Tag: marketing | Artisan Creative

How to Market Your Freelancing Business

Tuesday, September 14th, 2021|

When working as a freelancer, you are your business, your product, and your marketing team all in one.

Having control of all of these aspects of your business is extremely exciting and motivating because it puts you in control of your success.

Like any successful business, you need a solid marketing strategy that will help you gain visibility in your industry and draw in more clients!

In this article, we will be discussing the following ways in which you can increase your marketing for yourself and your business while freelancing:

Become a Guest on a Podcast
Be a Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Write a Book, E-book, or Article
Utilize SEO Strategy
Network, Network, Network!

Become a Guest on a Podcast

Podcasts have increased in popularity in recent years, with the number of listeners in the United States expected to grow by about 10% in 2021 to about 117.8 million listeners.

With podcasts emerging from every industry and point-of-view, the medium has a dedicated base of listeners that are exploring different topics.

There are several benefits to marketing your freelance business by becoming a guest on a podcast. With a podcast, the listeners are there to learn and will, therefore, are a captive and engaged audience.

Additionally, podcasts are a more personal medium. By sharing your ideas on a podcast, rather than approaching marketing with a sales mindset, you come across as more authentic. When you connect with an audience, you can develop greater loyalty!

Next, one of the most important marketing principles is communicating directly to your target audience or market. Podcasts allow you to do that!

Each podcast has data outlining the type of people who listen to the podcast, such as demographic stratification and personal or professional interest.

Or, you can even start a podcast yourself!

Become a Subject Matter Expert (SME)

A subject matter expert or SME is someone who is an authority in their industry or vertical because of their extensive knowledge.

While one can be an SME in almost any field, it usually relates to knowledge in a technical or educational field. For example, if you are a freelance marketing consultant, you can become an SME in the field of marketing.

Marketing is essentially persuasion. In other words, you want to persuade your audience to use your services as a freelancer.

Across the disciplines of both psychology and communication, we know that one of the best ways to persuade someone is by having authority. People are more likely to trust you if you are educated on a topic.

Therefore, becoming an SME will have a positive influence on your brand. Not many people can tout that they are experts in their field. Having this classification will encourage others to work with you.

Write a Book, E-book, or Article

Writing a book or article relating to your industry or work will help establish your authority in the field. Having published work means you are recognized as an expert in your industry! The self-publishing industry has created affordable means of getting a book to market. However if long-form content is not your expertise, try writing articles for the Medium, of Business Journal Trust or publish on Linkedin.

Additionally, writing a book or article can help establish greater recognition and top-of-mind awareness with your audience. People are more likely to choose someone whose name they recognize, and the expertise they seek.

Utilize SEO Strategy

When marketing yourself as a freelancer in today’s highly saturated climate, it is crucial to have a focus on search engine optimization (SEO). The goal of SEO is to increase a website’s ranking on Google search results.

Why is this important? Because people will see your website first and be more likely to click on it when searching for the service you offer. The best part is that SEO is free. You need to learn the Google algorithm and how to work with it.

For example, if you use the right density of industry keywords, your website will better fulfill the search queries of users, and therefore, be ranked higher.

Or, if your website is user-friendly, well designed, and quick loading, users will stay on it longer, signaling to Google that it is a quality website. Google, in turn, will rank it higher in search results.

Network, Network, Network!

As a freelancer, you are your brand! Therefore, one of the best ways to get your name out there is to network. Networking can mean a lot of things, from adding other professionals in your industry on LinkedIn and social media platforms to directly contacting potential clients.

By connecting with other freelancers in similar industries, you can find a community of like-minded people who will support you. You can learn from each other about new trends and share clients, especially if you have different expertise.

There are also a number of portfolio-sharing websites specifically for freelancers so that you can share your work with others and give clients an overview of your past work.

The wider you grow your network, the more work opportunities will present themselves. Working with recruitment agencies such as Artisan Creative allows for your network to expand.

Conclusion

Working as a freelancer has many benefits, from the flexibility of working when and where you want to work to having control over what work you do daily. So, if you are a freelancer looking to gain exposure, implement some of the marketing tips we presented above!

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 593rd a.blog.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

The Art of Self-Promotion

Wednesday, August 14th, 2019|

Whether you’re looking for the perfect job, starting your own business, or building your career as a creative freelancer, your success depends on more than doing great work. Others must know you’re doing great work, which can only happen if you share your skills, accomplishments, and passions in a visible way. This means you need to promote yourself.

Many creatives are shy about self-promotion, as it feels hard to do so even when you know you’re worth promoting. Experiment with these ideas and you’ll develop habits that amplify your work, increase your presence in your community, and put you on track to seize opportunities, careers, and the life you want.

Learn the Basics of Marketing and Branding

As you build the groundwork for your promotional initiatives, you can use the same principles and strategies that guide the marketing and branding efforts of the world’s largest corporations. The basics are freely available in our brief guides to defining your personal brand and marketing yourself like a business – you just need to apply them. To start, make sure your creative portfolio represents you as well as possible. Then, test your efforts in the real world by attending networking events. If you’ve built up some resistance to self-promotion, now is the time to take some risks and raise your comfort level.

Make a Brag Document

To promote yourself effectively, you should be keenly aware of your body of work, what you love, where you excel, and your larger career trajectory. Of course, when you’re immersed in creative work, it can be easy to lose track of how much you’ve accomplished. To keep track of where you’ve been and find clues about where to go next, maintain a “brag document,” an inventory of what you’ve done and a key to analyzing how it all fits together. Julia Evans explains the purpose and substance of a brag document and provides an easy-to-use template so you can create your own. This can help you prepare to get recognized, negotiate, back up your claims, and angle for promotions and new opportunities.

Defend Your Ideas

One of the most useful tools of self-promotion is also an essential skill in giving effective presentations: the power to defend your ideas. To do this, you should understand your own work better than anyone else. You should be prepared to explain your decisions and to field questions, comments, objections, and criticisms in a way that preserves the integrity of your work while allowing healthy space for improvement. This is easier said than done, and Mike Monterio can help. As the author Design Is a Job and You’re My Favorite Client, he’s one of the go-to sources of insight on how to get tough and give your ideas the robust defense they deserve. In this fierce and funny keynote presentation, while geared toward graphic designers, can help anyone dramatically improve their mindset around explaining themselves and their work, which is a key to effective self-promotion.

Beware the Negativity Bias

According to the science of evolutionary psychology, our brains have evolved to help us merely survive; if we’re going to thrive, we have to do it ourselves, with intent. Historically, negative information was more important to our survival than positive information – a tiger chasing you deserves more attention than a sweet-smelling daffodil beside the trail – so we’re wired to prioritize the negative over the positive. In the modern world, our natural negativity bias can hold us back if we fixate on risks and weaknesses and don’t focus enough attention on the rewards we want and the strengths that can help us achieve them. To cultivate a winning mindset, it’s important to bolster ourselves with positive information. This means choosing our relationships carefully, being mindful of our self-talk, and learning the basics of positive psychology. After all, our strongest self-promotion comes from within.

At Artisan Creative, we love to showcase your talents and promote your skills to our clients. When you’re ready to take your business or your career to the next level, let’s get in touch!

We hope you’ve enjoyed the 540th issue of the a.blog.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

Marketing Your Business

Wednesday, April 24th, 2019|

We’re all entrepreneurs now. Whether you’re a creative professional or cultivating a side hustle, your path to consistent and satisfying success is to think of yourself as a business. This means that to get the clients and projects you want, you must master the basics of marketing on a budget.

When you understand the most important principles of marketing, and you’re willing to put in the reasonable amount of effort required, you’ll bring in new business, and you’ll have time to focus on the work you really love.

As you grow your freelancing career, here are a few big marketing ideas to keep in mind.

Build Your Brand

Having a strong personal and professional brand means more than having a concise elevator pitch, although that’s an essential part of it. You must know who you are, what you can do, what values you represent, and how to communicate your identity. When you put your mind and heart into developing your brand, it will pay massive dividends with the people and projects that come into your life.

Work Your Network

As a creative freelancer, some of the most effective marketing you can do is still old-fashioned word-of-mouth. When you provide value to others, attend networking events to engage with your community, and seek out the peers, collaborators, and mentors you wish to cultivate, new resources and opportunities will present themselves in ways you never anticipated.

Prioritize Product-Market Fit

Author Carolyn Tate describes the “four Ps of marketing” – product, pricing, placement, and promotion – and how they’re always interrelated. In the new age of growth hacker marketing, running a business is a constant process of iteration, and great products are built through feedback loops and ongoing processes of community interaction. Remain curious and sensitive to the changing needs of your clients. Let your marketing efforts and your work feed into a constant refinement of improving each other.

Track Your Progress

To better allocate your resources and understand how your marketing is paying off, keep track of your progress and results over time. If you’re not naturally comfortable with numbers, charts, and analytics, you can use one of the many free tools that are available.

Share Your Success

Whether you present your work in an online portfolio, create content to showcase your ideas, or engage with your clients and community through social media, don’t be shy about sharing your best self with the world. It will inspire others, build your own confidence, and bring lots of new opportunities to your doorstep.

Turn Pro

When you start thinking of yourself as a serious professional, something magical happens. If you’re struggling with that transition, or you’re ready to take your creative career or small business to the next level, we can help! Contact Artisan Creative today to take your next step.

We hope you’ve enjoyed issue 518 of our a.blog.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

A Guide To Creating Mood Boards

Wednesday, February 20th, 2019|

For designers, digital storytellers, project managers, or anyone in the business of creating, mood boards are a useful way to brainstorm, showcase specific design concepts, or communicate the bigger ideas around a project.

Never made a mood board? Give it a go! Even if you don’t consider yourself a designer – you may find that honing your ability to organize images enhances your power as a communicator. If you’ve hit a stuck point at work, or need a jolt of aesthetic inspiration, making a mood board is an inspiring way to drill down to basics, rediscover what matters, and shake out some new ideas.

When creating a mood board, keep this advice in mind.

Think Like a Collector

Whether you’re scrolling through your Instagram feed or taking a walk in your city, take in your environment through the lens of an image curator. Smartphone cameras, bookmarking tools, and screen capturing software make it so easy to create ad hoc scrapbooks of the colors, patterns, and other sights that catch your fancy as you go about your daily travels.

Center One Big Idea

To make your mood board more cohesive, start with one large image, place it near the middle (or in some way that indicates its prominence), and arrange other images around it. Some of the best mood boards also function as visually rich mind maps.

Be Obvious

If your mood board is for your eyes only (such as a vision board to help you set personal goals), it’s not so important that it be easy for others to understand. However, if you’re sharing your mood board with colleagues, collaborators, or especially clients, be ready to answer any questions they might have before they have them. That means it’s okay to use well-known “classic” images, or even use text to drive home important ideas.

Go For Emotional Resonance

Be cognizant of color theory, Gestalt theory, and best practices around typefaces and other design decisions. Make sure your smaller choices are in service to the larger emotional sweep of your mood board. The goal is to create an emotional response to give your ideas the power of strong feelings.

Experiment With Different Sorts of Images

As long as your mood board makes sense as a whole, there’s no reason to limit yourself to photographs, illustrations, and other common images. Experiment with text, maps, diagrams to create striking visual metaphors, and anything else that may help you get your points across.

Experiment With Formats

There is power in the unexpected. Tools such as Pinterest now make it wonderfully easy for almost anyone to generate a mood board. That means that, if you want to go offline, break out your glue sticks, and do some old-fashioned collaging, you can make an even bigger splash at presentation time.

Presentation Is Everything

Whenever possible, always present your mood boards in person. This gives you the opportunity to showcase your work as you want it to be understood, to clear up any confusion, to receive feedback (an opportunity to improve and clarify your work), and to transmit the personality and flavor behind your mood board. Presentation skills are important, so whatever you do, seek as many opportunities as you can get to become a more agile and effective presenter.

For practice, try communicating your personal brand through the medium of a mood board, and then present it to a sympathetic colleague or your creative recruiter.

Mood boards are just one of our favorite techniques for honing ideas and building a brand, a company, or a creative career you will love.

Contact us today to discover many more and see what Artisan Creative’s knowledge, experience, and inspiration can do for you.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 510th a.blog.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

Define Your Personal Brand

Wednesday, December 5th, 2018|

As a creative professional, no matter what projects you pursue, you can create a lot more opportunities for yourself when you establish a clear, concrete, and powerful personal brand.

Here are five steps to help you define who you are, what you do, and where you want to go.

Get to Know Yourself

No matter what work you do, you have your own skills, style, and experiences that are unique to you. Together, they make up a professional persona that differentiates you from your competition. The more specific you can be about your persona, the more consistent your brand can be, and the more work it can do on your behalf.

Developing an effective personal brand requires taking an inventory of what you do well, how others see you, and how you can help them. It can be difficult to look at yourself objectively, on the flip side, this process of inquiry will pay enormous dividends throughout your career.

Check Your Humility

To maintain a healthy grounding in reality, it’s important to be realistic and think critically about yourself, your strengths, and the areas in which you can improve upon. When you’re building your brand set this aside for the moment and begin with an open mind.

Flatter yourself. Emphasize your strengths. Present yourself as a legend, a rock star, larger than life. You can always be humble and approachable after people are intrigued!

If you have trouble getting excited about your own brand, this classic Creative Mornings talk from Richard Sauerman will provide a jolt of encouragement and help you fall in love with yourself a bit.

Go on a Vision Quest

Create a detailed picture of where you want to go in your professional life, and your mind will begin to automatically strategize how to get you there.

Before you begin the detailed work of building your personal brand, try this visioning exercise. It will help you understand why you’re doing all this. Imagine the fruits of your success and you’ll whet your appetite for the work it requires.

Become You, Inc.

Now it’s time to open your toolbox and assemble the nuts and bolts you will use to build your brand. You’ll develop your own style guide, visual assets, slogan, elevator pitch, and everything else a business needs to distinguish and differentiate itself.

To do this, you can use the same assignments and techniques that top agencies use on branding projects for multinational corporations. This article on the best practices of in-the-weeds brand-branding lists all the essentials you’ll need, with examples from some of the world’s best-known corporate brands.

Knowing how to stand out in the crowd is key to defining your personal brand. Check out Winnie & Lorrie Hart’s book on Stand Out for more details.

Get Engaged

Your brand may be born in the studio, and it will come into its own when it learns to survive on the street. As time goes on, you will develop and iterate on your brand based on how it interacts with the outside world at networking events, in pitch meetings, online, in the work you do, and in the content you create.

Whether you’re an introvert, an extrovert, or somewhere in between, you’ll ultimately build your brand through active engagement with your professional community. The more you do this, the more opportunities will open for you. It pays to be strategic, mindful, and deliberate about it.

Consider what you’re comfortable with, and then go slightly outside that zone. You’ll bring back some interesting insights.

At Artisan Creative, we pool decades of experience in the world of creative work to help you become your best professional self and hit goals you didn’t know you had. Contact us today to find your next invigorating challenge.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the 499th issue of our a.blog

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

America’s Best Recruiting Firms 2018

Wednesday, June 20th, 2018|

We are delighted to have made the Forbes’ list of “America’s Best Recruiting Firms 2018.”

At Artisan Creative, we believe that successful placements change lives. They provide our talent with opportunities for personal and professional growth, and our clients with the right team members to make a difference in their businesses.

We have loved every minute of our 22+ years in the creative staffing and recruitment space. A special thank you to our clients and talent who have shared this journey with us.

This couldn’t have been accomplished without our amazing a.team, who over the years have demonstrated heart, grit, passion, commitment, tenacity, and dedication to create trusted relationships.

Here’s to continuing to build a more creative world together.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

Creating Inspiring Presentations

Wednesday, June 6th, 2018|

In a good presentation, you are presenting useful and important ideas. In a great presentation, you are inviting your audience to join in, creating engagement and interaction.

There are various techniques that will help you set the stage for a more effective presentation. In short, best practices are a) understand how human thought and behavior work, and b) take concrete measures to let these things work for your presentation, rather than against it.

But what should your presentation be? What should the content consist of? And how should it convey its core ideas to its audience?

Know Your Big Ideas

Before you begin to structure your presentation, you should distill it down to a few important ideas. If you can’t break it down into a few core concepts, then it probably lacks a coherent message. Applying more thought and effort to the central thesis of your presentation will give it the beating heart that it needs to come alive.

Script It Out

Write out everything you plan to say, more or less verbatim.

First, create a rough draft. Although it may not be great, yet, you need to start somewhere, and your rough draft is that place. (Creativity coach Beth Lapides refers to the first draft as, “something to put a coffee ring on.” That’s all it needs to be.)

Then, edit, with vigor and ruthlessness. You can nitpick and fuss over your precise choice of words, to ensure your language is as economical and compelling as it can be.

This process can sometimes take a good amount of time. When you know your presentation is strong, it can be wise to quit while you’re ahead. Some presentations that sing on the 16th draft can turn flat on the 23rd. With time and experience, you will get better at knowing when your presentation is as good as it needs to be.

Create Your World

This is the step that often separates a great presentation from a good one.

Now that you know exactly what you want to say, translate those words and ideas into pictures, sounds, and feelings.

Then… forget the words.

Think of your presentation not as a static inventory of words and sentences you want to say, but as a three-dimensional word composed of pictures, sounds, and feelings. When you rehearse your presentation, practice living in this world. Keep practicing until you are comfortable and familiar with this world, able to explain your surroundings to others. (Comedian Greg Dean has a “rehearsal process” you can borrow.)

When it’s time to present, think of it as an opportunity to invite your guests into your world and show them around.

If you are not comfortable public speaking or presenting to a large group there are great resources to utilize to get you comfortable. Toastmasters is an international resource with chapters in many cities

When you live in the world you want to explain, you will have a far more powerful ability to transmit your ideas – and their emotional impact – to others.

At Artisan Creative, we believe in taking your work to the next level. Because if you’re reading this, you’re obviously ready to go “from good to great,” as a creative professional. Contact us today to take the next step.

We hope you enjoy the 474th issue of our a.blog.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

Maximizing Your LinkedIn Profile

Wednesday, May 9th, 2018|

If you are looking for work, considering a change, or have any interest in industry networking, we all know that a profile on LinkedIn, the top social media network for professionals is the place to go. Potential employers and recruiters may find it unusual if you aren’t on the site in today’s highly competitive job market. It only takes a few minutes to launch your profile, and with a bit more time and effort, you can make your LinkedIn profile a powerful tool for advancing your career and achieving your goals.

Here are a few tips to help maximize the potential of your LinkedIn presence, build your network online and offline, and gain access to opportunities that others might miss.

Complete Your Profile

Only 51% of LinkedIn users have fully completed their profiles, and LinkedIn’s search algorithm strongly favors those who have. Take the extra time to flesh out and optimize all areas of your profile, including education and work history as well as volunteer roles and interests, to gain a significant advantage in your job search.

Be Real and Be Specific

When writing descriptions for yourself and your previous roles, eliminate fuzzy buzzwords, and replace them with metrics, achievements, and real-life examples of what you’ve accomplished. Your headline should be succinct, and your profile should communicate a clear idea of who you are, what you can do, and what you value in your work. Be true to yourself, and you will stand out from the crowd. And, of course, always keep it positive – highlight what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown. Your profile should reflect well on you and on those who have given you their trust and invested in your career.

Use Multimedia

Media presentations add detail and credibility to your profile. If you have design portfolio samples, slide decks, videos, articles, or other files that showcase your work your expertise and your overall approach to business, be sure to include them where they best fit.

Connect Strategically

Profiles with 300+ connections get more attention and appear more substantial, so endeavor to build a robust network. When you reach that threshold, be more judicious about whom you add, to ensure that your feed remains useful and that your virtual network reflects your real life. When you request a connection, send a personalized message to let the recipient know why you value their work, their trust, and their time. Make sure your network is focused on those with some leverage in your industry. At a glance, it should give you credibility with anyone you might want to work with in the future.

Participate in Groups

LinkedIn Groups can be a useful way to monitor trends and participate in discussions, and they have some less obvious perks as well. For example, when you join a LinkedIn Group, you can privately message any other member. This can afford opportunities to connect with people who are passionate about the same things as you but maybe harder to reach through traditional channels.

Update Regularly

Every few months, inspect your LinkedIn profile from top to bottom, and update anything that’s out of date or that could simply use a polish. Take the opportunity to improve your profile on a regular basis, not just when you’re looking for work. Over time, you will build a much stronger presence than the vast majority of users. And, you may be surprised at the opportunities you discover through LinkedIn.

At Artisan Creative, we help top creative professionals get the most out of their careers. Contact us today, and we’ll help you master digital networking and take your work to the next level.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the 470th issue of our a.blog

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

How to Build a Design Portfolio

Wednesday, April 4th, 2018|

“It’s easier to get a job when you have a job.”

There is some ring of truth to this cliche. If you’re a designer starting out – perhaps you’re a fresh graduate, or you’re changing careers – this can seem frustrating and paradoxical. Most high-status job openings are available only to those with years of experience. If you must have experience to get experience, how does anyone ever get started?

Fortunately, it is easy to build an impressive design portfolio with no professional experience whatsoever. Even if you’ve never had a paying client, you can do remarkable work and showcase it in a manner that will open doors.

Think Like a Designer

Before you create an online portfolio or get an account on Dribbble or Behance, rethink your entire life story, from the perspective of your identity as a designer.

“If you’ve ever solved a problem, then you have design experience,” says Jason Early, a designer, entrepreneur, teacher, mentor, and author of the career guide Getting Hired. “You just need to reframe how you present it. The design process is used to address a challenge. Any challenge. And showing how you worked through the process to address that challenge can be a portfolio piece. Show your work. Just like in grade school math class, showing how you got to a solution shows how you think through a challenge. And that is what a portfolio is. A collection of examples showing how you reached a solution.”

Say “Yes”

As you move forward in your career, you will learn to say “no” to opportunities that don’t serve you. However, in your early days as a designer, you must err on the side of taking on more work and saying “yes” to as many different projects as you can. Then, follow the green lights.

Look for pro bono projects for nonprofit and charity organizations you support. (Taproot Foundation, a clearinghouse for pro bono creative work, is one place to start.) If you have acquaintances who perform or promote shows, offer to design graphics and fliers for them in exchange for free admission (or beer and pizza). Seek out any opportunity to show up and create something.

If you’re passionate about the early work that goes into your portfolio, you will likely find opportunities to do more work like it, for more generous compensation.

Make All the Things

Keep solving problems, embracing fresh challenges, flexing different muscles, and adding work to your portfolio. At first, you may be frustrated that your own work isn’t up to the standards of the successful designers you admire. This means you’re right on schedule.

Work through the “taste gap,” push through the resistance, and keep showing up. The only way to do great work is to do lots of work. As you consistently generate more new samples, you can continuously update your portfolio to showcase better and better examples of what you’re capable of.

Find the Others

You are one of many people building a creative career. It may scare you to think you have millions of skilled and hungry competitors. But you can shift your thinking and instead see the creative people around you as potential collaborators, eager to work and grow together. Being independent doesn’t mean being alone.

Attend networking events and reach out to those who have complementary skills. Then, work together on projects that showcase and challenge you both.

For instance, if you are a designer, join forces with a like-minded copywriter. You may build a fruitful long-term partnership, like copywriter Jeff Goodby and art director Rich Silverstein, with a joint brand that combines your talents. At the least, you will build your professional network, enrich your thinking through cooperation and mutual respect, and do work together that you wouldn’t and couldn’t do alone.

At Artisan Creative, we have years of experience helping new and experienced designers build their portfolios, their networks, and their careers. Contact us today to learn more and get started.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the 466th issue of our a.blog.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

14 Books for Creatives

Wednesday, December 13th, 2017|

Whether you listen to audio editions on your commute, use a tablet or e-reader, or relax with a cat on your lap and an old-fashioned paper edition, books are still a great source of information and knowledge for creative pros.

A book allows you to take a deeper dive into a subject and emerge with a broader awareness of how its details fit into context. When it’s easier and easier to consume bite-sized bits of information, delving into a book gives you an advantage over those with less experience of focus.

And books make excellent gifts. With countless titles to choose from, they’re not easy to shop for. Your favorite creative mentor, peer, or friend will be delighted when a thoughtfully chosen book drops into his or her lap.

Whether you’re shopping for a designer, a developer, an artist, or a marketing executive, here are fourteen selections that will spark creative inspiration.

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

This revolutionary writing guide gave rise to a system of thought and a movement that has helped creative people of all types develop greater respect for themselves and their work. Its most influential exercise is probably “the morning pages,” a daily three-page handwritten routine that has galvanized authors, actors, musicians, and everyday people around the world.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

A favorite among UX designers, this classic takes a thorough and counterintuitive look at the familiar objects around us and wonders how they came to be as they are.

Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day by Todd Henry

You only get one chance to make the most of the creative career you pursue in this lifetime. This urgent and heartfelt challenge will embolden you to “lose yourself,” fully commit to your process, and leave it all on the field.

How To Be Useful by Megan Hustad

Hustad’s book is a wry, comprehensive, no-nonsense primer on networking, career-building, doing your job, and preserving your soul. It’s perfect for graduates, those mulling a career change, or anyone who sometimes wonders if he or she missed out on some essential knowledge about how to thrive in the workplace.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

A successful novelist with a cult following among creatives in all fields, Pressfield believes that success means showing up, every day, and maintaining a regular practice, and that the only way to self-actualize as a creative is to start treating yourself as a professional.

The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even If You’re Not by John Vorhaus

Some of the most useful creative inspiration has always come from jokes and humor, from looking at life sideways and shattering expectations. This is a practical and amusing guide to the functions and structure of humor, with exercises that can help you produce smarter and more entertaining work.

Place Your Thoughts Here: Meditation for the Creative Mind by Steven L. Saitzyk

A Buddhist art teacher explores the connections between creativity and meditation in a warm and compassionate book that will fascinate any creative pro with an interest in mindfulness practice.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

This landmark study on human behavior, and how it relates to thought, is a must-read for anyone who needs to understand incentive structures and why people sometimes act as they do. Kahneman won the Nobel prize for economics and is a highly regarded psychologist.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

This book examines what happens when we get so absorbed in our work that we lose track of time, and suggests how we might cultivate such a state of pure creative devotion.

Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done by Jocelyn K. Glei

In an always-on world of perpetual distraction, an influential blogger and editor makes a case for shutting out the noise and decluttering your digital life. You don’t have to be a hardcore minimalist to get some empowering and actionable insights from this one.

Quartz: The Objects That Power the Global Economy by Quartz Editors

This coffee table book from the business blog Quartz showcases the innovative genius of product design and makes a beautiful companion to The Design of Everyday Things.

How To Get Ideas by Jack Foster

Foster is a fun, funny, avuncular guide to the art of generating fresh ideas. If you know someone who’s struggling to stay creative, this book can reignite the joy of the process.

Hey Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads by Luke Sullivan

This irreverent but practical guide to the advertising industry provides a thorough understanding of the creative business and shows how a rebellious attitude can help you do work that gets attention. The classic text has been updated to address new channels and technologies.

The Dip by Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a business and marketing guru to millions through his daily blog. This tiny but crucial book examines what happens when we get stuck in a gap between mediocrity and excellence, how to persist, and how to get out.

When you’re inspired and driven to take your career to the next level, contact Artisan Creative, and join some of the most prestigious creative talent around. We hope you enjoy the 454th issue of our weekly a.blog.

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

12 Next