Modified Artwork based on an original work (visible below) by WNW Member Uli Knoerzer
“Team building gets a lot of my mind space these days and I’m always tinkering with how I can make the recruiting process better. I have encountered enough disjointed, unhappy teams to know that I wish that on no one. There’s a better way.”
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“It seems like this person doesn’t like me and is maybe even trying to sabotage me. They haven’t done anything outright blatant, but I sense their resistance to my ideas when I bring them up in team meetings…I’ve enjoyed my job up until now, but the conflict with this coworker looms over me when I go to work every day and I wonder how I can resolve it.”
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All photography by Geoff Levy
“Just because you’re unsure how it will be received on social media doesn’t mean that the seed of the idea that’s scratching at your soul doesn’t have a home. Instagram isn’t a parameter for your art; it’s a visible publication platform.”
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“Here’s the thing: I don’t hate my job. I don’t necessarily love it, either. It’s interesting and fast-paced and I like working with a team. I also like the consistent salary and the security that comes with it...But sometimes I get the urge to quit and start over. I get antsy and want to leave. Then I think about it and wonder why. Will I regret not trying something else?”
Read More“Companies paint their logos rainbow across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for a month—boasting about how accepting they are and sauntering through Pride parades catapulting rainbow-logoed koozies, t-shirts, and all kinds of unnecessarily branded crap into crowds of bystanders. Then as soon as they appeared, they disappear. Complete radio silence for the other 11 months of the year.”
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Illustration by WNW Member Tallulah Fontaine
I am constantly searching for the alignment of the truest truth between myself and the brands I service. Where can I celebrate synchronicity? ... As small businesses, we can’t solve these brands’ idiosyncrasies, but we can anchor our messages to the values we support. Can we find a way to bring impactful work into existence for someone that wouldn’t be reached otherwise?
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Header Illustration by WNW Member Rachel Denti
People of great wisdom and conviction know: I’m not ready for it. This has yet to deter me from seeking out mentorship from friends, motivational speakers, new age philosophies, and books. No one has outwardly consented to mentoring me, but I find myself privately cataloguing their advice and experiences so that I can apply it to my own life.
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Illustration by WNW Member Jamie Polancic
You’re an intern. You are not expected to know everything. They already know you’ve got enough of the skill set they need because they hired you. But now is the time to fill in your knowledge gaps. The company may use different software than you’re used to. Ask them how to use it. You may be unclear about a part of the project you’re working on. Ask for clarification."
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“Freelance life is like a drug. The just not knowing what might be possible around the corner can be addictive and exciting. But it can also be hard to know just when the time is to move on. To know when it’s over. You just don’t know. There’s always a maybe/possibly hanging around out there. It makes it hard to commit to something else, something more solid, something more stable.”
Read More“I’ve tried side projects, going on art-dates with myself, taking self-care days. I’ve tried making up small projects just for me, but I can’t seem to find the motivation or passion to do it. I feel trapped in this illusion of freelance because I constantly feel I can do it better, do more, do things differently, but every time I have some time off, I feel paralyzed and tired.”
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Illustration by WNW Member Yifan Wu
“Discussions surrounding copying are pervasive, i.e. 'DON’T DO IT,' but few safe spaces existed in which to explore. As with the topic of safe sex, how can we as a community expect to arrive at healthy decisions if abstinence is the only option?”
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Illustrations by Michelle Mattar
I wasn't following up on my own work – which is awkward to say, but I don't think the majority of people in this industry do. My old style was to hand it off and hope for the best, largely because the deliverables were designed for that. Lately, I don’t hand off and hope.
Read More“Options I am considering: 1) Go back to school to get an MBA in Marketing and do…marketing?…somewhere? 2) Leave and start my own photography and design studio. Options I’m definitely NOT considering: Staying where I am. I’m so ready to jump that I can feel the wind in my face.”
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Illustration by BarsRsind
Now that I’m a freelancer, I find myself back [to] learning how to best communicate with editors, anticipate their needs, and generally try to read their minds. So I invited four editors to tell me everything there is to know about their jobs in the hopes of demystifying it for myself, and for freelancers everywhere.
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“I want to be heard and be part of bigger things, alongside better people. Yet any new attempt is met with another refusal...How can I be heard? How can I make you see me? How can I contribute?”
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The second children’s book I wrote and illustrated landed me on The Today Show, CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, in Wired, Glamour, and hundreds of other media outlets. At age 29, the firestorm flurry of publicity that ensued provided unprecedented ground to stand on—the first solid evidence, proof to myself, of my professional capabilities.
Read More“One of the real surprises of this process has been finding what I think is the type of work I want to make. Before getting sick, I actually never had ideas for personal work. I always felt blocked…It feels daunting that my interest is heading in a direction where I especially feel the least qualified. How can I move forward from here?”
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Artwork by Liisa Kruusmägi
We ask 11 creatives to share their strategies on how to deal with the emotional minefield of receiving criticism, scrolling through Instagram, and being creative when you don’t feel like it. Take a deep breath, grab a CBD latte, and read on.
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Sometimes I’m proud of where I’m at and other times I feel so behind, like all of my friends and peers are further along because they make more money or they have jobs at well-known agencies. I’m in my late twenties and I want to feel like I’m making progress. Starting a business feels like starting over.
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