For this episode of Finding My User Manual, I sat down with James Barnard, award-winning logo and visual identity designer, educator, and international speaker, as well as the founder of Barnard Design Co.

With over 15 years in the design industry, his background includes roles at the Daily Telegraph, Bauer Media and Hearst magazines in the UK. In 2021, he relocated from London to the Gold Coast, Australia, where he now runs his studio. In 2022, James had his first viral moment as a designer when one of his logo design videos hit 3 million views. Having built an online audience of over a million people, he now dedicates significant time alongside his client work to passing on his exceptional knowledge and supporting the next generation of designers.

Here’s what he shared.

Do Not Insert Drama

When asked what would be on page one of his user manual, James said, “Do not insert drama into this person’s life.”

“If you come into my space and you make it difficult, you start gossiping or you create friction or tension with me or any of my loved ones, you are dead to me. You are gone.”

He has a reasonably small group of people who are close to him. “They know full well that I don’t suffer fools. I’m a very impatient person.”

Has he always been intolerant to drama and friction? “The less of a people pleaser I’ve become, I think that’s with age. I don’t have a lot of patience for people that waste my time or that misbehave.”

At 41 with kids, he wants to spend his time with them. “If you waste my time without doing your homework or not working hard, then you’re dead to me.”

From Generic To Niche

When James’s wife got pregnant in 2019, she was earning way more than he was, so he became a stay-at-home dad. While his baby was sleeping, he started tinkering with freelance work.

“I watched all of Chris Do’s content from ‘The Futur’. I just watched every single video about how to sell myself better, how to position myself in the industry.”

He’d always thought being a “generic catch-all” graphic designer was the best way forward. “I can get more work that way because I’ve got more skills. But it turned out the opposite was true. As soon as I started to niche down into a certain area, the more clients I started to attract.”

He decided logo design and branding was the most fun part of the industry. “It’s pure creation.” He took everything off his portfolio that wasn’t branding or logo design, turned his website into an SEO magnet, and targeted the keywords ‘freelance’, ‘logo designer’, and ‘London’.

“Within a couple of months, I was like number one on Google for it, and I got loads of leads from that.”

Not Always Comfortable On Camera

Was James Barnard always comfortable in front of the camera? “No, not at all. I found it really hard when I first started. It’s awkward, isn’t it? Looking down the lens and trying to talk off the cuff about something. It’s impossible.”

Years before he went viral, he had an idea for a show called ‘Shit I Wish I Knew About Photoshop’. “It was like all the tips and tricks that I’d learned along the way. I even had a theme tune. I was ready to go.”

He tried recording himself and started talking in front of the camera. “I was like, um, and tutting and saying um and ah and bumbling through my sentences. I was like, “This is painful. I’m not going to be able to edit this down in any way, shape or form.””

When he eventually got on TikTok, the way he managed it was script writing. Because short form was faster, it was a lot easier for James Barnard to write a script for a minute of content. “All I did was write out a script for a video, read it one line at a time to the camera, cut those clips together, make it really tight and succinct and then add overlays over the top.”

Teach One, See One, Do One

After that first viral video went out, James got a lot of leads. “It was like 70 leads in a single day from one piece of content. I was like, this is mental. That’s more leads than I’ve had in the previous six months combined.”

He started doing it more to funnel leads into the business, but while he was doing it, he started realising he was actually becoming a better designer. “I’m learning way more than I ever did before by teaching this to other people.”

He came to a huge realisation. “The medical industry has known for years. It’s called see one, do one, teach one. Every time you do a procedure as a learning doctor, you see a procedure being done, you do one yourself the next time around, and then straight after that, you teach it to somebody else. And the teaching part of that process makes that stick in your brain.”

“Teaching other people makes you better, makes you remember stuff more, makes you be able to present better in front of clients, solves problems when it actually comes to creating work.”

People Like To Deal With People

Do creatives underestimate how much their individual personality matters within the industry?

“I think so. There’s that argument about on your social profile, should you have your picture or your company logo? Should you represent yourself as a freelancer or a mini studio? I’ve struggled with this for absolutely years.”

“I found like people like to deal with people. They want to know who they’re working with. One of the greatest things about my content is that if you watch a few videos, you really get to know who I am as a person and really what it’s going to be like to work with me.”

“When clients are actually looking to work with you and they can see a bit of your content and learn who you are, it really helps when it comes to closing that deal.”

The Lifestyle Business

James hangs out with a lot of people who own agencies and, in his own words, he’s always been kind of jealous of them. As recently as three months ago, he was looking at office space and thinking, “should I get a team of employees?”

“I’ve got enough leads coming into the business that I probably could spin up an agency tomorrow. But at the same time, I’m also home every night when my kids come home from school. We always have dinner together. I’m always there to put them down to bed at night.”

“I like the lifestyle business. I like working with the types of clients that I do. I’m really hands-on.”

Before he went freelance, he reached a level where he was running a team of designers. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. I was putting out fires all the time, constantly dealing with HR issues and stuff like that. And I was doing less and less of the design work that I actually loved doing.”

“I went freelance to try and pay the bills, to try and find something, and ended up realising this freelance gig is unbelievable. I love it. I love the freedom of it. I love working with the clients that I like to work with. And I get to do the work.”

50% Marketing

A content creator friend told James something that really stuck with him. “50% of your time should be working on your current clients and 50% of your time should be driving new business.”

“If you don’t focus on your marketing, if you don’t just keep trying to bring people into your business and devote time to do it, those leads will dry up. You’ll have crickets. Your cash flow will suffer.”

“People start to post on LinkedIn like, now taking bookings, I’m free from April going forward. And you can feel the panic in their voice and see the whites of their eyes when they’re on calls. And clients can sense that desperation.”

If he has a waitlist that’s three months long, he can say no to jobs. “The roles reverse and suddenly they’re finding the budget that they didn’t have before and pushing other stuff back so they can book you in months in advance. That’s a powerful position to be in.”

Case Studies Are The Most Powerful Thing

“Case studies are the most powerful thing to post online. Clients don’t want to see the fact that you’re free and available and no one wants to work with you. They want to see the work that you’ve done and that you’re proud of.”

“If you can get clever with your case studies and show a bit of behind the scenes about what it’s like to work with you, they work so well.”

Whenever James finishes a project, he makes a video case study about what it was like, how the client found him, the problems they were facing, the rounds of amends along the way, and then the final output.

“If you can frame that in a story, so you’re telling a story about how you worked with this client, they work so well. People love that. It’s such a nicer way to digest your portfolio than being spoon-fed some mock-up images.”

Definition of Success

Has his definition of success changed over time?

“No, it’s financials, totally. I’m so self-centred. The more money I make, the more successful I am.”

But also within the business, it’s the bigger and better clients he can work with. “I want to leave something behind. I don’t want to leave behind a legacy of nerdy design videos. I want to leave behind a body of work that I’m really proud of.”

“When I design a brand for someone, a visual identity, I want them to be proud of it first and foremost. And the pride for me comes with checking their website five years later and they’re still using the work and they haven’t changed it.”

“It’s a hard thing to do with design. You have to design without trends. You have to design to stand the test of time.”

“I want my clients to be proud. And that really comes by putting meaning behind the designs. If you can incorporate something into their logo that has some kind of backstory or meaning to them, or a bit behind how their business got started, it means way more to them than if it’s just kind of pretty.”

Don’t Niche Down Too Soon

For someone coming into the industry, what would James want them to focus on?

“Don’t niche down too soon. I’ve seen a lot of designers come straight out of school and dive straight into a specific part of the business. I think you should try it all.”

“I’ve done print design, digital design, a bit of animation, web design, bit of coding, video editing. I’ve done a lot. And it took a while to figure out what I got the most enjoyment from, which turned out to be logo design and visual identity.”

“Get yourself into a job where you can learn from other people and sit next to other designers and watch how they work. There’s no substitute for a bit of free education from your colleagues. If you have a job like that where you work with other creatives, you get paid to learn. It’s a no-brainer.”

 

Listen to the full episode:

Connect with James Barnard

Website: barnard.co

Instagram: @barnardco

TikTok: @barnardco

Youtube: @barnardco