Studio in a few steps.

- badges and strokes make a different shape, not oval, too angered me. Yes
and generally oval shapes annoy me.
- make the “buy” button in red, otherwise it seems to me that green will not sell very well
- it feels like you are doing sites for the first time. And where is the link "more" under the news?

You probably yourself got something similar from your customers . Yeah ... we know what they are pranksters. Is there a way to get away from this, to avoid one customer clear edits, do what you want and earn money ? Surely there, but as in everything there are their own pitfalls.

I propose to consider three ways:

1. Freelance - I sit at home, I want to work, I want to draw ...
2. Work on other studios . Those. design help kind. - A specific permanent job according to your specialization (unless of course you are doing purely drawing icons in which no more than four pixels).
3. Stocks - imaginary freedom.
')
Yeah, well, everything seems to be clear, we will again talk about niche and other gadgets of salespeople. If we are, then only indirectly. Today I will talk about the pitfalls that our studio faced:

1. Freelance.

Once we started like everyone else. We opened a studio to make websites for customers, to draw beautiful pictures, naively believing that this is all very necessary, and no business can survive without a website in our “modern world”. And they were very quickly broken off by reality. It turned out that, among other things, sites are not food and not even a roof over your head - not everyone needs them. The plan was broken off, the interfaces and pictures did not fly away like hot cakes. And what to do?

You can run around the companies and offer their services, negotiate, discuss, invent, justify. When in the pocket of money only on cigarettes, I want to find a way that will bring money not once and not even next week. I wanted to eat right then, no one wanted to live from order to order, when you have people’s wages and rent and heaps of other things that regularly beat out money. Yes, think for it, not everyone starts with big capital or “start-up money thrown up by dad.” It was necessary to do something that no one knew exactly, so I just had to try.

I would advise everyone - you take and do. Smearing and snot planning will not work if there is no experience in this area.

Way out.

Everyone knows that not all designers are businessmen , so we had to stuff the bumps on our own head.

From previous experience, we made the following conclusions:
- Finding normal customers in a small town is difficult, so you need to look for another platform;
- Seeing the customer in the eye is not a hunt, much less communicating with him directly (meaning the immediate customer);
- Realized as a studio and as a designer with a half-starved existence will not work.

In search of happiness, we started freelancing, filled our portfolio with 70% of left-handedness ( uncrossed and ancient sketches). The first orders came quickly and immediately brought the money. You can take on the work that you want to do and not see the customer in the eye, throwing applications into all the ads with the work, and even burn out - isn't it happiness? It would seem that everything is very simple, but after working on freelancing for about a year, we have matured the following conclusions:

Minuses:

- there is not very much interesting work, most often some kind of budget corporate parties;
- make constant attempts of the scam;
- to meet a normal TK is very difficult;
- everyone needs everything yesterday;
- dumping of some students;
- sometimes a lull in the work and some uncertainty.

Pros:

- you want to work, you want - no;
- you can learn to control your own time;
- acquisition of remote work skills;
- you can find good regular customers;
- there is an opportunity to choose work and customers.

The resulting cons were enough for us to proceed to the next stage. After analyzing the experience with freelancing, we realized that I want a more serious and permanent work, orders of a different level, and not regular odnostranichnikov with one link and "fashionable caramel in the center", to exclude communication with the client, in principle, more money. Is it really possible to put it all together in one place? Can.

2. Work on other studios.

Yes, yes, my dear readers. Nothing super-mega-complicated. You just need to find an established studio or a group of developers who for one reason or another cannot find an adequate designer, do not want to take it full-time and pay a regular salary, see all their designs in the same style or they cannot cope with the surging flow. There can be a lot of reasons.

What is your use?

- if they have been on the market for a long time, then they may have access to serious offices, they always have work, they have someone to communicate with customers, solve organizational issues, deal with specifications and other chores. You also regularly receive well-made tasks, and on the other side of the wire sits an adequate person who is with you.

What is a plus?

- a lot of time is released;
- there are no incomprehensible negotiations;
- do not have to deal not with their work;
- in the portfolio there are big projects for good customers;
- stability and completely different money;
- The atmosphere of work is much better, and this is not an unimportant factor.

There are many advantages, but there are also disadvantages.

- it is not always possible to bypass the edits, even experienced managers from the “other side” do not always cope with the intrusive projects of the client;
- you must always be in touch, you are counted on as an integral part, you scored a job in freelance and you rest for a month, then a new job will appear;
- everything is serious, I was lost once, people can be on their guard, well, well, anything can happen, the second one - pshel out.

In general, the situation at this stage is good, there are one-time customers with freelancing, some order with some frequency, there are several studios that we help. Plenty of work. But not all the same life to engage in direct work for someone. Where is this freedom?

3. Drains.

Now this is one of the very popular areas of work of designers.
The concept of communication with the customer is excluded in principle, except at a subconscious level. Do what you want when you want and in any quantity. It all depends on you, and not on some crazy uncle. Why not try?

Yes, now we all go to the drains!

Few people know that runoff is hellish work. It would seem, drew and sit, see how the money dripping, but no. This is a myth, money does not drip, no one cuts rabid attendants who are just painting on. To earn money normally, it is necessary to draw, draw and draw (I speak on behalf of the designer, I don’t know about photographers). I'm not talking about earnings of $ 300-500 (this amount is not very hard stuffed), which would be enough for an ordinary designer to eat and sleep, I mean good money - that is, Those you are talking about - If I earned a month ... it would hurt.

In order to remove cash from stocks, you need to work a lot and quickly, catch trends, you must be prepared for seasonal events, holidays, do a lot of quality and work, it’s best to have a hundred other works in your portfolio (and this is a lot if done well and with head) to get some money.

The advantages include:

- enrichment, independent of you, you sit on an ass, and it is on sale there;
- you do what you think is necessary, no one is above you and does not poke at the monitor;
- you can find large customers (well, icon builders and illustrators do well);
- the constant increase in the portfolio will constantly bring more money, there is no concept of a one-time order.

By cons:

- it is necessary to devote a lot of time to the drains, in order to feel your wallet visually increased or not;
- a stop at work will immediately affect sales;
- you don't always do something mega-exclusive or what you like, i.e. creative realization is not in the first place. We must be able to do what is for sale.

What we have?

It would seem - a vicious circle. Why all this movement, which at first glance brings both advantages and disadvantages. Like a studio, you can spin up and cut loot, recruit managers, managers, accountants, PR, and you can stop freelancing - you are free, you do what you like, you can work through someone (studio) - cool orders , competent TK or kolbasit.

I hold the opinion that there is always something to go. Try new. There are no directions in which there are some advantages, but a set of directions can simply absorb most of the minuses. The biggest disadvantage is a stop on the spot.

But you should also understand that it’s not always right to rush headlong into new ideas; we tried to take our steps methodically and consciously, but sometimes we had to do them because of hopelessness or at random.

Total

Freelance + Work with studios + Stocks = not a bad set to move on to the next stage, which many designers dream of, but do not know how to reach the goal. The next post from the Studio in a few steps series will be devoted to its own products.

This post is an experience in letters. It is not recommended to use all our steps and stuff the same bruises on the ass. If there is another experience, share.

PS to be continued if we are allowed by a UFO.