Morgan Freeman
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 20 years, chances are that you know who Morgan Freeman is. His name is synonymous with good acting and film narration. When you hear his name, what immediately comes to mind? Let’s take a look at what Morgan Freeman can teach us about our design business.
Specialization
Morgan Freeman has been in a lot of different movies, but the one aspect of his career that stands out is his ability to narrate. People tend to enjoy any film that is narrated by Morgan Freeman. So what does this teach us about our design business?
If we focus our attention to what we are truly good at, we can make a name for ourselves. Sure, we can be good at every aspect of design. But being great at something is how we make a name for ourselves. When we become great at a certain aspect of design, such as creating logos, businesses will start coming to us for logo design. When you become known for creating the best work in a specific field, no longer will you have to look for business. Business will come and find you.
It’s Still Okay to Act, Too
Even though Morgan Freeman is known for his narration skills, he still acts in movies from time to time. He’s been in great movies, like The Bucket List. This correlates with our design business in the fact that we may be known for creating the best logos, but we’ll still design letterheads, business cards, websites and other promotional materials for businesses. Just because you focus on a specific area, that doesn’t mean that you can’t offer other services.
Don’t Be Afraid to Try Different Areas of Design
I’m sure when Morgan Freeman was originally approached to narrate Shawshank Redemption, he never thought that it would lead to becoming known for narration. Honestly, he probably just considered it to be part of the film. Can you imagine if he’d never tried narrating Shawshank Redemption? Think of all the work opportunities he would’ve missed out on.
As designers, we should never be afraid to try new things. You never know what it could lead to. Imagine if you only focused on print design, but never tried web design. What if you were really good at building websites? A typical website can go for $3000 or more, depending on the type of website being built. From a business standpoint, how much more successful would your business be if you had another $3000 per month in revenue coming in? I’m willing to bet that if you’re a solo designer, that type of money would appeal to you.
Refine Your Skills
Refining your skills to the point where you can be known for a specific aspect of design will take time. The thing that you should remember is that you are investing in your future. I’m sure that Morgan Freeman probably took some classes in narration or speaking skills in order to refine his techniques.
As designers, we should be doing the same. The learning process never ends for a graphic designer or web designer. There’s always new techniques coming forth, and new skills to learn. There are tons of websites online that provide video courses and training to help you learn new skills. Some of them, like Skillshare, are only $10 per month. It’s well worth it to hone your skills.
Word Of Mouth Sells
How many times have your friends said “Hey, you have to go see that new Morgan Freeman movie. It’s excellent!” with true enthusiasm? Just his name by itself puts you in the frame of mind that it’s going to be a good movie. When you’ve done an excellent job for your clients, word out mouth travels in just the same way. Clients can’t wait to tell other business colleagues about what you did for them and how pleasant you were to work with. Focusing on delivering quality work will easily build word of mouth referrals.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Morgan Freeman’s career and how you can apply what he’s done to being in a successful designer. If you want to be truly successful designer, you have to focus on what you are good at and what will generate revenue for your business. Do you see any other similarities between Morgan Freeman’s career and being a successful graphic designer? I’d love to hear what you have to say. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Hi,
I really like this post, i wish to know if i can translate this and put in my websie, of course respecting all credits about the autor and this page…