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© Copyright 1998-2010
Bullseye Graphics
Last Updated
Jan 2010
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Where possible questions are grouped by topic		 We hope!

How to be a great client?

  

As a client, your job isn't to be innovative. Your job is to foster innovation. Big difference.

Fostering innovation is a discipline, a profession in fact. It involves making difficult choices and causing important things to get shipped out the door. Here are a few thoughts to get you started.

  • Before engaging with the innovator, foster discipline among yourself and your team. Be honest about what success looks like and what your resources actually are.
  • If you can't write down clear ground rules about which rules are firm and which can be broken on the path to a creative solution, how can you expect the innovator to figure it out?
  • Simplify the problem relentlessly, and be prepared to accept an elegant solution that satisfies the simplest problem you can describe.
  • After you write down the ground rules, revise them to eliminate constraints that are only on the list because they've always been on the list.
  • Hire the right person. Don't ask a mason to paint your house. Part of your job is to find someone who is already in the sweet spot you're looking for, or someone who is eager and able to get there.
  • Demand thrashing early in the process. Force innovations and decisions to be made near the beginning of the project, not in a crazy charrette at the end.
  • Be honest about resources. While false resource constraints may help you once or twice, the people you're working with demand your respect, which includes telling them the truth.
  • Pay as much as you need to solve the problem, which might be more than you want to. If you pay less than that, you'll end up wasting all your money. Why would a great innovator work cheap?
  • Cede all issues of irrelevant personal taste to the innovator. I don't care if you hate the curves on the new logo. Just because you write the check doesn't mean your personal aesthetic sense is relevant.
  • Run interference. While innovation sometimes never arrives, more often it's there but someone in your office killed it.
  • Raise the bar. Over and over again, raise the bar. Impossible a week ago is not good enough. You want stuff that is impossible today, because as they say at Yoyodyne, the future begins tomorrow.
  • When you find a faux innovator, run. Don't stick with someone who doesn't deserve the hard work you're doing to clear a path.
  • Celebrate the innovator. Sure, you deserve a ton of credit. But you'll attract more innovators and do even better work next time if innovators understand how much they benefit from working with you.

This a verbatum quote from Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Any chance of a job? We do not employ any full or part time staff, however we do use a extensive network of freelance people. See A job or work experience with Bullseye Graphics? for full details.
Work experience? We offer a half hour feedback session, bring your work for some folio preparation tips.
How much does it cost to have a logo designed?

What's your image worth?

For an average business we do a logo design, cards, letterhead etc package for $1k-2k
How can I save money on my image design work? Bring with you pieces of design that you admire (style) and have all the content details organised before calling. If you have some ideas or sketches (we won't laugh) bring them along.
How much does it cost to get a web site built? .. and how long does it take Please contact us
Can you register my domain name? Yes, and do a check on available names
Can you recommend a web hosting company? Yes Ace-Hosting
Can you maintain a current web site? Yes, see sites
How come broadcast animation is so expensive?

Compared to what?

Animation is essentially a series of pictures that flow together. An average 30 second TV commercial has 750 pictures, each one needing to be drawn (or rendered in 3d) just right. That doesn't include storyboards, roughs tests etc. Basically a lot of work/time.

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Is web animation expensive? 		Compared to broadcast animation it is very cost effective. On average a animated gif for the web is about 12 pictures long producing a small file that loads quickly, does its bit continuously, for ever if necessary.
How does copyright work? We hand over copyrights to the work when our invoice is paid.
Not everyone out there works this way however.
Great but what is copyright? Basically it is the way of protecting your work from being copied by others. Anything you put
© Copyright YOUR NAME DATE on is yours. Hence you see ©,TM ( Trade mark) and ® (US) all over things
Why? So that when copiers end up in court they cannot claim "but I didn't realise"
I want to send some digital images, what's the best format? We can use just about anything but for safety .tif or .eps are best.
what's DPI?

Dots per inch, a measure of resolution. Most screen (these) resolution images are 72 - 95dpi. Print ranges between 300-1200 dpi.

Resolution effects file size, a 300dpi image is approx 15 times larger than a 72 dpi image.

what are the steps involved in getting some image design done?

Step1. Meeting to discuss job, deadline, budgets, style and content

Step2. Presentation of roughs for approval

Step3. Presentation of layouts with most elements finalised for approval

Step4. Delivery of job
What if I don't like the work? Unlikely due to the process above, but if it happens you don't pay for the work so far and we go back to Step1.
what's a Graphic designer? Traditionally a print designer dealing only with "paper" print. More recently web design and multi media been added.
what's a Commercial Artist? A broader term meaning an artistic or creative person who, has decided to create for money, rather than a pure artist who is just plain creative. Michaelangelo for most of his career was a commercial artist.
A layout artist? The person who pastes lots of bromides (see below) into a layout of the final print job. Digital graphics systems have almost replaced this area ..thank god
what's a bromide? A photographic quality black and white image. Is/has been replaced by film
(photo quality negative)
what's Pre press? The step between our work (digital files on disk) and the printer (film)
I already have an logo can you design some stationary for me? Yes providing you have an .eps file of your logo
what's an .eps file ? Encapsulated Post Script..an almost universal standard for vector graphics.
All I have is a business card is that good enough? No ..but we can create .eps from it
what's the pantone colour system? an almost universal standard for colour specification
what's multimedia ? In the dictionary it is the mix of sound and vision. Used now to describe the production of cd roms, interactive displays, web design, games etc. Bullseye Graphics does a majority of it's work in this area.
what's the difference between 2d and 3d animation 2d or cell animation is the traditional form from Walt Disney, Warner Brothers et al. 3d is computer (or model) animation using a rendered scene to replace the traditional cell. The two forms are less distinct now with the best features of both being combined for a superior result in many cases.
what's html? the language that the internet browsers translate into computer screen images
what's Desk Top Publishing? A general term for all computer assisted forms of publishing. The advances in computer technology and graphics/word processing packages means that most publishing is now DTP
Client Confidential? An agreement on our part to not discuss in other than very general terms your job and aspects of your marketing with anyone else. We also have a policy of not working on conflicting accounts. For example having agreed to do a job for a children's clothing retailer we would not accept a job for their opposition.
Free quotes? Free estimates from which a quote can be generated if necessary.
Question not answered ? send it to us