Congratulations! You’ve graduated from Graphic Technology school and it’s time to head out into the real world and set up your business!

Well, something like that, anyway.

For the majority of the rest of the semester, you will be setting up a portfolio representing a new business that you will be starting. The obvious suggestion is to set up a design business, but if you know that you’re more likely to want to be a mechanic or hockey player or teacher (HA! Don’t!), you could choose the nature of your business. Whether you decide to actually pursue this type of work after (real) graduation or not, you could set yourself up for a nice little small business that could help you down the line. Regardless of whether you use it or not, it will look great on a resume (which you’ll also design!) and will look impressive when you go to apply for a job.

So, step one is to think up a name for your business! If you think you might use it professionally down the line, do a quick search for any names you come up with and make sure that there isn’t already someone using that name in Canada (preferably the world.) Come up with something that describes who you are and what you do. For example, my graphic designer pal Stu kind of got lucky with the name “Stu Art,” which seems so obvious and simple, but it really describes the business, and it’s clever, because it’s, like, his name and stuff…

Step two is to start designing a logo for your business. Stu came up with this: which again seems pretty simple, but it’s clever and does the trick quite nicely. You want to choose colours that will convey the right feeling, so choose wisely. Make meaningful choices. When choosing colours and fonts, think about what it is that they make you feel & think. What do you like about them? Why do they “work” for you? You’ll have to explain why you chose the colours and the typeface(s) you did, so choose wisely.

Here’s a very good guide that explains some of the major types of logos and important considerations.

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND coming up with more than one version of your logo/look, and getting some feedback before you go any further!

Once you’ve got all of that, you’ll need to design a variety of items for your business that will make people aware of your services and give them some way of contacting you. It would be good though for you to use your real contact information if you’re comfortable with it, but you can use the school as your contact if you wish. Ideally, these could actually be posted and used in the real world, but at this point, they don’t have to be made public if you don’t want to.

The more you come up with related to your business, the better your mark will be (assuming that you do a good job of all of the items!). Your finished project should consist of:

• Logo (including meaningful font and colour choices)
• Business Card
• Resume/qualifications
• business letterhead/sample cover letter
• Advertisement (designed for print and/or online, up to you)
• Social Media banner (Website, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
• Website or interactive document
• Print banner
• Promotional items: shirt, magnet, key chain, mouse pad, mug, water bottle, hat, etc.

Starting now, you are responsible for your time. In order to run your own business, you need to manage your time and work well within a deadline. You will be marked on how productively you spend your time! Time spent on Facebook, your phone, or just not being productive WILL LOWER YOUR MARK.