Frelancers: I have just been asked to be the creative director for a magazine

I have just been asked to be the creative director for a magazine?
I have designed brochures, ect.. but never a magazine. Can anyone out there tell me what software I would need, what book I could read, anything that could help me. Also, I am supposed to give them a proposal to my fees, since this is a freelance job, but one that will last forever. I live in Kentucky, and do not know how much to charge the company for a quarterly magazine. Somebody help me.
Drawing & Illustration - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
InDesign, definately. That's why it exists and all it does. I don't know what to charge, work out your time per hour and start there. Flat fees maybe really bad in this situation until you know how fast you can work.
2 :
Based on the basic level of the questions you're asking I'd say that the magazine that's hiring you is either: - planning to take advantage of your inexperience - or they are inexperienced themselves Regarding your question about software: It's a matter of workflow. Like Atom74 said, Adobe InDesign is almost certainly the layout software you should use, and other applications in the Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat) would be necessary for other aspects of creative development. But there are obviously many more parts to the workflow for a magazine (pre-production, ad stripping, pre-press, proofing, printing), and so you'd need to talk to the production manager, print manager, editor and publisher to make sure they can handle the files you'd create. Unlike a brochure, a magazine is something continuous and ongoing. The better you organize and optimize your processes, the better the output will be. Keep in mind that whatever software you use will also have to be used by everyone else on your creative and production teams (CS1 vs CS2 vs CS3). The Adobe site itself is a great resource for whitepaper pdfs that discuss a lot of these work planning issues. Regarding your question about money: A freelance position that "lasts forever" is worth discussing with your tax person -- I know that the IRS has certain restrictions governing independent contractors (if you work for one client at the exclusion of all others, then you might not actually qualify to be a contractor and your employer may be liable for your payroll). As for your pay rate: it depends completely on what you negotiate with your employer. And it also depends on your responsibilities and how much you want the job! You might want to check the Graphic Artists Guild Pricing and Ethical Guidelines Handbook. My ancient copy from 2001 shows that the national average annual salary for a "creative director" was $53,127. Where I live (San Francisco) you can earn that sitting on your butt in a mid-level production studio, but things may be different in Kentucky. The same guidelines discuss pricing for just designing the format of a publication. It breaks it down by whether you are starting from scratch, redesigning an existing pub, executing within an existing design -- also whether the pub is consumer or trade, general interest or special interest -- and what the total circulation is. The prices (from 2001) for project-based one time design of the publication ranges from $5,000 to $100,000 (!), so I suggest you pick up a copy of the most-current guidelines. Also, no matter what all the details are, I think you need to just think for yourself what you ought to be paid. If i were you, I'd probably take the rate I'm already making now, and increase it by at least 20%. Don't get suckered into working for cheap! It aint worth it

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Monday, March 24, 2008

I have just been asked to be the creative director for a magazine