As I write this I am unemployed. Between bookings. Available. ‘Open to work’. Cringe.
Tell you what, it’s a crime we have to earn money. I finished my last booking three days early, on the Tuesday. I could see this was going to occur and that the work would be done in less time than was estimated (sooo efficient) so I hired a steam cleaner (check out libraryofthings.co.uk) and rattled about the house for the next two days cleaning the bathroom tiles and scalding the skirting boards.
The longer you freelance I think, the quicker you get on with making the most of the spare time you’ve just been ‘gifted’. Then, depending on how much money you have put by, you could get all sorts done.
If you’re skint, like me, these jobs go from grand plans with grouting to putting an extra wash on during the day. Then events take a tragic turn. To online learning.
Many years ago I had to colour match a perfume promo shot so I could print some 5ft high POP displays. I thought I’d done a decent job, and set six prints running on the Novajet before heading home, so I could mount them the following morning. I came in the next day to find all six prints in the bin and many chiefs disappointed in their indian. Once I’d agreed not to leave the minute I’d finished it (is that even legal?) I was sent on a photoshop course in colour matching. It was in-person, one-to-one, and if I didn’t quite understand what was happening the tutor would take me through it again, and perhaps explain things in a different way. My experience of online courses thus far has been mostly negative. Much like a Teams call, there is still the overwhelming feeling of being on the outside of something and looking in (possibly through a half-open window) so you can hear and see what’s going on but you don’t really have the right to be there.
Really, most online learning is about googling something to find out the answer to a very specific question. Usually I’m asking where a particular tool has gone in the latest Creative Cloud update. When you work on your own you are missing out on the collective knowledge in a studio; “does anyone know where…” type of thing. I recall the long defunct design agency Small Japanese Soldier once putting a recruitment ad in Design Week: “Young artworker wanted, must know everything”. Tongue in cheek of course but how tongue in cheek? I swear that sometimes I’m asked the weirdest questions – usually by designers – and they always look surprised (and disappointed) when I don’t have the right answer. Or worse, I do have the right answer but they don’t like it.
I’m sure plenty of freelancers have hobbies. Constructive and fulfilling hobbies I mean, rather than watching more telly or drinking in the day. Read my Artworker’s Q&A to find out what some artworkers would be doing if they weren’t doing artwork. I would say that every single answer they give is far more interesting than doing artwork. Believe me, I should know.
you are not special 