#to save yourself the headache when you do the final formatting/create the pdf

[majicmarker]

word docs my nemesis

[studiylog]

my younger sister is a soon-to-be freshman and as a 2020 high school graduate I though it would be very big sister of me if I were to hand off some advice to the younger children such as herself.

Why do I need a planner?

life if going to start being VERY VERY hectic, especially if you do other activities besides school work. Even though we are currently in quarantine it is good to have some sort of organization of your life or else things will get mushy and time will pass by quickly. Just have one usable planner to get your academic year started. Write down assignments and other chores such as watering the plants even. It is better to practice getting organized the sooner the better. There are many different options for planners! here are some of the ways I have used before:

Bullet journaling:

I used to bullet journal during the school year back when we were all still in class. It was super helpful and helped me keep my mind on track. Bujo was my favorite to use during the school year because I would work on spreads during downtime. Here are some pictures of my spreads (they were never pretty hahah!) :

Pros:

customizable!! Make whatever spread you want!! Flowers and stickers or even just a good ole' to do list will work too! I used to have whole blank pages just for planning club events and choreography. I used to have a mood tracker too!

relatively cheap Any good notebook/journal will work! For my senior year I used my 1/4 full sketchbook for junior year as my bujo and it worked pretty well!

easy to navigate! Since you are the one who is creating the spreads, you are the one in charge. You like lots of trackers and drawings? Put it in! You only like monthly spreads? GO AHEAD!!

Cons:

Easy to get caught up with the "aesthetic" and not think your bujo is pretty enough...BUT WHO CARES!!! Its your planner!! It should be fluid and comfortable to use daily. You can have pretty spreads one week and then black bullets points of the next!  As long as it is helping you get your shit done its good! I am an advocate for those super pretty bujos with calligraphy and kpop boys, but I know that I myself cannot get too complicated with bujos or else I get super caught up with making my spreads super pretty and I'll get too anxious to use it and then forget about it.

You actually have to do it yourself Its a blank journal, which means you have to draw out all the spreads yourself. oop. 

Planners (the ones you buy!)

I've only truly used two store-bought planners in life. Moleskin and Passion planner!:

Moleskin 

I used a moleskin for my sophomore year of high school because the super expensive moleskins finally went on sale so I copped one. It did its job, but there wasn't anything really special to it that blew me away. It was very dependable, like an earthbender.

Passion planner (passion planner spread)

This is another planner I bought on sale! I loved this one, it helped me organize my SUPER hectic junior year. I took on a load of 4 AP's, a sport, and two clubs to run! There were many options for organization and I really liked the different time slots. I would buy this again but I really like my current planning tools at the moment.

Pros:

Pre-made spreads Its much easier to concentrate and do work with a store bought planner because you wont have to take the extra time to draw out spreads and trackers! These were great during my hectic years where I didn't really want to use up 30 minutes to make an organized spread. Especially the Passion planner because it was organized as a timetable! I wrote the exact hours I would be available to do things, and scheduling was much easier. (Also the dates are already written down...saves lots of headache)

Cons:

$$$ A really nice planner with a bunch of different spreads can be quite pricey depending on where you are looking. You don't exactly need a fancy-shmancy planner, but most of the ones i've actually used on the daily ended up being more expensive ones :/ If you look out for sales though you might find a good deal! Knowing my cheap-ass I got both my Passion planner and Moleskin on sale :)

Online Planning

This is what I have been currently using under quarantine! I currently use the app notion for LITERALLY EVERYTHING. This thing literally sorts my life out. I started using notion due to Rowena Tsai's video and @noodledesks master post! This was a life saver now that everything is online. I can put teacher website links and online course schedules on both my computer and my phone! The only problem is that it is a somewhat complicated interface due to its customizability. Nonetheless, I think it a wonderful plat form.

Rowena Tsai’s video

@noodledesk ‘s Post

Pros:

Online platform If you are currently a student, most of you work will be online I assume, which means links, videos, PDF's, and other documents will be your coursework! Well where will you organize all those things? ONLINE duhhhh...

Customizable If you like how customizable a bujo is? You can do the same with Notion! I have tons of pages, databases, and task lists which organize my life. If you look into it more you will see that the app supports tons of different templates and have some pre-made ones too. I usually just take a premade template and customize it to fit my needs.

Can connect to other devices Notion also has an app! It can be found on both the apple store and google play store. This means even on the go you can make changes to your planner.

Cons:

Can be hard to navigate If you aren't very tech-friendly this might not be the one for you. When I first started using notion I just used the templates on their own, and I still was confused for how to use them because I am not very tech-friendly for my age (which is quite bad). But after a couple hours of re-organizing and watching youtube videos I got the hang of it. Now its super easy.

I’ll upload images of my planners in another post attached to this one because I don’t know how to format them nicely on this post lol!)

[superzuperdesign-blog]

Designer Won’t Give You The Master Files

Yes, I won’t, sorry. Sometimes I get a question about why I won’t give the original, master files to the client. Well, the answer was given by ‘Breakaway Graphics LCC’, so I won’t repeat it just show you her thoughts about it. Here we go...

Often, anaemia in design, there are requests by the client to release the layered, master files. Many clients feel a bit peeved when their designer tries to explain that the master files are not included in the final price and are not considered part of the Final Deliverables. Perhaps they are right to feel this way based on a misunderstanding of the profession and the assumption that the price they pay is for the rights to the master artwork.

One of the roles designers play is to educate the client (or public) about many things, one of these things being why Master files are not always part of the deal. In an attempt to to clear up misconceptions, I’ve detailed the main reasons behind why master files are not considered part of the package for many freelancers.

So, “why aren’t master files supplied to me, the client? That’s what I am paying for, right?” The short answer is no and here’s why:

You’re paying for the final product, not the tools to create that product. When you contract a professional graphic designer to create and deliver a brochure, that’s what you will get for your money, a fully completed, fully thought out printable (or printed) brochure. You are not paying for the history, tools or layers used to create that brochure nor are you paying for the fonts and images contained within it. Think of it this way: if you went to the hardware store to buy a drill, you pay the cashier for the drill to take home and use as-is, not for the manufacturing trade secrets, right to the mechanicals and mechanisms or for the rights to take that drill, remove the brand sticker, replace it with your brand sticker and sell it to the public for profit.

There are third parties involved that you may be unaware of. Every designer uses fonts, photos and graphic elements that are often the works of someone else. Designers spend a good amount of money (font licenses can cost anywhere from $25 to $600) purchasing licenses to multiple typefaces in order to offer you options that maybe you don’t already have and to create the perfect overall look for your collateral. We spend our capital to have access to stock imagery that must be purchased for use in your collateral. These tools are not our property but are the property of their respective creators, we have simply secured the right to use it to provide you with awesome designs. Because of this, it would be unethical and illegal for Designers to release those tools to you as we are not the copyright holders.

You likely don’t have the hardware or software to handle or manipulate the master files. Graphic files can be very large and what I can open and manipulate with a fair amount of quickness with my heavy-duty machinery, could slow your equipment down to snail speed. Assuming that you have the proper software and can open the document, what are the chances you know what to do with it afterwords? Do you know how to change the text, what color space and resolution to use, how to format it for different mediums or how to collect it for submission to printers or vendors? There is a whole host of technical junk Graphic Designers have to learn and use everyday. We’ve already put in the time to learn the ins and outs, the technicalities and techniques, so why not just let us handle it and save yourself the headache?

We worry about issues with file types. As designers we often keep track of multiple proofs, files and file types. For example, I may have a high res psd or tif file that I use for the artwork, a indd file I use for the text and layout, various files for import into InDesign, a few low res pdfs of various revisions, a high res pdf with trim marks for an offset printer, a high-res pdf without trim marks for another printer, a high res pdf with half-inch margins for in-house, inkjet printing, a low res jpg for web, and possibly several more. I know the specs, color space, technicals and use for each of these files and can easily send the one needed to various vendors if need be. What many designers worry about is that a client with all the files will erroneously and unknowingly send the wrong file, causing a headache for the client, the vendor and the original designer as usually we’re the ones who have to step in and remedy the situation. Also an issue is that if a layered file is supplied to a vendor who doesn’t have the same fonts or embedded images, the formatting and typeset can go very askew (i.e. the font will automatically change to a default font, ruining any formatting and the images will either show up as grey boxes or in low resolution and will not print properly), turning our hard work into a mess and making life harder for the recipient of the file and causing undue upset to the client.

If you have the software and technical know-how, why do you need a freelancer? The simple answer to this is that most people don’t have the specific skill-set and/or talent to do the work or that they simply don’t have the time. If you are hiring a designer simply because you don’t have the time and are looking for someone to collaborate with, then the work is considered work-for-hire and would be handled as mentioned above. Similarly, if you are hiring a design professional for their creative and technical talents with the intent to use them for the concept and initial execution but not for derivative or future works of the concept, with the purpose of making future changes yourself, you would need to work out a Work-for-hire agreement between yourself and the creative. Unfortunately, many designers face the sad fact that there are people out there who want to pay them for a stellar concept without being completely forthcoming with their intentions, then secretly hand off that concept to a novice or cheaper designer to save money. Since the original designer has done all the hard work already, the second designer gets to reap the recurring financial benefits of that design for doing little work. It’s unethical and unfair to the professional designer. Of course, if this is stated up front by the client, most designers will negotiate an additional fee or higher hourly rate to complete the work for another designer to take over. In this case, it is Breakaway Graphics, LLC’s practice to require the client to purchase all fonts, elements and photos used in the design and stipulate that once the files have been released, we are held harmless of any warranties with the design.

If you are working with a designer and would like to obtain rights to their layered/master files, just ask. Most designers won’t have an issue negotiating a price for the transfer of full copyright including layered files and are more than willing to help you secure the various image and font licenses to protect yourself from violating a third-party’s copyright. The industry standard for copyright transfer is 300% of the total bill so if you’ve used your designer for letterhead and business cards that totalled $200 in design fees, be prepared to offer him/her about $600. This will cover the loss of future income for the designer from those designs as well as the time it will take him/her to collect and prepare the documents for sale and aid you in securing licenses. If you are working with a designer who flat out refuses to release copyright without one of the above valid reasons, find a new designer.

www.facebook.com/super.zuper.design

source: www.breakawaygraphics.net