position : relative

I’m a self-employed graphic designer. In the old days, when I was greener than a leprechaun’s testicles, nothing would make me consider suicide quicker than a potential client who was, in fact, just some deluded jackass. The hook was usually, “If you do this job cheap, I’ve loads more work for you!” and I bought that line more times than anyone with an ounce of sense ought to have.

The post was quickly flagged and removed (i.e. censored) by CraigsList users, but not before it became the gift that keeps on giving. Who was that masked crusader? Designers everywhere owe him a hot coffee and a big hug.

Post from CraigsList

Every day, there are more and more Craigs List posts seeking “artists” for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.

But what they’re NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.

To those who are “seeking artists”, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none?

More than likely, you don’t know any. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be posting on craigslist to find them.

And this is not really a surprise.

In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.

So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?

Would you offer a neurosurgeon the “opportunity” to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him “a few bucks” for “materials”. What a deal!)

Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?

If you answered “yes” to ANY of the above, you’re obviously insane. If you answered “no”, then kudos to you for living in the real world.

But then tell me… why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?

Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.

A few things you need to know;

1. It is not a “great opportunity” for an artist to have his work seen on your car/’zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a “great opportunity” for YOU to have their work there.

2. It is not clever to seek a “student” or “beginner” in an attempt to get work for free. It’s ignorant and insulting. They may be “students”, but that does not mean they don’t deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a “student” once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.

3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it’s one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their “portfolio”. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It’s not compensation. It’s their right, and it’s a given.

4. Stop thinking that you’re giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.

5. Students DO need “experience”. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the “experience” they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother’s house when they were seventeen?

If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.

6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to “submit work for consideration”. They may even be posing as some sort of “contest”. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the “contest”, or be “chosen” for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or “spec”, work. It’s risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.

So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are “spec” gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.

And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you’re accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.

   
This is the first article in a series examining the joys and pitfalls of working for oneself as an independent, freelance designer. There are many joys and there are many pitfalls. First the bad news…

STARTING UP IS HARD TO DO
Newly-independent designers often worry about finding clients and work. It’s scary. The cost of health insurance and the ability to generate work are the two things that keep normally creative, defiant thinkers working for the man. If you’re dreaming of the independent life—your own hours, no commute, working in your underpants—the most common advice is not to jump ship until you’ve got a couple of solid gigs lined up. Make a master list of all your business contacts and get busy. While you’re planning your bust out of Alcatraz, stash away enough loot to keep you afloat for at least three months. More often than you think, those promised, guaranteed, definitely-green-light projects will be postponed at the last second, or fail to materialize at all.

THE BILLS YOUR BOSS USED TO PAY
Having to pay for your own health insurance and fund your retirement really sucks. I have an HMO through my local Chamber of Commerce. It’s restrictive but it covers our family. In 1996 a spider bit my ankle. Nothing bad happened. But between the grime of New York Sticky and scratching that delicious itch, the bite swelled up so much I couldn’t bend my ankle. What with doctor visits and meds, I spent about $900 in two weeks. I hate my health insurance premium (especially when I feel healthy, young, eat well, etc.) but you just can’t do without it in this country. If you can’t afford an HMO, a Health Savings Accounts in conjunction with Catastrophic might be your next best bet.

TOO MUCH TO CHEW
In the past, I’ve had periods where I’ve taken on too much work. It was never worth it. Even when I was in my twenties and made of rubber, staying up half the night (or all night) drained my life’s energy. Every time I did it, it crushed a little piece of my soul. There’s nothing worse than that burned-out feeling, where you’re dragging your increasingly chubby ass to work only to climb a mountain—all the while worrying about your other clients looking for an update on their project. I’ve learned to pace myself and say “no” when necessary. I’ve learned not to work with jerks. I’ve learned not to work on projects I’ll hate.

SHARK-INFESTED WATERS
It took me five years to realize that whenever a potential client said, “If you do this one cheap, there’s a lot more work down the line,” it was, in each and every case, a load of number two. It wasn’t around when I was a tender wee lad but No!Spec is a great resource for independent designers.

LOSING YOUR WAY
One of the slipperiest slopes is trying to be all things to all clients. I started in print design, did that for a number of years, then the Web came along. For a long time, I tried to do both. Last year, however, I decided I was kidding myself if I thought I could be the greatest pixel pusher known to man and Milton Glaser’s print nemesis. It’s an easy mistake to make. When you’re running the shop, you need to pay the bills. So when a client says, “Can you turn that brochure you did into a Web site for us?” you say, “Sure!” and off you go. I’ve learned a lot doing things that way. The problem is that developing real expertise in a field means you can’t spend half your time fiddling around with something else. For me, being a full-time Web head means constantly reading, constantly learning, constantly keeping up with new Web technologies. It is a full-time job. At least now I can snort at designers who “specialize” in print, photography and Web design.

LOSING YOUR WAY, AGAIN
Unless you take steps to maintain your perspective, tunnel vision will happen to you. Life can become a blur of work, work, work, work, work. For designers based at home, say, it’s a real struggle to maintain a solid work/life split; when my office was in the house, I never really managed it. With the computer calling out to you morning, noon and night, “I’ll just check my e-mail,” inevitably turns into an hour’s work, or more. This is a bad way to live. Your work-life is supposed to feed your home-life, and vice versa. Your home-life shouldn’t have a stapler and pile of invoices in it. I now have a separate building for the office. It’s on our property, but at the end of the day I can leave all my work paraphernalia where it belongs. I work strictly 9-5 and almost never on weekends. I know designers who seem to be able to keep their work and home lives separate, even when their office is part of their living room, but if you’re not that disciplined, and you don’t have a separate space for your studio, renting space may be something to think about.

PROCRASTINATION
Tied with work/life is every designer’s favorite guilty pleasure: procrastination. Some swear by it: they say the last minute pressure fuels their best creativity. Maybe so. If we’re honest, though, most of us probably swear at it, and ourselves. Procrastination cheats both designer and client. By 2005 I was so sick of my ways I read six or seven books on the topic. The best by far was Neil Fiore’s compact classic The Now Habit. I keep it with Getting Things Done in my office. Both have key-for-me passages highlighted. They’ve saved my bacon many a day.

STAYING ORGANIZED
I don’t have a problem keeping track of multiple jobs. I’m well organized and have a system in place (taken from David Allen’s Getting Things Done) that does 90% of the work for me. But I sometimes find that switching from one project to the next can be quite tricky. When I’m on a roll, I’d rather spend 3-4 hours working on a project. It bugs me to have to stop and start. But keeping multiple clients happy means I’m often forced to work in 30, 60, and 90 minute project-chunks. Clients need to see a little progress every day or two. When you have 15 or more active projects running, it’s challenging.

ADMIN
You have to be your own bean counter. Keeping track of expenses, paying quarterly taxes, typing up invoices. Is that vomit in your mouth? I’ve got it down to about seven hours a week. Two hours for billing, the rest for planning, office work and publicity.

ISOLATION
Not the least of the independent designer’s problems, working alone can be a serious stress on your well-being. No matter how wacky your workspace, you just get sick of being in the same environment every day. An on-line design community like HOW or Creative Ireland can take the edge off, but nattering with peers, especially when there’s an argument brewing, can become a major time-suck.

Once or twice a week, a change of scenery works wonders; WiFi is now so widespread you can easily work from multiple locations, cappuccino in hand. My local library and nearby cafés all offer free WiFi. Noice.

I read somewhere that you need 12 social interactions with different people every day—or you’ll go mad. Mad! Thankfully, they don’t have to be deep: a quick chat with the post office clerk counts. Doesn’t matter. Seeing familiar faces and dealing with your larger community just keeps you feeling topped up.

Once a day, I walk the dog and check in with the neighbors. They keep chickens, make hunting bows from scratch, distill things they shouldn’t. There’s always something going on. One guy is an expert balaphone player. Another is missing half his nose and lets his poodle shit inside the house; not, I imagine, the best of combinations. That guy annoys his closest neighbor, a crusty old geezer who fought the Commies in the Korean War, hates his brother’s dog and likes to shop at Target. That’s what’s goin’ down in my ‘hood.