Month: October 2022

So I had a experience as of late where I did say yes to a job I wasn’t, or didn’t feel as ready to take on. But it was a opportunity that doesn’t come by often. I have a friend that works in the music industry, more on the side of merchandising and online store fulfillment. His shop designs merch and limited pop up shops for some of the biggest names in music right now. And he hit me up out of the blue to see if I would be interested in helping out his design team come up with a fresh merchline for Lana Del Rey’s seminal album “Born to Die”‘s 10th anniversary, which was coming up at the time.

I immediately said yes for up until this point all my clientele as far as music has been in the realm of more independent artists ranging in metal, punk, and other related sub genres.

Half the time through the project I was learning on the fly. I think towards the end the other designers realized I was a little green behind the ears as far as some foundational stuff, and just general culture and language you come to possess over working in the professional field. I got my work done, met my deadlines, learned a crap ton on how to navigate through certain processes, and more importantly I made life long friendships with those designers from that team. Should have I said yes at the time? Maybe not. I struggled the first couple weeks on that project, stressed myself out to no end. But I don’t regret it. It was a good learning experience for me. It was a opportunity I would say yes to a million times over cause those pieces I made garnered me more business shortly after.

This speaker talked about some real affirming things I have come to learn working in design as a freelancer over the years. It does come down to not what you’re schooling is per se, but what you can bring to the table and how impactful it will be to a project.

I worked on smaller branding projects for restaurants, bakeries, breweries, record labels to venture capital groups and bigger non profits. At the end of the day I realized I have no idea where I want to land on “what I want to work in” when I get out of this program. I know I want to know more than I do now when it comes to my trade. That I know for sure.

I think if I am forced to think on it, ideally I like to work in a space where creative is not as constrained by so much budget, but my mistrust from the client. Not often, but sometimes I get into situations where it really does feel like the client hired you with the best intentions to give you agency, but in the end they want to design it themselves. I like to reach a space where there is mutual trust and empathy between the creative, the management, and the clients I work with. Everyone working in tandem to produce meaningful work, work that will be impactful to everyone involved.

Also this might come off as mere nativity or mere enthusiasm, but I like to work at a place where it doesn’t feel like I am designing solely to produce profit for someone. I worked with non profits before and I liked the feeling from that, but they are usually more times than not a client that limits your creativity due to budget constraints. A nice sweet spot between the two I would be content with.