13 Pieces of Advice for Freelance Designers & Illustrators

Graphic Designer & Illustrator Graham Pilling (www.armyofcats.com) spent some time with the 3^rd Year students discussing professional practice and how to approach the business side of visual creative work.

The following are some quick thoughts and ideas that came out of some of the questions asked and the points discussed and may prove useful to anyone looking to get into the design, illustration, or animation industry, whether freelancing or working for a studio.

Many of the topics below are vastly more complex than the short accompanying descriptions imply, and it is suggested that these form the starting point for students’ own more detailed research online and in books.

HOW TO GET THE BALL ROLLING

Know the direction you want the ball to go, and start pushing. The key is not to wait around for someone to get the ball rolling for you.

I come across many students who seemingly get so into the routine of being assigned work by a tutor, handing it in to receive comments and criticism, and then dutifully receiving the next brief, that when they leave education they innocently wonder where the next task will come from. It's a competitive industry; it's unrealistic to assume someone is going to come along and give you a 'leg up'.

Start thinking about the direction you need to go in before you leave and start working towards that now.

BUSINESS SKILLS & UNDERSTANDING VALUE

Know your market. Devote a fraction of your time towards researching about how the industry works. There are lots of blogs and books available about the business skills needed to be a successful designer, illustrator, animator, etc.

Don't be one of those students who I get emails from asking the most short-sighted and banal questions which they could easily answer for themselves. Be proactive! Read up on this stuff! If you plan to freelance and don't understand tax basics or how to keep accounts, then you are lacking much needed skills.

WHAT IS IT FOR?

This is a great question to ask of pieces of work that you see in order to start understanding the commercial application of illustration and design. What is the purpose of the work? Who is the target audience? How will it make money or create value for the client/artist? What does it set out to achieve, and is it successful?

Read blogs and look at the work of established creatives - often they will point out the objective of the work they have produced. Getting your head round the commercial application of design/illustration can give you a huge early advantage in your career. Which leads us nicely on to...

IF YOU CAN'T GET CLIENTS, MAKE THEM UP!

I have no formal qualifications in art or design. When I got my first design job, all the other applicants had design degrees, yet I was successful at getting the job. Why? Because I had a portfolio of client work, and they had portfolios of school work.

Once you are able to better understand the commercial applications of the work you want to do, start working on examples for your portfolio. Make up the client briefs if you have to, just make them realistic with the purpose of being a case study to show that you understand the application of the work.

I highly recommend the book "Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills" by David Sherwin for generating ideas and improving your skills.

DESIGN COMPETITIONS / SPEC WORK / WORKING FOR FREE

I, like many professional designers, wholeheartedly discourage involvement in design competitions, crowd sourcing, or spec (speculative work) where the final design is to be used for any sort of commercial purposes.

This basically means any endeavour where you are being asked to submit your creative work, time, and experience for free, but with the promise that you may get some sort of reward if your design is 'picked', or that you will gain exposure, or a great piece for your portfolio. Sometimes you are even expected to PAY to submit work.

Fundamentally, what it boils down to is this: if a business is asking you to do free work, how much do they actually value your work? Do you really want to spend time working for someone who considers your work and time to be worth absolutely nothing?

You wouldn't go into a restaurant and ask 10 chefs to each prepare 10 separate meals with the intention of only paying for the meal you enjoyed the most. Likewise it is just as unreasonable and unethical for clients to employ this method of soliciting work.

This process often results in a poor end result for the client, and also it damages and devalues the work of the industry as a whole.  Spec work is a widely debated topic and one which creatives and clients alike sometimes struggle to understand fully, so if you're still not sure what it is, then read up about it. http://www.no-spec.com is a good place to start.

I have seen blogs and other online articles advising young designers/illustrators to initially do work for free in order to get a portfolio together. Don't do this. It is absolutely terrible advice. Value your work and the time you put into it. If you don't value your work, you may find yourself stuck with an endless stream of 'clients' who don't value your work either.

Heed the advice of Jessica Hische, author of the wonderful http://shouldiworkforfree.com  Being asked to give your work away in return for 'exposure' or 'a good portfolio piece' is "the most toxic line of bullshit anyone will ever feed you."

GET THE BASICS RIGHT

Put together an online portfolio where people can see your work. Make it easy for people to contact you. Put your contact details in an email signature as well as on your site. If you decide to work under a 'studio name' that isn't your actual name, avoid unprofessional or offensive names. Reply to emails in a timely fashion.

These are all very simple points but I frequently come across designers/illustrators who can't even get the basics right.

DEVELOP A PROCESS/WORKFLOW

Learn some basic planning and Project Management skills to enable you to plan out any given project you might be approached with. Not only will this help you organise the work, but it will be vital in providing accurate quotes to your client.

Use a Work Breakdown Structure to work out what tasks need to be completed in a given project. If you are working to a deadline, then divide up the time and make sure you have enough time for each task in order to deliver the final work on time. Where appropriate, explain your process to your client and give them an indication of when they can expect certain deliverables.

When you complete a project, take a little time to self-review and look at what worked and what didn't? What can you streamline and improve so you can be more efficient next time?

TIME SAVING TOOLS

If you find yourself doing repetitive tasks then explore better/faster ways of doing them. A simple Google search might save you hours of work in the long run! Use methods like Time Boxing to control and focus how you spend your time.

CONTRACT / WORK AGREEMENT

Don't undertake work without a contract - especially with new clients.  Your contract, or Work Agreement, doesn't have to be overly complicated, it just has to be a way to formally

acknowledge the project description, the agreed payment terms, time-scales, as well as the appropriate Usage Rights for the client (i.e. if you're being paid to do a t-shirt design, the client should not get usage rights to create prints or stickers of the artwork).

There are lots of resources online and in books to help you put a contract together. Put a bit of time and effort into researching and writing one. Don't worry that the contract will scare off clients - the only ones it will scare off were the ones who were planning to shaft you! Professionals use contracts; it should become your standard practice.

DEVELOPING A STYLE

When you're still early in your career, don't worry about trying to develop a style. That will come with time and experience. Experiment and try out different mediums. Broaden out.

This may be hard to hear but your early work will suck in ways you may not see until you develop an eye and understanding that comes with experience, so trying to develop a style early on is not always the best use of time. Just keep working and improving!

REFINE YOUR IDEAS

Learn how to REFINE your work and ideas. In many situations a simpler idea or concept will be far more successful than a complicated one. Imagine a gold prospector from the Old West - when he is panning for gold, he is sifting out the crap and looking to leave only the gold behind. Imagine a jeweller polishing a valuable trinket or jewel - he is removing that outer layer of dirt and dust to let the good stuff shine through.

It's far too easy to 'overdo' good design/illustration work by adding too much to it. When it comes to refining and polishing, instead ask yourself what can you remove? Look for ways to discard the superfluous and leave behind the core design, message or concept.

DON'T BE PUT OFF BY TALENT OUT THERE / DON'T WORRY ABOUT FEELING LIKE A FAKE!

This can be a tough one. It is easy to be discouraged when focusing on the successes of others or the mind-blowing quantity and quality of work out there in Internet Land. Do not give in to doubt and distress! There are lots of opportunities out there so keep working and it will pay off. Focus on improving the delivery and quality of service for your clients - you might not be able to be the greatest in your field, but you can still be the greatest to you clients.

When starting out, everyone has to deal with self-doubt and the sneaky feeling that you are 'faking it'. This is a natural part of being inexperienced so don't let it get to you. It means you are learning something new, challenging yourself and making the transition from shaky newbie to stalwart professional!

BE HONEST, BE POSITIVE, HAVE INTEGRITY, CELEBRATE QUALITY

I firmly believe that your attitude to your work, your clients, and your peers can have a huge impact on your success in all aspects of work and life. While being positive doesn't guarantee you clients, being negative is certainly a good way to make them avoid you. Strong ethics and professional integrity might not seem like they add obvious value to the service you provide. These aspects are in fact priceless and will strengthen your reputation and gain you word of mouth referral work.

Strive to be honest, reliable and professional and be proud of the quality of service you can provide.

Further Reading

Here’s a selection of books I’ve found to be useful or just inspiring. These are aimed more at Graphic Design but are still worth a look if you are involved in a different field:

How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul - Adrian Shaughnessy

The Art of Looking Sideways - Alan Fletcher

Graphic Design: A User's Manual - Adrian Shaughnessy

Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far - Stefan Sagmeister

Sagmeister: Made You Look - Stefan Sagmeister

The Illustrator's Guide to Law and Business Practice - Simon Stern

The Small Stakes: Music Posters - Jason Munn

Naive Graphics: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design - Robert Klanten

Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills - David Sherwin

Art or Money?

Welcome back after the Easter break! Time to get stuck in to the final few weeks of production time...

*****
  

During the holidays an interesting debate cropped up at the studio. We were suddenly balancing a particularly intense period of project proposals and, as the merits of each one were discussed, two long recognised viewpoints came to the front: Artistic Integrity and Money for Survival. I thought it might be good to pose the question here also, to see how you folks feel.

At this stage in your careers, about to step out onto the plains of professionalism, I'm sure you are more than looking forward to those first pay cheques coming in and beginning to make a dent in your student loans and saving up for those new bits of art equipment you just haven't quite been able to afford before. You'll be working on all kinds of different projects, for all kinds of different companies and individuals, each with their own motivations. If the work pays well, you're more than happy to do it...

...eventually though, as you get more comfortable with your routine and the novelty of working on 'real life' projects wears off a little, you begin to recognise patterns in some of the proposals you receive. Not all pitches you receive have had the experience, passion or budget to create a masterpiece idea, and you'll often be faced with a request to animate or illustrate something based on a concept that you know just isn't up to scratch.



Similarly, you might be faced with a pitch for something that has themes or elements you're not entirely comfortable with or find repulsive to some degree. Or, maybe, it's a perfectly good pitch but just not a topic that personally doesn't inspire or excite you.

Now sometimes it's easy; with smaller inexperienced clients you often just have to have a chat and discuss your reservations about the idea and ways you think it could be made better. They might really appreciate the feedback and value your creative input on making the idea stronger, win-win. However, often things don't work that way and there are many reasons you wont be able to negotiate with the idea:

• Big companies aren't usually looking for that kind of feedback, after all they already have spent money on a team of experienced people to come up with a statistically good idea - they just want to know if you can do the production or and how much will it cost... if you won't do it someone else will.
• Seasoned producers or art directors know their market, and some of them assume they will instantly be just as good in any other artistic market too - what has worked before will work again here, you are just a little fish in the creative chain and can't see the bigger picture!
• It's the clients own personal precious idea and no words can possibly convince them to see their baby's warts.
• You're employed at the studio to do what your superiors tell you - if everything had to change to fit everyone's unique opinions would anything ever get done?
• The idea is perfectly sound and commercially viable, it just not to your taste, so is it really your place to try to change it?

So now comes the question:

"If you can't change the idea, but you don't feel/think it works, do you still say yes to the project?"

It's an easy question to quickly form a strong opinion on but always ends up ultimately difficult to answer. Usually the choice end up falling prey to the set of circumstances you are in at the time, and the decision ends up feeling at times like it's being made for you.

At it's roots, the crux of the matter always seems to fall to a balancing game between:

The desire to make money to survive financially as an artist or company

and

The desire to satisfy your internal artistic sense or work-life enjoyment that you need to survive psychologically as an individual or team

Go too far in either direction and you end up in trouble. History is littered with the stereotype broke and out of work artists with heaps of passion but no homes, yet it's also full to bursting point with a noisy glut of insincere and badly thought out work that makes some of the creatives involved cringe with discordance as they produce it. Both of these are extremes and represent poor decision making at each end of the scale.

Ultimately each person needs to decide what works best for them, and if you are freelance you'll tend to have more immediate freedom to make these choices than if you work as an employee at a studio. The place where your balance point sits will be unique to you and your situation, and will certainly shift over time as priorities change.

However, the debate is certainly not something that should scare you or fill you with gloom, just be aware of the balance being something that you can control and change.

So what do you believe is the right balance?
What are the motivations leading to your opinion?

My personal opinion at this time is that, in the end, true-quality productions are valuable - so there really doesn't need to be a tug of war or a sacrifice of quality to make money. But it's a gold standard that can only be reached when every element of chain of production rises above mediocre. It's a shared responsibility to make sure those around us have the support they need to excel and that we likewise accept that support when its offered.

That support comes in many forms, both welcome and (at least initially) unwelcome:

Knowledge     Advice     Opinions     Assistance     Criticism     Tools

Ideas     Friendship     Leadership     Empathy     Trust     Space     Time

the list goes on...

I believe that everyone can excel at something. So discover what you are great at and that inspires, delights and motivates you, then go out there and show people what it is that you can DO!

Film Watch - The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

This week another request for you to get down to the cinema. Aardman have released their feature film 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists' it's a fine ol' animation of swashbucking and good natured humour, filled with cheeky little details in the background.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430626/



Short Bites - The Dream of a Rediculous Man

The Dream of a Rediculous Man

Making of...

Tech Cues - Valuable VFX resource

A quick link for those wanting to delve a little deeper into After Effects. Take a look at Video Copilot, there is a wealth of free tutorials covering all kinds of effects work. Plus a great beginners series overing some AE basics:   http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/