Starting Up: Creating a Full-Time, Freelance Design Studio

I love my blog, I really do, but lately my life and design career have been changing (or, should I say, evolving) at a very rapid pace. I have had limited time to dedicate to Tailored and over the past few days, I have been thinking long and hard about the direction that I want my blog to take. I originally revived Tailored in order to document and write about my daily inspirations. In the process of doing that, I was able to establish the direction that I wanted my career to take. It was a slow process, but through writing, researching, and searching the internet for my posts, I realized that (1) I loved working for myself, (2) I was crazy about doing hand-drawn typography, (3) I was still very passionate about design, and (4) I cherished working with amazing individuals (not huge companies). So, I took a HUGE plunge and decided to take a break from teaching to see if I could really make it as a full-time freelancer. I am a one-woman shop (for now) and every day brings new challenges. 

Which brings me back to the point of this post. My business is growing, slowly but surely. I am learning a LOT in the process. And, honestly, I am a bit stressed and nervous about all the little details of running a successful freelance business. So I decided that I needed a place to share these new parts of my artistic development every once in a while. I want my "Starting Up" posts to focus more on how I am evolving as a business owner/freelancer. I hope that they help my personal growth as a self-employed individual, that they spark dialog between other creative people going through similar career changes, and that the inspire others to think about doing what they are passionate about. These posts will be personal, full of stress, and hopefully we can all laugh at my successes and failures along the way. Of course, I've still got a lot of design inspiration to share. That's the amazing part about this new career – it is both the most challenging and most artistically inspiring thing I have ever done.

Full-time freelance is like what I imagine training for a marathon would be like. It is hard work but every day I feel like I am getting better and better at it. And with that said, back to work!


*BTW - The amazing poster from above is by the very-talented Brent Couchman (which reminds me - I should show more of his work). Found on Friends of Type, one of my favorite blogs!