Cari Sekendur shares why it was time to open her own studio, how Butter determines which projects to take on, whether her approach has changed from her days as a freelancer, and the biggest challenges and surprised in building a studio.
Read MoreDoes Self-Promotion Scare You? This Copywriter Demystifies the Dark Art
At a time where most people stop at posting “I’m available, book me!” and “Reach out if you need freelance help!” we have to practice what we preach and sell ourselves to cut through the clutter.
Read MoreOWN YOUR CAREER: NOVEMBER 4 & 10, NEW YORK CITY
OWN YOUR CAREER:
NOVEMBER 4 & 10, NEW YORK CITY
On Wednesday, November 4th, join WNW Members Archie Lee Coates IV, Rodney White, Carly Ayres, and Romain Laurent in a conversation about shaping your career path and finding a personal voice in a competitive, creative industry. WNW co-founder Justin Gignac will moderate the discussion as part of ongoing programming at JackThread's pop-up shop, The Spring. Light lunch provided by Black Seed Bagels.
On Tuesday, November 10th, Justin takes the stage again, this time part of a panel about entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation. He'll be joined by Phillip Krim of Casper, Christopher Altcheck of Mic, and Michael Rothman of Fatherly.
The Spring will be open until November 12th. Check out their full program lineup and remember, capacity is limited so be sure to sign up soon.
WHO: JackThreads
WHAT: "The Spring", Jackthread's first pop-up shop.
WHEN: November 4th / 1-2pm; November 10th / 6:30pm-8pm
WHERE: 43 Crosby Street, New York City
Are you a WNW Member with new work, exhibits, products, or news to share? Email us!
ON CALLIGRAPHY AND QUITTING: LYNNE YUN
ON CALLIGRAPHY AND QUITTING:
LYNNE YUN
WNW #4995 Member Lynne Yun originally wanted to be a linguist. So perhaps it's not a surprise that her career path led her from graphic designer to letterer. Lynne says she never outgrew the childhood "Why's," always asking herself, "Why do things look the way they do? Who agreed on what they should look like and which letter combinations form a word?"
Lynne has turned those questions inward, digging deep: what kind of work do I want to create? What is the life I want to lead? That reflection has led Lynne to take the recent leap from full-time to freelance. Much to the confusion of her family and friends, Lynne left a steady income and a prestigious company to give herself the space to work in a self-directed manner, fueled by passion.
Lynne shares her story, taking us through her process of quitting and what she's learned along the way. Her advice for freelancers can work for anyone: "It's so easy to overwork yourself when you're a freelancer — but keeping your rhythm is what will keep you from getting burnt out. Slow and steady is what will win your race, and keep your sanity too."
How did you get into typography?
Learning has always been a huge part of my life. It’s a passion with a tint of obsession: sometimes I lie awake at night being afraid of the inevitable fact that I’ll never have enough time in my life to attain everything that I want to know. I don’t think I ever grew out of the childhood phase of asking millions of ‘Why?’s. Why things look the way they are, why things function the way they do.
Out of the many useless and useful topics I happened to obsess with (among dinosaurs and outer space), was typography. Why do letters look the way they do? Why do so many people use them? Who agreed on what they should look like and which letter combinations form a word? Fueled with questions no one could answer, I started sketching letters - small and large, thin and wide - often pushing the drawings to the point where the forms would break away from the recognizable to the abstract.
I used to wonder if I should become a linguist, but eventually ended up going to an art college in New York. After going through a few design jobs and graduating from the School of Visual Arts, I was hired at Apple and moved out to California. Vitalized with meeting such talented people from all over the globe, I started taking calligraphy classes with the little time I had away from work. Through writing letters with the same tools that scribes had used since centuries ago, I finally had some answers to the questions from my younger years. However, more answers inevitably lead to more questions. I wanted to learn more, more than ever.
Logo sketches
Why did you decide to go freelance?
I realized I had two choices: to stay at my job or to leave in pursuit of learning. Without much hesitation, I chose the latter and drove 3,000 miles back to New York to attend the Type Design program at Cooper Union. By day I worked at an advertising agency and by the night and all through the weekends, I endlessly drew letterforms. After taking on a few freelance gigs and testing the waters, I slowly started doing what everyone always hopes for: making a living out of doing what I enjoy most. I decided to take the leap of quitting my full time job to go freelance and it was one of the scariest, toughest decisions I've ever made.
If chasing the lifestyle you want is a little scary, I think that’s a small price to pay. All big changes start with courage.
What did your friends and family think when you gave up a full-time job at such a prestigious company?
I don't think a lot of them understood why I left. To a certain extent, I still think they don't. It was a good job with a good paycheck, and it was my first job straight out of college. A lot of people around me seemed to think I was making a mistake, that I didn't realize what a great deal I had because I didn't have much experience to compare it to. To be honest, I think it was the opposite! I was able to leave with determination because I knew it was a good job. And if I didn't want to kick myself in the foot down the road, I was going to try really hard to achieve what I'd set out to do.
What are some pro's and con's of full-time vs. freelance?
Being part of a full time staff definitely has its perks - the peace of mind that comes from stability, getting to have a deeper connection with your coworkers, and really getting to know how your company's ecosystem works. Although I did love being part of a full-time staff, ultimately I decided to transition into freelance to have more control over my workflow. I like to plan out my own timeline and choose the projects that I want to work on. I love being able to wake up in the morning and know what my week is going to look like. Being able to take charge of my own schedule enables me to focus more, work efficiently and spend time on the passion projects with the time I save.
What's advice you can give to anyone considering going freelance?
I'm a firm believer that creativity and productivity is a habit. It's a lifestyle more than anything. For me, freelance is all about knowing your strengths, weaknesses, and keeping yourself happy knowing those things. Also keeping a good routine is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Everyone’s ideal schedule looks different but this is how I usually plan out my day:
Every morning, I set myself a schedule over coffee. I know I'm most energetic in the morning, and half useless in a food coma after lunch, so I usually get the most important things done in the morning and a monotone task early in the afternoon. I'm fully aware that I lose focus after two hours of concentration, so I usually rotate the projects that I'm working on every hour or two. One of the most important parts of my schedule is that I give myself at least an hour or two of 'study time' for anything I've wanted to try out, read up on, or just to experiment. Creativity isn't something that you can spew out, there has to be an input if you want an output, and this study time is when I plant ideas in my head. Knowing me, my best efforts are usually spent by the time evening rolls around, so I always try to keep to a 9-hour work day. It's so easy to overwork yourself when you're a freelancer — but keeping your rhythm is what will keep you from getting burnt out. Slow and steady is what will win your race, and keep your sanity too.
What are some of your inspirations?
I love collecting printed and typographic ephemera and American antique packaging. Here is an example of items I’ve collected over a recent road trip from San Francisco to New York that radiates inspiration:
Are there other WNW members whose work you admire?
Lynne's work:
Are you a WNW Member with a story to share? Email us.
HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF CLIENT FEEDBACK
HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF
CLIENT FEEDBACK
WNW Members #1395 Breanna Radermacher and #5602 Jen Serafini are designers on a mission to pay it forward. They've joined forces as co-founders of Be Free, Lance, an online course for designers who want to build a successful business from the ground up. The next session begins on June 1st and registration is now open. You can learn more about what the course entails right here. Last week on Free Range, Jen covered the importance of creating successful project proposals. This week, Breanna offers insight into getting the most out of client feedback.
Last week, we chatted about the importance of creating successful project proposals to make sure that expectations are set and understood up front. But when you’re in the thick of the design process, gathering helpful feedback from clients is another pivotal moment that can make or break a project. Think about it this way — you’ve already strategized, conceptualized, designed, refined, and created a killer presentation of what you believe to be the best solution. And although you may be extremely proud of the work shown, everything can fall apart in an instant if you don’t handle the revision process in a professional and educational manner.
So how do you facilitate appropriate feedback? Be a leader. I always like to start off with a strong presentation. Instead of just showing my clients something pretty, I give them some context as well. That way, they are learning about why I made certain design decisions while also being reminded about the original objective. For example, I may present a logo concept and also state the following: “Because we wanted to convey your outgoing personality, I used a bold and modern typeface. It’s solid, strong, and can stand the test of time, just like you. The composition, however, remains simple so that your branding does not detract from your beautiful artwork.” By shedding a little light into the thought behind a design, the client will better understand what they are looking at and be able to provide better feedback.
But educating your client doesn’t stop there. At the end of my initial presentation, I always provide a guide for feedback. I’ve found that more often than not, clients don’t have experience in giving critique, so it’s best to help them out from the get go. If you just say “What do you think?” there’s no telling what you’ll get in response. But if you outline some questions for the client to run through and consider, they instantly have a cheat sheet on what to look for. For example purposes, here are some questions that I ask most clients after they’ve seen their initial designs:
Is your gut consistently drawn towards one direction? Ask yourself this same question over the next few days.
Do you feel the typography represents your brand voice, in wanting to achieve something that is (put descriptive words about their project here)?
Do you feel that the overall tone is inline with your target market and what they’re attracted to? Remember, we wanted to go for something that was (put descriptive words about their target market here).
Do you have any other comments or things you’d like to see changed?
As you can see, most of these questions are structured in a way that helps remind the client about their original objective. It’s easy for clients to begin sharing their stream of consciousness without giving much thought to the strategy behind a design, so it’s important to guide them into it. And these questions do just that! But if you’d like to take things a step further, you can also give them examples of good and bad feedback, just so they have a starting point. For example, plain statements like “I don’t like that blue” aren’t helpful, but explanatory statements like “I don’t like that blue because it feels too childish” are.
If you find yourself receiving bad feedback, or even feeling like a design puppet (which is the worst), take a look at your revision process and evaluate your communication with clients. At the end of the day, feedback is a collaborative process, and if you are leading confidently while listening closely, things tend to go a lot smoother.
Bre Radermacher's Work:
Are you a WNW Member with new work, exhibits, products, or news to share? Email us.
HOW TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT PROPOSAL
HOW TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT PROPOSAL
WNW Members #5602 Jennifer Serafini and #1395 Breanna Radermacher realized their personal experience as freelance designers could be turned into something educational for other aspiring entrepreneurs. They've joined forces as co-founders of Be Free, Lance, an online course for designers who want to build a successful business from the ground up. Their three week course covers all the logistical stuff that can make a creative's toes curl: everything from defining deliverables, setting up legal entities, knowing how much to charge, to managing client communication.
In this week's post, Jen gives us some best practices on how to craft a killer proposal that gets you started on the right foot with any client. Be sure to check out the course's details and sign up before June 1st as registration is now open.
Project proposals are one of the most crucial first steps in forming a successful client relationship. Not only do they set the stage for what’s to come, but they also outline client expectations and make sure that both parties are on the same page from the very beginning.
Now, not all projects require you to write a proposal. Let’s say you’re going to work on a contract at a major advertising agency. In this instance, they will most likely give you all of the necessary paperwork leading up to your start date. But if you’re dealing with your own clients and projects, proposals are such an important part of starting things off on the right foot. As creatives, we want to do everything in our power to protect ourselves and our creative process, and that’s exactly what this does! Not to mention, it makes you look like a slick professional, which makes clients take you that much more seriously.
Here are a few key items to include in a successful project proposal that will make you look like you know what’s UP!
SCOPE OF WORK
This may sound pretty obvious, but I can’t tell you how many designers I’ve come across who forget to include key details in this section. The scope of work is quite simply, writing down EXACTLY what you’ll be doing for your client and what’s included in the proposed cost.
This is where you should be explaining what you will be doing, how many rounds of revisions (seriously, this one is the most important!), what kind of files you’ll be delivering, etc. Make sure you account for every small detail of the project. For example, it’s really easy to say “business cards”, but just saying that alone is way too vague. Are you going to help your client source a printer or does the cost include printing? How many options will they get? How many revisions? Don’t forget to include these details as they usually account for the most frustration down the line. We’ve all had the client who've asked for “one more revision!” or “can you just fix this one little thing?”. Always refer back to your scope of work. If you’ve reached your maximum number of revisions, you can feel confident in making the decision to charge more and account for your extra time.
The way I like to structure this section is simple:
Project Description: what’s the assignment and how can you help them?
What’s Included: what services are you providing them? I break this up into phases like “Strategy, Design, and Production,” so they can see how my creative process is structured
Rounds of Revisions: how many does the client get?
Deliverables: what are they physically receiving?
TIMELINE
Next up is the project timeline. This is where you can give the client an idea of how long your creative process is going to take. Some people like to break this up into phases, which can be helpful to track things with a bit more detail (concepts & strategy, design, production, etc.) This section helps the client understand a little bit more about your creative process and when they can expect to receive their work. I also like to factor in a few days for client feedback, so they can see that I’m holding them accountable to stay on schedule as well. I always have a clause that if I don’t receive feedback in a timely manner, the project timeline will be adjusted appropriately. This way, you don’t get a client that disappears for 2 weeks and then all of a sudden needs the work done tomorrow! Not happening.
The timeline is also where I’ll include the project cost. I like to wait until we get to this part of the proposal, so they don’t see the price first and run the other way. I’d rather have them look through all of the awesome things they’re going to get, THEN see the price afterwards. Seduce them, then sell them!
The way I like to structure this section is simply:
Phase: Each part of the project in chronological order
Time: How long each phase will take
Cost: How much each phase will cost*
*I prefer to break down the cost of the project by phases, so the client can see where their money is going. But you can also just have one total project price or an hourly rate, too. Whichever works best for you!
And there you have it! Not too hard, right?
Some other things that you can include in your proposal are your creative process, the actual contract to sign (I prefer to send mine after the client has approved the proposal), and anything else you feel is relevant to the project. There is no one right way to do this! We all have different creative disciplines that might lend themselves really well to another format, but the points above are a great starting point of things to keep in mind as you’re creating your own template.
Lastly, when you send your potential client the proposal, make sure to ask if they have any questions! The last thing you want is for a client to miss an important part of your proposal, which can cause issues down the line. Communicate to them that it’s important for them to review the whole thing in detail and get back to you with any questions or concerns they might have. A project proposal is the key to starting a successful client relationship, and communication is everything. If you spend the time to create this document, you want to make sure it’s read and understood by all parties!