Design Domination: Recent Episodes
Colleen Gratzer
Design Domination helps freelance designers gain confidence, clarity and a competitive edge in a crowded marketplace.
Adjust your mindset, become more business savvy and sharpen your creative skills, so you get more respect and command higher rates.
If you're a logo designer, print designer or web designer looking to make a successful living freelancing, you will benefit from Colleen's real-world expertise in branding, publication design and layout, website design and design business. You'll also hear from other design dominators in the industry.
Design Domination is hosted by award-winning designer Colleen Gratzer, principal of Gratzer Graphics LLC and creator of Creative Boost. Colleen provides her insights based on almost 25 years of graphic design expertise and almost 20 years of having a successful creative business.
Website: https://creative-boost.com
Music: https://www.bensound.com
193 People spend several hours a day consuming video content. If your audio and video content isn’t accompanied by a transcript, it will be much less accessible to everyone, not just certain users. Find out how to create a transcript and 7 reasons you should.
192 If you’re new to creating accessible PDFs from InDesign, Word, PowerPoint or if you don’t have an efficient process, then you may face certain challenges. Get 5 tips for creating accessible PDFs efficiently.
191 Find out what these website accessibility insights from the 2025 WebAIM Million report, using the WAVE automated checker, mean for you as a web designer or developer today.
190 You might think that video captions are only for accessibility and for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Here are 7 reasons to add captions to videos that may surprise you.
189 Another website accessibility overlay company has been sued. This time it involves UserWay and a class-action lawsuit. Find out what this means for you as a website designer or developer.
Graphic designers often ask if accessibility laws and guidelines apply to print design, not just websites, document and other digital content. The answer might surprise you.
187 An accessibility statement is an important but sometimes overlooked part of a website. Find out why a website should have an accessibility statement, what it should include and how to create an accessibility statement.
186: The June 2025 deadline for the European Accessibility Act is fast approaching. Find out what you need to know and how it may affect the websites you build, even if you’re outside of the E.U.
185: What you need to know about the FTC complaint against accessiBe and what it means for web designers and developers.
184 Find out from this accessible design critique how accessibility can affect food package design in the marketplace.
183 Find out the biggest accessibility mistake when it comes to document design, web design or infographic design and how to avoid it, so that your designs will be more accessible.
182 Find out about why it's important to understand the difference between accessibility compliance versus conformance when doing accessibility work.
181 Do you think accessibility doesn't apply to you as a designer? Are you trying to get others on board with it? Here are 10 things you should know about accessibility in 5 minutes.
180 Find out 21 business lessons I’ve learned over the past 21 years of having a successful creative business that will give you more confidence and clarity with your own freelance design business.
179 Adobe’s latest terms of service updates have caused an uproar in the design industry, with designers saying they are leaving Adobe once and for all. Find out what you need to know—from a lawyer—about Adobe’s terms of use.
178 Many designers want an alternative to Adobe and Canva that will help them create accessible infographics and short documents that can be edited by non-designers and don’t have to be remediated. Find out how accessible infographic creator Venngage can help you do that.
177 A lot of designers think having big clients is the key to making more money in their creative business. But that is not the case, and there are many pros and cons to working with them. Find out the advantages and disadvantages to working with big clients versus small clients and which ones you should work with.
176 Find out where to get quality free fonts you can legally use for design projects, surprising reasons you should use certain free fonts, and accessibility concerns with certain types of typefaces.
175 The WebAIM Million provides insightful data on the top 1 million web pages. Find out what you need to know as a web designer or developer about the state of website accessibility in 2024.
174 The news of Canva buying Affinity and its parent company Serif has shocked and outraged designers worldwide. Find out more about the Affinity acquisition and what it means for designers.
173 The WebAIM 2024 Screen Reader User Survey provides insights we can use to perform better web accessibility testing and to understand more about screen reader users’ behavior and preferences.
172 Shannon Mattern of Web Designer Academy talks about how personal discoveries and coaching helped her stop undercharging and overdelivering and actually create a more enjoyable, profitable web design business.
171 There are so many places where you can find clients who need your accessibility services. Many of them are already knowledgeable about accessibility and understand they need it and are even easy to find.
170 Find out how thinking like a doctor can help your creative business. Get business strategies for getting clients, the sales process and your work processes.
169 A screw-up is bound to happen at some point in your creative career. The circumstances around the mistake and how you handle the situation affect your credibility, reputation and bottom line. Find out what to do when you screw up a client project.
168 Accessibility company Level Access has warned against website accessibility overlays in the past. So it shocked the accessibility industry when they announced plans to acquire UserWay, known for its overlay. Find out what this potentially means for the industry.
167 Get the scoop about what happened with Adobe acquiring Figma and what it means for designers.
166 Thinking about sending a client a gift? Find out what to consider before sending a gift to a client, when to send a gift, what to send clients as a gift and more.
165 APCA calculates contrast differently from WCAG and is expected to be part of WCAG 3. Find out from APCA creator Andrew Somers the problem with WCAG contrast ratios, why APCA is more accurate and how you can make your colors more accessible.
164 One way to make your documents and website content more accessible is to use an accessible heading structure. Find out some common mistakes when styling headings, easy, actionable tips for how to create accessible headings and tools to check them.
163 Chris Hinds of Equalize Digital shares their story of going from generalist designers to web accessibility specialists, giving them clarity and a competitive edge, winning clients more easily, improving their processes and making marketing efforts easier.
162 Get a plain-English summary of the 9 new success criteria in the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, so that you can make your websites more accessible.
161 Do you spend a lot of time explaining what you need to clients? Tired of clients sending you the wrong files or not following your processes? Find out how to get what you need from clients to make for a smoother client relationship and more profitable projects.
Is having a website worth it? Where should you create your design website? Where should you post your portfolio online? If you’re serious about building a freelance design business, find out why you should have your own website.
159 Do you design or remediate accessible documents and find some of the PDF work to be tedious and time consuming? Find out five Acrobat preflight fixups that will speed up your accessible PDF workflow when it comes to artifacting, hyperlinks and more.
158 Find out the top 10 logo design podcast episodes from Design Domination and other podcasts that talk about understanding more about logo design, how to design a logo, how to price a logo, how to get clients and which file formats to create for a logo.
157 Thinking of going out on your own as a freelance graphic designer or web designer? Find out the pros and cons of being a full-time freelancer versus employee and some points to consider before working for yourself full time.
156 The web accessibility community is in an uproar about the AudioEye lawsuit against 30-year accessibility champion Adrian Roselli for his criticism of their overlay product.
155 Learn how to work more efficiently in Adobe InDesign with these time-saving 10 tips about features that most graphic designers don’t use. The more you know InDesign, the easier it is to incorporate accessibility into the layout process too.
154 Providing good customer service doesn’t mean you have to be at the whim of every client request or that the client is always right. In fact, if you do that, your business will suffer. Find out why people pleasing is bad for your creative business.
153 Ensuring that hyperlinks are accessible for all website visitors increases the accessibility and usability of a website. There are functional, cognitive and visual factors to consider. Find out 9 tips for creating accessible hyperlinks on websites.
152 A design brief, or creative brief, helps you get more respect and be seen as an expert as a designer. Find out how to write a creative brief and how it helps not only you but the designer-client relationship and the design process.
151 Learn how to leverage the About page on your website so that you stand out and increase your chances of getting new clients. Find out tips for what to include and how to write a good About page even if you find it hard to talk about yourself.
150 Having a client who makes up a large portion of your income is a blessing and a curse. They keep you busy, but you lose focus on your freelance business. Find out if you have any gorilla clients, or high client concentration, and what to do about it.
149 Are you looking to have the accessibility conversation with clients or coworkers but not sure where to start? Have you tried but gotten resistance? Find out 10 common objections to accessibility and how to overcome them to get others on board.
As a graphic designer, you may run into a situation where the client wants more than one of your designs. Should you provide the design free? Should you charge for the additional design? Find out what to think about and how to figure out how to price it.
147 Many freelance designers struggle with creating and enforcing boundaries with clients, taking on and putting up with bad clients. But setting boundaries means you're in charge, work with good clients and have a more profitable creative business.
Graphic designer Adrienne Johnston shares how she went from being stressed out and overworked in a $60k-a-year creative business to working less and without stress making more than $200k a year by focusing on presentation design in PowerPoint.
Improve the accessibility and usability of the websites you design by adding a skip navigation link for keyboard users. Find out why skip links are important, who they help, how to check for a skip link and how to add one to an existing website.
144 Raising your prices as a freelance graphic designer is vital for a viable, profitable creative business. Find out when you should raise your rates, how to raise them, how much to raise them and what to do if clients react negatively when you do.
143 Google reviews are a free tool designers can leverage to make the marketing and sales process easier. They help you get new clients. Hear how Google reviews have helped John Falke's design business and how to get Google reviews from clients.
142 Want to make $100,000 a year as a full-time freelancer? Find out what I did and what you can do to make 6 figures as a self-employed freelance designer, even in your first year of freelancing full time. Also find out what to do before you do it.
141 As a graphic designer, document designer or web designer, understanding the WCAG color and contrast accessibility guidelines will help make your designs more inclusive and accessible to sighted individuals with or without a visual disability.
140 Medical insurance for self-employed freelance designers can be cost prohibitive. Find out some affordable health insurance alternatives that will save you money along with what to consider before going with one of these options.
139 Pantone color books are being phased out of Adobe Creative Cloud, greatly impacting many graphic designers. Access to all Pantone libraries will require a paid Pantone Connect subscription. Find out what you need to know and what options you have.
138 Getting content from clients is definitely high on the list of complaints from graphic designers. Find out 12 ways to motivate your clients to get you content, so that you get projects done on time and profitably.
137 Many graphic designers give away their advice, expertise and ideas in the sales process for free. Learn what to stop doing on consultation calls and how to get paid for discovery calls, so you get more respect and are more valued as an expert.
136 Just because graphic designers put up a portfolio website doesn't mean potential clients will find it or contact you. Learn strategic steps to get people to your site, keep them on your site and taking action, so you build a profitable creative business.
135 Find out what books are on my list of top creative business books for freelance graphic designers to help you with starting your own business, sales and marketing, getting clients, positioning, pricing and profit, confidence, mindset and more.
134 Sarah Masci of Day Rate Mastery joins me to talk about how graphic designers can increase their profitability by charging day rates instead of hourly rates or value-based pricing and how she went from charging $50 per hour to $10k months working less.
133 Find out important reasons why freelance graphic designers should use contracts for design work in their creative business, including some surprising things you may have thought of.
132 Renowned artist/illustrator Don Bolognese joins me to talk about how it's the designer’s talent—not the tool—that’s vital for a successful creative career. He shares interesting stories and insights from his 67-year career and how it evolved over time with changes in technology.
131 When you take on work that isn’t a good fit with your skills and expertise, it can result in a bad testimonial, no referrals and the work not being profitable. Find out when graphic designers should turn down work from a prospect or existing client.
130 Many web designers and developers think using an accessibility-ready WordPress theme means a website will be accessible. But many themes have accessibility issues, and there is more to building an accessible website than using an accessible theme.
129 Hear how Kelly Irvine went from being an in-house graphic designer to a freelance textile designer, creating exclusive prints for the fashion industry, and how she makes passive income with her designs in online stores at Spoonflower and Society6.
128 Graphic designers often get ridiculous or demanding requests from clients. We can laugh at some, but others are cringe worthy. Find out 11 ridiculous client requests and how to respond to them, so that you leave your dignity and respect intact.
127 By screening prospects and asking strategic questions, designers change the conversation from design to problem solving, get more respect and increase the perceived value of their work. Find out what questions a graphic designer should ask clients.
126: Find out how Kyle Van Deusen went from graphic designer to web designer and how he built the business of his dreams by leveraging website maintenance packages for recurring revenue in his web design business.
125 It's easier to get graphic design work from existing clients than from new clients. Find out 11 ways to keep clients coming back that will impress them, help you have a good experience working together and get work from them in the future.
124 Learn how to get clients as a freelance graphic designer by standing out from other designers, getting noticed and building your authority—and not in a salesy way. You’ll maximize your marketing efforts and get in front of lots of potential clients.
123 Did you get into freelancing to focus on design, not business tasks? Do you dread the administrative tasks you have to deal with as a freelancer? Hear from Dominique Falla how creatives can spend less time on tasks they don't like and more on design.
122 A lot of creatives struggle with creating content for social media, blog posts or marketing emails. Here are 15 social media post ideas for graphic designers that will inspire you.
121: Eric Holter of Cuberis talks about how their niche of designing websites for museums has helped the creative business get work easier, be more profitable, be memorable and be seen as industry experts. He also talks about how he gets clients.
Many graphic designers may unknowingly violate stock photo licensing terms when they buy a stock image or when they send one to a client. Here are some things to be aware of when choosing free and paid stock images for your graphic design projects.
119 Looking to work for yourself as a graphic designer? Find out how to start a freelance graphic design business, including what to think about with your branding, business type, insurance, financial considerations, networking and marketing, and more.
Graphic designers, want to spot a bad client before working with them? Watch for these 17 potential red flags for bad clients, so you can avoid taking on bad clients, have more pleasant client relationships and a better freelance design business.