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Had a very interesting meeting today. I went to see a guy who I had a chat with when I first left Uni. He's the head of a major marketing \ design company based in Leeds that is a major player already and has serious ambitions to be one of the biggest in the country.
I got a lot of very practical advice about how to attract work, deal with clients, set prices etc. But he also talked a lot about mapping your life out. SERIOUSLY thinking where you want to be, not in one years time, or ten, but on the last day you work. Not just where you'll be working and how much you'll be making but where you want ot be living, what colour the walls will be, what you'll be wearing, who you'll say goodbye to when you step out of the door on your final day. And then working out how each step you make will get you there. He was talking about making a map not just in career terms, in s traight line, but as a wild and wandering journey that includes friends, family, relationships, lifestyle, but making it all with some kind of final, COMPLETE goal in mind. Not necessarily expecting that to be the path you'll stick to rigidly, but as the one you'll set your milestones on, even if it does change at some point.
Practically the main points he made were know who you want your clients to be and aim high. If you really want Marks and Spencers as a client, be prepared to camp outside their store with a sandwich board and a petition for passers by. If you want to arrange an exhibition, don't aim for a little cafe by the Corn Exchange, aim for New York.
It's way too much to think about in one night. But I need to be a lot more focussed, and I'm thinking right now of a few things. I don't want to be a cog in a big company, or even the owner of a big company. I don't want to be in management.... collaberation maybe, but I like being hands on. I ~like~ the idea of being one hundred percent in charge of my own projects. I want to work within the creative sector as far as possible - with writers, dramatists, theatres, artists - which is a lot harder as there's less money sloshing around, but it's there if you reach the top. I want to be able to pick out my own clients on the grounds of the project that interests me most. I want to be the one person that people are fighting for to design their image, illustrate their idea. I want to be the one that everyone else's work is compared to.
Big ideas, but why not?
I got a lot of very practical advice about how to attract work, deal with clients, set prices etc. But he also talked a lot about mapping your life out. SERIOUSLY thinking where you want to be, not in one years time, or ten, but on the last day you work. Not just where you'll be working and how much you'll be making but where you want ot be living, what colour the walls will be, what you'll be wearing, who you'll say goodbye to when you step out of the door on your final day. And then working out how each step you make will get you there. He was talking about making a map not just in career terms, in s traight line, but as a wild and wandering journey that includes friends, family, relationships, lifestyle, but making it all with some kind of final, COMPLETE goal in mind. Not necessarily expecting that to be the path you'll stick to rigidly, but as the one you'll set your milestones on, even if it does change at some point.
Practically the main points he made were know who you want your clients to be and aim high. If you really want Marks and Spencers as a client, be prepared to camp outside their store with a sandwich board and a petition for passers by. If you want to arrange an exhibition, don't aim for a little cafe by the Corn Exchange, aim for New York.
It's way too much to think about in one night. But I need to be a lot more focussed, and I'm thinking right now of a few things. I don't want to be a cog in a big company, or even the owner of a big company. I don't want to be in management.... collaberation maybe, but I like being hands on. I ~like~ the idea of being one hundred percent in charge of my own projects. I want to work within the creative sector as far as possible - with writers, dramatists, theatres, artists - which is a lot harder as there's less money sloshing around, but it's there if you reach the top. I want to be able to pick out my own clients on the grounds of the project that interests me most. I want to be the one person that people are fighting for to design their image, illustrate their idea. I want to be the one that everyone else's work is compared to.
Big ideas, but why not?