Freelance Focus 11th January 2008
Freelancer Focus is a regular feature, where freelance designers are invited to answer a series of questions about themselves and freelancing. This week Tara (who runs this blog) (pictured left) is the freelance designer in question. If you would like to take part please read my previous post. Any designer or illustrator can also take part in Design Case Studies.
I realised I had never answered the Freelancer Focus myself so here goes…
1. Your name?
Tara – Graphic Design Blog
2. Where are you are based (Country/Area)?
Northamptonshire, UK
3. What type of work do you do? (design for print, web, multimedia etc)
The majority of my work is design for print with emphasis on logo design, brochure/leaflet design and package design.
4. How many years had you been working in the design industry before you went freelance?
12 years
5. How long have you been freelancing?
About 4 years
6. Why did you decide to go freelance?
I had a small share in a company in Herfordshire but when my business partner (who did the sales side) decided to move abroad I decided to go freelance and base myself from home.
7. How did you market yourself (find design work/new clients) in the beginning – (online portfolio/brochure/direct mail/email/phone etc)?
Initially I set up a simple portfolio website and then sent out letters and emails to previous people I had worked for (including design agencies). I also expanded this to letters and emails to other local design agencies and freelance recruitment agencies. In the letters and emails I directed people to my portfolio website. I didn’t have much success via the recruitment agencies who didn’t seem to have much work available near to me.
8. How do you market yourself (find design work) now?
I do very little marketing now, though I should do more. Most of my work is from existing clients and referrals though I have recently gained new work via my blog.
9. How did you decide what to charge? What was the process?
I knew what sort of prices local freelancers were charging and varied this depending on whether I was working direct for companies or through agencies. When you are working direct you need to build in extra for the management time involved.
10. Do you work from home/have an office/work inhouse at design agencies?
When I started out most of my work was inhouse for design agencies, but now I mainly work from home
11. How do you organise your workload, do you work long hours?
I usually type myself up a schedule (work planner) with all the work I have on and the days I am going to do it. I then update this everyday as things change, more work is added etc. You can find examples of work planners at www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/design-downloads/
12. How much holiday do you give yourself?
My boyfriend gets 25 days off a year so I usually take a similar amount of holiday to him.
13. How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the industry?
I am a real sucker for books, I must be Amazons best customer and read up a lot about design and web, I also buy a lot of magazines – Computer Arts, Mac User, Digit, Mac World etc. Of course I also read a lot of blogs about graphic design too.
14. What blogs, magazines, podcasts etc do you subscribe to?
There are too many to list them all but a few are:
www.inspirationbit.com, www.creativecurio.com, www.randaclay.com, www.ilovetypography.com, www.designadaptations.com, www.davidairey.com, www.smashingmagazine.com, www.laughingliondesign.net/blog/
15. How do you generate ideas/what techniques do you use to stimulate creativity?
I am a big fan of spider diagrams (brain mapping) and creating moodboards (a mount board done scrap book style with magazine pages etc stuck on with the right “feel” for the job you are doing)
16. What about the business side of things, accounting, invoicing, bookkeeping, how do you manage it?
I do all my invoicing at the end of each month. I keep a job book so his is just a case of going down the list and ticking of as I bill a job. My accountant has set me up with a spreadsheet in Excel, but I have to say Excel is not my strength so my boyfriend helps me with the book keeping and sorting out my VAT returns (yuk).
17. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone starting out freelancing?
Make sure you have an online portfolio/design website before you go freelance and if possible start sending out letters/emails introducing yourself and before you leave your day job. Ideally have a few months wages in the bank. I regret having not gone freelance earlier, the more you start earning in a fulltime job the scarier it is to leave.
18. Would you ever go back to fulltime work?
I hope to never have to.
20. Where can we see some of your work (URL)?
Right here on graphic design blog www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/portfolio
January 11th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Ha! You’re right, Tara, you haven’t done this before! I didn’t even think about it but I’m glad you did
#6 – was that a design company you had a share in? What was your job there?
#8 – that’s awesome that you’ve gained new work from this site!
#9 – I’m glad you pointed out the management time. I had never thought of that before. I’ve also only heard from (and possibly Randa, I can’t remember) about getting work from design agencies. I guess it makes sense, though. Sometimes they need extra help but it’s not worth it to them to hire another full time designer. Do you find they pay a reasonable rate and are easy to work with?
#10 – it sounds like you were a temp designer. Is that about right? You actually went to the agency office and worked there for a set period of time?
Hooray! I’m glad you read my blog
You should come comment more! I miss ya!
So you wouldn’t go back to full time work. That seems to be the general consensus among freelancers. Do you have to deal with delinquent clients a lot? That has been my experience more often than not, but then all my clients are referred and my husband and I only freelance part time (we both have full time jobs in house for corporations, as opposed to design agencies/firms). It’s frustrating to deal with clients that don’t know what they’re doing, can’t get their act together and drag out the projects for 6 months. We are learning to set deadlines in our contracts, i.e. “this contract expires six months from the date of signature.â€
The Amazon recommendations is new since I last visited. How are you doing on sales? I recently added it to my blog too and I got nada
I know it’s not magic and I need to promote it, but I would hope at least a few people would see it and buy things!
January 11th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Hi Lauren
6. Yes it was a design company I was the designer. A guy I used to work with at another company and I were set up by an MD of a repro and print company. Problem with a minority share is no control.
8. Yep I have had a few jobs through my blog, very good to work for too.
9. Some design companies were great to work for, some I didn’t like so much. The problem with working inhouse is you get paid for exactly what you do and its less flexible than working at home and managing your own time.
10. I used to get booked for odd days or holiday cover – to a max of 2 weeks at a time.
Of course I read your blog, just in quiet mode sometimes I read via google reader (makes it feel your snooping though)
Most clients are pretty good – get paid on time is not easy though with some.
I am afraid I stole your idea with the Amazon recommendations
No sales yet I don’t think. I have had some previously when I have mentioned books in posts.
January 11th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Well if you stole the Amazon idea from me, I stole it from someone else, so no worries!
January 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Nice to read this insight into your working practices, and I can certainly empathise about those VAT returns.
One thing on my to do list is to hire an accountant. At present I’m doing my own accounts, and I’m pretty sure I could be saving some more money.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Thanks for sharing with your thoughts about freelance. What’s good with freelance is that you can manage your time.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:30 am
wow, it’s great to read more about your freelancing. Thanks for reading my blog too
I’m freelancing only part-time (like Lauren), but already having difficulties with finding time for billing. I usually do all the billing myself and at the end of the tax year, I hire an accountant to do my tax return for me. It’s definitely worth the money. I’m good with math, but I hate all those tax forms – I think the governments tries to confuse people with those forms on purpose.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:31 am
those design resources of yours are great – somehow I’ve missed them before. I’m downloading your PDFs now, to see how you deal with all this time-eating paperwork
January 15th, 2008 at 3:20 am
haha! Nice to see you in the freelancer focus mix!
June 9th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hehe, nice interview.
I was glad to read this. Thanks.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
grat interview ad with ur expereience — learnt a lot.