While I wish my vacation could have lasted another couple weeks, sadly, it came to an end last Tuesday. It took me nearly three days to get my pending project load sorted, but I’ve finally gotten organized and progress has once again resumed. I will be spending the next week working on legislative information sheets for a local school district. While I would like to say that all the design jobs I take on are sleek and sexy, the sad fact is that when you are on your own you take what you take in order to pay the bills and keep forward momentum moving. Scrilla is scrilla - plain and simple.

It used to bother me that I had to take these types of jobs just to keep the doors open, but that feeling subsided as I read, “Tellmewhy: The First 24 Months of a New York Design Company” over my vacation. The book documents the first 24 months of New York design firm karlssonwilker and their struggles to get their shop up and going. 

The kw boys started their careers as interns for the infamous Stefan Sagmeister before starting karlssonwilker, which by rights should have given them one gigantic leg up. Interestingly, though, their initial start was fairly rocky and slow. There were times that they had to take literally any job they could get their hands on to keep going. The book provides a wonderful insight into what it takes to start a design firm from scratch.

The ultimate reality is that any designer who is looking to strike out on their own, whether starting their own firm or freelancing, must face the fact that work is work. The jobs are not always glamorous or hugely profitable, but if you want to be your own boss you do what you have to in order to keep the cash flow positive.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 11:16 pm and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.