Overall I think my career hasn't been the most typical. Well, maybe I should define that first. What's typical? Well, I think graphic designers go through design school, although a lot don't... hmm, well, let's say they go to college, grab a job after graduating, and change jobs every few years climbing "up" designer ladder. More about that climbing in a future post. See, I've rebelled since I can remember (for better or worse). I've always felt that the system put in front of me had some type of flaw. There was some way that I could alter how life went to fit me better. Sometimes I was right but really, honestly, most times I was wrong. Anyway, when it came to becoming a designer, going to school didn't seem like the right way. In fact, I never really wanted to become a designer. It's a weird story but I think it helps tell why I've been labelled a lone wolf/hired gun/freelance/whatever designer. Here goes.
My dad was a type designer from the Netherlands. He lived and breathed type and was a professor at Stanford University in the late 70's/early 80's. During that era design was all analog equipment and it was so fun to play with all the equipment. X-acto knives, halftone sheets, Letraset rub on lettering, wax rollers, Rubylith, non-photo blue pencils, Prismacolor markers and pencils, erasers of different types, cameras, letterpress printers... like I said, so fun. But I had other ideas and tried a few other paths that were shoot for the moon but hey, you only live once. Five years later when those careers ended, it left me thinking about what I was. After some soul searching I knew I was a graphic designer.
See, I've always drawn pictures. Loved it. Loved the freedom of creating anything I wanted. But when I tried to work with my dad on some of his projects and he gave me some feedback, I couldn't handle it. Having someone look over my work and say that it didn't do/tell the right things or how it seemed to have a different meaning from a different perspective just killed me. In my head it all made sense. It was perfect. People had to see it from my point of view to understand my "genius". Seriously, looking back, LOLs. I was way too immature to collaborate and listen to other POVs. But I'd grown a bit over the years and it would pain me to hear that kind of feedback again, but I knew it was the right way.
This is where freedom lives.
Photo by Matthieu Comoy on Unsplash
So rocking at the edge of 30 I had to make a choice of how to make it happen. I had experience. My dad hadn't taught me much but I'd hung around enough and overheard all the long talks he had about projects to know pretty much how it all rolled. I'd been working on Photoshop and Illustrator since the first versions, so I knew the tools. I put my name out there and got my first few clients. I didn't do great but passion and determination got me a long way. I teamed up with a good friend who was in Los Angeles, David Salmassian and helped him out with design projects that had a lot of scope to cover. It was mostly in the action sports world which I loved. Flash animation, website pages and features were the meat of the projects.
I kept working with David for a few more years and then headed to Seattle. Freelancing was a freedom that I really loved. To a certain degree, I chose who I worked with and how the projects went. I was in direct contact with clients and got to hear every word of what they were looking for in a project and got to apply my creativity to solving their problems. But then the great recession came and my clients dried up. I had to get a job and it was looking grim. Luckily there was a small shop in Bellevue that was looking to become a creative shop that needed a designer team, so I got my first "real job" as a designer. Design was a lot of fun there but it became a lot harder. I had to collaborate and cooperate with about ten others in the shop. It wasn't really as fun as before. I was still pretty green and didn't have the confidence and eloquence of how to get my creative ideas out there. I think I did some good work and grew a lot but freelancing was where I really belonged. But the economy had other plans for me. I next worked at the ad agency Wunderman and it was actually pretty exciting. It was much more free and progressive than the previous shop. Unfortunately, it was A LOT more work. I didn't have trouble handling the projects but it became pretty hard to put the care I wanted to in each one. After two pretty great years I decided to try and be true to what I was and went back on my own. And how great that was. I was working for clients, I was working with agencies and companies, it was all so free flowing. I met a Creative Director, Eric Rak, while working with an agency in Seattle and we shared a lot of vision. Working on projects with him and his team was such a pleasure and just so hangup free. We worked together off and on for two years until I moved to Japan.
And here I am now. Still working as that lone wolf... er, uh, stray cat? Some people still ask me how I can do it. How I can work on my own in my own office. Reaching out and collaborating for only just bits at a time. But for me, it's the way I work best. I have the freedom to work with clients that I know will be a great fit and we can focus on creating great design. And that the environment that was most conducive to that was the x-factor. So now I take that name as a badge of honor.
