About
The Lone Designer is Gary Crilley, who is also known to many as The Electric Artist.
Gary is a graphic designer, author, teacher and illustrator who has worked for companies large and small, but is currently working for himself… you guessed it, in a converted bedroom in back of the house.
The easiest way to describe the purpose and aspirations of the Lone Designer is to repeat the first couple of posts, which explain what we’re about in a nutshell;
…you’re not alone
This brand new blog is targeted at creative people who work alone, specifically from home. Yeah that’s right, you… and me.
The Lone Designer. Says it all, doesn’t it? We boldly face the world of professional obligation without the safety net of employment, a supportive network, or just someone else to blame, and we regularly perform our miracles from the spare bedroom in back of the house.
Yet we’re professionals, dammit, and we demand a voice.
The primary audience of the Lone Designer is graphic designers (because that’s what I am), but also includes illustrators, artists, photographers, desktop publishers and web designers; and at a pinch we could even add architects, scrap-bookers and game designers to our little enclave. Anyone who sits hunched over a computer jammed into a corner of our claustrophobic environment and expects to earn enough $$$ to pay the bills.
The difference between us do-it-yourselfers and the great unwashed who do what they do for someone else is primarily one of responsibility. If we muck up, our client is hurt, and our reputation is damaged. End of story.
We’re on our own.
In fact, this single element of our existence is often the one which cripples our continued existence and ultimately drives us to seek out ‘a real job’. It’s that dawning realization that the buck stops here, and even our husband/wife/life-partner/significant-other cannot help us. It’s times like these that we wish we’d paid more attention during our training…
But it needn’t be like this.
While the designer who works for a company of 50 – 499 employees can call upon a seemingly endless network of colleagues, superiors and experts for support, we’re not actually isolated either.
What I hope to achieve with this blog is a community support network for people like you and me. And don’t worry, if you’re not a professional, or if you have an office or even a staff member(!), you’re still one of us.
For the moment let’s rejoice in our aloneness… while drawing succor from the fact that there are a million others just like us.
Yay!
Defining the Role of The Lone Designer
The topic of working from home as a graphic designer or other creative individual is a huge one. So we’re going to divide this community into several niche areas, some of which will be of more interest to you than others.
As a designer (and I’ll use this term generally, although you might personally substitute it for ‘photographer’ or ‘illustrator’ etc.) working alone, you are expected to have a massive amount of knowledge at your fingertips.
This includes knowledge of some or all of the following;
- Design theory
- Software skills
- People management
- Marketing
- Running a business
- Brokering print and other products
- Web design skills
- Finding inspiration and ideas
- Search engine management
- Self promotion
- Budgeting and accounting
- Time management
- Client relationships
- Bad debt management
- Maintaining a computer and peripherals
- Photography
And a whole lot more besides.
For example; what happens if a client approaches you to design a label for a new range of cosmetics, and then drops a bombshell by asking if you’ve ever had experience dealing with international standards barcodes?
In a large firm, there’d be someone around with that experience, or who you can at least turn to for advice. But when you’re a Lone Designer, you have two choices; say goodbye to the client, or learn about barcodes quickly.
Just one of the above topics – say, software skills – could fill years of skill acquirement.
So what’s a Lone Designer to do?
As time goes by, I hope to cover each and every one of these knowledge areas, with emphasis placed in order of importance to your ability to complete the job (and make a decent living). I will also be influenced by you, the reader, in which topics leap to the fore.
Categories
For simplicity I’m going to divide the above gazillion topics into four distinct categories and (try to) post to at least one of them every day. I will also be looking to you, my Lone Designers, for direction as the topics spread.
The four categories are;
- Graphic Design from Home
- Design Software
- Business and Marketing
- Tips and Tricks
Of course there will be topics that fall outside of these categories, and others that could be put into more than one, but I’m not planning on being too regimented in where they go.
Following is an example of the range of topics that we’ll cover over the next few months;
Adding value to a regular client; seeking repetitive jobs for regular income; finding cheap or free fonts and resources; simple web page construction without coding knowledge; a review on the latest version of Acrobat, and how it impacts us lone designers; how to keep family members from messing with your stuff; self promotion through pro bono work; exactly how much should you charge?; Mac or PC? The pros and cons; speeding up your page layouts in InDesign; accurate prepress makes for happy printers… and much more.
If anything on that list tickles your fancy, stay tuned.