In the last couple of years a lot of creatives have become very interested in a new alternative way of financing their creative projects or businesses: crowd funding. So, what is crowd funding? Crowd funding is a way to raise funding, often online or via the internet, by raising many small amounts of money from [...] Read more »
Book review: Creative Inc. by designer Meg Mateo for creative freelancers who like practical & nicely designed business books
Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business is aimed at people who want to start a creative freelancing career, mostly as a sole trader offering a creative service to clients e.g designers, photographers, stylists, illustrators, animators. It’s more aimed at creatives who are working from their own studio space [...] Read more »
6 questions explained if you want to use video to promote your craft or design business (with 3 videos)
We at The Design Trust love videos! They are a fantastic way to tell your story and explain what you do and why – with much more emotion and impact than any written blog post ever can achieve! The Design Trust are increasingly using video content as another, more creative and visual way to talk [...] Read more »
Professional tips to create images for your website, print & social media – a guest post by photographer Yeshen Venema
Yeshen Venema is a freelance photographer, specialising in product and lifestyle photography. Inspired by his mother (a photojournalist in 60’s Munich), he picked up his first Nikon 35mm aged 13 and continues to use traditional film alongside his digital work today. He has worked across Europe, shooting for documentary, landscape and education commissions and is [...] Read more »
Exclusive The Design Trust webinar: ‘Run a successful & confident training workshop’
Are you thinking about running craft or design workshops? Either in person, or online? To make more money? To share your passion, skills and knowledge? Do you want to run workshops but aren’t sure where to start? Are you currently running workshops but do you think that the organisation or marketing can be improved? Do [...] Read more »
3 simple steps to start selling your crafts online to Europe – a guest post by DaWanda
Azra Ahmed is the English Community Manager at DaWanda, the most popular online marketplace for makers in Europe. She is English and has worked with many designers from the UK who sell well domestically in the UK, but are completely daunted by the idea of selling overseas. She really enjoy showing them just how easy [...] Read more »
The Design Doctor: How to get the perfect picture
Dear Design Doctor I am struggling with photographing my work professionally for my online shop. Have you got any advice? Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust, answered this question as The Design Doctor in Crafts Magazine March/April 2013 where it was called ‘How to get the picture perfect’ (page 26): [...] Read more »
Exclusive Design Trust webinar: How to conquer your critical self, with Patricia van den Akker
Do you blame the lack of money or lack of time on not being more successful? (But you know deep down that these are just excuses …) Or are you a critical creative who thinks ‘that was ok, but it isn’t good enough (yet). Have to do better next time’ … Are your worries stopping [...] Read more »
Exclusive Design Trust webinar: ‘Stop procrastinating’ with Nicole Bachmann
When the going gets tough, the tough get going … and to run your own business you certainly need to be resistant. Easier said than done though, isn’t it? When there are so many things to do, so many opportunities presenting themselves and so many challenges to solve, it’s easy to fall into one of [...] Read more »
How to get into the press if you haven’t got any news? 9 creative ideas by design journalist Serena Fokschaner
Serena Fokschaner is a design and interiors journalist who has contributed to and worked for a range of titles including The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Homes & Gardens, Selvedge, Brides etc. She has interviewed countless small businesses for her work and so knows first-hand the challenges of getting your story in to the media. It [...] Read more »