Last week I was reading an article in How Magazine, titled “An Irreversible Movement,” by David C. Baker. The article was actually two essays, one by Baker and one by Debbie Millman, with each author taking a different side on crowdsourcing and it’s impact on design and designer’s. Baker had a quote within his essay about design being a commodity

Design is or (soon will be) approaching commodity status, but the management of the design process is difficult, misunderstood, and undervalued.

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Structures, specifically patterns and textures, are used to differentiate one form from another and a form from it’s surrounding space. They also add interest, depth, and a sense of realism to your design. They can be added to individual forms or to the space around forms and they are created through organized or random structuring of elements.
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Last weekend I finally bought an iPad (at least for me as I write this. 2 weekends ago as you’re reading) and thought I’d share some initial thoughts about using it so far as well as some thoughts about how I can see myself using it a few months down the line.
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Last week we looked at zero and one dimensional elements, namely the point or dot and the line. This week we’ll add a couple of dimensions and talk about surfaces and planes (2D) and then move on to volumes (3D). Throughout we’ll consider the ideas of visual mass and weight.
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A few weeks ago Amber Weinberg wrote a post for Freelance Folder on Learning How to Freelance without Clients. It’s a topic that’s frequently on my mind and it’s the post that inspired me to write this series about running a freelance business.
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When it comes to working with elements in a design we have two basic classes to work with. We have positive forms and negative space. The most basic form we can use is the abstract point or it’s concrete sibling the dot. We can build up points or dots so they become lines which is our second most basic element.
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Last week I offered some thoughts about getting started as a freelancer. Today I want to talk a little about growing your business once you’ve managed to get things running. Two main things we’ll talk about are cultivating a client list and how to price your services.
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Last week I walked through some definitions of visual grammar. We talked about objects and structures, both abstract and concrete, as well as activities and relations. These objects and structures make up most of the design elements we have at our disposal.
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One of the questions I’m often asked is how I got started working for myself. How did I pick up clients early on. It’s something I’ve written about in the past, but also something I know people are interested in learning. Recently I was asked the question again by David of prova.fm who’s a reader here as well as a member of my small business forum.

I thought I’d share what I said to David and add a few more thoughts about my own story getting started in the hopes they can help someone just starting out on the road to a freelancing business.
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I often use the phrase “visual design” when describing what we do as web designers. Recently I came across what I think is better phrase, “communication design.” When we design and build websites our goal is usually to communicate something to an audience.

Communication requires language. That language can be aural as in the spoken word, it can be gestural as in sign language, or it can be visual as in design. The more you understand any language the better you can communicate using that language. The visual language of design is no exception.
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