Money Making Pt. 2

       Back at it again with the topic of money-making. Just like last time, I plan to go over ways graphic designers can make money for their personal projects, and life in general. Without further ado, let us continue this topic!

      To start off, we have the classic concept of advertisements. Now, of course there is the concern of potentially selling out, and getting a bad advertiser. Of course, should you do your research, and find the right ones, they'll pay you. Either by featuring their logo, or sponsoring their product, you can be guaranteed a paycheck for your projects. Just make sure there's a level of cooperation so you get what you want, and they don't pull out.

      The other topic I want to suggest is personalized commissions. Be they drawings, logos, videos, take any job you can get. Plenty of people are willing to pay to have the images they want made at last. Just make sure that they will pay you for your work. Also, make sure you set your limits; be those you not wanting to do specific images, or the range of tools you have.

        With that out of the way, those are ways to raise money for projects in graphic design. Is there potentially more options, yes; but I wanted to stick with the main four I feel were best to describe. Are all of them perfect, no; however I do feel it all comes down to learning, and keeping your promises. With all of that out of the way, thank you for reading, and stay tuned!

Money Making

      Graphic design is not a free practice. If you want to make a career out of this, you'll need to get paid. If you want to see some ideas come to fruition, you need to take money out of your wallet. As such, it's important to have a steady income, and find ways to add to it. As such, this blog will be going over certain ways I have seen it done, both good, and bad.

       To start, I want to bring up Kamen Rider as an example.

 Image courtesy of Kamen Riser Wiki.

     Over the years, Kamen Rider toys have taken to trying out different gimmicks to up toy sales. This ranges from the armors you could put on an action figure, to little trinkets you can put in the transformation device. As a result, the shows now feature a multitude of other riders and forms, as opposed to earlier in the franchise's life. Granted, while it does get tiring seeing the story need to incorporate these forms, I enjoy seeing how it does so. So long as the toys are fairly priced, and the story is still good, I think it will work well.

       Another way to make money, that's more common for individual designers, is crowd-funding. Yes, this isn't perfect, there have been plenty of Kickstarters that failed, but it's still a method. So long as you have a goal in mind, fulfill your promises, and balance things out, you will probably do fine. On top of that, crowd-funding gives you more freedom for a project. 

       Would you believe me if I said we're still not done with this topic? As it turns out, their are more ways to make money in Graphic Design. I'll go over those next blog, so stay tuned!

What Could Be

       Have you ever watched an old movie, and thought 'what if this were made today'? I've had that thought many of time, ad it's something I believe the art and design world has too.  Now, I'm not talking about the mistakes that a designer might have made, or personal criticism, more so outside sources. Think of this as more alternate scenarios for certain products.

      Let me paint a scene for you; before WWII, fruits, meat, and vegetables could be considered as common as today. One fruit in particular was bananas, which were used for cream in Twinkies.

Image courtesy of https://www.pinterest.com/amazedhuman/memorable-ads/

    

    Now, not too much later, WWII happened, and bananas were rationed, making them switch from banana, to vanilla cream. However, what if that change never happened, and Twinkies could be continuously advertised as having banana cream? Well, bananas would probably be used more in advertising obviously; not to mention other Hostess cream-filled cakes might not exist, or be very different. 

        Another example I can think of is, as mentioned before, movies and video games made in a different era. For an example, I'll use Psychonauts 2.

 

Image courtesy of Wikipedia. 

               

        Psychonauts 2 came put a good while after the original, thus the team had more time to fine-tune the mechanics, and take inspiration from other games. However, What if it was made sooner? Well, graphically, and visually, would probably seem more similar to the first, possibly with more  characters from the first as well. There would be some improvements, but I wouldn't say there'd be anything too crazy. Finally, there is a chance the levels would probably be more gimmicky, so as to help the games stand out better.

        I just believe visualizing different routes for graphic design interesting.  What could have been is always a neat topic to investigate, and inspire yourself. Never forget to focus on the now however, and what is. With that said, than you for reading, and stay tuned!