As a graphic designer myself, I know the benefits of casual studio work, the kind of work that keeps studios alive, not the most attractive, usually referred to, in designer terms, as ‘bread and butter’ work.
In the bread and butter work of the Graphic world takes the form of regular, head down, non-award winning pants: daily statistical sheets, club newsletters, monthly reports, stationery updates, shopping mall news papers and price catalogs, with all the weekly bargains.
Creative Services
These are just a few examples of what keeps us in business; we are also happy to pass on this work to juniors or ‘newby’; a regular job that brings in maybe 80% of the year’s revenue, for the average design studio. This job is quick to complete, least mindful, and billable and paid for within 30 days. Bread and butter jobs don’t just exist in the ‘offline’ world, as many of my fellow designers have discovered with the introduction of the Internet.
Even though websites are becoming smarter, many graphic designers are becoming aware of how to control and create them. As with the introduction of computers to the world of design, everyone becomes an instant designer, “give me a computer and I’ll design my own flyer,” said the entrepreneur. It lasted about a year, when graphic designers started to take back banners and entrepreneurs became clients again. You can only pick up so many identical flyers. The graphic designer has now become the new ‘web designer’. Web graphics programs have evolved from web editors, they are easier to use, with abundant web support software and technical assistance. This leaves the creative spirit as unimportant, ‘once again’.
Graphic Design
Graphic designers produce master pieces, all they have to do is learn about ‘media’, in this case, the Internet, the Web, software, programming and more. Once the technical side has been mastered (these days you don’t have to be the main-framer), creativity takes over, as new artists are introduced to oil paints, watercolors, wood, metal, coke cans, urinals, and six-inch nails, to the first time.
Masterpieces have come and gone, and now the world of Graphic and Web design looks very similar. You still have so much of a chance to shine, that 20% of studio jobs may still win your award, and 80% will still pay for electricity, rent, pub lunch, Friday beer, accountants and cleaners.
Growth! Your studio has a blue chip graphic designer working at 20%; Graphic Designers trainees and juniors working on bread and butter 80%; You now have an extension built into the studio for the second design team. Your blue chip web designer works on 20% web design; and web designer and junior trainees updating data, adjusting editorials, correcting web pages, fixing broken links and uploading new graphics.
With the right web hosting partner, offering your studio the right amount of bandwidth and web space, with instant access, you’ll be able to knock out the ‘bread and butter’ of web work at speeds and at a price that will allow you to keep your web clients happy, regular, and regular.
With one account, password access to different domains, and 24/7 access, you can get the studio done and all the work at home. Your trainee or junior can download a webpage, fix a mistake, update a price or figure, change the chart, then upload it again, ready to view, in a matter of minutes.
Imagine your 60 offline bread and butter clients, matched in the studio by 60 online bread and butter clients.