The Business of Graphic Design: Protect & Perfect Your Passion

Want to spend more time doing what you love and less time managing it? Renowned designer Aaron Draplin shares his secrets to a streamlined creative business!

When you start making money from your creative passion, it’s easy to get caught up in your craft and ignore all the “businessy” things. If spending hours crafting a logo for a new client is a walk in the park, navigating taxes, client contracts, and email etiquette can feel more like an uphill battle. Luckily, legendary graphic designer Aaron Draplin isn’t just a fan of logo design and long afternoons with Adobe Illustrator. He also enjoys making an honest living as a self-employed designer by running a business that works like a well-oiled machine. 

In this class, Aaron reveals how to be as elegant off the page as you are on it by:

• Building clean, crisp project templates
• Optimizing your file structure and file names
• Treating email like the artform it is
• Understanding the building blocks of a strong invoice
• Getting ahead of potential problems and staying above the law

Plus, Aaron shares the mistakes he’s made as a business owner, and what he wishes he’d done differently over two decades (and counting!) running the Draplin Design Co. 

This class is designed for any self-employed creative—designer or not—who wants to nail down the admin side of owning a business. By the end, you’ll have an actionable business management to-do list that’ll help you feel more confident and protected, and allow you to impress clients with every interaction. Save time on the front end by streamlining your operations, and discover more time for the work you love—and some well-earned play!

This class is geared toward self-employed creatives at all career stages. While it contains no financial or tax-related advice, it does lay out the steps you need to make sure you have all of your business bases covered. Bring a notebook and a pencil so you can create a personalized to-do list as you enjoy the class. 

• Introduction
• Perfecting Project Templates
• Refining File Structure
• Emailing Like an Expert
• Building an Invoice
• Refining Tax Forms
• Crafting Contracts
• Optimizing Accounting
• Protecting Your Business
• Final Thoughts