You’ve clicked on a portfolio that I haven’t gotten to. Not to worry. Chances are, I do that, too.
With decades of design experience across a huge array of industries and projects, there’s little I haven’t touched. Chances are that I can do whatever you need and/or coordinate with others to get it done.
So maybe it was good luck you arrived here because if you give me something I haven’t already done, it’ll be your work featured in the newest portfolio!
Bad players in business are like foxes, smiling and promising while hiding plans to eat your tasty chicken body. In this analogy, I’m the faithful farm dog who dedicates itself to protecting you from those foxes.I believe most graphic designers are proficient and ethical. On a professional level, a few bad players can taint the graphic design industry’s broader perception. However, on the individual client level—I believe that’s the level that matters most—a bad design experience is almost always an emotional and monetary offense. Even if I can’t make the bad experiences disappear, I’ve dedicated a large part of my career to ensuring better design experiences, one project, and one client at a time.Too Much Bad DesignI’m continually amazed at how much bad design there is out there. As a graphic designer, I’m cursed to see it all. It shows up as color choices that assault the eyes or leave the sight-impaired scratching their heads. Often, it’s type: poor letter-spacing, awkward alignments, and mystifying font choices. The killer for me, though, is how many terrible logos and poorly-designed websites I run across. I can’t count the number of clichéd logos, logos that do something cute its letters, or logos that had to have been designed by a loved-one or an amateur.
But I can handle a world riddled with bad design. Bad design can be pointed out and corrected. What burns me, what brings out my fight, is learning about clients’ bad design experiences.
Too Many Bad Design Experiences
Bad design experiences come from a variety of causes. In increasing order of darkness, they are
Innocence/Ignorance: With the ubiquity of design programs that advertise themselves as DIY, there’s the appearance of an over-abundance of overconfident designers, or designers who believe they’re capable of more than they are.
Fudging: A designer can add to their portfolio pieces that they didn’t work on by themselves, giving the impression that you’ll be getting that quality of work. Alternatively, a designer can choose to show only the tip of the iceberg, meaning you see the 10% of the very best and not the 90% rubbish. Whether this is done innocently or in full knowledge, it’s misrepresentation.
Premeditated Deception: Though hit-and-run episodes portrayed by unscrupulous designers are rare in the scheme of things, they do happen. I’ve had clients who paid deposits only to be ghosted. Others worked with designers who under-delivering work and threatened to sue. Another client had her websites erased after a disagreement. And there is an endless line of similar stories beyond those.
To right the wrongs, my mission has always been two-fold:
To always ensure good design experiences. Doing so gives clients a benchmark of what to insist upon going forward. It also improves the chances they will return to me for more design; and,
To replace bad design experiences with positive ones. I have a chance to right clients’ perceptions about our industry. And, again, it increases the chances of repeat business.
Never Too Safe
Because I know not everyone can go with my design services, you’ll need to know a few things to keep yourself safe. I could write pages on this topic, but most of the tips I would provide fall into three basic categories. And, between you and me, only the last one matters.
Look past the glitz of flashy websites, stunning presentations, and motion graphics for substance.
Listen past the confident sales pitches, the thumping music, and the too-good-to-be-true offers for truth.
Demand that all design expectations, costs, fees, dates, and agreement details are in writing. It doesn’t matter if it’s text, email, or contract. I prefer email so I can keep everything in one project-titled thread. When both parties do what they’ve agreed to do, how and when they’ve agreed to do it, and for the price they’ve agreed to in advance, there’s no room for a bad design experience.
Never Too Many Testimonials
Thankfully, I have created many good design experiences. Here are some of the testimonials from my many happy clients.
Testimonials
I gave Thomas very loose parameters for my company brand, business cards, and corporate website, then let him go. He produced something better than what I’d imagined.
Brian AllenPrimary, Odyssey Design Studios, LLC
Thomas exceeded expectations with our logo design and website. He kept me informed each step, making sure I was satisfied. He made it easy and stress-free.
Chasity NelsonPrime Bodywork Massage
Thomas and his team are the epitome of professionalism. They completed my website clean-up with awesome execution. And they never pressured me to build a whole new site. So happy I found them.
Chloe ReedPrimary, Glam Nailz
Founders of new companies need partners, not suppliers. My experience with Thomas was such a partnership, throwing himself into the project as if it were his own.
Will KeyserFounder, Venture Founders, LLC
Thomas did a wonderful job designing my corporate logo. I’ll definitely recommend him to my friends and associates.
Yamel GonzalesPrimary, SetPoint Refrigerations LLC
My experience with Thomas was smooth. I provided basic info about us and our services and he produced a full multi-company website and corporate logos for all of our entities. We’re impressed and proud.
Keith SampleThe Greenbox / Alamo City Services
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Trade shows are an important opportunity to promote a focused campaign that introduces and highlights your company’s headline product or service.
Depending upon the event, your needs might fall anywhere from just a simple web ad all the way to a comprehensive campaign that includes ads, vertical banners, backwalls, invitations, collateral handouts, branded merchandise, signage, and landing web page design and support, and more.
No matter the scenario, there are a lot of moving parts. Creating a cohesive and complementary campaign, maintaining your corporate identity, establishing a separate yet complementary trade show theme, and hand-holding each piece through its own unique production path should only be left to an experienced graphic designer / art directory. Trade show production is pricey and with all too common last-minutes deadlines, you can’t afford to do things twice.
Thomas McAuley has done it all with 30+ trade shows supported since 2013 to his credit.
CONTACT CMD
Infographics have been a popular print product for decades, most commonly as intricate poster-sized pieces that speak to a seeming human hunger to see data organized and visualized in color and bold lines. With the advent of the Internet, however, they have become far more commonly seen online. Regardless of medium, infographics are a great marketing resource for getting information sifted and shown in an easy-to-understand format.
If you have data that needs to be simplified and presented in its most understandable and attractive form, rely on CMD.
Everyone is familiar with advertisements. This fact is both an advantage and a disadvantage to a designer.
On one hand, needs and expectations can be communicated quickly and clearly. On the other hand, that familiarity and ease can lead clients and designers alike to approach creating effective, tasteful advertisements with too much confidence and too little care, which often causes content bloat, failure to accurately identify the target demographic, and all manner of other problems.
Company Man Design has created digital ads and campaigns, including social media graphics, and web banners; and print ads of all types, from print publications to handouts to billboards and posters.
Leverage Company Man Design’s marketing and advertisement experience by letting us work with you to match the right message with the right customer so that every one of your advertising dollars is a smart investment.
Publication Design is any print or digital multi-page document (white papers, annual reports, booklets, catalogs, ebooks, interactive fiction, etc.). Because of their size and being spread across many pages, publications require more planning, custom image creation, and shuffling of elements than about any other design projects. Their complexity also of production, publication design should be left to experienced professionals like Company Man Design.
Print Publication
White Papers
As Google puts it, a white paper is an “authoritative report giving information or proposals on an issue.” It is a multi-page document that is too often thought of as dry and direct, but white papers present your organization opportunities to influence readers, whether current or prospective customers.
Annual Reports
Due to their complexity and volume of content, annual reports rival website design in their magnitude. As such, they tend to fall into two categories: poorly designed, usually because the client organization relies on a cheap designer or a design firm that has bid so low that the work falls in priority; or well-designed but ultra-expensive because the client organization has gone with the biggest national design firms. Let Company Man Design produce a report that maintains and grows shareholder confidence.
Catalogs
In addition to the shared considerations of publication design, catalogs present additional unique design challenges: managing large amounts of data; coordinating quality, consistent product and/or portrait photography; and developing multiple templates for all common page types. Let Company Man Design produce a well-designed catalog that targets your customer demographic.
Digital Publications
ebooks
The technical learning curve of designing and producing an ebook can be daunting, even for and experienced designer. The challenge is multiplied for authors with zero design experience.
Company Man Design is the perfect fit for your ebook design. Our primary, Thomas McAuley, has years of writing experience and had designed and produced multiple ebooks. So not only can we layout your words themselves, as a marketing-focused design company, we can approach the design of your ebook in artful and sales-minded manner so you’re not writing just for the love of it.
Interactive Works
Provide us with a story map or a finished IF work in any common software program and we’ll collaborate with you to produce your interactive fiction work. We will work with your photographers and illustrators or coordinate work with those in our professional network. Our founder is a writer and writer advocate so you know your work is in good hands.
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