How to choose your side projects

How to choose your side projects.

Lately I’ve experienced a boom in freelancing from looking for projects to just not having descent sleeping time because I have so much work is a blessing… but really is it? The fact that I have to compromise time with my loved one, a little bit of a social life is it worth it? Honestly no it’s not and I had to learn the hard way.

Time away from your computer or drawing table is essential. I love creating, I love drawing when ever I come up with a fresh new concept it’s a creative orgasm for me and I would not want to lose that joy, that passion. I have a 9 2 5 however that doesn’t quench my creative thirst that’s why I’m also looking for something that will allow much more artistic freedom.

Let me give you an example, I love to draw the Ti-Moun and I was unable to do it because I was too busy with paying contract because I do the comic strip for pure fun and love and that’s the point that I want to illustrate I think when we have the opportunity to jump in projects we, well I will ask myself what am I gaining with this contract? In one year I can say that I get 2 maybe 3 opportunities to make outstanding pieces, a lot of factors have to be lined up in order to have that groundbreaking design piece and unfortunately money i$ not one of them.

So in the future I will take more time to choose my contracts and do not forget never, NEVER compromise quality for quantity. I hope this post was helpful to you, comments and suggestions are welcome.

• The artwork that I used for this post is a graphic element for a magazine that I’m freelancing for and I taught it would be perfect for this little article.
Ron

Blind Date

More freelancing is coming my way and I can't complain. this is an illustration for Souche magazine (the september 2009 edition). This is artwok for an article called the blind date, basically a girl who wants to cheat on her boyfriend sets up a blind date on the internet and the guy ends up being her current boyfriend.

I actually had to come up with a way for the girl to look surprized and it worked and I also came to the realisation that drawing hands is something that i need to practice more because I had to start over a few times in order to get the effect that I wanted.

The client loved it and to me that's more important then getting a paycheck. I enjoyed working with Souche and I'm pretty sure that we will develop a good business relationship.

Le Mack Illustration

Wow, was it that long ago, was my last post really in February yet it seemed like last week. Anyhow with a full time job, freelancing, looking for a better job and trying to have a social life well my blog suffers. I've been really busy lately (that's what they all say) really I have.

Now this little piece of vector artwork is still in progress. A certain client (cannot say the name yet but a lot of my freelance will come from these guys). Like I was saying I had to slap something together real quick to show my skills if I wanted the contract everything is made from scratch by me, exept for the chandelier and the two girls in the background. When I presented the illustration the secret client loved it and he said that's exactly what he was looking for. The final very soon... hopefully.

Ti Moun 5

What can I say I've got Obamania and I took the opportunity to express my true feelings. It's a great thing that the US have a black president, come to think about it 60 years ago lynching was still a practice in certain parts of the US. It's like the man on the moon one great leap for mankind. Now let's figure out a way that Israel and Palestine get along.

Ron

Kiano Logo design

Kiano logo design.

What started as an e-mail ended up being one of my favorite contracts of 2008. When Kiano a carabein restaurant asked me to design their logo, they came prepared. They had their ideas written down, pictures they had already choose their font so it's a very rare time that the client did their work unfortunately not everybody is that prepared.

So here we are first meeting because they sent me a little document by e-mail with what they wanted. I submitted about 20 different variations they did not go with my pick (which was a little more graphically interesting). They changed their minds a few times but that's to be expected from time to time. We had a great relationship and I did a lot of work for them after.

In conclusion I like the piece, the work is more of a typography study and how the fonts interact with each other. I went for a contrast, if you see the KIANO are made of two script (one for the K another fonte for the IANO) and I choose a serif font for the bottom (carribbean restaurant)just not to loose the sense on continuity but to have something that is more lo-key for we want the attention to be on the KIANO not the lower text. The lower text (carribbean restaurant) is also used as a line to sit the KIANO so even if I'm using 3 different fonts it doen't matter because they interact well with each other.

Hope this was somewhat helpful, suggestions and comments are welcome.