London Freelancing
Out of context: Reply #14
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- thebottlerocket0
^
That's not true at all, unless you sign some exclusivity contract which would amount to a restraint of trade.The main contractual obligation in relation to exclusivity is between the agency and the company they place you at. They try to make it impossible for companies to engage the freelancer directly before a certain expiration period, usually 6 months.
However, there is nothing prohibiting you approaching clients directly, even if you were initially placed there by an agency, even whilst you are still working there. The key is you need to do the approaching. Obviously this throws up all sorts of issues and the recruitment agency might kick up a stink, but the design agency may well do it if they feel they're not getting value for money and they really value your services.
In all my 10 years of freelancing I have never once worked for a company directly until a lot of water has passed under the bridge, but that's probably due to working on large projects that take a lot of time; by the time i am available again, its usually 6 months - 1 year after I finished there.
In relations to Crayz response to what is 'integrated'...as a grad you'll hear a lot of words thrown about that don't make much sense. The thing is, you'll soon realise that they're just words a lot of the time and each agency will have its own definition of what 'integrated' means to them.
Basically, an integrated agency will be one agency that does everything within the sphere of marketing/advertising/pr here, not design, which I must stress,are two VERY separate things. By doing everything, they can control and execute a campaign across digital, print, marketing, DM, PR,etc, etc.
That's supposedly their advantage: "joined up thinking"Like I said, most agencies who use the term 'integrated' are essentially some flavour of that unholy trinity of advertising. If it was me, though, that term is a good sign to avoid that place that like the plague.
Other terms that have loose definitions depending on the company are titles like 'art director' - which can mean anything to do with position of seniority, but most likely refers to a role within an ad agency set-up.
"Copywriter" - well that has been used to describe anyone from 'content' producers (i.e. writers) to the 'non-drawing' partner to an Art director.
'Planner' - well they make convoluted strategy - still yet to work out what they fuck they contribute, apart from unintelligible diagrams of dubious logic.
And 'Account manager' - as far as I can tell, that term should be renamed 'corporate cock-smoker' as it's a far more accurate term for those value-less individuals that contribute nothing to a project.
- say what you mean mateRanger
- This is awesome. Insightful and made me laugh out loud. Heed these words young Jedibabaganush
- planner & account manager definitions: so truesinisnap
- Well said on the 'intergrated' agencies!
creativedan