An Interview With Graphic Desinger/Blogger Gino Orlandi

Gino Orlandi is a graphic designer/blogger from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina most notable know for his super cool graphic design blog YouTheDesigner. I invited Gino to discuss some of his experiences as a freelance graphic designer, tips on going freelance, how he manages being a graphic designer, blogger, and web master, and the impact of social media on his graphic design career.

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to fill out these questions. To get started, can you give me a synopsis of who you are, how you got started in graphic design, and what inspires you to be a graphic designer/blogger?

My name is Gino Orlandi and I am a graphic designer and blogger. I run the blog youthedesigner.com and currently do freelance design work. Ive always loved art and computers so graphic design seemed to be a good fit and blogging became a way for me to help others learn about the design business. It was never really about promoting my freelance business, although blogging sure is a great way to get clients and build a brand name.

Your blog You The Designer is pretty big with over 10,000 subscribers. What do you think makes people hungry for what you have to talk about on your blog?

I think my blogging style is simple and to the point and most of my posts are about practical tips such as how to avoid common design business pitfalls or how to get more traffic to your portfolio site. I try and think of what information I would want to know more about as a designer and than post tips based on that. Also I try to keep my target audience in mind, which is not only design students or people interested in design, but also more advanced designers and studio owners.

Aside from You The Designer, you have other web projects that you manage. What are some of the tools or resources you use to keep up with everything and stay productive?

Organization is key when you run a lot of websites. I always have to do list going and I try to prioritize tasks as best as possible. I like using Google Docs, but surprisingly I don’t use a lot of basic tools such as a calendar, or rss reader. I just write everything down, notes, notes and more notes. I hate forgetting good ideas.

You’ve been freelancing as a designer since 2004. What are some tips and advice that you have for people who are on the fence about making the jump towards a freelance design career?

Its def a big step, so you need to make sure you have a solid plan in place. Obviously you will need to keep steady clients so you always need to be actively seeking out new clients if you are not lucky enough to get a lot of referrals or steady clients. You also should plan for slow downs in the economy and other unexpected events. The more prepared you are the smoother your transition and business will be.

Obviously you have a lot of experiences both positive and negative that you’ve gone through during your design career, but what was the best thing you felt you discovered while learning how to design graphics?

The business side is the most important and its problems with clients that cause the most stress. You need to learn how to protect yourself, how to keep getting work, how to get paid and so on. Read as many design business tips and books about running a design business as possible so you can learn from other designer’s business mistakes.

There’s a lot to say about getting yourself out there so people can find you. What type of impact has social media had on the success you’ve had in your design career so far and where do you see the future of social media headed?

Online marketing is a powerful skill to learn. I have put so much time into learning about online marketing I also work in this field full time as well. If you want to run a design businss start reading up on search engine optimization, social marketing and other various online marketing areas. This will not only help you with your design business, but it can help you with any other online projects you start in the future.

Networking is also extremely important and the Internet is allowing people to be much more social. Social bookmarking sites, news sites, blogs, forums, social networking sites and everything related are all valuable tools just waiting to be used by designers to become better known in the design community.