Growing and Learning on the Job

I talk a lot about growth and learning as a creative professional and its importance to our success in the work force, but it’s not always as easy as it seems. I’d love to say that I come home every night after working the 9-5, work on challenging freelance projects, do tutorials and read design blogs until my eyes bleed, but that never happens. I don’t have the energy or time to cram that much into my brain. If you do, awesome, but for the rest of us that aren’t chugging 5-Hour Energy, we have to get our learn on in more practical ways. One easy way to do this is learning on the job.

On the job training is great because A) you’re getting paid to learn and B) you will hopefully have people or a team to learn from as well (and vice verse). Reading books and doing tutorials is great, but I learn best when I’m talking with people and through trial and error. Take on challenging projects and use the real life resources around you. You may not know the answer to a tricky HTML situation, but your coworker might. Learning from your peers is easy and whatever information they have to give you will stick like a Post-It Note in your creative mind. I can read ten blog posts about a topic I’m trying to figure out and still be confused, but if I have a flesh and blood person show me how to do something, I’ll remember it forever.

Conclusion

Ask questions. Use your professional network to progress as a creative individual. I’ll admit, I’ll try and try to figure something out on my own before I ask for help, but in the end it’s the people around me that help me solve problems. Never forget that if you’re having an issue in Photoshop or with some code, chances are a colleague or fellow freelancer probably has too and will be happy to help. Questions are your friend, grasshopper.

Happy Holidays!

The Holiday Penguin says “Happy Holidays!” Everyone have a safe and happy holiday. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. ;)

New Year, New Opportunites

I’ve been working a 3-6 month on-site contract position since May. It’s been a great learning experience but as with most great things, they must come to an end. As of January, my contract will be up and I’ll be available for more freelance work and full-time graphic design opportunities (plug, plug).

I’m excited for the future! During this transition I’m updating my marketing materials including my resume, portfolio and business cards. It’s important to maintain your marketing materials even if you’re working full-time and it’s vital if your freelancing. In addition to marketing, maintain your networking chops. Meet new people, join creative organizations and use your resources. Social media is a powerful tool when looking for work, but also utilize your friends and family. Let everyone you know what kind of work your in the market for, and it never hurts to ask your creative friends for a referral!

Luckily I’ve made some great contacts at this contract job and I’m optimistic that I’ll only grow and build on my career from here. When things like this happen it’s easy to get discouraged, but look on the bright side. There’s always more work out there, be creative!

Tips for Updating Your Blog

I’m ashamed to say it, but it’s been years since I’ve done any hardcore updating on my blog. I worked for so long to get the back-end functionality the way I wanted it (plug-ins, widgets and tweaking the CSS, oh my!), I pretty much ignored the front-end. I liked the look and feel of my website but it was time for a change.  As I start to dust off the cobwebs and venture out on yet another side project…

I’m keeping these suggestions in mind:

• Changing the design of your blog or website is one thing, changing the vision is another. Changing your look can invariably change the attitude and audience of any blog, which are two areas I’m not interested in altering right now. Rule #1 is, don’t overtly confuse your users. More on that below.

• When making a drastic redesign of your site, do it swiftly. If your blog has a high readership, broken links, busted navigation’s and 404 errors will not be well received by your readers. Let readers know your blog will be down or undergoing maintenance via blog post and/or social media, they will appreciate it.

• Don’t change the design a million times. Do your research and find the best design solution for your blog or website. Rushing into one redesign after another until you’re satisfied will not only confuse your readers, it will piss them off. Keeping a consistent web presence is important.

• Have fun! Refreshing your website with a new design or snazzy feature is exciting and the more fun you have with it the more satisfying the process will be.

Wrapping it up

As you can see, I’ve updated my site with a new theme and I love it! I’m still working on a few details, but that’s all part of the process. The theme is simple and has the similar style of the old design while fitting in with my personality. I’m entering into a whole new re-branding process for myself and this is just the first of many changes I’m making to my personal brand. Reason being, I’m probably going to be making a job change (more on that later) in the near future and want a fresh look to my marketing materials. Re-branding yourself or company is a big deal, but have fun and keeping the above suggestions in mind will help ease the process.

Passive Income on Graphic River

I’ve always been interested in passive income, but who hasn’t? Making money while you’re sleeping is the American Dream. I’ve often thought of setting up an Etsy.com store selling greeting cards or trying to sell some of my (less than professional) photography on stock photo sites. Etsy is a big investment if you factor in printing costs and there’s of course no guarantee people are going to buy my stuff, same with stock photo sites.

Another option is Envato. Selling digital art and making a passive income is a no brainier. No printing costs, no real overhead, it’s perfect. However, the competition at Envato is steep and getting your file accepted seems like an act of God. These thoughts held me back for awhile, but if you’re reading this, one of my files is now for sale on GraphicRiver! Yes, I finally told my brain to can it and created a small collection of Twitter backgrounds to sell. Was it challenging? Yes. Figuring out what I wanted to do was. I first thought about doing print materials like business cards or newsletter and brochure templates. However, when it comes down to it, if I was going to gamble and spend the time designing something that might not even get past the review process, I had to design something I would enjoy. Something web related seemed to be the way to go. Twitter backgrounds don’t seem to be an overly saturated market on GraphicRiver, so I sat down and got to work one evening and really enjoyed myself. Being in more of a production role at my 9-5, having total creative freedom felt awesome and reignited a spark for design that I haven’t felt in awhile.

You can view my file on GraphicRiver here, more to come!