Freelancers: Inspire yourself, Vary your Working Environment

Written by Jacob Cass on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 – 10:00 pm -

Vary Your Workplace

In this guest article Liam McKay* talks us through some strategies on how increase your creativity & productivity by varying your workplace.

Working as a freelancer may sound like an ideal solution to office life. You get to work at home, working for yourself, choosing your own hours and clients. But is it really that much of an escape from the office lifestyle, are you really getting away from it all. Too often people end up spending more hours on their computer, cooped up in a make-shift office, rarely seeing daylight and working in the same space they live in.

It can all get too much and you end up getting bored of seeing the same thing’s on a daily basis, and in a lot of cases freelancers end up returning to full-time work after realising that the working-from-home-environment isn’t that much of a getaway.

Working from home shouldn’t mean you are confined to working from your bedroom, who says you can’t work from somewhere else. The only person stopping you is yourself. There are a few things you can do to escape your daily workplace boredom.

Leave the Country

Editors note: Or state, if in Australia? We can drive for 1000km and still not get out of our backyard.

Fly To Sun

Yeah, that’s right… leave the country. It sounds drastic, but today it’s even easier than ever to work from another country. It doesn’t have to be permanent, it can just be for the duration of your project, be it a few days or a few weeks. Getting away from your home / office can have a great effect on your work.

This doesn’t have to be something you do very often, it can be something you do when you’re particularly bored of your workplace for an occasional treat and motivational boost.

Benefits

1. You’ll be able to focus more.

This is because there are less distractions that may come with working from home. But if you are on a holiday you can easily get away from any distractions and focus more time & energy on your work.

2. You’ll be more inspired, creative & productive.

Working in your office day in day out can just dry up any creativity you might have. Getting away to a new location can give your mind a new way of thinking and open your eyes to new ideas. Here are some ways to Boost Your Creativity.

3. You’ll be able to relax more.

Working from home sometimes means your relaxation area is also your working area. This means that you never really get a chance to escape the computer, or emails etc. Working on a holiday means that there’s always somewhere else to go or visit once you’ve finished your working hours.

How?

You will only need some basic equipment, a small amount of cash, and a passport and you are set. It’s quite a big step to take, but it’s something which could help release you from a creative block, and re-inspire you as a designer. There are a few things that you will need to do this;

Laptop

Probably this go’s without saying but the first thing you will need is a Laptop. Today the power and portability of a laptop means that working away from home no longer means you have to compromise on the ability of your computer.

USB Broadband Modem Stick

USB

This is probably the most important part of the whole “leave the country” idea. It’s a technology which allows you to plug in a small USB stick to your laptop, and with a monthly fee of around £15 per month will give you access to the internet completely wireless in about 40+ countries. Including the UK, US, Australia, Sweden, India, Spain, Portugal, Greece, France etc & many more.

There are a variety of price plans, monthly usage limits and companies to choose from, but most are a reasonable price and have a large coverage area. It is important to know that connection speeds and availability will vary from country to country, but I’ve found that it is very easy to get coverage information from the makers of the sticks.

Cheap Flights

International travel is cheaper than ever. Budget airlines usually offer much cheaper rates for last minute flights, so you could choose a destination & book flights and a place to stay within a week, or even a couple of days if you’re not too picky. But if you think about it, it really isn’t too hard just to…

Get out of the House

This is something you can do on a daily basis, or just when you feel like it. It’s a good release and a great way to help you focus on your work. Using the same technology as above, all you need to do is find somewhere near by and take your laptop & USB Broadband (or WiFi), and that’s it… you’re set.

The advantage of this is you can really get your money’s worth out of your laptop & USB Broadband. If you’re going to work outside your house quite often then the small amount of money you have to pay for the equipment will seem quite insignificant in terms of the productivity and time you have gained.

Where can you go?

Free

A quiet place near-by

Well, providing your USB broadband stick has a decent enough signal… you can go anywhere. A local park, a forest, public gardens, a field, the beach, anywhere. I bet there’s somewhere quite beautiful not far from where you live, just somewhere where you can go and not worry about distractions - how about the top of a mountain.

Obviously you don’t need to have the Internet to do these things, you could work off-line, but I think (given the technology is out there) that the ability to be on-line, communicate, send files etc. makes working away from your home/office a much more appealing option.

A friends house

If you know another freelancer, or someone in a similar position as you, it may be a good idea to work in the same place. The advantages of this is that it’s not going to feel totally alien to you, it’s still an office, but it’s a new office.

It’s going to feel like it did the first day you started working from your own room, you’ll be full of enthusiasm and eager to get stuck in to your new work place. It will be the same feeling you get from your first day at work.

Working with someone in a similar position as you also gives you the chance to get a second opinion, share ideas and concepts. It’s always good to have direct feedback from a different pair of eyes than your own.

Final Thoughts

There is technology out there that gives you, as a freelancer, a lot more freedom and options when it comes to where you work. I’m sure there are a lot of places near your house you could visit to work, literally hundreds of places.

There are numerous countries that you could visit to do your work in, and hopefully this has opened your eyes to the fact that there is a world out there, and working in a profession involved around working on a computer no longer means you need to stay confined to your office space, you can give yourself a more inspirational environment to work in, and the chances are, it can only improve your work.

*About the author: Liam McKay has a passion for all things design, but his focus at the moment is on designing websites & blogs. Visit his site WeFunction.

**The owner of this blog, Jacob Cass is currently on holidays and will not be able to reply to comments until July 20th however the author and the community should be able to answer any questions you may have.


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7 Female Graphic Designers That’ll Rock Your Socks Off

Written by Jacob Cass on Thursday, July 10, 2008 – 10:00 pm -

Female Socks

In this guest article Kelly Erickson* comes back for a second guest article (find her first article here) and this time Kelly showcases 7 truly unique and inspirational female graphic designers with a brief bio on each.

The field is ever-changing, yet the rock stars of graphic design are still, mainly, men. Meanwhile, the purchasing power of the globe is in the hands of individual women… It’s time to see more women like these seven, making a mark with their own Vision. Get inspired!

Marian Bantjes: Step Away From the Computer!

Based near Vancouver, British Columbia, Marian Bantjes’ extraordinary way with communication begs to be called “graphic art,” in the finest sense of the term. Fabulous hand lettering is her trademark, demonstrating the power of a fine pen in a plugged-in world. A 2006 installation created with Stefan Sagmeister shows off her hand work in an ultra-modern context. Her spam email centerfold for the Vancouver Review will make you tear your hair out with jealousy. This is one hard-working lady, even when she’s riffing on a bit of junk mail!

Marian Bantjes Work

Kristen Nikosey: The Art and Craft of Communication

Illustrator and graphic designer Kristen Nikosey’s work evokes Impressionist painting and Arts & Crafts style, with a distinctly California vibe. Her book illustrations are rich. Her pattern designs are meticulously casual, if such a thing is possible, with deep color that jumps off the page. In her packaging and identity work she blends today’s digital design techniques with her old-world sensibilities.

Kristen Nikosey

Janet Allinger: With Tongue Planted Firmly in Cheek

Irreverent humour in identity design? If you’ve got Janet Allinger to inspire you, why not! If the market can take it, this designer dishes it out. While she’s been known to do more traditional design, it’s her post-feminist comic stylings that will grab and hold your attention. Fun, funky, and a little bit in-your-face—this lady’s not afraid of being known as “edgy.”

Janet Allinger

Laura Smith: Reinventing Retro

While designer Laura Smith is at work, Art Deco will always find fresh interpretations. She’s done work for heavy hitters from Time Magazine to Major League Baseball to the U.S. Postal Service, and that’s just for starters. Classic, colorful, edited to only the necessary detail, her graphic images are nostalgic but never stuffy.

Laura Smith

Louise Fili: Elegant Romance

Louise Fili has a special way with food packaging and restaurant identity design: the old-fashioned way. Her intricate illustrations and hand-lettered type grace brands from the most familiar, like Williams-Sonoma’s, to the most exclusive. As a book jacket designer previous to opening her New York City firm, she designed over 2000 covers, and learned the intimate art of connecting with an audience visually within a very small frame. Today she is also the author of several excellent books on graphic design.

Louise Fili

Deborah Sussman: Urban Legend

Art director and environmental graphic designer Deborah Sussman has been creating legendary work for public spaces for decades. Deborah and her firm, Sussman/Prejza, have done interior and exterior wayfinding and signage systems for Apple, Hasbro, the city of Los Angeles, and numerous others. She may be most famous for her comprehensive graphics program for the 1984 Summer Olympics. She has a keen eye for both client and community needs, creating work that is imaginative, spare, and crystal clear.

Deborah Sussman

Paula Scher: The Dame of Grande Design

Bigger is definitely better. Bold words wrap you up and pull you in. You’re hooked! New York-based Paula Scher, one of only two female partners at mighty Pentagram, is a graphic design rock star of the highest order. She’s also an author, a superb lecturer, and her work is in the permanent collections of several museums. Her clean, brash, and inventive use of typography has influenced a generation of young designers.

Paula Scher

Barriers? Sure. Glass ceiling? Maybe. These ladies have their eyes on the prize, not the ceiling. As a result, they’ve busted right through it. Rock on.

Editors note: For some further reading check out this great discussion / article… Where Are All The Female Designers? or maybe check out the controversial article where Milton Glaser states that “Women will never be design rockstars“.

*About Kelly Erickson: I walk in the shadows of all the giants and emerging leaders listed above, and of so many more women and men. Great thought and design is all around us. Future rock star business owners: as the owner of VisionPoints, The Experience Designers, I’m obsessed with your success. For more writings about Experience Design, visit the Maximum Customer Experience Blog.


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DON’T MISS: The Best Graphic Design Articles from February 2008

Written by Jacob Cass on Friday, February 29, 2008 – 5:53 pm -

February

Here is a monthly round up of the best graphic design articles from around the blogosphere this February. The articles are sorted into the categories; freelancing, graphic design, web design and various.

You can check out January’s Best Articles if you missed it last month. You could also check out the best March graphic design articles.

Freelancing

Environmentally Friendly Graphics

Graphic Design

What Is Graphic Design?

Portfolio

Graphic Design Resources

Web Design

Header Graphics

Various

  • How To Set Up A SideBlog
    I have wanted to get onto this, this is a tutorial on how to make a mini blog for your main blog so you can post smaller articles. Not so much a graphic design article but useful to blogging designers.

Viviens Social Media Project project has now been extended for one more month! Learn more about social media and its benefits in this massive project.

Hope you enjoyed the list. Is there any others that you really enjoyed this month?


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DON’T MISS: The Best Graphic Design Articles from January 2008.

Written by Jacob Cass on Monday, January 28, 2008 – 4:03 pm -

Best Graphic Design

As outlined in my Blogging Goals post at the start of the year, one of my goals was to start a reoccurring monthly post and with a little thought, I came up with this idea of showcasing the best articles of the month on the topic of graphic design, so I present to you “The Best Graphic Design Articles from January 2008″. Expect the next one at the end of February.

Unconventional Layouts

Logo Design Love

Boost

I hope you enjoyed this list and if you did so please don’t forget to subscribe to my blog. If you have any other articles that you think should make this list, please add them to the comments.
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Great Illustrator Designs

Written by Jacob Cass on Sunday, January 13, 2008 – 10:22 pm -

Great Illustrator Designs

I don’t usually do posts like this just for one article however I thought this article on Great Illustrator Designs by Danny at OutLaw Design Blog was a great resource + inspiration for anyone who uses illustrator. Even so, I added it to my 101+ places to get design inspiration post. Update: Danny just did another great post on 100% Free Vector Files.

Also on the topic of illustrator, another article worth noting this week was an article over at YouTheDesigner on the ultimate guide to designing a logo which goes very well with my guest article on logo design on David Aireys blog.

All the best to these three aspiring graphic designers (Danny, Gino, David).


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