Thankfully, there’s plenty of production management software to choose from and there are a lot of sites, services and products on the web that can keep you on your toes, improve your appeal to potential clients and help your business perform while reducing headaches. Here are three that no Production Manager, Interactive Art Director, Project Manager, Web Developer or Designer should go without.

EPICOR Production  Management Software

If you want to stay on top of your game, EPICOR is the way to do it. This multi-tiered production management system offers solutions at every level and for every conceivable project. The interface allows production managers a lot of depth without sacrificing user friendliness. Give it a try and see if you’re not a devout user by the end of the week.

Celtx

For production management professionals who are looking for a cheaper alternative to production software, Celtx is a pretty great package for pre-production, offering storyboard, scheduling, screenwriting and everything else you could possibly want in a $10 package (with many free features, as well), Celtx is just the thing if you need to outfit a whole office with production management software on a budget.

Google+

If you’re not on Google+ yet, you need to get involved while you can still position yourself as a trend setter for jumping on the bandwagon. Google+ allows you to search by facial recognition, get +1′s (likes) from search engine results and it gives you precedence in Google searches if the searcher is following you on Google+. Get involved now while you can still be considered an early adopter in your field on Google+. This can also be a useful recruitment tool.

Production management is largely a number-crunching game, and it can get overwhelming if you don’t have the right tools. These three can help you stay on top of your assignment and on top of the field if you know how to use them.

First, consider all of your options. Finding a freelance Graphic Designer or Production Artist might just be a far better solution than making a permanent hire. But will bringing in a freelancer—or freelancers, if your project requires nothing short of a small army—into the mix be cost effective? In a word, yes. Think about the following things you won’t have to worry about if you opt to hire Graphic Designers from the freelance market.

• No legal requirement to provide healthcare benefits. And fortunately for you, Artisan offers that option for its talent.
• Far less overhead costs, especially if the Graphic Designer in question can work remotely.
• Less need to provide training unless it is project or software specific. Most professional freelance Graphic Designers for hire are highly experienced, having worked in a variety of environments.

And if you work with a talent staffer like Artisan, where we’ve already taken care of everything from background checks to prior work history, you’ll have even less on your plate. Get a jumpstart on your marketing project by contacting us today.

There are many corporations and studios out there that are looking for talented freelance animators, but the reality is that even the greatest talent in the world will only take you so far if you don’t have any experience or know-how with respect to the software programs that are regularly used. To help get you started, here’s a list of some of the most popular software for freelance animators for both 2-D and 3-D rendering.

2-D Rendering Software

• DigiCel Flipbook – This is a popular program among professional animators that enables you to illustrate images directly onto your computer using a mouse or stylus. You can also draw your illustrations directly to paper and then scan them into the program.
• Adobe Illustrator – One of the most popular names in visual software, Adobe has a great reputation for quality that’s made even stronger through Illustrator’s ability to help freelance animators create stunning images utilizing a number of effective drawing tools.
• Toon Boom Studio – One of the highest quality 2-D animation programs for aspiring artists hoping to find animation employment, Toon Boom Studio lets you draw digitally or scan paper-drawn creations. You can even import existing art or capture live images.

3-D Rendering Software

• Poser – In use by a variety of industries including TV, film and video game creation, Poser is an affordable software program that can be used by beginners and experts.
• Autodesk Maya 3-D – Operable on Windows, Mac or Linux, Maya is capable of recreating three-dimensional humans or animals to precise details. It’s well known for its fluidity of motion and can be used for TV, movies, video games and architectural renderings.
• Houdini – A far more complex and high-end software program when compared to many others on the market, Houdini lives up to its name by delivering a superlative – if not difficult to master – end product that’s been seen on a variety of TV ad campaigns.
• Cinema 4-D – Having a working knowledge of modeling and rendering is critical to using this highly functioning software, which has been used in such Hollywood productions as “Beowulf,” “Spider Man 3” and “Inception.”

Those seeking animation careers can make significant headway into developing an impressive portfolio by mastering the use of some of the above listed animation programs.

Vince F is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.

Too much white space makes a website look empty.
Wrong. While we’ll admit that too much white space can be a bad thing, it all depends on what your definition of too much is. Some people’s idea of the ideal website design is one that doesn’t waste a single solitary pixel. But as you might imagine, taking this approach can result in an incredibly unattractive and cluttered site. When used properly, white space can make a web page more digestable and leave a user with a far more positive impression of a brand or product.

Quality content isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Occasionally, you’ll hear someone ranting about how unimportant online content is by pointing to a popular website with zero content as a perfect example. The only thing is, situations like these are total anomalies and ecommerce Web Developers have to understand this. Effective interactive design balances quality content with quality layout and visuals. If one or the other falls out of balance, the whole site’s integrity is shot. Well-developed content may not be the only determining factor that gets someone to come to your website, but it can play a huge role in keeping them there long enough to make a purchase and often ensures they’ll come back again.

Copying a proven model will work every time.
This isn’t really a dangerous myth as much as it is a time-wasting one. Far too many people believe that they can take shortcuts to website preeminence by blindly following the example put forth by far more visible websites. The only problem is, that’s breaking one of the very basic tenets of organic interactive design. The most successful websites got to be that way as a result of trial and error, and years of making tweaks that not only took user feedback into account but that also anticipated the wants and needs of future users. Copying someone else’s model is like copying someone else’s Bingo sheet pattern. It just doesn’t work.

If you’re having trouble finding work as a full-time Interactive Designer, take heart. Even though companies hiring Interactive Designers and ecommerce Web Developers may seem few and far between, there are still ways to make money on the full-time or freelance market. Artisan is a creative staffing company that has established clients who are regularly seeking developers and designers for full-time and lucrative freelance projects.

1. Android has quite a bit of catching up to do. No question about it, ever since the release of the first iPhone, the rest of the tech world has been busy playing catch-up with Apple. The trouble is, it’s tough to catch up with a trailblazer and Androids are still engaged in a high-speed pursuit. What’s encouraging, though, is that the Android market has something that Apple lacks: diversity. There are far more Android handsets available than there are iPhones, and at far more affordable prices to boot. What this means is that the demand for quality apps is much higher on the Android market, which could impact your earnings significantly.

2. First movers don’t always win the race. In other words, don’t declare iPhone the winning platform yet. For a perfect example of how this can work out, just look at the space race between the ex-Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviets were the first to launch satellites, monkeys and eventually men into space— but with a lot of ingenuity and even more cash backing, the US emerged victorious in that regard. If you want a more earthbound example, take a look at Google and Facebook. Neither were the first to move into their respective fields, but having seen the diminishment of Yahoo and MySpace, there’s proof that being first is no guarantee of longevity. If you’re a smartphone App Developer considering focusing your efforts solely on the Apple market, you’d do well to remember this.

3. There’s always a dark horse. In the future, the competition will expand far beyond the iPhone and Android markets. So apart from hopping into a time machine and traveling a few years into the future to see what newfangled platforms and operating systems are headed our way, what’s a smartphone App Developer to do? Keep your eyes and ears open, because if there’s one thing in this world that you can count on every time, it’s change.

If you’re a Mobile App Developer, the best thing you can do is pursue as many opportunities as you can while building your resume and gaining valuable experience. You can accomplish this handily by getting registered with Artisan, a staffing agency that focuses on matching up talented freelancers with companies hiring for freelance projects. To crack open a new chapter on your earnings potential, visit our job board today.

Why? Because very few people are comfortable divulging personal details to strangers. If this sounds like you, then it’s very possible you’re going about answering that question in the entirely wrong way. Your potential bosses don’t want to know how you like to spend your Saturday nights. What they’re asking for is a fleshed out picture of the “professional you.”

Here are a few tips to help you answer the most common of all job interview questions.

• Come up with a list of talking points that speak to your work life and leave out personal details.

• Include statements and circumstances that exemplify your passion for what you do.

• Discuss what drove you to pursue your career, and what’s driven you to apply for the job you’re applying for.

• Work in a statement about your talents and abilities without sounding cocky, but don’t shy away from letting a potential employer know that you think you’re worth hiring.

It’s also important that you not go on too long with your answer. One of the most effective job interview techniques is to give them what they want without overstaying your welcome, but also without being monosyllabic or too short. Aim for an answer that takes you a full minute to deliver and you’ll nail it.

• When you hire a freelancer, you save money hand over fist. True, freelancers don’t come cheap—and if you want the best you’re going to have to be willing to pay top dollar. However, when you weigh that against costs you won’t have to incur, such as running background checks, extensive training and providing health benefits, hiring a freelancer is much more cost effective.
• Bringing in a freelancer to handle a project is one of the best hiring solutions for companies that want new blood but can’t afford to hire anymore fulltime staff. If you hire a freelancer, you get the best of both worlds: a breath of fresh air and a temporary solution.
• Hiring a freelancer gives you an “out” if you determine after a few months that the relationship isn’t what you’re looking for. That’s not so easily done if you hire a fulltime employee, where you run the risk of having to pay unemployment benefits for letting them go even if the firing is on reasonable grounds.

If you’re now officially sold on hiring a freelancer, register with Artisan, a creative staffing agency that can get you in touch with talented freelancers in the field of print, web and multimedia marketing.

The trouble many companies face when hiring Web Designers has little to do with finding people of skill and more to do with finding individuals who can produce high quality work on time. The reason? It’s easy for someone to get an education as a Web Designer. Work ethic, on the other hand, can’t always be learned and is seemingly in short quantity these days. If you’re looking to hire a Web Designer but want to avoid finding certain things out the hard way, we’ve got a few tips to help you out.

• Approach a creative talent agency in your search. You can still hire a Web Designer by listing the position on your company website or job boards, but top staffing agencies pre-screen all candidates and even perform pre-qualification interviews to be able to present you with a list of ideal job candidates.

• Know what you’re looking for. You don’t have to be an expert in web design to hire a Web Designer, but you should know enough to be able to discuss what you expect of them. It’s not enough to know what you don’t want, and it’s certainly unfair to expect someone to read your mind.

• Follow up on referrals. This is particularly important if you’re not using a creative talent agency or other staffing firm to find qualified people, since they’ll usually take care of all of the verification for you. You don’t want to find out that the individual you’ve hired for a critical project is not at all who you thought, so do your homework before signing a contract.

If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, it’s strongly recommended that you work with a staffing agency like Artisan who will be able to work with you to determine the quality of Web Designer you need and can provide a qualified match faster than it’ll take you to say “We should have come here sooner.”

• Reality #1: There’s no guarantee that you’ll get to work from home in your jammies. While this might sound like the dream environment for many, even if you’re a wildly successful freelance marketing consultant you may never spend any work time in slippers and sweats. Lots of companies that hire marketing professionals require an in-person presence, in which case you’d better not get rid of your business wardrobe prematurely.

• Reality #2: There’s no such thing as long-term job security. Although you can improve your chances of never running out of work by hooking up with a staffing agency like Artisan, there are no assurances that the job market for freelance Marketing Consultants won’t dry up. Then again, there are no assurances these days in any job market at all… so why not explore your opportunities in the freelance field?

• Reality #3: You may have to move around a lot. At very least, you should be prepared to do a lot of traveling. Part of being a successful marketing professional will require that you take project assignments in various locations throughout the country. If you’re not comfortable moving around or traveling, freelance work in this role might not be for you. At Artisan, we not only offer to connect you with plenty of hiring companies—we also offer health benefits and time off. To find out more, contact us today.

• Study the competition. Don’t spend all your time thinking of how to revolutionize the application market. It’s not a bad mental exercise, but just don’t let this activity run your daily work life. Mobile App Developers more often than not create programs that are incredibly simplistic and improve upon existing applications. For this reason, you should make studying the competition (i.e., all other successful mobile apps) your full-time job when you’re not actually coding.

• Embrace simplicity. If you look around, you’ll see that the most popular apps on the market were made by Mobile App Developers for the express purpose of performing basic tasks. Take, for example, barcode scanner applications. Or weather apps. Or note-taking apps. Trying to design a mobile app that takes on more than a single task is not only a gargantuan undertaking, but also a counterproductive one. People like simplicity and reject complexity, especially on their mobile devices.

• Don’t procrastinate releasing your app. If you wait to release an app until you feel that you’ve worked out all the kinks and that you’ve produced a flawless design, you’ll be waiting until the end of time. Do your due diligence by testing, but accept the fact that you’ll be working out bugs and releasing updates on a near-constant basis. Releasing early also gives you an opportunity to make improvements that you might not have thought of based on the feedback of those who matter most: end users. Never discourage or discount any feedback. It can only help you refine your application.

Without a doubt, the best way to become a truly successful Developer is to rack up an enormous amount of experience working in as many mobile design roles as possible, and for a wide variety of clients. The encouraging news is that the world is rife with companies seeking talented Mobile App Developers for one-off projects, short-term assignments or full-time employment.