Burn Your Portfolio

It takes more than just a design school education and a killer portfolio to succeed in a creative career. Burn Your Portfolio teaches the real-world practices, professional do's and don'ts, and unwritten rules of business that most designers, photographers, web designers, copy writers, programmers, and architects only learn after putting in years of experience on the job. Michael Janda, owner of the Utah-based design firm Riser, uses humor to dispense nugget after nugget of hard-won advice collected over the last decade from the personal successes and failures he has faced running his own agency. In this surprisingly funny, but incredibly practical advice guide, Janda's advice on teamwork and collaboration, relationship building, managing clients, bidding work, production processes, and more will resonate with creative professionals of all stripes.

Michael Janda has been in most positions on the graphic design world org chart over his 16-year career. He has served as production artist, designer, freelancer, and creative director (including a few years as senior creative director over two of Fox's Internet divisions). Since 2002, Janda has owned and operated his own agency, Riser, which boasts such high-profile clients as NBC, ABC, Fox, Google, National Geographic, Warner Bros., and Disney.

SECTION 1: Human Engineering 1) The Big Fat Secret 2) The Extra Mile 3) Soak Up Advice 4) You Are Not Your Work 5) Be Nice to Everyone 6) Drama Is for Soap Operas 7) No More Flying Solo 8) Gripes Go Up 9) The Stress Bucket 10) Two Types of Grandpas 11) Be a Wall Painter 12) Every Position Can Be Electrifying 13) Lead or Be Led 14) Half the Victory 15) The Value of Downtime 16) I'm Not a Writer 17) Toot Your Own Horn 18) Don't Work in a Vacuum 19) The Graphic Design Megazord 20) Live as a Team, Die as a Team 21) Everyone Does Something Better Than You 22) You Are Responsible for Your Own Time SECTION 2: Art Smarts 23) OCD Is an Attribute 24) Polishing Turds 25) Hairy Moles 26) This Is Not Verbatimville 27) Shock and Awe 28) Art Is Meant to Be Framed 29) It Is Never Too Late for a Better Idea 30) Filler Failures 31) A River Runs Through It 32) Comps or Comprehensive? 33) Design Like the Wind 34) Type Fast 35) How to Eat an Elephant 36) The Venus Initiative 37) Process-a-Palooza 38) Hiking Your Way to Successful Projects 39) Solving End-of-Day Rush 40) Why Projects Blow Up 41) The Lo-Fi PDA 42) Bring Out Your Dead 43) Shake the Bushes or Get Bit 44) Red Flags and Extinguishers 45) Brainstorms Are 90 Percent Bad Ideas 46) The Communal Brain SECTION 3: Two Ears, One Mouth 47) The Ultimate Email Formula 48) Beware the Red Dot 49) Email Black Holes 50) Even the Lone Ranger Had Tonto 51) Canned Communication 52) Tin Can Phones 53) Vicious Vernacular 54) An Army of Support 55) Friendly Updates 56) Deadline Ballet 57) Big Brother 58) The Domino Effect 59) Avoid the W.W.W. 60) Be Afraid to Click 'Send' 61) The Tragedy of Time Zones SECTION 4: Happy Head Honchos 62) Designers Are from Mars, Clients Are from Venus 63) Let Your Client Leave Their Mark 64) 'Forgiveness' Points 65) Let Your Client Be the 800-Pound Gorilla 66) Do Your Genealogy 67) Never Give Your Client Homework 68) Assume That People Are Clueless 69) Long-Term Relationship Value vs. Single Transaction Profit 70) Oddities at the Start Mean Oddities at the End 71) Don't Be the Desperate Girlfriend 72) Stand in Manure, Smell Like Manure 73) Never Fire a Client? 74) 'We Decided to Go Another Direction' Means 'You Suck' 75) There Are Such Things as Stupid Questions 76) You Can't Get Mad at Math 77) You Have 65 Seconds to Land a Job 78) How to Ask for a Raise Without Asking for a Raise SECTION 5: Mind Your Business 79) Do What You Love; the Money Will Follow 80) A Business That Looks Orderly 81) Making Cents of It All 82) How to Calculate a Burn Rate 83) The Fixed-Bid Pricing Dartboard 84) Beware of Line-Item Pricing 85) 'No Charge' Doesn't Mean 'Free' 86) How to Flush Out a Budget 87) Twenty-Piece Chicken McNuggets 88) Nonprofits for Non-Profit 89) The Code of Fair Practice 90) Contractual Mumbo Jumbo 91) 'Etcetera' Has No Business in Your Business 92) You Don't Have to Sign Off on This 93) B.A.M. Lists 94) One Line That Changed Everything about Collections 95) A Business Is an Organism That Wants to Die 96) If I've Got a Dollar, You've Got a Dollar, but No Partners 97) If You Want to Win the Game, You Have to Know the Score 98) There Is No Such Thing as a 'Meet and Greet' 99) How to Make a Capabilities Presentation 100) Floods Happen 101) Flexibility, Not Freedom 102) Never Do Undocumented Work 103) Next Worry Date 104) Nickels and Dimes Are for Lemonade Stands 105) Only Terrorists Like Hostage Situations 106) Oh Where, Oh Where Has My $100k Gone? Oh Where, Oh Where Can It Be? 107) Don't Do Anything You Can Pay Someone $10 Per Hour to Do 108) 'Skin in the Game' Usually Means 'Free' 109) Three-Month 'Lifetime' Guarantee 110) 'Being Your Own Boss' Whatever That Means 111) How to Bite the Bullet