As designers, we tend to get a lot of feedback about our design. How well that feedback is depends on who we're getting it from. Some people are great at giving feedback, and others are terrible. It's easy to get angry over bad feedback until the roles are reversed and we're the ones giving it. It's difficult to encourage someone to find their own way while not entirely turning their work into something from a mini version if yourself. So what does good design advice look like?

I've had my fair share of interesting client stories over the years. There's one I latched on to that I ended up laughing a bit at. I had a client who got excited about the design process and decided to try their hand at design alongside me. You can imagine my surprise sitting down for one of our regular status meetings and they walked in with a bunch of paper under their arms. On the paper was a variety of logo concepts. They didn't feel like they were getting their point across and decided that rather than hurting my feelings, this was the route to go. Most of the logos were a copy of ones they found via Google Images.

Whether you design full-time or part time, setting prices for your design services is a nerve-wracking task. You may have a good idea of what your value is and how much our design is valued. It's a fine line between finding good clients and clients who are happy to pay your rates.

One of the worst experiences I ever had as a graphic designer was when I had someone approached me who wanted a website created for them. They didn't only have a website they wanted to create, they had a specific website they wanted me to recreate: their competitors.

At some point or another, you might feel like you hit a rut. It's not burnout, but you don't feel like you're doing as well as you should be as a graphic designer.

As your design career progresses, you'll find a variety of resources that allow you to do better, quicker, and more efficient work. As this begins to grow, you begin to rely on it more and more. When you're starting out, it can be difficult figuring out where to go to build up your library of resources. So here's my list of resources!

This year marks 15 years since I last used a mouse with my computer. When I made the change then, a lot of people thought I was crazy for not wanting to use a mouse.

I still remember working with the first client who didn't see eye to eye with me on what the final design we were working on would look like. I wasn't freelancing—it was a studio job, and I didn't have much choice in working with them. All I could recall was vowing to “train” my clients moving forward to spare myself the frustration. A few failed attempts later, and I learned that clients aren't puppies. You can't train them like one.

Staying creative. It's one of those things as a designer that we're all tasked with doing. There's moments in our work day where we feel like there's nothing we can do wrong. Then there are the moments that drag on forever and feel like we don't have any good ideas left. As frustrating as it is, we do have to find ways to stay creative— after all we need to keep a roof over our heads. So what do you do to stay creative?

My ideal evening involves relaxing by myself or with close friends. I'm not the type who enjoys going out and being around a giant crowd of people all the time. If this sounds like you, and you freelance, you can likely relate to the difficulty this presents if you attend networking groups. It's difficult to walk in by yourself and not have the confidence to strike up a conversation with someone. At best, we find an extrovert buddy who can help break the ice and introduce us to a few new people.