Working with Tom Carling
Fulfilling Your Vision: Quality design solutions come down to simply giving you exactly what you need. I do this by asking the right questions and listening very carefully to your responses. From this, I create a design brief that outlines the scope and objectives of our project and establishes the criteria for how we will determine the success of my efforts.
Proposals: Once the scope and objectives have been established, I’m happy to provide a proposal with estimates based on my studio hourly rate. Knowing your budget—at least a ballpark idea—helps me to tailor my proposal to your project and will aid you in comparing bids.
Dependability: You need to outsource design services to someone you can count on. My clients tell me I put them at ease because I’m as engaged, collaborative, and dedicated to results as any in-house member of the team. Read what they have to say here.
Resources: As the creative director of Carling Design, I work one-on-one with my clients and execute all design work myself. I may, for layout and production on some larger projects, draw from a select, reliable pool of trusted designers. Beyond this, I assemble and manage creative/editorial teams on a per-project basis, quickly bringing together writers, editors, illustrators, photographers, digital designers/developers, proofreaders, indexers, and print production specialists with whom I often have long standing relationships.
Access: I work from a home-studio in a city that never sleeps. I am on call, literally anytime, for questions or changes or just a line or two of explanation. I am always responsive to the shifting needs of my clients.
Quality Design Solutions: The breadth and creativity of my portfolio constitute a tangible record of success with varied design solutions for a broad spectrum of publications. I arrive at quality design solutions by asking the right questions, listening very carefully to your responses, and clearly assessing your needs. The best solutions naturally follow.
On-time Delivery: As a freelance designer, I produced native advertising inserts for weekly, national magazines for seventeen years; it was good practice. When it comes to deadline commitments, I stick it every time. I tend to work on an accelerated schedule, often hitting delivery dates early. In fact, rush jobs are a specialty.
Services
DESIGN
design consultation
art direction
cover and/or interior page design
composition and layout
project management
commissioning illustration
photo research
image usage rights, negotiation and management
production, color correction, and photo retouching
digital content publishing: interactive fixed layout EPUB, ebooks
EDITORIAL
concept development
commissioning a writer
copy editing
proofreading
indexing