After getting through the Game of Thrones winter we just had, I didn’t really care that I was broke and with no prospects. As long as I had my bike and enough money for rent, cable, electricity, and dog food, I was good to go. I wanted out of my apartment. I wanted to burn my winter clothes on the beach, in a huge effigy to the evil god of winter.
Yet just as the days got longer and warm enough to hint that it actually may not snow again, I got a job offer. A full-time job offer from a very generous friend who owns a digital design agency. The fact is, I didn’t really have the money to pay the aforementioned bills, so this offer couldn’t have come at a better time, financially speaking. (But summer, my sweet summer!) I took the job. Alas, the dog has to eat. And I have to watch Game of Thrones. Read More →
When I worked in an office, the commute absolutely killed me. (Let me clarify that my last full-time job was a whopping nine blocks from my apartment.) There was just something so robotic and depressing about riding the elevator with the same sad drones every day. Getting watery coffee from the same cranky deli guy. Seeing the same tired souls dragging their asses to those lonely gray cubicles. Heavy sigh.
Now that I’m a “homey,” I come and go as I please, and I love it. While the rest of you are counting the minutes to your next Starbucks run and fantasizing about what to order from Chipotle for lunch, I get to see who is roaming the city in the light of day. I am always discovering new and interesting people, and let me tell you this–the freaks come out at noon. Read More →
So true, Mr. Wonka, and I live by those words. Kind of. Strike that and reverse it into graphic-design land. It’s probably not wise to admit this, but I will do a design favor for just about anyone who asks. Yep, free design! I know, what a ho. But a design ho, so it’s harmless. Except to my bank account. It’s not a goodwill thing, believe me. Karma coins do not pay my bills. I do free design for purely selfish reasons.
Let’s face it, graphic design is not the most lucrative career choice. But I had delusions of grandeur. Sitting in my black turtleneck, smoking cigarettes, discussing the latest color trends, and laughing at people who use Comic Sans. Years later, reality has set in. I score a job, receive a 63-page PDF of stringent brand guidelines, put my head down, and get to work. Twenty rounds of changes later, my ego is in the toilet and my brain is void of any creative thought.
So when a friend calls and ask me to do an evite for an outdoor BBQ with an actual pig roast? I am so in! Your son’s gay wedding with a superhero theme? Done! Why, you ask?
You, my appreciative friend, feel guilty and let me have creative freedom. I do not have to make ten rounds of changes. I do not have to make a logo bigger. I do not have to adhere to the brand guideline encyclopedia from hell. I get to pick my own color palette. My own fonts! I get a heartfelt “thank you so much.” I get satisfaction. I remember why I love graphic design.
So the next time your neighbor’s cousin’s brother-in-law’s college roommate needs a poster for his short film about daisies, definitely give me a ring. I’ll design the crap out of it–and this one’s on me!*
The great thing about freelancing is the free time it affords you. The bad thing about freelancing is the free time forced on you. But freelancers know the deal. Always look for your next job. The problem for me is that when I’m on deadline with little time to even shower, the job search tends to take a back seat to a delivery-menu search for the perfect burger. The one I’ll devour in front of my laptop.
When the job wraps up, and I’m a week into free time, I always regret not having been more diligent in lining up work. By that point, I have caught up on laundry, errands, TV, and sleep. I’ve updated all my software, checked the job boards, and probably snuck in a liquid lunch with friends. I peek at my phone every two minutes like a desperate girl after a first date.
Crickets. Tumbleweed. Panic sets in as I wonder how long I can survive on the check from my last job. Of course, I reach out to everyone I’ve ever met with the undesperate-as-possible email about how “my schedule just opened up and I am available for work if you need anything! : ).” I go to every network-y event I can force myself to attend. Timing is everything, though, and sometimes all this yields is an empty inbox and a cheap wine hangover.
I try to enjoy the downtime and smell the roses. I do. However, the last few years have left me with no padding for lean times, and I’m certainly in no position to take that dream vacation to Spain until things pick up. Instead, my inner fatalist plans what items I will tote around in my new shopping cart/home and which block in Manhattan will be the most hospitable for both me and the dog. Wait, what’s that? The ding of my inbox! You need “what” designed? For how much? I’ll take it. I’m back, bitches!
When you work from home, it’s up to you to stay abreast of what is going on in the outside world. There is no coworker to say “did you hear…” as you walk into the office every morning. I established a morning routine long ago that went something like this: NYtimes.com and CNN.com, then all the way down to gawker.com, Popcandy, and a dash of Facebook. But something has happened last year, and I’ve gone wayyyy off track. Read More →
Without a doubt my least-favorite part of owning my own business is managing the “accounting department.” Thanks to QuickBooks, it has become a lot easier. Now I not only know exactly how much money I wasted on lattes and taxis last month, but I am also keenly aware of how late your payment is. QuickBooks has appropriately put such invoices into the Aging category, which I have found to be directly proportionate to the number of gray hairs I get while waiting for your check.
That little box above the price breakdown on my invoice says NET30. That means you have 30 days to pay me. I can’t name many businesses that give you that long to pay a bill–with no interest. I successfully crafted your corporate logo or sales presentation within the two-day deadline you gave me. You loved it and told me what a genius I am, but here I sit waiting almost a full financial quarter for you to pay me for said genius. Good luck telling your favorite restaurant you’ll be back in 90 days to pay for your meal without expecting a little bodily bonus from the chef in your dessert. That’s not really my style, though, so what’s a girl to do? Read More →
Some people describe me as “a freelancer who works from home,” but I like to think I’m a “stay-at-home mom to my dog.” Everyone thinks their dog is the cutest creature on earth. On Facebook, we all click “like” politely, knowing our dog is just a little cuter than our friends’ dog. Well, I’m not saying that Alfie is the cutest (even though he is), but he is definitely “special.”
I’ve always gravitated towards dogs with strange personalities. I was told my last dog was like Woody Allen trapped in a small terrier body. This one is more like Matthew McConaughey in a shaggy-blonde mutt. He always seems about three bong hits into his day, and he’s perpetually happy and wagging his tail. Except when it comes to the bathtub drain. It infuriates him. I have been on a work binge lately, so he’s been left to entertain himself as I sit glued to my laptop.
I was wondering why an hour had gone by without a squeaky toy being tossed my way, so I went to go find out what could possibly be occupying him for this long. There he was, standing in the tub, growling at the drain.
“Ya see something down there, buddy?”
“Grrrrrrrr.”
I left him to defend the fort as I went back to attack my pile of work. Two hours later, I went to check on him. He was fast asleep in the tub with his paw dutifully covering the drain. The drain monster had successfully been kept at bay. I love my dumb dog.
A print designer who now finds herself in a digital world, Homegirl blogs about the perils and joys of freelancing. They both involve wearing pajamas all day.
If you’re going to work from home, you must be disciplined. Like me. OK, unlike me. It’s hard to be your own boss and an exemplary employee at the same time. A few nights ago I went to bed swearing I would get up early, go to a yoga class, and get all my work done at a reasonable hour. Next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and it was 10:00 a.m. What is wrong with me? Oh, yeah. I don’t like alarm clocks.
I grabbed the dog and rushed him out the door to get a power walk in before buckling down to work. Believe me, I gave myself a stern talking to on that walk. I need to become more motivated, I thought to myself. Stop procrastinating. Keep normal hours and get in sync with the outside world.
I walked by my favorite bakery and bought myself a cappuccino and the most delicious cookie on the planet. Oh, how can I stay mad at me when I do such nice things for myself? Caffeine combined with a sugar buzz? I’ll finish my work in no time. Which means I could knock off early and treat myself to a movie. You know, as a reward for being such a good boss.
A print designer who now finds herself in a digital world, Homegirl blogs about the perils and joys of freelancing. They both involve wearing pajamas all day.
A few years ago, if you’d asked me to work on-site, I would have kindly responded with, “Yeah, I really don’t do the office thing, but I’ll pop in for some face time if you need me to.” Makes you want to slap me in the face, right? Well, don’t worry, the economy did it for you.
I’m a print designer in an almost paperless world. But my rent is still due at the first of every month. So with my tail between my legs, for a fee the old me would have laughed at, I will happily show up at your office at the ungodly hour of 10 am. I will even shower for you and wear a carefully orchestrated ensemble that shows that I’m cool and creative and kick ass at design.
You will not notice, however, because you will be texting as you distractedly escort me to the “freelancer work station.” You know the one. It’s next to the heating pipe that hisses all day, on that part of the floor that slopes just enough to keep my chair rolling away from the desk. I will spend most of the day sifting through files and trying to decipher what the last freelancer was trying to accomplish. The other designers will all have headphones on and will ignore the newbie, except when I mime that I desperately need to know where the ladies room is. All in all, I’ll get about one third of the work done had I done this job at home in my sweats. But this was fun! Same time tomorrow?
You’re going to love Homegirl. A self-imposed victim of the demise of print (I’m being dramatic), she now finds herself in a whole new world. Sorta. She’s a print designer in a digital world, working from home. She makes gorgeous things while wearing pajamas. At the height of her magazine career, she was the Creative Director of Marketing at an infamous lad’s mag. She doesn’t use Twitter and she claims to be “utterly clueless.” Maybe her foray into blogging for The Hired Guns will bring her into the digital era. Maybe not. We love her anyhow.
As any self-respecting elitist snob graphic designer will tell you, PowerPoint is awful, and we hate it. It’s clumsy, heavy-handed, and full of glitches. To make it worse, it seems no two people have the same version. So good luck doing fancy animation and getting it to run on anyone else’s computer. And don’t get me started on the fonts. I hope you like Calibri or Verdana, because if you don’t use generic fonts like those, good luck getting it to run on everyone’s computer. Really, Microsoft, you couldn’t do better? Read More →
Product Management, User Experience, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Usability Testing
Project Management, Program Management, Production, Content Production
Animation, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Corporate Identity, Flash Design/Dev, Graphic Design, Web Design
Content Strategy, Editorial, Copywriting, Copy Editing, Research, Blog Outreach
Brand Management, Business Development, Sales, Product Marketing, Event/Conference Planning, Promotions, Marcomms, Corporate Comms, Direct Marketing, E-Marketing, Public Relations, Market Research
Account Management, Account/Brand Planning, Media Strategy, Communications Planning, Media Planning/Buying, Social Media, Search (SEM, SEO), Web Metrics & Analytics
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