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Anime conventions are great places to people-watch. You see so many interesting, funny or just downright weird things. A few weeks ago I went to Ohayocon up in Columbus, OH with Ricky Henry. He dressed up as Speed Racer. I dressed up as me. We met some furries. The dealer room smelled funny.
I’m working on setting up my own small design firm. The desire has been bouncing around in my head for quite a while and strengthened by my dissatisfaction with my current print job as well as wanting to strengthen my portfolio. It only needed that last small push, courtesy of my friend pointing out the tax write-off benefits of having a home office.
Starting out part-time, I’m targeting small businesses and self employed people who want an online presence. I have aspirations of being more than a freelance designer, working towards being more full-time as my client base grows and eventually becoming a full-fledged firm with an office and employees and all that neato business stuff. At the same time, I realize that the market for small-time design is saturated, which is why I’m testing the waters with part-time work until I can build a solid client base.
First I talked to a lawyer (always start with the lawyer), to see what kind of paperwork was involved. He directed me to speak with an accountant to determine company type before going ahead with the forms and also warned me about 2 other design firm startups that he’d assisted with which had both failed within a year, confirming my cautions about diving in full-time. After speaking with the accountant and doing a healthy bit of research I settled with a single person LLC, to better protect my personal assets. Then it was back to the lawyer for the official writeup, and now I’m waiting on the government for my federal tax ID #.
I was doing a disservice to myself, so I bit the bullet and removed the portfolio section yet again. What I had put up sucked anyway; it was a really half-assed attempt to just “get something out there” because I thought I needed a portfolio and I needed it RIGHT NOW. Of course, I DO need a portfolio, but it should be done well and showcase my talents. The shotgun approach does not work.
I looked back through my body of work and realized that I don’t have any worthwhile pieces; it’s all old, boring, half-finished crap that I did in high-school or college; nothing from my professional experience to be proud of. How can I fill my portfolio with crap I don’t even like? Should I present that to an employer if I don’t have confidence in it?
I’d like to say that it was a hard decision, but that would be a lie. My heart wasn’t in it when I started, so of course the result was flawed. Even so, I still do have some emotional fondness for my work, so it can be difficult to self-moderate. You’ll notice that I redid the site some, and removed the oversized header for something a little more streamline. I thought my “BD” logo was a little more clever than it really is so that was a little harder to remove. I did feel particularly proud of that.
