the freelance blues
- Started
- Last post
- 24 Responses
- kerus
dont get me wrong, i love what i do now. leaving my agency 9-5 and going out on my own has been eye-opening and a great experience.
im finding now though i do more work for other people and less for myself. the portfolio is slipping and suffering :\
anyone else in this rut a bit too? i do a LOT of work but most of it is completing/coding other peoples'/agency's concepts, fixing other peoples' messes, etc.. Can't really claim that sort of stuff, can you?
- sublocked0
it can start to feel like that...try phasing out those type of clients and taking on gigs you own 100%, if possible.
- cosmoo0
that's how it is my friend. In the same position.
- cosmoo0
i hate dealing with others code. just annoying.
- sublocked0
...on the other hand, those type of clients can be great for ongoing work in the long run. when you're a project's "savior" people tend to place a higher value on you.
- ukit0
Fuck this shit. Let's all increase our rates by 50%.
- kerus0
i really wish i could phase those out. im in a "cant get credit without credit" sort of predicament. im trying to make a nice simple portfolio to throw online and im finding myself grabbing print work from 8 years ago haha
now i see why so many people do their little photoshop "experiments" and fake projects.
- kerus0
dont get me wrong, i love coding other people's work, its somehow extremely relaxing and rewarding for me. if you guys get photoshop files for a site and completely code it yourself.. would that sort of thing ever make it into a portfolio area?
- sure, why not? it's your development.cosmoo
- do mention what exactly you did on it.cosmoo
- YES, include this as development work.NONEIS
- << agree. It can go in you portfolio as dev.flashbender
- ukit0
Hmmm, I think you *could* do it, but you should def say that it was not your design. I'd lean more towards the route of personal projects and self-initiated to show your skills.
- kerus0
even stuff i did at my former agency is like that.. the creative wasnt necessarily completely my own so i skip it. oy vey. hehe
- dog_opus0
Bummer. I don't have the time or the network to go fully freelance right now, but I can relate to the skinny portfolio. Pretty much none of what I do for money goes in there, and a fair portion of it is lackluster, as per the brief (like the poster I've been doing all day today).
Good for you for doing it, though. You're paying your dues.
- Okay, back to work. Must close browser to prevent temptation...dog_opus
- kerus0
thanks guys
I definitely think I need to stop spending quite so much time snatching up the "easy money" at local agencies so much and start busting out some of my own junk.
- fwafwafwa0
exactly. very familiar to me as well. even with 100% gigs, as we call them i guess, i sometimes (pretty often really) lose control over the concept and quality because the client is pushing his or her ego into it. :(
i am even thinking of just making fictional work and put that into my folio and hope for the better. as for now i hate 70% of the work i do.
- ukit0
From now on I'm ONLY putting fictional work in my portfolio
- kerus0
hell, i wish i even had the time to do fictional work..
- ********0
That type of stuff gets and keeps you on going business.
- scrap_paper0
The big trick is convincing the client that the best idea is THEIR idea. I find this really frickin tough because I'm not a shmoozer by nature. Thing is it is the only way to get control of the project without really getting control.
Also "low hanging fruit" is not a bad thing. Just make sure that it is means to and end. If it gets you some green then awesome. Just make sure that you are working towards your own independence. Financially and creatively.
- jamble0
I am trying to get more agency design and production work and do less work for direct clients. It pays better and generally speaking it's less hassle.
I always put the nicer jobs in my folio that I've done for agencies and put them down as production and outline that the agency were the client not the end company. Unfortunately though, I find that some agencies discover a lot of the time I get better search engine results for their name and that of their clients and ask me to remove it.
If that happens, it goes in my private folio which is password protected and sent to prospective clients direct rather than advertised.
- PromotionalUseOnly0
I only put projects that I feel I've had input in that have made the project what it is... projects where the client just tells me exactly what to code... or tell me 'you know the job you did for X, we want exactly that'.... I don't generally put in, as they become potentially difficult to talk about... plus anyone can hire in a coder if they don't want any actual input
- ********0
I spent a couple of years freelancing in London and I was paid well, met lots of people, had a really great time and plenty of freedom too, but I put absolutely nothing in my portfolio for the entire time. It got to be a really big problem. The work was branding and ID projects and it would always be driven by some out of touch creative director who had really appalling taste.
- ********0
speaking of rates what are guys at?
i'm currently @ 85 / hr