Illustrator Tom Richmond offers some great advice about dealing with slow- and no-paying clients that will work for freelance illustrators, designers, writers, etc.

Some people are a little uncomfortable talking about money and payment before any work has been done. I know I would rather get the details of the job and get busy on it needing nothing more than an agreement on total payment, but this is not a smart way to do business… especially with clients you do not know. I get over it by knowing that once the money part is settled the client will get 100% effort on my part on the actual job. Still I want things to be very clear with no room for misinterpretation between myself and the client when it comes to all aspects of the job, including payment. Agree on how long after you invoice them you can expect payment, whether they have an internal contract or purchase order they need in addition to your invoice, etc.

via Drawn

Posted by Megan

The latest HOW book, For Boys Only/For Girls Only is close to my heart. It's actually a reproduction of two sex-ed books from the 1950s that I found in a used book store. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop laughing.

A few gems from For Boys Only:

“I say, doctor, just what is the fun what the older fellows are always beating their gums about—petting, or necking, or boodling? Is it the same as what the older people used to call spooning? How can a fellow who’s as good an athlete and all-around outdoor man as Bill, stand it to stay hanging around with some girl who isn’t interested in a single thing a boy enjoys doing? I just don’t get it.”

Question: Doesn’t a shot of liquor increase a fellow’s ability to be—er,—manly?
Answer: Not in the slightest. What it does do is simply to make him think he’s more of a man than he actually is! Even a little drink makes a fellow’s opinion of himself go up, while it strengthens his desires. At the same time it blunts the good sense and self-restraint that might otherwise have kept him from doing harm to a girl he’s supposed to be reliable enough to be with. And its avoidance might well prevent him form getting a disease, or from becoming a father of an illegitimate child. You can imagine what a tragedy either of these must be!

This internal secretion put out by the testicles changes you in some mysterious way that no one really understands, so that you begin to feel the way a man feels and have some of the thoughts and wishes that a man has and that a younger boy doesn’t have. For example, you begin to have courage and backbone and guts, that are not expected of a small boy but are taken for granted in a man. You get more and more interested in girls, where before as a little fellow you thought they were just a nuisance to be teased and then pushed aside. You look forward to having more to do with them—first with any girl, later with one particular one.

A few gems from For Girls Only:

“I wonder why she never married,” added Jane. “You know she’s old. She’s twenty-four! I’m sure she must have had several love affairs. I bet she was engaged to be married, and he was killed in the war. I certainly expect to get married before I’m that old! I’m going to have eight children, and live in a great big house.”

“And what do you call ‘fun’? Having a boy hold your hand and kiss you? My mother said it was wicked to allow a boy even to touch you. She told me about Edna who had to leave school because she let a boy touch her.”
    “What about Edna? I knew she had to leave school; but what was it all about?”
    “Why, didn’t you know she was going to have a baby?”
    In utter amazement both girls almost shrieked, “NO!”
    “Tell us about it. I didn’t know you could have a baby if you weren’t married,” said Jane. “What an awful thing! I knew that everything was ‘hush, hush’ about Edna; but I never dreamed such a thing could happen at high school. Rosemary ran off and got married. But Edna! she seemed so nice! I can’t believe it; and I can’t understand it, either.”

“Now let me tell you something, Helen. I, too, hope the boys will think you are pretty. I hope you will always want to be well dressed, and never look like a sloppy Joe when you are at a formal reception; that is a most important thing in a girl’s life. But when you’re older and get married, if you still keep on thinking that your dress and the shade of lipstick are the biggest things in your life, that to have a baby might spoil your figure, then you have not grown up emotionally. We could all name some women who are just like that; and I’m afraid they don’t make their husbands very happy.

Posted by Megan

I Love Typography has just posted a follow up to the popular 15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography called, appropriately enough, 15 Great Examples of Web Typography. ILT promises to make this a quarterly feature. Yay!

Posted by Megan

We get regular updates from the very smart people at Trendwatching.com (founder Reiner Evers was interviewed in HOW's recent Future of Design issue). Today's newsletter caught our eye -- it links to a webpage where Trendwatching has archived a whole host of trend articles from around the globe. If you're looking for perspective from Taiwan or India, here's where to go for a peek at design and consumer trends.

Here's what we're hearing from companies in the design industry:

• SMART Papers now offers large-format products in its Kromekote, Knightkote, Carnival and Pegasus brands. The papers are available from 19 inches x 13 inches up to 22.5 inches x 14.33 inches, and are geared toward projects printed on digital presses. SMART also recently updated its uncoated text, writing and cover Carnival line; a new swatchbook is available.

• Middletown, CT-based Bertz Design garnered recognition from Mohawk with the mill's Mohawk Windpower Partnership Award. The firm created an annual report for Constellation Brands printed on Mohawk Via 100% PC Cool White; according to Mohawk, that choice saved 518 trees and 10 barrels of crude oil, and prevented more than 47,000 pounds of greenhouse gases and more than 24,000 pounds of air pollution. Bertz picked up a similar award for its annual report for Darwin Professional Underwriters, which was printed on Mohawk Options 100% PC White.

• O'Reilly has released "Photoshop CS3 RAW," a guide for designers and photographers who work with the RAW image format.

• Microtek launched its new ArtixScan M1, a combo flatbed and film scanner.

• Neenah Paper is sponsoring a contest for best overall use of its paper; two winners will receive an all-expense-paid trip to the 2008 HOW Design Conference, May 18-21 in Boston.

• Altemus announced the first addition to its font collection in six years: a series of 12 decorative and dingbat fonts that, in total, contain nearly 10,000 designs.

The Look Book by Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studio just won a Society of Illustrators award. It will be published in the 50th award annual and will be exhibited in the Sequential exhibit in the Society gallery in New York in the spring.

Posted by Megan

I love movies, so I saw several during my Christmas vacation. My favorite, by far, was Juno. It was sweet and heartwarming, but not icky or overdone. And one of the coolest things about it was the opening titles designed by Shadowplay Studio.

Posted by Megan

Our conference and new media colleagues worked overtime this holiday season to launch the website for this year's HOW Design Conference, May 18–21 in Boston.

It's got all the info you need to plot your course for the conference, including a complete lineup of sessions, workshops, speakers, extra events and more. About half the speakers are new to the conference (including John Bielenberg, Kevin Farnham, Von Glitschka, David Schimmel and Maggie Macnab), and you'll also find a few old faves like Sam Harrison, Perula Vrontikis, the Modern Dog kids and Jeff Fisher.

Whatever you're jonesin' for, we've got you covered: creative inspiration (don't miss Bill Strickland), business guidance (David Baker's the man), pricing strategies (hit the workshop with Peleg Top and Ilise Benun), advice for in-house designers (Michael Lejeune of L.A. Metro, which scored big in HOW's first annual In-HOWse Design Awards will be there).

Go. Choose. Register. Count the days.

See you in Boston!

FreelanceSwitch, a blog dedicated to helping freelancers improve their businesses, has an in-depth interview with Jeff Fisher, author of the HOW book Identity Crisis!.

Designers are constantly facing the challenges of recreating, revamping or re-energizing existing business or organization identities. The process can be much more intense than creating a new business image from scratch. When taking on such a redesign effort, I always suggest that designers consider the historical aspects of the existing logo; give thought to the emotional attachment of owners, employees and the customer base; and determine if existing design elements are appropriate to include in the new identity as part of a seemingly natural design evolution. The first thing I usually say to a designer about such projects is “Never tell your client their logo sucks.” If you make that statement you can be assured that the logo was created by the client, their spouse, their child, or the kid next door—and your potential business relationship with that client is already damaged.

Posted by Megan

The terrific Debbie Millman announced her lineup for the fifth season of her internet radio show "Design Matters." Among the episodes we'll be sure to download from iTunes:

Chip Kidd on January 18—we appreciate his sly sense of humor (not to mention his prodigious talents)

Vaughan Oliver on February 8—the man's a legend!

Stefan Bucher on February 29—in advance of his forthcoming HOW Book "100 Days of Monsters"

Robynne Raye on April 11—stay tuned for a killer Q&A with Robynne and her Modern Dog partner Michael Strassburger in the May/June issue

Michael Hodgson on April 18—Debbie promises an "all-music" show with this designer-slash-DJ
 

This year, The College of Saint Rose, in Albany, NY decided to do something different with its annual holiday greeting. The College's in-house creative team created its holiday greeting to be used as
wrapping paper, subtly imprinted with the three words that make up the College's tagline—passion, knowledge, purpose. A wrapper around the folded paper asks the recipient to "Wrap up your holidays with purpose" and to wrap a hat, mittens or gloves for a child or adult in need and donate them to a local shelter or to send them to the College which then would donate the items to an appropriate shelter.

Posted by Megan

San Antonio-based artist/illustrator Jason Limón creates original images with acrylic on canvas for publication and exhibition. A former graphic designer, Limón often incorporates hand-rendered text in his work. Original paintings can be purchased starting at $225.

Posted by Megan

“So long, farewell...” With less than 10 days left in the year, the HOW staff will be spending the rest of 2007 celebrating with family and friends. But come January 2, we’ll be back at the blog, catching you up on any industry news you might have missed. Till then, happy holidays!

Today's New York Times Thursday Styles section has an article about which of the year's interior design trends have passed from Hot to Not. Among the "outs": deer motifs (sorry, Carmen) and cowhide rugs (ewww).

When I first read this release from P22, I was a bit confused. But then I tried it. So cool!

P22 announces the P22 Music Text Composition Generator, a free online music utility that allows any text to be converted into a musical composition. This composition is displayed in musical notation and simultaneously generates a midi music file that is played back on your computer. The P22 MTCG was programmed by designer Colin Kahn from an idea conceived by P22 creative director Richard Kegler.

Posted by Megan

Here at HOW HQ, we're interested in the whole handmade, do-it-yourself thing: not just in design, though it's a huge trend here, but also more generally in pop culture. Several of the HOW gang are avid makers-of-stuff (baked goods, costumes, home decor, holiday gifts, whatever).

New York Times writer Rob Walker (whose "Consumed" column we follow regularly, and you should, too) had a lengthy piece in Sunday's magazine about the whole handmade movement. Interesting stuff. You can read it online via the Times website or, if you're not a registered Times user, you can get to it—plus a bunch of additional links and reference material—though Walker's "murketing" blog.

Walker interviews Etsy co-founder Robert Kalin, whose ideas on the handmade movement seem akin to the Slow Food philosophy: understanding where and from whom the stuff you buy (and eat) comes from. (Like, not from some sweatshop in China.) Walker writes:

If the marketplace today has become alienating and disconnected, then buying something handmade, from another individual, rolls back the clock to an era before factory labor and mass production.