This past weekend I attended an Entrepreneur Expo held at one of the local libraries and caught up on my reading of few of my favorite blogs. All this got me thinking about what I am doing and where I want to be in the future. As the title of this post states freelancing choose me, well sort of. No one in their right mind would leave their job with a stable income and jump in working for themselves without any clients line up. I started to write about my story here: Stepping Out on My Own: The Chronicles of a First-Time Entrepreneur. After writing that first post of what was supposed to be a series my life changed. I never said I want to be an entrepreneur when I grow up. Never even imagine myself being a creative professional. This was all just a hobby back in high school.
So eight months after I lost my job during this rough economy and not getting any were with my job search, I knew I had to do something. With the help and support of my family, friends, and former co-workers I knew what I had do to. Not every graphic designer work as a in-house designer, some are freelancers that may work in-house but also work on the side. If I knew back then what I know now I would have started freelancing a long time ago, at least part-time. Of course I did work for family and things for school, but having a real client (some one that’s not a related to me or friend) was far off in my mind.
Hey, I didn’t even have a real portfolio. That did change. It was promise that my former boss told me that stuck with me. After showing him my binder of artwork, he said to me that before I would leave the company I would have a real portfolio. And I do, I have gotten some great feedback from that portfolio but it time to update it with my freelance work. The problem is they are totally different types of work. I am thinking about having two portfolio books, just another reason to take a trip to Pearl Paint.
The month of July marks the time where interest in my work started to increase. Yes it began with work for family, friends, and/or former co-workers. With the help of twitter and eventually other social networks, I started connecting with other and sharing my work. I have worked on invitations, business cards, blogs, mixtapes inserts and more. The best thing about reaching out to others is they make your think more and become a better you. I use to only want to design websites but because of my old job and the new people I can connecting with on twitter I am opening up to working on new things to see what I love designing. It’s a great feeling.
I was recently asked if I am still looking for in-house work. I would love to get back to working in-house whether it s a full-time, part-time or as freelance employee. Nothing beats a stable income but I am so growing to love being an indie designer.
About Artiatesia Deal
