• Authoritative advice on every aspect of running a design business
• Expert contributors include Leonard DuBoff, Richard Weisgrau, Eva Doman Bruck, and many more
General small-business advice just doesn’t work for a graphic design business. What graphic designers need is The Graphic Design Business Book, packed with directly relevant strategies for creating a business plan, managing a studio, presenting portfolios, marketing on the Web, keeping clients happy, and more, including sample contract forms and listings of professional organizations—all contributed by experts in their fields. Every graphic designer needs a copy of The Graphic Design Business Book.
"I know of no one who has done more to help protect artists from exploitation by the unscrupulous or the unknowing than Tad Crawford. The Graphic Design Business Book is another step in the direction of fairness for those who make the actual work.” (David Rhodes, President, School of Visual Arts )
About the Author
Tad Crawford, Publisher for Allworth Press in New York City, graduated from Columbia Law School, clerked on New York State’s highest court, and served as general counsel for the Graphic Artists Guild when he practiced as an attorney. He originated the course titled “Law and the Visual Artist” at the School of Visual Arts and wrote Legal Guide for the Visual Artist (now in its fifth edition) to serve as the text. He is the author or coauthor of more than a dozen books, including Starting Your Career as a Freelance Photographer, The Graphic Design Business Book, Business and Legal Forms for Fine Artists, and Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers. He lives in New York City.
Allworth Press publisher and founder Tad Crawford is an author, attorney, and artists' rights advocate.
Born in New York City, Crawford grew up in the artists colony of Woodstock, New York. Interested in writing both fiction and nonfiction, he majored in economics at Tufts College and graduated from Columbia Law School in February 1971. ("That explains the unusual amalgam of my activities," Crawford says. "A lot of legal skills are crucial for helping the artist and for running a publishing company. Of course, writing is an excellent background for publishing. So it's come together very well.")
Crawford clerked for a judge of the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, then went to work for a small general law firm in New York City while writing and teaching writing and literature at the School of Visual Arts. Until he took the teaching assignment at the School of Visual Arts and learned of the need for materials to help artists understand their rights, he had not envisioned being an advocate of artists' rights.
"I found nothing in print to help artists deal with such legal matters as copyrights, contracts, income taxes, the 'hobby loss' problem, estate planning, or even how to get grants," recalls Crawford. And so, responding to what he saw as "an extreme need," he wrote a book dealing with those and other relevant issues, titling it Legal Guide for the Visual Artist and using it as a text for the "Law and the Visual Artist" course that he taught at the School of Visual Arts. Published in 1977, Legal Guide for the Visual Artist is now in its fourth edition and has one hundred thousand copies in print.
He followed this with The Writer's Legal Guide in 1978 (which has been updated and reissued with The Authors Guild as co-publisher and Kay Murray, the General Counsel for the Authors Guild, as co-author). With Arie Kopelman he wrote Selling Your Photography in 1980 and Selling Your Graphic Design and Illustration in 1981. At the same time Crawford served as Chairman of the Board for the Foundation for the Community of Artists, legislative counsel for the Copyright Justice Coalition (which had many arts groups as members), and general counsel for the Graphic Artists Guild. In 1982 Crawford was asked to help publish books for some of the organizations that he had represented as an attorney. In response, he became publisher of Madison Square Press, which issued annuals for such artists'organizations as the Society of Illustrators, the Society of Publication Designers, the Art Directors Club of New York, and the Art Directors Club of Los Angeles.
In 1988 he decided to strike out in a new direction, "to create a press that would offer the kind of information that was more like what I had taught, written about, and lobbied for." Crawford saw the need for a publishing company that would provide practical information to creative professionals, such as artists, photographers, designers, and authors. He knew first hand the issues faced every day by such creative people and could envision a spectrum of books to help them survive and prosper professionally.
In the Fall of 1989, Crawford published Allworth Press's first book, a revised edition of his classic Legal Guide for the Visual Artist. Ten more titles followed in 1990, offering information about marketing, promotion, pricing, copyright, contracts, health and safety, and much more. The first edition of Business and Legal Forms for Photographers was published in 1991. "The information in these books,"Crawford says, "can make all the difference in terms of success and prosperity." Today Allworth Press has a backlist of more than 250 books, publishes 12-15 books annually, and employs a staff of six very talented people.
Crawford's last involvement as an active lobbyist was in 1986, and he's given up active practice of the law to devote his energies to his publishing and his writing. The full list of books that he has authored follows:
AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design (editor) The Artist-Gallery Partnership (with Susan Mellon) Business and Legal Forms for Crafts Business and Legal Forms for Fine Artists Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers (with Eva Doman Bruck) Business and Legal Forms for Illustrators Business and Legal Forms for Interior Designers (with Eva Doman Bruck) Business and Legal Forms for Industrial Designers (with Eva Doman Bruck and Carl W. Battle) Business and Legal Forms for Photographers Legal Guide for the Visual Artist The Money Mentor The Secret Life of Money Selling Your Photography (with Arie Kopelman) Selling Your Graphic Design and Illustration (with Arie Kopelman) Starting Your Career as a Freelance Photographer The Writer's Legal Guide (with Kay Murray)
This review is from: The Graphic Design Business Book (Paperback)
I expected this to be much more informative and specific. I did not read through much of the book, as it all applies to design firms. I am a freelancer who's never been good at the business aspect; plus I was out of the game for a few years and wanted to catch up pricing wise and via other aspects. This provided no information relevant to me, and more frustrating, it referred to the Guild Handbook several times for specifics. Well, the Guild book is totally out of date -- that's why I was looking for something more current. The fact that it is 'copublished with the Graphic Artists Guild' made me hopeful that it was the finally a current variation to the Guild book.
What I read otherwise seemed like information that was very very basic, what most designers who have some experience are already aware of.
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This review is from: The Graphic Design Business Book (Paperback)
Design pros face many special obstacles in setting up a business, from locating and managing the right studio to developing an effective, specialized portfolio, using a web site's special marketing powers, and bringing in clients. Learn how to set up and run a successful design business using leading experts in the field with The Graphic Design Business Book, which teaches graphic artists all the basics for promoting their talents. Chapters are business-oriented in general scope but also provide many specifics unique to the graphic design venture.
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This review is from: The Graphic Design Business Book (Paperback)
I am quite surprised just how useful this book is. Everything is here from a single freelancer working out of his bedroom (and basic rules about taxing the bedroom) to a full corporation with partners who rent commercial space.
Specific topics covered here are simply not found in general business books. "How does one put a price on creative effort?" This books describes the methods! My favorite part is the negotiation chapter, which empowers artists with techniques to stand firm (yet polite) against those unscrupulous businessmen seeking to exploit the artist. The chapter finishes with sample contracts--an unexpected bonus.
This book does not get 5 stars because it is a business supplement, not an exhaustive resource.
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