Bandwagon Graphiks

[Note: This blog is intended for those unfamiliar with web design/internet basics, and those potential clients looking to have some general questions answered.]

I may not be that long in the tooth, but I do remember the days when if I needed to find a service provider, it was all about the phonebook. These days, if you don’t have a website, you are somewhat of an anomaly. Everyone has a website now, from the plumber to the producer.

Personally, when I am looking for a service provider – and they DON’T have a website – I freak out; makes me think like they can’t possibly do their job well if they havent embraced 21st century adverstising. Of course that’s not the case, but this is the world we have become. We have embraced an environment completely devoid of personal attention – and given rise to virtual relationships. Generation X,Y, and Z prefer to not have to spend the time interacting with someone to answer a simple question. Our time is expensive and if I can order product A from online retailer B versus retailer A down the street – I’m more inclined since it costs me less time.

Where potential clients fail to connect, is understanding the cost vs time vs results equation.

Take for example my dad – I had a conversation with him the other day about re-building the site for his small business. He is the perfect example of internet hating older generation that thinks all you have to do is make a website and people will show up.

It takes A LOT of man hours to make something take off. This is not something where you can find a fresh graduate looking for portfolio work. It takes experience and know how, to take a small budget and spread it evenly to produce the biggest bang. It also takes dedication on your part. You can’t just let it sit…you have to promote it and find new customers without meeting them face to face. You have to appeal to new generations and utilize new technology.

My background is Print – I usually have a few hours to a few days to complete a project that gets printed and tangibly handed out to potential clients. Very similar to other service/product based industries. However with web design, you should almost look at it through an engineers eyes – where projects takes months/years to complete.

Up until lately – I have approached web design as a print designer – thinking “oh yeah, sure…12 hours is enough to design a whole site, no problem – flat rate!”….if only my pipe dream could also be applied to rent and bills. My tune quickly changes to “which bill can be late this month?”

So for the “not so left brained” out there….let me make one point clear as clear can be. Web Design/Development is a gigantic time consuming monster. If you want it done right, then you’re looking at even more of a time commitment. It’s not us just trying to squeeze more money out of you…more like us trying to squeeze functionality into a design and not lose a gargantuan amount of money in the process.

First off, let me lay out some steps. Number 1: is what are we doing? This includes the interview, sampling process…finding sites you admire, talking to developers – figuring out what you want and what you can afford. This can take as long as you want it to take…but right off the bat you are talking about 4 people already invovled at the minimum – Designer, Main Developer, Support Developer, and Client. Four different schedules, sometimes different time zones, and four different attitudes. Thats already a lot of moving parts.

Step 2: is Design. Depending on how involved your intended design – this process can be budgeted for a week and take a month and beyond. It’s all of the above again, and then edits. Re-quoting if you keep sending edit after edit after edit. Everything we spend time on we track. we have to, because if there is one thing I have learned in the past year – its that quoting large prices is the safest way to guarantee you have funds to pay rent that month.

Step 3: is Development. This is the most time consuming hard to track task of them all. In the freelance sector this usually involves one to two developers – depending on their skill set. As a client you have to trust your developer to know they are doing the work without seeing an in progress page. We are not trying to deceive you, but a lot of the code we do can not be implemented before the whole thing is done. We don’t work straight on to the web, its built in other programs then uploaded upon completion.

Step 4: is Edits/Launch. May not sound like a lot of work, but this could possibly be the most involved. We build websites for small businesses with no budget to hire a web manager. So we sit down with you, train you on the editing programs, test every link, add your content, keywords, show you how to blog, how to get started and send you on your way. It’s almost like taking classes. Time consuming and tough to grasp.

What I’m trying to get at really is that web design/development are not simple autonomous projects. They take work, about as much work as raising a kid. If you are a small business struggling, then you have to work at it every day and figure out your groove.

Hire a designer/developer team that can do it right and work with your budget and be honest.

There is a famous quote out there that goes a little something like “Study the past in order to derive lessons from it.”

In art school, the typical student takes countless amounts of art history classes. In your first two years, its almost as if you are an art history major instead of an art major. It may not seem like it then, but you will constantly refer back to that art history education throughout your professional career. It may not be conscious but it does happen; or it could be in casual talk with a fellow designer on how hot you think El Lissitzky was.

My point is that many young designers want to challenge the social norms, status quo, or history for that matter – but we still rely on the works done by our elders to shape our own work and methods.

We can try to break away from the old but there will always be road well travelled by our elders that we cannot avoid.

Five years or so into your career – you will be yearning for those precious days in art school where welding, kilns, tools, and critics came easily. Five years in, you will feel sort of like, “I got this…I don’t need your standards” – but in reality – standards are what distinguish the good from the bad. If you give me a card or website or present a plan that is poorly constructed because you chose to ignore certain standards – then you lost my attention.

This all has to do with editing and a recent article I read by Kevin Nguyen from the Bygone Bureau. In short he says that in the world of web with blogs, tweets, zines, and forums – copy editing is commonly regarded as a unnecessary annoyance.

Guilty. Up until recently I really never gave any credence to copy editing. Mostly because I really didn’t know what copy editors did and how much of an integral role they play in the world of writing. I have always tried to be a one woman show, and after working closely with a copy editor on a publication I designed from the ground up – I have gained a much broader view of what they do and how we can’t simply toss them to the side when it comes to web content.

In the world of social media, Twitter is a great example of how editing and content can make or break your networking effort. Twitter itself is anything you want to make of it. A lot of people not on Twitter just blow it off – asking me why I care about whether or not what someone is eating for breakfast. What people who choose to ignore Twitter do not know is that it is content driven and completely what you want it to be. You choose who you want to listen to. However, content is king. If you are just staring out in the Twitter-verse and not quite understanding how you don’t have a million followers yet after a week…its probably because of your content, and also because you’re not Lance Armstrong.

Understand that in social media, gaining followers or readers is not as easy as a click of a button – a million followers is a pipe dream unless you have the celebrity/charity power backing you up. If you are a small business, trying out Twitter for the first time – take your time understanding the tool – edit your content at first and gain followers by writing and posting good content. Mindless babble is just that – babble – aka crap I don’t want to clog up my Twitter stream with.

Overall the point is that – with Twitter people are looking for instant gratification – in 140 characters or less – that then leads to a more in depth sharing of ideas of thoughts. My generation specifically is a very emotional one – we share everything on our social networks from what we are eating to what we are reading. This I feel is where editing has lost its foot hold – we are emotional, want to instantly share ideas and not think about whether our grammar or content is written in a way that draws people in. We write our blogs and lay it all out there, show that personal emotional side – and by sending it off to an editor – it sort of loses that emotional raw appeal.

This doesn’t mean that I still think editing is a dying art. Far from it – but after working with closely with a copy editor – I have far more respect for the mechanisms and standards they live by. I won’t have this blog edited – but hopefully rely on my peers to edit it for me through discourse.

When I was growing up, I became quite accustomed to routine and schedules – my Dad would come home from work at the same time every night and dinner was always at 6 o’clock. It was Leave it to Beaver meets opinionated bickering. Bliss.

Then came college, and all that I ever knew of schedule went out the window. Dinner morphed into whatever I could microwave quickly and inhale.

And these days, life seemed to have turned into a mixture of my old routine meets college, at warp speed. The real world is nothing like what I had envisioned. 5 years ago, I saw myself working for a design studio like every other schlep and joining the ranks of overworked, overtired, under vacationed and under paid.

I’m most definitely all of the above, but instead of being my own version of 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon, I exist somewhere in this limbo between Full-Time and Freelance. Neither world jives well together and society pressures us to choose one. Bosses hover, and we yearn daily for the freedom of a flexible schedule. But what if we exist in both worlds? How do we manage?

The past 3 years I have lived in this limbo. Trying to get into the Full-Time club, and at the same time frantically clawing my way out. Is it because I’m not cut out for settling at one firm or because I simply havent found the right firm? I’ve always been the type that carves my own path in this world. I’m never the follower. I love the freedom when I’m treading water in the Freelance world – but is it that? Am I just treading water or am I treading water in the full time world looking for a paddle to get my back to the freelance world?

There are a bunch of tricks to keep up your freelance work while on a more full-time schedule…you know the usual hiding of email windows, squeezing in important phone calls on your lunch hour, keep insanely late hours after the day job. I try and do it all but what am I supposed to do? This current gig isn’t forever – I cant just ditch my clients while I’m making steady cash. Not only is that stupid – but its going to be like starting all over the day my contract is up.

So I hover. I sacrifice sleep, sanity, and peace of mind. Counting down the days until I’m back to a flexible schedule. I miss working at my coffee shop, I miss hitting the pool in the middle of the day after an afternoon client meeting. Shoot, I miss visiting my vendors.

By all accounts, most people think I’ve dropped off the face of the planet, I havent been to an AIGA event in months – it just one more thing that I have no time for.

Good news in that my current contract is in Pasadena. Which means for the last two months I have done some seriously awesome bike commuting. Over a mountain, twice a day. Take that. I have made some converts at the new office, who love seeing me come in fully clad in spandex. All I’ve needed is a wacom tablet strapped to my back and two wheels under my feet.

The last three months have delivered many surprises, got some new good corporate work for the portfolio and have been banging out fresh branding, a new website which will be launching any day now and some new nose-art for the Air Force. By all accounts its been great. Balancing out the seriously slow third quarter and clawing my way out of debt. Yippy Skippy. I hope your happy Visa, you have owned me for far too long.

So what’s the moral of the story? Do we have to choose? I really can’t answer that – you do what you do, just remember that you are a human being and staying healthy is the number one priority.

Two years ago I set out to buy a bike. Two years later, I had no idea where it was going to take me. From daily commuting anywhere from 8-15 miles all the way to bike advocating, centuries, and now triathlons; this trip has been a wild roller coaster of awesome. On top of that I have made an example of myself to colleagues, co-workers and clients. People are genuinely enthused when I pull up on a bicycle. In fact on a recent trip to my printer in downtown LA [18 miles from my office] – my pressman actually took me outside and took a picture of me on my bike in front of the building. He said in 30 years of business, I was the first client to ever pick up a job on a bicycle. That makes me proud.

A lot of you out there are already reading this and making excuses as to why you can’t ride a bike to work or a client meeting. No worries, I have been making the same excuses along with you. Its too far, I have to bring a lot of stuff, I dont want to be all sweaty…sound familiar?

Sure, bike commuting and getting to client meetings as a freelance graphic designer has its difficulties – and of course you’re going to have those times when you have a 40lb box of booklets that no one wants to carry on a bike. However think about all those meetings we have where its just a consultation, or a meet and greet, or a paperless presentation, invoice pick up, etc etc – how much gas and oil are we as freelancers consuming to get from point A to point B as a freelancer?

We already have been embracing the green movement ten fold in the design community these past few years. We have recycled papers, forest service certifications, reused materials, green officers, soy inks – the list goes on. But we never seem to mention the transportation of these materials in our righteous green movement talks. The fact of the matter is, there is an alarming percentage of people out there that commute less than 10 miles to work everyday, shoot I would bet less than 5 miles – and none of these drivers consider cycling. Their cars clog the streets, pollute the air and guzzle gas. I’m not trying to be a righteous bike rider here – I’m just trying to spark some passion in people to have some freaking responsibility. I may be part of a very select group, but I buck up, pack up and ride every where I can…and for the record – I do own a car, its license plates say GFK DZNR

That’s my rant, now on to a real life triumph that occurred just this week.

My good biker friend @danceralamode, you can read her car-free blog here – has been on me like white on rice to keep reducing my dinosaur driving since becoming freelance. I tell her, dude I’m freelance – one minute I’m downtown at my printer for a press check, the next I’m in Encino for a client meeting. I may not be able to go completely car-free being freelance but there are two things I have mastered since going full time freelance again 6 months ago – one: public restrooms & two: public transportation. Since January, I have mastered a route to my printer, combining public transportation and mastered getting to client meetings by bike with the help of Starbucks with their nice clean restrooms.

On Wednesday, I had a consultation at an old clients office in Woodland Hills, clear cross the valley – 20 miles from my office. Normally I would have jumped in the DZN mobile and stressed myself out while driving. This day was different. I was finally going to do something difficult on my bike. I don’t know about you, but for me during a consultation – I usually have to bring sample books with me – some heavy and cumbersome. I also need a laptop, notebook, and all my usual riding gear. This client is slightly laid back, but I could not roll up in jean shorts and bikers cap – I needed to be in business casual.

So the night before I mapped my route and decided to combine my ride with a tourney on the LA Metro Orange line bus – this was going to keep me from being uber sweaty – but I still had to make it work. I threw the bike rack on my race bike [a major faux pas] and a pannier hanging off one side.

Come the morning, I stuffed my suit coat and briefcase into the pannier, rolled my non wrinkling dress pants up, and filled my trunk pack with paper books. The bike was so heavy. But once you get rolling, you don’t really feel the odd weight distribution. It becomes part of the bike and your body just makes due. Its when you stop that you have to be watchful of the bike toppling over.

The orange line a 6 miles from my house, but luckily stops within blocks of my client – so I used the time on the bus to cool down and get organized. A short 20 minutes later – I was at my clients…in a whopping 45 minutes total of riding bike/bus. It would have taken me the same amount of time by car at that time of day if not more.

After arriving I spent a couple minutes cooling, straightening my clothes and hair – and VOILA…designer on a bike at your service. Meeting started and ended without my client even guessing that I rode in – it ended up coming up in casual conversation later, but they would have never guessed had I not told them.

And so, that’s one for the books. It’s not my first bike ride to a client, just my first so far from the studio where I actually had to carry materials and be presentable.

In other instances I have utilized public restrooms to change from bike gear to business wear [Starbucks have nice public restrooms ]…but there are so many clothing designers out there now make great apparel that is business and biker friendly – that I’m going in that direction. The lighter and faster you can make the ride the better.

I can’t tell you how many clients are in love with the fact that I ride to their meetings, people are so used to it now, that they are always asking me if I rode my bike in, can they see it – oh we want to watch you roll away. It’s like I’m a celebrity or something. All I did was use my legs to get somewhere.

Sure, being in LA – with public transportation getting better by the day and more bike infrastructure being slowly added, its a tad easier than say small town Texas where I’ve read bikers are sometimes looked at as target practice. But LA’s bike infrastructure is not that great, we have barely any – cities like Tucson which have hundreds of miles of bike lane – yet face the same problems we do in LA.

When it comes to bike commuting, its all about being safe, be aware of your surrounding, be courteous to the drivers, and ride your bike like you drive your car. I’ve gotten about 5 people on bikes and commuting since I have started and they are always skeptical at first, then like a fog was lifted – they get it and realize that yes, they can do this.

So take me and my fellow car-free/car-light brethren…YOU CAN DO THIS!

**Plus I’ve lost like 30lbs since starting the commuting, and thrown out all my anxiety medication**

I recently had a conversation with another design buddy Art Meier – in response to a training tweet I posted about having fallen off the training wagon and drowning in boredom. It happens to the best of us, we all go through our funks where despite a proverbial mountain of work – you just want to sit there and stare at the wall. Sort of like back in the day when your PC melted before your eyes, and rebooted only to display the dreaded blinking cursor.

Anyways, Art sort of pushed me to take this blog in a somewhat different more personal direction in order to get me to update it more often. Up until now – I’ve treated this blog as place to update the world on the latest projects, commercial work, and tips and tricks for other freelancers. I suppose even for me, the author, its boring. But what to write about?

Well something I’m beyond passionate about is cycling. Thru and thru, I’m so into bikes, I want to have my bikes babies. It’s bad. Well no, its good, but to non-bikers out there…I’ve got a sick and twisted addiction that dinosaur drivers have no concept of. I train like a mad woman, over 400 miles a month if I’m being lazy and 500 in a good month without rolling a century. [A century is riding 100+ miles in one day] – I’m working towards my first triathlon in September/October – but more than that – I love riding. I started two years ago – just commuting to work – and slowly as time passed, became stupidly addicted.

Don’t worry, I won’t blather on about just bikes, but more how bikes and design collide in my life. How I balance training with my design work. Where does the graphic designer & cyclist meet? and how all of this has effected my work. Art could tell you, he witnessed it, maybe I overheard him say “this girl needs help”.

It was during this years Y-Conference in San Diego. On the last night as we were walking to the end of conference party – I spied a beauty. A bike so pretty and well designed that I nearly peed my pants. Here she is…

To some of you, you might just see an old bike with no bells and whistles. To me, I see a great piece of Italian steel from the grand age of bike design, back when carbon fiber was not in the vocabulary of cycling. I see a pristine paint job with perfect script logo. Where simple meets elegant. Bottecchia is brand of bicycles dating back to the 1920′s – and the brand is still alive today.

I’m a sucker for arresting typography like most of you out there, and this is one of my favorite Bottecchia logos. Most experienced cyclists will tell you when you are looking to buy a bike, to not let the graphics of the bike play into your decision too much, you need a bike that fits your body. Well being a graphic designer, thats impossible for me. I find bikes that a designed beautifully then cross my fingers that they work for me.

I recently found this beauty on a bike site I peruse often, she’s 3 centimeters too big for me, but you know what….she just might be my fourth child soon. Im in love with the eastern european color scheme…probably b/c she reminds me of it so much.

What I find really intriguing about bike design over the last 50 years or so, is how along with the design of the bike – the logos change – nearly every year. With design these days, its all about the brand. Everything has to match and communicate over the years, the logotype is the sole image tying your products together – brand recognition is huge. So why do so many bikes from years past and even now – have multiple logo types on their products?

I’m a huge fan of thick scripty fonts, so upon seeing this beauty – I melted. But previous years Bottecchia logos were more sans serif almost constructivist feeling, while current models have this bad-ass fast and furious treatment.

Taking a look as some of the recent ads for TS Performance, you’ll notice I’ve been working the scripty fonts in with the grungy fonts – a little Creampuff with a little Dirty Headline. Sure, the demographic for these ads is mostly males, who don’t necessarily respond to “girly” fonts, but I’ve always felt that a mix of styles is a nice way to keep the ad interesting. Sort of like when you bite into some Tempura Shrimp Ahi Tuna sushi and get that mix of temperatures. I like combining different senses within my design, and recreating that funny feeling, in hopes that the ad stays with you longer. It’s a little preference I picked up while working on so many automotive ads, they are so often quite type heavy and busy, so as a designer I have to keep it interesting, keep it fresh, and not create a wall of type.

No matter how awesome your really cool grunge font is, if its the only font you use – you might as well just load it up with Helvetica. Make something that plays with the eyes and keeps the viewer moving around the page. Remember the Golden Curve from Design 101? May have been a boring lesson back in the day, but I actually think about it still with every new project…you would be surprised.

In the end, we’ve established that I am a bike hugging nutcase, that was easy – and bike design will continue to amaze me – I have many more images of rad bikes that I’ve come across in my daily travels. Tomorrow, I’ll do a post on the Da Vinci Bike.

Come one come all – the wagon is calling your name.

Throughout the summer Bandwagon is offer a bunch of goodies to new clients and referrals, including package incentives for multiple orders and payment plans for higher budget projects.

Give us a call and schedule a free consultation!

This post is going to be a little more personal this time. I have been trying to get back on the wagon over the past few weeks and sadly it feels like its been a losing battle. The wagon itself has been fine, April hasn’t been the most plentiful of months but after the rocket speeds of March – I suppose it was due. In February/March we began work on two major websites and branding campaigns, which consumed all of our time and kept growing. Now we are proud to announce the launch of Bandwagons first official foray into the land of web design.

MADINKDESIGNS.COM and AMAZING3DPOST.COM – Two completely different sites on wildly different budgets. Mad Ink started from scratch and A3DPost started with a template that we dismantled and put back together. Mad is an eCommerce apparel website that sells t-shirts and more for the dirt biker and desert rat. Amazing 3D Post is a new company specializing in 3D Editing and Post Production Finishing.

Take a look at the sites and supporting collateral in the various Wagon galleries.

Now for the personal material. I apologize for being so short with what the wagon has been up to, but frankly its been a very rough few weeks around here and the wagon is working on getting back on its wheels. Some of you may be familiar with our studio and others have never had the opportunity to visit, but last Friday we lost the company of our beloved studio cat Mickey.



It was a very sudden loss and I have been unable to focus on work and kicking design butt while she has been sick. About 3 weeks ago, I decided to take her into the vet to get her teeth checked out and see if all was well because she had lost some weight and wasn’t interested in her dry food anymore. It wasn’t her teeth, it was in fact nearly end stage kidney failure. It was a huge shock, she is full of energy and any client that visits has loved having her around because she was the best of the best. It didn’t matter who you were, she loved you.

After the diagnosis, we started intense treatments, IV fluids, prescription food, nausea meds, kitty pepto bismol, and while at first she was tolerating the treatments well, she deteriorated rapidly. It came down to me not wanting to prolong her pain, I could not watch her be in discomfort, and I could not watch her wither away. And so last Friday the 23rd at 1pm, we said goodbye to Mickey in the most humane way we could.

She has been my rock. Throughout all the years of moving around, starting the Wagon and facing all the obstacles – she was the one and only who was there and never complained.

It has been incredibly hard to pick back up where I left off, with all the vet appointments, treatments, and then wanting to spend the last bit of time I had left with her – the wagon was neglected. That may sound crazy to completely detach from life for a pet, but there are more important things in this world than work.

Today is the first day where I feel like I have been wagon-productive in 3 weeks. I’ve uploaded a ton of new work to the galleries and in time I hope to be back up to full speed. So my readers, I apologize for going AWOL, but we are humans over here with hearts, hearts that are broken.

I hope to hit May head on, so stay tuned for more love from the wagon.

Bandwagon has been BUSY this month! That’s fantastic, and I bet all of you are chomping at the bit waiting to see what we’ve been up to? Or maybe you just randomly clicked on this site looking for posters of hot girls….yes those are here too.

On top of rocking awesome automotive advertising for the likes of TS Performance this month – Bandwagon has been hard at work on an e-Commerce site for a new t-shirt company called MAD INK – we’ve been branding, designing, printing, pantone picking and paper loving. It’s been crazy – but soon I will delight you all with the rocking t-shirts and more from Mad Ink!

We’ve also begun to spearhead another branding/web project for a 3D film editor – for the soon to exist Amazing3Dpost! The business cards are almost done, logo just about right, and we’re off and running on the website!

We really can’t wait to show you what’s been cooking – alas lots of work takes away from play time

I’m not going to leave you hanging though! Just in the mail today! We got out first order of Bandwagon Buttons!!! Leave some good feedback and I’ll send you one!

Till then…rock on with your bad self!

Tonight’s topic on the insane freelancer network is….

Is something we’re all familiar with….Exhaustion.

So hi how are you? Tired? Yeah, me too. In fact, I’m sleeping while writing this blog, amazing eh? Too bad, I patented that talent years ago. It takes a master to sleep, type and think all at the same time. Muahhhaha…all mine. Alright seriously – how do you deal with it? The feeling that at any moment while on the phone with your client you are going to fall right over and sleep on the floor?

I don’t know really, and this blog – while magical at times – can not tell you how to sleep. That usually involves pajamas and a comfy bed…sometimes with furry children who snore next to your head….and maybe a hefty dose of Lorazeprem. Whatever it is – freelancers are well known for always being exhausted insomniacs who are perpetually poor. Its the sad truth. Until you are some god of independent work and make more money on one illustration than most of us do in a year – you have to work harder and faster than any of your lucky full time benefit schmoozing cohorts.

The trick really, is to not get exhausted. Simple eh? It’s really hard but I’m going to share with you two very important tips from two very talented designers I admire. The first is from Stefan Bucher – author, designer, illustrator, god – he once made it abundantly clear that you need to avoid exhaustion at all costs. It can be incredibly hard, especially when your refrigerator has just condiments in it, and the lights start flickering because…whoops…power bills cost money. However, you have to think about you…put yourself first. Otherwise in no time, you’ll find yourself in therapy curled up in a ball…where just the sight of Photoshop makes you let you the most horrible blood curdling scream. Just like in sports, or writing or any past time – pacing yourself deems the best results.

This past weekend I rode my bike to San Diego from Korea Town for the third time, 115 miles. It’s part of a new goal I’m setting for myself to do at least one century a month, and a total of 400 miles the entire month. Most importantly I made it abundantly clear to my current clients that I was going to be on radio silence all of Sunday, and probably not the most punctual on emails for Monday. If you are honest with your clients in the beginning they will understand that you are a human being and need time to yourself. I’ve been there – client phone calls at 1 am, emails at every hour – trying to fall asleep but hearing the email ding on your phone … which of course you have to roll over and check…b/c omg what if? No, just say no. You’re body and brain will explode if you don’t control the exhaustion from the beginning.

Sure, freelancers hours are all over the place, sometimes you want to sleep in and other days you just can’t get that logo quite right during business hours so you put it off and rock it at midnight – that’s fine. But getting into the habit of working 16+ hour days 4-5 days in a row – doesn’t work. Its like trying to land a plane in a thick fog without ground radar. Ain’t happening. That, and I wouldn’t want to be the client on that plane.

So I rode – cleared my head, was rather comatose on recovery Monday – and now have broken all my rules the last three days. Working all day, no release, no riding – just me, Photoshop and lots of caffeine; and guess what? Instead of being productive and objective I’m procrastinating and have a headache. It happens but now I have forced myself to just walk away for a little while and trying to get a handle of the big picture.

Tip number two comes from a local entertainment designer who just cracks me up – he’s Kenny Gravillis of Gravillis Inc. – and he said “If you can’t say no, then you can’t own a business”.

That is so unbelievably true, it hurts. For example, right now – I’m sweating the financial blues and just yesterday turned down a logo gig that would have paid my power bill. Nicest guy, had a great conversation but his budget was so tight for this logo, that I would have not even had the time or budget to download an illustration from istockphoto – type in the bands name and export it. It hurts to say no to nice people, especially those just like you, struggling independents – but when you are full time freelance, you have to do things that benefit you mentally and financially. You have to be able to say no to those jobs that are just not worth your the precious synapses.

In the end, exhaustion can and will be the end to your business. We don’t have the luxury of our fellow full time day job friends with a glorious 9-5 schedule. We have to work hard and long hours, but we also have to exercise some self control. Being a creative is all dependent on the work your putting out there, if your exhausted and putting out the same ole’ boring crap, then you’re not getting anywhere. You’re doing nothing for your career. So I say it again, work hard – but avoid exhaustion and learn how to say no. In the end it will all pay off if you stay focused and clear headed.

I’m just going to go ahead and admit defeat on this whole regular blogging thing of which people speak. I honestly don’t know how you do it. It feels like just yesterday I was writing the last post – how time flies! Better yet…how time just seems to disapear into that dark abyss where I’m sure you could also find my life and that pair of comfy biker socks that no longer exist in my sock basket.

Well, here we are, on a lovely Tuesday evening in sunny Los Angeles – I’m sitting at my favorite coffee shop Pricilla’s which sits on the Burbank/Toluca Lake border. Around me there are about 15 screenwriters tap tap tapping away just like me. Always the multitasker I’m listening to the latest Adam Carolla podcast and working on a new website design for a motocross apparel company. I think I’m incapable of being productive without having at least 3 things going on a the same time – maybe I have ADD but I’ve always been the type of person who either has to have nothing going on or a hella lot going on.

This brings me to something that has been the bane of my existence recently, and something that new freelancers struggle with everyday, screw new freelancers – everyone struggles with this. ROUTINE. The hardest thing an independent of any style has to deal with is creating a productive structure, one that not only elicits profit but also balances out the boredom and cabin fever. Otherwise the procrastination takes over and before you realize it, KAPOW!, your realize you have watched more movies in the last 4 days than in the last year. I’m six weeks and counting into going back into full time freelance and finally, in this sixth week, I feel like I have a handle on a routine. How you say? Well I’ll tell ya:

First off there is one thing you have to understand about me – I’m a cyclist – a crazy spandex wearing bike-sexual commuter with more than a enough love for anything two wheeled. I spent all of last year commuting to my day job, which not only did wonders for my health…but it also made my rear end disappear in like 6.42 seconds! Anyways, the whole point of this is that in order to make the transition as easy as possible you need to mimic your previous routine, as best as you can. Get up at the same time you did, take the same steps you did – even if all your doing is commuting the 6 feet to your desk opposite of your bed. I am a cyclist so I had to recreate my daily commute and get in a bike ride everyday – kinda hard when you dont have anywhere to go or be by a certain time everyday. This has been the hardest part and also probably why its taken me this long to get into a groove. I get caught up in answering emails or working right when I wake up and then forget to get out and ride. Which sort of sucks when you have a weekly amount of miles you strive for and have to make it all up on the weekend!

So the first and best thing you can do is find a place you can go to get out of the house. Preferably one with free WiFi and a power source. Then make it your commute! It may seem funny to commute to a coffee shop everyday but it works for me. I get in a good bike ride and can get work done without any distractions.

If you are at all interested in the freelance life – you need to get your daily schedule settled – do not turn the TV on and as hard as it may be try and avoid Facebook. Take a lunch break at the same time you used to and create hours for yourself. I make myself available to those with multiple careers so my hours are Monday thru Friday 8 to 8. Whether I’m awake or not – I make myself available.

Another serious factor for an independents daily routine is socialization. You could have the best group of friends out there but everyone goes to their day jobs and leave you behind. It’s important to find a community and/or independent freelancer socialization network. You may not believe it, but without a network the mailman becomes your best friend very quickly! Its just like dating – you won’t meet anyone by not getting out there! If you are totally lost on this networking abyss – try locating a small business networking community in your area. There are usually several that hold monthly breakfasts or meet and greets – mine is the Burbank Biz which holds a small business networking breakfast monthly.

If you’re more senior in the industry – try scheduling “meetings” by hitting up other industries networking events to not only socialize but find business! I’ve recently gotten into the habit of attending every conference under the moon at the LA Convention Center which posts its conference schedule on their website. Entry fees are cheap and it doesn’t take much effort or time to go talk to people and hand out business cards/postcards. You can also hit up city council meetings which are a gold mine for independents and others who more often then not prefer to work with independent small business owners. Other ideas include attending talks or speeches – which you can find out about on Twitter by doing a simple search in your area or Google. It may be boring but when you are on your own you need to do everything you can to give your new career path regularity and business.

At Pricilla’s – I meet people, talk to other freelancers about the issues they face, and of course peruse the classifieds for people in need of a rockstar designer I try to write about 10 emails a day, the rate of return is not the greatest since the personal connection is non-existent but you do get responses – especially if you craft a good email and respect yourself!

All in all, its about discipline. You’re freelance career will stall and go no where with out discipline, respect and routine. However you accomplish it, make it work! If you have any resources where myself and others can meet other industry professionals let me know – and I’ll post them! Or hold on to them and leave a comment as soon as the comment page gets up and running in the coming days

Till then, keep it up!