- I'm Sean Adams, and I'd like to welcome you
to this course all about self-promotion for designers.
The design marketplace today is at its most robust
time in history.
Businesses understand the power of design,
and there are more designers than ever.
This is great for the profession,
and makes self-promotion a critical skill
in a competitive arena.
I've been called many things over the last three decades
in graphic design,
a media hog, publicity hound, and other things,
not to be mentioned here.
The people doing the name calling
tend to be those designers who followed a 19th century idea
of the struggling artist,
toiling away in poverty,
living in a dark attic in Paris.
The work was so good that self-promotion
was a dirty word, and unnecessary.
This idea works well in a tragic opera,
but has no basis in reality.
In order to succeed in design today,
you must have a clear and recognizable brand,
understand how to communicate it visually,
and use every form of media to promote your business.
We'll learn how to define that brand,
disseminate it in print, online with social media,
and in person.
We'll examine what works and what doesn't,
and how to employ your talents to their best advantage.
And we'll dig into the details.
What is the best way to maintain a library of image assets.
How to write a bio.
What works on a website and drives a viewer away.
We'll define what social media works for what situation.
And how to spread a story with power.
There's a small group of designers
that seems to be the ones that are always in the news,
have frequent magazine articles and books,
and speak at the conferences.
These are the designers who understand
the way self-promotion works
and how to use it efficiently.
I know many designers who are the most incredible talents,
but you will never hear of them,
because they finish a project, file it away,
and we never see it again.
So rather than following the path of the tortured
and unknown artist in a dark loft,
let the world know who you are,
what you do, and what makes you unique and amazing.