But generally speaking, I’ll usually reply to any urgent emails and do some admin first thing, before having breakfast and writing my to-do list for the day.
Then I’ll do some research for whatever I’m working on – usually a mix of online and physical reference materials, such as art books and magazines – and spend the bulk of my afternoon sketching and drawing.
I try and go for a run in the afternoon and meet up with friends and family some evenings, as otherwise I can feel like a bit of a hermit! Some days that’s nice – but definitely not every day.
What’s your favorite project to date?
There are so many, but it would probably be some of my illustrations with Broadly Vice, which I worked on with [author and editor] Zing Tsjeng. It was a series about women who are often forgotten throughout history, including [Persian queen] Amastris, amongst many others!
I’m currently working on a personal body of work which I’m planning for an exhibition in 2019, and on a print for Amnesty for an art auction with Riposte Magazine to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the declaration of human rights which will run from 10-16th December at Coal Drops Yard.
Looking for more inspiring stories? Meet Luke Tonge: the man behind Birmingham Design Festival
Designer Luke Tonge speaks to MOO about how his quest for meaningful work led to the foundation of the Birmingham Design Festival in the UK.
Describing himself as a ‘Brum-based, shorts-wearing, type-loving freelance graphic designer-at-large,’ Luke Tonge grew up with a passion for his craft, nourished by popular culture.
But when he entered the work scene he didn’t find it ‘satisfying for the soul.’ So, after ten years getting his creative fix through side projects, he took the plunge into freelancing to embrace more meaningful work. This venture led to him founding the first-ever Birmingham Design Festival, which saw almost 7,000 events tickets sold.
Here, Luke discusses how his pursuit for meaning led to bigger things, and the challenge of enticing hundreds of designers to a first-time festival in the UK Midlands.
How did you get into graphic design?
I’ve been designing for as long as I can remember, and grew up fascinated by a melting pot of visual stimuli – Asterix cartoons, the Bill and Ted movies, skate and BMX culture, Drive-Thru Records-era pop-punk… It all fed my desire to be a graphic designer.
After I’d landed my first job and found my feet in the industry, I began pursuing more creatively rewarding side projects. I spent almost a decade working for international brands at large agencies, while working on editorial and brand-identity jobs for friends, charities and small businesses.
Those ten years taught me so much – but eventually, I realized no number of side projects could compensate for the imbalance I felt. So I quit my job to focus on more meaningful work.
You now lead workshops, give lectures, and offer design consultancy to brands. Do you feel it’s important to give back to the design community?
I never planned to be in this position at this stage in my career, where most of my week is spent focussing on other designers. But it’s hugely important to find what makes you feel good – and for me, that means teaching, lecturing, and nurturing young designers for most of my week, plus event planning and a bit of design work when I can.
I know it’s a cliché that every designer is their own worst client, and we’re often too busy to give our own portfolios the attention they deserve. But I think kindness is hugely underrated as a trait, and I’d love to think something of my personality manages to sneak into how I operate professionally.
Tell us about your role in co-founding the Birmingham Design Festival.
I’m fortunate enough to be part of a group of creatives here in Birmingham who are keen to make stuff happen. One of those leading the charge is my friend, the designer Dan Alcorn, who approached me early in 2017 to see what I thought about his idea for a Design Festival for Birmingham.
He had a really clear vision of the kind of event he wanted it to be: a city-wide celebration for and of the city itself. I didn’t take much convincing, and we pooled our energy, contacts and resources and put together a dream team of around ten incredibly talented local designers and friends to help make it happen. We spoke to all the event founders and organizers we knew, who were incredibly helpful in letting us learn from their experience.
How did you promote the festival?
Promotion was very important to us, as we knew we had a lot of venues to fill, and none of us had attempted to put on an event of this scale before. Plus we worried the demand for a design festival wasn’t as great as we hoped it would be.
We used every connection and promotional tool at our disposal, from promoted posts on social media and using outdoor media spaces in Birmingham, to Flyers, ‘zines and Postcards.
As a group of practicing designers speaking to a very design-savvy audience, it was important to present ourselves well, and to flex our creative muscles, so we had a team of designers working on our branding and promotional materials.
Branding the festival well was absolutely key, so we tasked brand identity designers Ash O’Brien of Two of Us and Paul Felton of Common Curiosity with creating a flexible design system that felt rooted in Birmingham. What emerged was a modern take on the craft heritage the city is famous for, with a hallmark system of carrier shapes we could use in endless configurations.
How did having a memorable leave-behind like a Business Card help you make a lasting impression?
We interacted with so many vendors, speakers and designers, many of whom complimented us on our consistency and presentation. It was something we could use to our advantage, and being able to quickly connect via a Business Card was also crucial.
I’ve used MOO cards for many years – previously MiniCards, and more recently Gold Foil Business Cards, which are both tactile and eye-catching. I’ve had a great response, with clients often taking the time to pick their favorite design, which is the benefit of Printfinity.
I made use of the painted textures of artist Jim LePage, as they embody a lot of what my work is concerned with – attention-grabbing color and tactile finishes.
What did the first festival look like – and what’s next?
It was as big and bold as we dared dream it could be – almost 100 speakers came to Birmingham, and over four days we held 95 talks and over 30 workshops, exhibitions and events.
We attracted some of the very best names in the industry, achieved speaker diversity – which was very important to us – and learned plenty of lessons along the way. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, much of the program was free. Too many design conferences price out the audiences who need to attend them the most, so we’re happy to be bucking that trend, as well as showing off some of Birmingham’s eclectic and beautiful buildings.
We’re doing it over again in June 2019, with a few tweaks, including encouraging other people to put on events in partnership with the festival. They’ll all benefit from our audience and atmosphere.
Spread the word about your personal projects with Business Cards, made personal with Printfinity.
Consultants aren’t just for big businesses. From building your skills base to giving you a competitive edge, they can be a huge help to small companies too.
1. Seasoned support for leadership
Although you might be the head honcho of your start-up, the chances are you’re a beginner compared to some of the old hands out there in the business world. With your team looking to you for knowledge, bringing in a consultant can be a way to access high-level advice and support, as and when you need it.
Consultants with years of experience will have come across issues issues similar to what you’re facing, whether it’s HR challenges, expanding into a new market niche or negotiating with suppliers.
Bringing in a rent-a-mentor is a bit different from developing a mentorship relationship organically, because you’re hiring the person rather than teaming up with them. But you never know, it could evolve into that kind of partnership if the fit is right. Either way, it’s a great opportunity to pick the brains of someone who knows their way around the territory your small business is exploring.
2. Specialist skills development
Hire an expert to teach your staff how to do that one special thing really, really well. It could be time management, it could be social media, it could be basket-weaving. The point is that by bringing in expert help, you can accelerate your team’s learning to guru level, even if your business itself is relatively young.
By bringing in a consultant, you can import years and years of experience without paying out a heavyweight salary that may be beyond your long-term budget. It also gives you flexibility – you can cherry-pick the specific skill you want to seed within your team, and then change things up once the goal is achieved.
3. A fresh pair of eyes
One of the most well-known benefits of hiring a consultant is their ability to look at your business processes and challenges with an outside perspective. With a trained eye and an objective position, they can pick up on things you may not be aware of when you’re in the thick of things.
If you’re using a consultant’s services in this way, it’s a good idea to be focused about what you want to achieve – in concrete ROI terms if possible. Coming to a consultant with a specific goal or challenge means you can work out a plan together and agree on specific deliverables like a boost in sales, an increase in brand awareness or a more cost-efficient logistics process.
4. Auditing and benchmarking
Along with that fresh pair of eyes comes an awareness of the wider world beyond your company. A consultant can help assess how you’re doing compared to the standards of your industry, and bring in suggestions to help you become more competitive and take advantage of gaps in the market.
This could take the form of a period of observation followed by a report with recommendations, or a relationship where the consultant helps you to bring about change through their day-to-day work.
Choosing a consultant
Okay, so consultants are useful to have around – but how do you find the one that’s right for you?
When it comes to evaluating potential consultants, their experience, reputation and expertise are all crucial. Grasshopper.com has some handy tips on the practical nuts and bolts you need to think about when sifting through candidates.
You should also consider the personality traits that are important to you, and how well the person will fit in with your company culture. We’ve got some thoughts on what makes a great consultant to help you start the ball rolling.
Explore more new business tips with our guide to branding for start-ups
Our MOOcrew are pretty awesome. Wonder what it’s like to work at HQ? Take a peek behind the curtain at a day in the life of a MOOster…
Steve Turner
Hello, there. I’m Steve, Senior Designer at MOO. I’ve been here for around 5 years, and work on the company’s in-house creative team.
At MOO, I’m responsible for…
Creating the visual output for everything MOO, along with the rest of the creative team.
I got my role at MOO by…
Applying for a far more senior design role, fresh-ish from University, a LONG time ago.
My morning routine is…
I’m one of those morning exercise people, so I eat breakfast at my desk while checking emails and seeing what I have planned to work on for the day, all while chatting to the team and drinking coffee number 2 of the day.
A typical working day is…
Days at MOO are very varied and collaborative. The creative team here act as an agency to the brand, delivering solutions for every department’s creative needs, from social media videos to product launches and campaigns.
There is a lot of art direction and conceptual thinking needed for photography and animation, as well as set-building and prop-sourcing/making.
Then there’s the physical stuff: sample packs of our products, direct mail pieces to send to our customers or printed collateral for the events we host around the world.
Our team are lucky to be able to work across both digital and print and we have huge amounts of fun doing it.
Something people don’t know about my role is…
I rarely design business cards, which is what everyone assumes when you are a designer at MOO.
My proudest moment at MOO was…
No single moment stands out, but having such an involvement in building the brand’s visual identity into how it looks today, compared to how it did 5 years ago is definitely up there.
The thing I like most about working at MOO is…
The people I work with. The MOO culture in general is great, but the Creative team in particular are like a second family.
On the weekend, you’ll find me…
Eating, working up a sweat and exploring London.
If I wasn’t doing this as a career, I’d be…
I’d be a barber (I still have aspirations to have this string to my bow)/a shoe designer.
The best career advice I’ve ever been given…
Work hard and be nice to people (Okay I didn’t get given this directly but…).
Stay tuned. We’ll keep hosting guest blogs from one of our crew across the business to tell you what it’s really like to work at MOO HQ. Up next, we’ve got Marcus, our Software Engineer I.
Want to join our #MOOCrew? Check out our current vacancies
Our MOOcrew are pretty awesome. Wonder what it’s like to work at HQ? Take a peek behind the curtain at a day in the life of a MOOster…
Amanda Champion
Hey there! I’m Amanda, PR Manager at MOO, and I’ve been here since March 2016. My role sits within the larger Communications Team, comprising of PR, Social Media and Content.
At MOO, I’m responsible for…
Managing relationships and activities with journalists across the globe and keeping them as excited about MOO as we are, on a daily basis. We mainly work across local, regional and national newspapers, magazines, influential online news sites and sometimes even on TV!
I got my role at MOO by…
Doing a degree in PR at University and lots of work experience in all sorts of PR environments. I also worked for a UK retailer for just under two years before coming to MOO.
My morning routine is…
I have a beautiful walk over the River Thames to the MOO office while listening to the radio and then I make the most of the free MOO breakfast (a hard decision to choose what to have). I also check in on the news of the day and have a catch up with my awesome team before starting work
A typical working day is…
Speaking to journalists/reporters about MOO (our products, culture and leadership team). Working on our limited edition product campaigns, liaising with influencers, designers and a few partnerships, and setting up interview slots for our leadership team
Something people don’t know about my role is…
We often have to work to crazy deadlines. A lot of the time, journalists contact us for a comment or an interview with our someone from our leadership team and you can have just a few hours to turn all of that around. It can be crazy fast, but we live off of the buzz!
My proudest moment at MOO is…
I have lots of proud moments, which usually involve seeing MOO somewhere awesome – having our Chief People Officer interviewed by the BBC and that slot being on global TV was pretty cool. Also completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge with 50 other MOOsters was incredible – so far we’ve raised a collective total of £25,000 for different charity causes!
The thing I like most about working at MOO is…
I feel trusted to get on with my job in a way that works for me, and I can truly be myself at work. Everyone is super supportive and working towards the same goal. People say hi, and everyone is just generally lovely. And they like to feed us, a lot…
On the weekend, you’ll find me…
spending time with friends and family or catching up on countless TV shows. I’m very lucky to have amazing friends and family and try to see them as much as I can. I’m currently half way through about 5 different series, so it’s pretty hard to pick which one to start again!
If I wasn’t doing this as a career, I’d be…
For years I wanted to be a teacher but then when I was old enough to watch murder dramas I wanted to be a detective – but without going through the ranks (I wanted to jump straight there). Then my mum told me that wasn’t possible so I looked for other avenues! I also really wanted to be a forensic scientist but I’m pretty squeamish so that was a no-go.
The best career advice I’ve ever been given…
“PR not ER”. Sometimes it’s hard to not let things get to you, especially with super tight deadlines, but at the end of the day the world will still turn tomorrow!
Stay tuned. We’ll be hosting a guest blog every week from one of our crew across the business to tell you what it’s really like to work at MOO HQ. Up next, we’ve got Steve, our Senior Designer.
Want to join our #MOOCrew? Check out our current vacancies.
Whether your online portfolio is a bespoke website or an out-of-the-box profile, improving its UX will make it easier for potential clients to see your work.
The purpose of any portfolio is to show off your skills and creative potential. Your work is the star of the show, but to make it truly shine, you need to create a website experience that’s easy and enjoyable for visitors. With well thought-out navigation, concise and meaningful labels, straightforward menus and clear calls to action, you can make sure anyone using your portfolio can explore easily and see the whole breadth of your work (and hopefully make a commission).
Here are some tips to help you create a thoroughly user-friendly portfolio – without hiring in a UX expert.
Organize your portfolio from a visitor’s point of view
Step into your customer’s shoes when thinking about your portfolio’s navigation and menu items. What is this person’s goal? What brought them to your portfolio in the first place? They may be short of time, so make the most of their visit by keeping things clean, clear and straightforward. That way, you’ve made it super-easy for them to make a decision about working with you, and given them a positive experience at the same time.
They might be looking through a lot of portfolios and facing time pressure to make decisions, so if your site is hard to navigate or it’s not obvious how to get around, they may leave the page before seeing what you have to offer.
Most users spend only a few seconds on a website, so the first impression is crucial. Put your best work up front on the portfolio landing page rather than saving it for a big finale, and make your menu labels clear and straightforward in an easy-to-read font. This will help people find what they’re looking for faster.
Write menu text that’s clean, clear and appealing
Your navigation menu is the main route into your portfolio, whether you use tiles, buttons or a navigation bar as your layout.
Choose menu categories that create a balanced overview of your work – you could arrange your menu according to client names, techniques and skills used, or the role you played on a project. Include a variety of projects and styles to showcase your range of experience and versatility. .
Play to your strengths here – if you’ve got a lot of different projects but only one or two client names, go for project names or art styles as your main categories.
Whatever approach you choose, don’t overwhelm your visitors with too many menu items as they might have difficulty choosing where to look first. Orbit Media recommends a maximum of seven links on a main page, but if you only need five, that’s even better.
Tag your work strategically
If you have a big catalogue of work, you can give your portfolio items tags to help keep things organized and allow visitors to explore your site more freely. If your portfolio setup allows it – most big online platforms do – people can click directly on an item’s tags to see other portfolio pages with the same identifier.
Tagging is also the backbone of great on-site search, so if your portfolio is part of an online community site, or even if you’re hosting it yourself and have a search bar, take some time to think about your tag strategy.
Tags that are too general don’t help narrow down the content, but if they’re too specific, they won’t include enough items to be worthwhile. Strike a balance by choosing tags that describe an aspect that several items share, but that isn’t used anywhere else in your navigation to group them together. For example, if your menu is organized by client name, tags like graphic design, typography and branding’ can give visitors who are interested in specific areas a more focussed way to explore your work.
Although impromptu hashtag-bombing is fine for Instagram, where content only appears in the short-term, website tags need to be used consistently to work well. Stick to a predefined set of tags and look out for spelling errors and different forms of words – for example, ‘collage’ ‘collage-making’ and ‘collages’ should all be standardized into a single tag.
Create compelling calls to action
The call to action is the text, button or link that prompts your visitor to do something – whether that’s watching a video,, buying a print of your work, or writing you a message.
Depending on your page design, you could put a call to action on each individual portfolio item as well as your ‘Contact’ page, or add it to a persistent element like the menu or sidebar so it’s always at hand whichever page your visitor is looking at.
Each call to action should be direct and straightforward, giving the visitor a single instruction to follow. Try putting the outcome before the task, so the benefit is what they see first. For example,
‘to request a limited edition Sticker set, email me’ sounds a bit more inviting than ‘email me to request a limited edition Sticker set’.
Keep visitors clicking with related recommendations
Move your visitors smoothly through your portfolio with thumbnail images showing work that’s related to the image they’re looking at. These can be used as well as a call to action, so you’re catering to people who want to continue browsing as well as those who are ready to get in touch with you.
For example, under an image that shows a digital illustration project you’ve done for a restaurant, you could place links to other food industry client projects, other digital illustrations, or projects that use related style or techniques.
Fancy some more portfolio inspiration? Online portfolios and printed versions make an unbeatable team. Have your best work ready to show off and share in person with a pocket-sized portfolio like these beauties.
Our MOOcrew are a pretty awesome bunch. Wonder what it’s like to work at HQ? Take a peek into a day in the life of a MOOster…
Sidi Jow
Hey, all! My name is Sidi and I’m an Engineering Manager here at MOO, and I’ve been at the company for just over a year now.
At MOO, I’m responsible for…
Managing groups of (Software) Engineers that sit within larger multi-disciplinary teams. More broadly, my role involves supporting the growth and development of awesome cross-functional technology teams and building tech initiatives. My responsibilities include:
- Hiring & career development of engineers.
- Facilitating the creation of a positive inclusive work environment and fostering processes that enable the teams to be high functional (and generally awesome).
- Playing a strong supporting role to the other functions in the teams, such as Product Managers, Experience Designers & Agile Delivery Coaches.
- Initiating, owning and driving broader tech initiatives.
I got my role at MOO by …
Applying directly on MOO’s career page. The talent team got back to me the very next morning to kick off the process, and I was starting at MOO two months later.
My morning routine is…
Rolling out of bed and quickly scanning my emails to ensure nothing needs my immediate attention (e.g. absences due to sickness, overnight outages or urgent incidents).
Once I get into the office my morning routine is typically:
- Coffee and fruit at my desk whilst doing another sweep of emails to prioritise my day.
- Daily stand-ups with my teams and any other morning meetings in my calendar.
A typical working day is…
Varied and interesting. My typical day consists of meetings at various levels (tech management meetings, 1-2-1 meetings and team meetings), and also supporting tactical tech activities and driving broader tech initiatives. I’ll also spend time supporting engineers with development and coaching.
There’s lots more going on and lots to do as an Engineering Manager at MOO, which is a challenge … in a good way!
Something people don’t know about my role is…
Despite the fact that I was an engineer in a former life, my role does not involve hands-on technical delivery.
I do miss coding, but I’m highly motivated by the fact that I can add even more value as a manager by developing awesome engineers and superstar engineering teams. Besides, I still code in my personal time – I’m currently learning Swift.
My proudest moment at MOO is…
Volunteering to take on the role of Product Owner on top of my Engineering Manager responsibility during my first few months at MOO. It was challenging and stretching to step outside my comfort zone, but also very enjoyable. It gave gave me the rocket-fuel I needed to accelerate my growth and impact at MOO.
The thing I like most about working at MOO is…
Simple… the people. MOO is full of unique, friendly, talented and engaging people. I can honestly say I learn something new every day from somebody. Honourable mentions include:
- The strong set of values that drives everything MOO does
- MOO throws legendary parties!
At the weekend, you’ll find me…
Chilling out, catching up on TV series, reading, cooking, playing video games (currently playing God Of War on the PS4), coding, watching football, going to the gym or playing basketball.
If I wasn’t doing this as a career, I’d be…
An Astronaut, Marine Biologist, Doctor or a Ventriloquist (One of those isn’t true!).
The best career advice I’ve ever been given…
“Of course you can do it!”