James Barnard

While making this video, I realised that I completed HALF as many logo projects vs last year. I was about to wallow in self-pity, until I compared my accounts year on year. My business saw an increase of 43%! How?! There are two reasons: 1. I’m now charging more per job. If you double your rates and half of your clients leave you, you make the same money and free up half your time. It’s taken a long time, but I’m starting to find that sweet spot between being too busy (I’m undervalued) or things being too quiet (I’m overpriced). 2. I’ve diversified my income. I launched two more mini courses, plus completed a number of speaking engagements. I’ve also partnered with a select group of brands this year, which splits my income pie chart in a very different way. None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for you guys. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support this year. It means the world to have you all here and still listening to what I have to say. My life is so different now and it’s all thanks to you, my audience. Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to you and yours. JB 👍🥴

💪“Get that hairy arm out of there!” This story is originally by a freelancer writer and illustrator called Lawrence San. Read the article in full here: http://www.1099.com/c/co/in/insanity006.html #graphicdesign

I don’t repost often, if at all. But after three years of posting regularly (and 400+ videos later) my family are finally taking some holiday. So here’s a little blast from the past and my first video to go viral on Instagram. This one ended up hitting more than 15M views. It was originally a stitch from one of Abi Connick’s videos, where she manipulated a piece of type using the pencil tool in Adobe Illustrator. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! And now this trick features heavily in my workflow. In fact I used this in conjunction with the new smooth tool on the last logo project I worked on, and managed to achieve some unbelievable results. Thanks to @Abi Connick for showing me the way! ✊ #graphicdesign #illustratortips #illustrator

I first heard of @Jamie Brindle back in my early TikTok days and his freelancer advice really struck a chord with me. In particular this little tidbit… “50% of your time should be spent on your current client work, and the other 50% should be spent driving new business” I have lived by this motto for the last couple of years and it has changed my life. How do I justify spending so much time on my social content? Because 85% of my new business leads now come from social media. And if I waited until things were quiet on the client front, my business would suffer from massive peaks and troughs. I was lucky enough to have dinner with Jamie while I was in LA last year, and honestly, I could listen to him speak all day. If you don’t follow Jamie, you’re missing out. P.S. He is so busy that this collab took 18 months to put together. So I hope you appreciate it. 🤣 #freelance

🫣Last week the team at Adobe Live asked me to record an Instagram story series showing what it’s like to be me for a day! Here are all of the videos, stitched together, back to back. It’s a long one, but if you’re feeling nosey, here’s some behind the scenes of my life as a freelance logo designer with two young kids! 🤣 Some of my gear Creator Micro by @work louder : https://work-louder.myshopify.com/designers Tourbox Elite: https://bit.ly/4eW7Ghz Bloom CRM: https://bloom.io/james?productId=bloom.io&ucc=1i88ZyvREyL&celloN=SmFtZXM

🤯 What a world we live in… #photoshop #photoshoptips #graphicdesign #designtok

The Eyedropper Tool (shortcut [I] for 👁️) is more powerful than you realise. Firstly, you can sample colours OUTSIDE OF ILLUSTRATOR by simply clicking and dragging with the eyedropper selected, and then let go over something like an image in your browser. Then, when you want to apply your sampled colour to an object, just hold down ALT/OPT on your keyboard and it’ll drop your colour on to anything you select. Then just let go to resample. BONUS TIP: Double click on the eyedropper tool to bring up a suit of selection preferences. For instance, you can switch off sample stroke, so it’ll never pick up a pesky stroke again! #illustrator #illustratortips #graphicdesign #designtok

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🏀⚽️🎾🏐🎱 Wrapping objects around a sphere in Adobe Illustrator doesn’t need to be hard. Just follow these simple steps… 1. Convert the object you want to wrap into a ‘Symbol’ under ‘Window - Symbols’. 2. Draw a circle and delete the left path point to cut it in half. 3. Go to ‘Effect - 3D and Materials - 3D (Classic) - Revolve (Classic)’ 4. Turn your ‘Surface’ to ‘No Shading’ and hit ‘Map Art’ 5. Uncheck ‘Invisible Geometry’ and select your symbol under the ‘Symbols’ dropdown 6. Move your symbol into position and hit OK! #illustratortips #illustrator #graphicdesign #designtok

🚨Illustrator finally has the ability to copy colour codes! Just shift click the colours you need the details for in your swatches panel, or select an entire group, click the little menu icon in the top right corner and hit “Create swatch info…” Choose the codes you need, choose your layout and Illustrator will create a series of blocks for you! #illustratortips #illustrator #graphicdesign #designtok

🚨WARNING: Tattooing and needles. I got my first tattoo on my shoulder blade when I was 18. It was one of those generic tribal stickers that everyone was getting in the Naughties. It was also the start of an addiction. I have two half sleeve tattoos. Both done in London at varying stages of my life. In 2021 I moved to Australia and found myself spending time with people from the Pacific Islands. On my first day at my new gym, one of the trainers from New Zealand asked me where I’d had it done. When I said London, I could see the look in her eyes. She was polite and didn’t say anything to cause me any embarrassment, but I knew I’d crossed a line. Over the next couple of years, with more and more exposure to the nature of what tattooing means in Maori and Pacific Island culture, I realised that this tattoo was not OK. It was cultural appropriation at its worst. So I started saving up to have it removed and covered. Over the course of more than a year I sat through 6 removal sessions, and then something like 40 hours of tattooing to have it covered. The new design is based on the Barnard family coat of arms; a knight behind a shield with a depiction of two bears. There is also another variation of the crest that uses a unicorn (representing ‘good’) which is helping a bear battle evil, a griffin. I worked with Natalia @rotloser, a fantastic Columbian artist and one of the best here on the Gold Coast, who came up with the designs for my new half-sleeve and shoulder, and then tirelessly brought it to life over 10 tattoo sessions. Thank you also to @erazalaser for taking over the mantle and helping lighten this tattoo enough to have it covered. #tattoo #tattooart #tattooremoval

ad Designers. If you’re thinking of starting out on your own, then here’s something nobody told me… You don’t just need to be a great designer. You need to be a great communicator. And if you’re someone like me, who used to rely on email to keep my clients updated, then you might want to think about using a client portal. It’s a great way to keep your clients in the loop about their projects and shows them a level of professionalism that inspires a bit of trust. I use Bloom.io for this. You get a dedicated client login page where they can view all their projects, pay invoices, sign contracts, share notes, upload files, and I can even embed my designs or other project management boards like Notion or Clickup. If you’d like to start a free trial just head to bloom.io/james to get 50% off! 👍

🧐 Struggling to select those anchor points and handles in Adobe Illustrator? Just head to Settings - Selection & Anchor Display and slide the Size handle all the way to the max! Now, time to deal with that receding hairline. 👴🏻 #graphicdesign #illustratortips #designtok

🥳 YES! It’s another year in review video. But WHAT. A. YEAR. I reckon 2024 was my best year yet. Some highlights include: * I turned 40! 
* I flew to Sydney for an in-person Adobe Live session
* I won 6 design awards, mainly for my work with Metalama. * I flew to London for Adobe MAX and met one of my heroes Annie Atkins 
* I went on the Futur Podcast with another hero Chris Do, and then met him AGAIN in person!
* I hit half a million followers on Instagram
* I flew to Miami for Adobe MAX and spoke on stage for a FULL HOUR! I have so many exciting things planned for 2025 and I can’t wait to share them all with you. Happy New Year everybody! #hny #hny2024 #yearinreview