A little boy walks up to his father and says “When I grow up, I want to be a freelance designer!”

The father says, “Son, you can’t do both…”

My wife and I volunteered our time to help an acting company put on a presentation of Godspell here in our home town. I did the design, advertising and marketing and my wife took care of the design and construction of the costumes. She has a fashion design degree from S.C.A.D. and I’ve got the graphics degree. We met in college, but that’s a story for a different time.

Anyway – I had the pleasure of being completely unleashed. They said “Do what you want, do what will work, here’s your budget, knock yourself out.” And I did. Late nights printing posters, drawing, making things, dreaming up guerilla marketing bits – all the fun stuff. My wife was given the same freedom. We had six months to help sell out 4 shows of 400+ seats, and we did everything we could get away with. A glorious experience.

Well – sort of…

It was glorious. It was tiring. And it was exhilarating. Creative work can be that way. It can wear you down, but it can lift you up. You can be exhausted and energized. You can ask …

(hint, hint)

I colleague of mine (check her out here) clued me in to this the other day – custom engraved moleskin sketchbooks at engraveyourbook.com.

I’ve mentioned before that I use sketchbooks and paper and pencil and pens extensively, and I think it’s a good idea for everyone out there. Wether it’s just for notes or for actual sketching and illustrating, it’s a great idea to always keep all your great ideas, bad ideas, magazine clippings, random thoughts and general doodling in a place that you can go back and use it as reference, idea starters or just for chuckles.

You are an artist, after all.

Now, you can keep all your ugly thoughts in one beautiful, custom place.

Words of advice for freelance designers (gotta get the buzzwords, you know):

Laugh…

It’s one of those things that you get and find funny, or that causes you roll your eyes at us geeks that are rolling on the floor, clutching our ribs and making the universal symbol for “can’t. breathe. too. funny.”

Happy Wednesday, all – back with more stuff tomorrow.

I’ve decided that the weekends will be dedicated to something a little different than my normal daily banter. I know you’ll miss it, but…

Found this little nugget o’ fun.

Have a good one!

Software is expensive, and as a freelance graphic designer, the latest version of the big name software might be a little out of reach at times. So, I present you with a real – and FREE – alternative to some of the really expensive stuff.

ArtRage 2.5 is a really cool program. Very natural, nice tools, pressure sensitive if you have a tablet, and it works on all platforms. And it runs smoothly without a ton of ram or the latest processor. Works on laptops and little machines. Sweet! Free!

Well – the started edition is free. The full version is $25. But the starter edition is really pretty stinking cool. It’s not Photoshop – but then again, what is? It’s got lots of tools and feels pretty natural. If you’re into painting and illustration (like I am) you’ll appreciate the ability to be fluid. I think I’m going to pony up and get the full version – just to have a little bit of fun. It’s cheaper than canvas.

Here’s a screen grab of a self-portrait in progress – click for full resolution:

And here’s a little detail. There’s almost as many brush strokes as wrinkles:
…

I’ve found that the freelance life requires me to laugh. A LOT.

I think I’ll create a list (lists are a good way to keep track of things – there, that’ll serve as my info for today) to keep track of the things I should do when stresses set in.

Cable Modem Dead: Read an Al Jaffee comic.
Bad Customer Interaction: Big Lebowski
Hard Drive Malfunction: The Young Ones Box set in it’s entirety.
Losing Out on a Bid: Seinfeld or Simpsons
Client Requesting Comic Sans:

Seriously, people – we’ve got to do away with Comic Sans. I wish we had one of those Men In Black memory eraser things so we could roam the globe and eliminate every copy of Comic Sans, then wipe free the memory of such an offending font.

Sadly, I have more than 5 copies installed. Just in case…

Hmm – maybe tomorrow we talk font management.

Honestly – this guy had to be the greatest performer ever. When you have millions of people imitating you, you’ve obviously done something right.

I’d love to be imitated. Seems like a lot of designers and design ideology runs on parallel tracks, but I want to be imitated.

Ah – but check out Design Is Kinky. Lots of great stuff, lots of art and illustration. Very cool. Very inspirational. I think that’s what Elvis had – a lot of inspiration. Keeps you fresh.

Plus, having people write songs for you to swivel your hips to ain’t bad, either. Still trying to figure out how that works in the design field…