my (so called) freelance life

changes in latitude… changes in attitude…

Carolina Beach, NC

In January 2008, my family decided we’d had enough of the gray Ohio winters, and we rented a house in Wilmington, NC . At the time we were trying to sell our house in Ohio, so we thought we’d give NC a try. I had never tried to get freelance work anywhere but in Columbus, so I was a little concerned about how it would go.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal Book of Lists

I was a total embarrassment to hubby - everywhere we went, I would strike up conversations with strangers, trying to find out what they did for a living, where they worked, who they knew. I handed out a bunch of business cards and met some very interesting people!

The first job I found was through Craigslist for the publishers of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal and Wilma! Magazine (you gotta love the name!) It was a great introduction to the city, the culture and the people. This is a job I did for them which showcased some of the beautiful sights in the area. more »

math for art majors

Cheryl and Co. package design (click for full image)

OK - who thought up this HTML stuff anyway? You can bet it wasn’t the art folks! It had to be some geeky brainy guy who said “Look! We can make stuff pretty by just typing in some letters and symbols - such as: > } div # { /> href: ” } COOL!” (Or - in my own words -  *&#$!(@!#&). Or maybe it was a bar bet. That was fine, until all of sudden, us right brain designers were expected not only to understand it, but  to create websites with it.

Ad for ECS Billing and Consulting (click for full image)

Maybe I speak for myself, but when I look at this stuff, it is TOTALLY greek to me. My brain has a terrible time visualizing how a series of numbers, symbols and letters could ever create something pretty. Granted - my math background is limited. Since I knew I would be an art major in college, I didn’t take all that calculus, trigonometry, etc. that my peers took in high school. I had a hard enough time with ninth grade algebra! I don’t think in numbers, I think in pictures. It gives my spouse (the financial guy) quite a laugh when I can’t remember if the population of a city is 4 million, or 400 million. It is just the difference of a couple zeros, right? So he coined the term “Math for Art Majors”.
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here we go . . .

welcome to my blog. I have been a designer for the last 20+ years, and have gone from markers to a mouse; rubber cement to RAM; and spray mount to software. During this time I have worked out of the basement, the dining room, the spare bedroom, and finally, my own office, and successfully raised a child to adulthood.  I guess it makes me something of an expert on freelancing (and juggling!)

My father always says “This too will change.” Back in 1989, I still had a set of markers, a drawing table and a T-square. After teaching myself how to execute my designs on a computer, instead of on paper, I thought I had made the biggest jump in my career. more »