Freelancing

Happy Friday, everyone!

The first thing I have to remember is if I myself set up to write a blog, I need to actually get in there and write something. I established this thing and then sorta forgot about it. Oh well, I'm sure you didn't miss much.

I've been freelancing for quite a long time and I've been trying to become a syndicated cartoonist even longer. One of the first actual advertising artwork jobs I ever had was to design a little ad for a TV repair guy way back in 1985. I did it all in pen and ink (there was no Illustrator back then. At least not for me. Heck, I didn't even get a computer at home until around 1996). I measured the size by holding a ruler up to a current issue of the paper and sent the artwork in. I had no idea whatsoever what a pica was, what four colors were used to print with or what "resolution" meant. But it was a lot of fun to do and I think I made a whopping ten bucks for it! I had been trying to get some freelance work anyway and having an actual assignment was probably what kept me plugging away. Soon after I was hired as a production artist for a directory company in Loveland and haven't looked back. And although I worked for production companies since then except for parts of 2005 and 2006, and now, I still continued to freelance as much as I could.

In order to bring more business into my little home-based design company, I've had to try and find work through all sorts of employment services. I currently am using: Monster.com, FlexJobs, Career Builder, The Creative Group, Robert Half, Aquent, oDesk, and probably some others I can't remember. And while I apply for as many design gigs as I can, it's a tough world out there. I don't have any actual numbers but I would venture to guess that for each job I apply for, hundreds of other designers are applying for the same thing. And I have to admit, there are some GREAT designers out there. It's a little disheartening to have to try and compete with all these fresh ideas that haven't been tainted by years and years of production work.

I work in an odd business. My many years of production advertising design has taught me that a lot of businesses want to cram as much information into a newspaper or yellow page ad as they can. It's always been my job to take what the client wants and create something eye catching. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but the fact of the matter is, you can't think too much about minimalism and white space if the customer wants to list every service and product they offer. To better demonstrate the frustrations a designer can feel at times I would ask that you visit David Thorne's blog at http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html.

This blog is without a doubt one of the funniest I've ever read and I have laughed out loud at the things he has written about. Check out all of his entries but his take on designing a poster for a lost cat will have you crying with laughter! And I find this quote from him especially pertinent, "Having worked with designers for a few years now, I would have assumed you understood, despite our vague suggestions otherwise, we do not welcome constructive criticism. I don't come downstairs and tell you how to send text messages, log onto Facebook and look out of the window."

See ya next time!