There are 32 comments on this post. Add your own comment.

That’s a 2 parter — in my book. Where I see you going, is with the likes of Kottke, Dooce, Davis, Inman and Zeldman (all of them at once). I really see you as a “self made” man, not a man who is doing what another firm’s vision tells you. You have far too much vision, conceptual inventiveness, personal charisma, creative passion and moral scruples to “settle” for a job description assigned to you. At the same time, I think in the short run you have to take on those “assigned” roles to learn and open up that true “calling” (I hate that word, because it has far too many overtones of obligation and resistance) and take some journeys that are the only means to find out how to be that person above. But then again, I’m biased.

said Paul

at 11:51am on Friday

If you have the stomach for it I say contract/freelance work. The diversity in projects and the living you can make is really satisfying. Sure there are downsides but I’d rather wrestle with myself than someone else. Also I never really liked the idea of someone marking up my working and profiting from it more than me all because they took on the risk.

To say it plainly, your body of work is diverse enough and solid enough to keep you busy on contract/freelance work for as long as you want.

said shane

at 11:52am on Friday

Thats a one parter. Start your own company. Freelance isnt where its at. You have the skills to do well there, but even if youre a risk taker like myself, we all want a little security.

Paul is right, too much vision and too much creativity to be locked down by any boss. I’m a multifaceted guy and I’ve found it extremely hard to find one thing I love most and pursue that. The solution? Use all your mediocreness to your advantage. Create your own work that matches you. People pay for a niche. Find yours.

said Austen

at 12:02pm on Friday

publish your poetry.

and rent yourself out to people who are in desperate need of awesome.

said Lee McD

at 12:35pm on Friday

Register the domain drawingablankenship.com (it’s available) and act as a idea man / creative problem solver consultant, preferably catering to not for profits.

said Jeremy

at 12:37pm on Friday

Definitely start your own creative agency. If you aren’t keen on the businessy end of it, bring a suit-savvy partner on board to handle the books and balances.

As a side-income-related-note, I’d like to see a “buy this print” and “buy this shirt” link on every page of PNFF because I would buy all my shirts from you, even the ones I wear to weddings if I ever went to one or even had one of my own one day.

Because dang.

said Charlie

at 12:39pm on Friday

I’m a relatively new reader and fan of all things JoshuaBlankenship dot com.

From a pretty objective standpoint, I think that your taste and abilities seem too dynamic (in a good way!) for most stock, run-of-the-mill jobs. In all honesty, I think the ideal situation would be to start your own “thing.” And since I am from the Literature/English world, I’m not exactly sure what that could be (branding, website designing, t-shirt-ing, or all-of-the-above-ing).

Literally speaking, there can be a huge distance between the “reality” of right now and the “ideal” (by definition, they are opposites). With that in mind, you may be forced to make small, significant steps NOW towards whatever that ideal may be. But then again, knowing what the “ideal” looks like is always the kicker.

I’m not sure if this helped or muddied the question, but I have no doubt that you will succeed in whatever happens. Thanks for making and maintaining this space!

said Alaina

at 12:40pm on Friday

I’d say freelance or your own company. You are too much of a creative nexus to be tied to one single job.

said Larry

at 12:50pm on Friday

This is all very fascinating.

said Joshua

Relevant to this discussion. and community at large.

said Alaina

at 1:08pm on Friday

if you don’t mind sleepless nights but the gratification of waking up every morning knowing you work for yourself, then i say Go For It.

said jmac

at 1:24pm on Friday

We all know you’re productive. Freakishly so. I have this feeling that if you solely freelanced or if you started your own “thing,” you might implode.

When you’re up against a little adversity, you tend to exhibit a provocative angst that I haven’t seen (or read) here in a little while. Not since you left TM. I don’t know if that has more to do with working in a more accepting environment like virb (with the exception of the recent and very un-accepting bit), or if it’s owed more to the bliss of being a newly wed.

While I’m not suggesting you go back to TM or any other agency, I do think you shine a little brighter in an environment where not everybody “gets it.” So I guess I’m suggesting you look for something where not everybody “gets it,” but where the people who need to get it want to.

You’ll always be “making things - usually all at once.” Don’t go solo just to be able to do the things you’d like to do. You’ll do/make/build/design/fist-fight them anyway.

said Matt Donovan

at 1:44pm on Friday

I also think Paul provided some excellent insights.

said Matt Donovan

at 1:47pm on Friday

Austen, how is working under a company name any different than freelance? Just curious.

In my experience an agency/company in the design world is simply a face or a doing business as alias in order to land contract or freelance work. Of coarse businesses represent values, strategies, and goals as a collective group but that’s beside this particular point. If Joshua starts a company how is that any more secure than freelance when he will still depend on contract work and freelance as a company?

I think when most people here are saying to do contract/freelance work it is assumed he would brand himself using a company name or as a design consultant, but being a company or having a name, ID set, and a company bank account gives no more security than simply being a sole prop design consultant.

said shane

at 3:05pm on Friday

Freelance is a nasty word, and I avoid it. Over the years I’ve noticed that when I’m called a “freelancer”, it has been to imply that perhaps I lack experience, expertise or resources (ability) and a certain ravenous desire to take any work that comes on my plate; or that need another design studio/firm to supply work. Whereas I — as a company of one, independent designer, design hermit (whatever) — have clients that I gain myself, not sub-contracted (though I do that on occasion); and would never associate myself as a freelancer; so, I can see where one wouldn’t want to be a “freelancer”. Just my 2¢

said Paul

at 3:16pm on Friday

Big fish require big tanks.

In this I mean what I only could have meant, and quite selfishly so:

1. A nice apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
2. An environment diverse enough to appreciate and satisfy your ecclectic interests
3. A 212 area code (except I guess Brooklyn is 718)
4. An opportunity to do the work you want to do for people with lots of money
5. A cheaper flight home to oversee the start up of Blankenship & Son furniture

What can more can I say. I am a bit biased.

said Castillejos.M

at 3:27pm on Friday

Substitute teach.

Just kidding. I think you would be a good teacher. Most art classes are electronic art or 3d design now.

said James

at 3:39pm on Friday

Blankenship & Son furniture

Yet another project I hope to devote some time to soon. I think the margins for this might be a tad higher than web work.

said Joshua

Sears

said tconn

at 3:51pm on Friday

I think we should start a company of bearded web designers and developers and design and develop beard related and beard positive web sites, advertising and other design collateral.

said Jimbr

at 3:52pm on Friday

Great thoughts Paul!

I totally agree. I prefer design consultant over graphic designer or freelancer for the very reason you mentioned. I’ve read some great blog articles asking what should we call ourselves in order to avoid the bad connotations of our labels but I can’t remember the link(s).

Since this is an in house discussion with a design community readership I assumed we all agreed that contract/freelance is the bread and butter of those of us who are self employed even if we can be choosy about the projects we accept. Some may present themselves as a company when in reality it’s a one man show. I was just saying that’s no more secure than raw freelance (if that’s what we should call it) because both at the end of the day depend on landing work.

said shane

at 3:58pm on Friday

Sears

The 7 mile commute is too much for me.

(Well-played, ad man.)

said Joshua

I’m going to jump on the “be a freelancer but don’t call it freelancing” bandwagon. While I technically make my living as a “freelance musician” I prefer to call myself an “independent artist.” I think you could go with “Independent designer” or “Contract Designer” (although that sounds like you design contracts) or along the lines of McDzl’s suggestion, “Independent Dispenser of Awesome.”

said TLC

at 4:16pm on Friday

1. Sell your body on the brutal business boulevards of Boston*. Twenty to look, forty to touch.
2. Write a novel about the process involved in writing a novel complete with pop-up illustrations and scratch and sniff “hot spots” (ie - your sweat, coffee, fresh paper, typewriter-ribbon, twix, etc.).
3. Create and manufacture a new roll playing game based loosely on the Medieval Crusades, complete with Dragons, Gnomes, etc . The playing cards would be your own illustration and design. You would moniker yourself, “Gamemaster.”
4. Join The Navy
5. The Barbarian Group

*alliteration!

said M.A.T.

at 4:49pm on Friday

@shane: amen. you need to become involved in some conversations i’m having with “others’ about forming a collective; a concern; a group if you will …

said Paul

at 4:55pm on Friday

Don’t:

- Become a consultant (keep your soul please)
- Start a videoblog
- Start a videoblog where you recite your poetry
- Publish videos of your videoblog where you recite your poetry

Do:

- Publish PNFF as a book and let us buy it
- Go work for McSweeney’s book/magazine design/publishing (what/whoever is behind that, they are awesome)
- Ask your wife this question and value her opinion over all us pissant blog-commenters

said Cameron

at 5:44pm on Friday

My general advice: make fewer pixels, make more things people can have/hold/own/show off. And I think maybe the freelance/employed distinction is a bit immaterial. It’s about pushing change and “doing cool shit,” as Tom Peters says.

said Mark

at 6:26pm on Friday

has ninja been taken?

said ken

at 9:21pm on Friday

An off and on visitor here popping in to say, go for self. There are benefits to being employed somewhere (heathcare, job security etc) . But the way I look at it, you have some good momentum right now and if it’s not too much financial strain on you, you should strike while the metal is hot.

Partnering with someone (in or outside of Boston) is always a good idea too. Hook up with someone who can’t do what you can, a programmer, action-scripter, screen printer or the likes.

The best of luck man, this whole thing has been a blessing in disguise.

said Tsega Dinka

at 1:44pm on Saturday

fight crime

said dan simmons

at 12:52am on Tuesday

I’m a long time reader, but don’t post very often, but I think there’s a genuine opportunity here. Seeing your creative energy and output and being able to garner a bit about your personality through the blog, I think it makes sense for you to pursue residual income as a long-term goal.

Ultimately, I know I get the most satisfaction from self-initiated thingies. Being able to bank off of all the great ideas one has is something to take seriously. And let’s face it, it’s kind of a bummer that us designers have to be physically working to make money. Especially while sometimes the ideas we come up with help to put our clients in a situation where the opposite is true.

It may not be a short-term solution, but it’s something that I think I’m going to start taking very seriously myself and would suggest maybe considering in the back of your mind as well. Oh, and for reference I’m currently an independant contractor/freelance/professional layman/make-it-up-as-you-go-along-person.

Thanks for the inspiration Josha, and I hope/know everything is going to turn out aces.

said frank

at 5:21pm on Tuesday

“I’ll put it plainly - hire this kid. Before we do.”

Maybe it’s time to update the references - at least add “and fire him, before we do”

said John

at 1:05pm on Friday

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