During my last year of college, I took a required class that broached the subject of what the heck one might do with a fine art degree. On the first day, the professor handed out a list of jobs he’d had. It was two pages long and included teacher, sculptor, plumber, electrician, construction worker, waiter, and many others, some related to art and some not. And then he said something that I think about all the time. He said, “if you want to make art, you shouldn’t go into an art-related field.” His point, from his own experience, was that working a creative industry zaps you, makes creativity feel like a job and a chore. If making art wasn’t that important to you, then maybe a career in a creative field would be the right thing. I took that to heart.

However, after trying both design/art related jobs and jobs that weren’t, I know I don’t agree. Personally. The truth is, I guess I’m not very good at switching back and forth… if I’m going to exercise the artsy half of my brain, it’s got to be done regularly, daily, as much as possible. Although I don’t paint or make wood cuts or art installations anymore, I can now immediately jump into a crafty kind of project after work. As soon as I began working as a designer, I started sewing curtains, placemats, and tote bags, and I signed up for a ceramics class. Because I’m creative for work, I don’t have to switch gears afterward.

But, I’ve also found that it’s easier for me to lie to myself and say that I don’t need to make art because my job is my art. That designing invitations, websites, and packaging fulfills that need. It doesn’t always. Last weekend, inspired by this, my husband and I bought a bunch of colored duct tape and starting wrapping cardboard. I was really stuck on a couple of my work projects, and doing something creative off the computer was just what I needed. OK, so it will probably end up in the closet, but whatever, because it was so much fun to make. It felt like being a kid, when you start playing with your toys and then suddenly hours pass and you’re not sure where they went.

The next morning, I was excited to delve into my design projects. I had all this new energy. And the main thing is that I know I’m on the right track. Spending all day looking at art and design, blogging about it, and designing is necessary for me if I’m going to ever make things in my spare time.

So how about you? Does working in a creative field zap you, or make you more more likely to pick up a paintbrush or camera?

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Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Ellie will be here each Monday, and Margot will be over on Mint at the same time.

I’ve been on an office supply kick lately (see here & here). Truth is, my home office needs some work. Last summer we bought a huge storage cabinet from Ikea, which is now overflowing, and I’m really over the cheap plastic drawer things I bought in college. First on the list is a new desk lamp and some plants (light + plants = sanity) but these cute accessories wouldn’t hurt, either.

[1] birch storage boxes, $29.95 [2] tape dispenser, $24 [3] cork organizer, £9 [4] meg mateo-ilasco journal, $32 [5] vintage library cards (for your to-do list!), $3.50 [6] succulents (similar to shown), $60 [7] desk calendar, $18

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Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Ellie will be here each Monday, and Margot will be over on Mint at the same time.

If you follow me on twitter, or my own blog Mint, you know I spent much of last week in Salt Lake City for the Alt Design Summit. If you haven’t heard of Alt, here’s the quick version: it was a conference geared toward design & lifestyle bloggers, and the first of its kind. You can read more about it on the Alt site. Anyway, spending a few days with other bloggers and talking about blogging obviously raised the question for me, “why do I blog?” It’s certainly the most time consuming “hobby” I’ve ever taken on, and the little bit of direct revenue I see from my blog doesn’t completely justify the hours and hours I spend every day researching posts, reading other blogs, staying on top of trends, and all the social media stuff that goes with it.

{image by ghostlings}

It started with a new-found obsession in 2006 with interior design magazines. I guess I just hadn’t paid much attention to them before, but a rainy afternoon at Barnes and Noble completely rocked my world. I came home and googled something lame like “modern interior design website” and low and behold, Design Sponge popped up. I think I became her most dedicated fan. At the time, I had moved back into my Mom’s house and was taking courses to prepare for graduate school in Occupational Therapy, which I soon realized was not for me. Reading Design Sponge lead to other blogs, and within a year I was itching to start my own. In February of 2008, I did. I can honestly say it was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself, and totally changed the direction I was headed. Less than a year prior I had started doing graphic design professionally, so my main goal with Mint was to keep on top of design trends and hopefully learn a few things and influence my work. Since I didn’t study graphic design in school, reading design blogs became a daily design course in layout and typography.

{photo by ultraviolett}

As Mint’s readership grew, doors began to open. I started having sponsors on Mint a year ago, which helped me justify the many hours that I poured into the site, and I started to form relationships with other designers and bloggers all over the world. Sharing my own design projects was a big boost of confidence, since fortunately my readers are very kind and encouraging! After sharing my wedding invitations, I began to get requests for custom invitations and my shop Hello Tenfold was born. A few months later the graphic design firm I was working for nearly folded, laying off its entire staff and hiring a couple of interns to replace us (ouch). I felt so lucky to have something in my back pocket with Mint and Hello Tenfold. I was approached by the nationally recognized stationery company Bella Figura (a relatively small project but hugely exciting) and at the end of the year Mint was included in the Times Online world’s best blogs article. Over the past few months I have been getting more and more requests for freelance design work from people who find me through Mint. During one of the Alt panels, blogger Maggie Mason (Mighty Girl) and Stephanie Brubaker (Stephmodo) talked about using your blog to “sell your profession,” even inventing a new profession for yourself. Stylist Chelsea Fuss started styling by sharing projects on her blog and slowly getting freelance projects via her readers. I’ve noticed that most of the clients I get through Mint truly are the right clients for me, since they’ve seen my work and (maybe more importantly) have seen the kind of work I’m inspired by. Instead of asking me to make their logo bigger, they trust my judgement and also hold me to a high standard.

{my business cards}

More recently, blogging has helped me feel like I’m part of a community, since the reality of a freelance lifestyle is a whole lot of isolation. Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan (apartment therapy) joked about a space he rented once with other freelancers & bloggers, who he said are the most boring people to work with because they’re so immersed in conversations they’re having with other people online that they’re too busy to talk to the people actually sitting next to them.

Alt gave me a whole lot to think about in terms of Mint and the direction it’s headed, and it will take me more than 24 hours to digest all that. One thing that was repeated throughout the conference was that blogging takes passion, and those who blog without it will never be as successful as those who blog because they love to blog. That said, I want to encourage all of you would-be bloggers to get on it, because if you have the passion, you never know where it will take you!

For more on what I learned at Alt, check out this morning’s post with all my notes on Mint.

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Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Ellie will be here each Monday, and Margot will be over on Mint at the same time.

photo by monda loves

In a few days I’ll be heading to Salt Lake City for Alt. If you haven’t heard of Alt, here’s the deal: it’s a conference for design and lifestyle bloggers, business who want to blog, businesses who want to meet bloggers, etc. I signed up about 3 weeks ago, and then realized I’d need to come up with business cards. Like, yesterday. First I thought I’d be really fancy and get some letterpress cards, but the more I thought about it the more I started having serious commitment anxiety. They’re expensive, so I wanted to love them, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend on designing them, I’m considering a re-brand, and, oh yeah, they’re expensive. So I started exploring DIY options, and came up with some fun ones (which I’ll share tomorrow on Mint after I photograph them).

That leads me to today’s post. If you’re a designer, you know how hard it is to design for yourself. So much pressure! But, when you need cards in a pinch (or have multiple business that need cards), maybe the best thing to do is something fun. Something that was fun to make and looks fun in the end, not so perfectly letterpressed or offset or diecut or whatever. A small run, something you can switch up next time. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Myf Kemp made these cards using recycled envelopes.  
 

Eugene Radomski used cardboard and (I’m assuming) a rubber stamp or screenprint.
 
 

Sassen used rubber stamps, and what I love about these is that they’re designed to be easy to print without worrying about registration.
 
 

The Rabbit & the Duck pulled out the sewing machine to make these cards.
 
 

Of course, if you have a screenprint or gocco set up, it’s easy. But these, by Gold Lunchbox, could have been made with a rubber stamp and a circle punch.
 
 

Dailey Crafton used cereal boxes and his Epson.
 
 

Michael Faber’s business cards weren’t DIY, but the edge painting was! He pulled out an orange highlighter and just went at it.

For more ideas, check out my Mint post on hand-stamped cards, and this post on DIY stamped hangtag business cards on Design Sponge. Lena Corwin’s book Printing by Hand is a good resource for making your own stamps, and she did a quick online tutorial here. Brendan and I are going to be spray painting some cards tomorrow for OK Great to use at Alt, and we’ll let you know how those turn out, too. If you’ve got some handmade cards to share, we’d love to see them!

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Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Ellie will be here each Monday, and Margot will be over on Mint at the same time.

Hello, Pitch! Margot and I switched gears this week. She’s talking about how to be productive when you’ve got a big workload, and I’m talking about what to do with yourself when things slow way down.

See, I had a feeling December would be a slow month. Even my non-wedding design clients dropped off the face of the earth, deciding that gathering copy and images could wait until 2010. Remembering how my own wedding planning went, I anticipated a slow holiday season and “mentioned” to a friend who owned a retail store that I’d have some free time in December. In other words: I’m terrified I will not make a single penny this whole month and I’m going to have an anxiety attack. She was happy to find something for me to do around the shop, and I was happy to have the extra income. I even ended up helping her with some design projects I may not have gotten otherwise! A steady stream of inquiries for my work did keep me positive, but I’m glad I anticipated the additional free time.

I’ve talked to a bunch of freelancers over the past year, and all of them have agreed on one thing: it’s often feast or famine. Workloads can swing from overwhelming to scarily quiet in a moment. Here’s a list of things I keep in mind for when I have a slow day:

• Design for your portfolio: My husband likes to do band posters, I like to brainstorm ideas for invitations and note cards. Whatever project you choose, it should either be something experimental that will help you grow as a designer, or something that will be a good addition to your portfolio.

• Work on your home office: I finally got the chance to set up and organize an official work space in my house!

• Update or redesign your site/blog/print materials

• Bookkeeping: Find receipts, update spreadsheets, get organized.

• Set goals for your business and outline the first steps you need to take to achieve them

• Submit work for design contests

• Network: set up some lunch meetings, meet new colleagues and catch up with old ones

• Focus on new clients: brainstorm ways to get new clients, research advertising opportunities

• Take it easy & refuel! Sometimes a slow workload can be a welcome break.

So what do you do when things are slow?

{Photo credit: September Inspirations by Mav.}
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Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Ellie will be here each Monday, and Margot will be over on Mint at the same time.

Hey Pitch, it’s Ellie, back again with Howdy Do It for 2010! Margot and I took a little break around the holidays, but now we’re psyched for the new year and brainstorming ideas for this little series of ours. If you’re joining in for the first time, check out my past Howdy Do It posts here and Margot’s here on Mint. Each Monday, we’ll be switching blogs to write about the joys/stresses/details of being self employed. We’d love for you to chime in!

Since it is the New Year, after all, I suppose some new year’s resolutions are in order. Normally I kind of hate these things, as my success rate with resolutions has got to be, like, 2% or something awful. But, new year, new business, new goals… and if you want to call them resolutions, so be it. Here goes:

Photo by abbytrysagain

1. Hire a photographer.
I do OK with my fancy digital SLR (Nikon D5000 if you want to know) when I have to, but the bottom line is that I want the photographs for Hello Tenfold to be professional and styled, and I am no professional photographer. This is going to be a challenge for me for two reasons: (1) I’m cheap broke and afraid I can’t afford it, and (2) I get so impatient to put up new work that spending the extra few weeks to set up a photo shoot for new pieces will certainly test my patience. That said, I know this is incredibly important for anyone who runs a business online. Since your customers can’t see your product until they place an order, you need to make sure the photos look as good as the product you spent days/weeks/months creating. My favorite example of this is Kim Ludy of Trampoline, who kindly guested on Mint with her DIY photography tips. Do you think Trampoline would be doing so well if Kim didn’t believe in the importance of good lighting and styling? I say there’s more going on than her excellent taste in vintage.
 

Photo by unruly things

2. Work on a Mint redesign.
I haven’t decided if a quick DIY (no-cost) update is in order, or if I need to hire a programmer to help me with a full-on redesign, but I do believe that blogs need to change and grow when their readership does. Think about it: the content on your site changes daily, so shouldn’t the layout get some kind of face lift every year or so? For those of you with a similar resolution—some of my favorite websites (like the soon-to-be updated Design*Sponge, and the beautiful Ashes & Milk) were designed by Also.
 

Photo by Anja Mulder

3. Design a line of non-wedding stationery.
I intended for this to happen last summer, but you know how that goes. Most of my work for Hello Tenfold has been wedding related (which I love), but I want to add everyday stationery to the mix. Ideally, it will be small runs screen printed by me.
 

Via Anthropologie

4. Get the finances in order.
This one is the most important! I do an okay job of keeping track of my business finances with a basic excel spreadsheet, but when it comes to things like taxes I’m an utter newbie. On January 1st I separated my business and personal accounts (yeah, I know, I hadn’t done it until then!) and since the majority of my income goes through PayPal, I activated a PayPal debit card for business expenses. Next up, finding a good accountant. I’ve got a few friends who own local small business, and plan to gather some names and numbers from them. Picking the brains of colleagues is always a good place to start!

So, business owners, freelancers, bloggers, and wannabes! What are your New Years Resolutions? Please, do share.

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Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Ellie will be here each Monday, and Margot will be over on Mint at the same time.