So during my LSB session this morning I listened to today’s daily boost. And what a coincidence, Scott talked about something I’ve known about but have been trying to do for a long time. He said that if you just take an hour a day to do something you will eventually become an absolute expert at it in no time. Just take an hour of TV time away and you have time to do something more productive… something that could maybe help you make even more money.

I’ve been struggling with this for a long time, but think I’m getting a better handle on it now. I’m a motion graphic designer and have been struggling with doing my own creative work at home. It’s very easy to do work at the office… projects come in every day and it’s my job to animate them and get them ready for the web and what not. Well, lately I’ve gotten tired of working on other designers great ideas and have wanted to get my own work out there. I’d just love to go from first tier designer to Art Director. It’s just hard because I don’t get paid to do my own work, so it seems like there’s no incentive.

But lately I’ve had a major creative surge and am coming up with all kinds of awesome ideas. Before I didn’t know where to put those ideas… most designers sketch them out but I’m more comfortable working in a digital space. Lately I’ve rediscovered photoshop and am getting great at doing my own quick visual designs and effects again. It’s awesome. I think of a scene or layout, break open the app and just go to town until I at least get a dummy version of it done. I work quickly these days too, so I have something up right away. If I don’t like the photos or graphics I’ve used, I just use a dummy image and go back to edit it later. It feels so great to get back to doing my own designs again. Since my real passion is for moving images I take my designs and animate them later. Ah feels great to be back in the game. My goal is to put an hour a day towards this until I’ve done at least one full scene a week. This is definitely something that will get me closer to my goal of becoming an Art Director someday. 

No incentive??? What are you talking about, there is tones of incentive, to get better and get where you want to be you must pay with blood, sweat,tears and most importantly time. I think your on the right track, believe in what you do and you will get what you want, best of luck to you!

Congrats, CycleChic!  It sounds like you’re well on your way!

Cheers,
Julie

yeah I even did some yesterday after i made the post. Did some animation and got a little bit working. I figure I’ll work on the same file for rest of week and then move onto another scene the next week. whoosh I need to get my portfolio site up and running. It’s so hard to get your own work done! 

Anyway, happy enough because added some new animation work to my online portfolios yesterday. Also updated the ‘ole resume, which is less important, but still necessary. Looking around for my next paid assignment but confident I’ll find one fairly soon. In meantime, going to focus on doing my own design/animation work every day to keep myself fired up. Challenging but worth it. Helps to have partners in crime so I might look for some other artists to collaborate with. 

That’s really wonderful, cycleChic! Keep the energy up and hopefully soon we’ll be watching your masterpiece on tv!

Bree

This is great - how’s the effort going these days?  I’d love to see your portfolio site.

I’m somewhat in the same boat.  I’ve been a visual designer on the web for 10 years and with inspiration and support from colleagues, I’m delving deeper into the the discipline of User Experience.  Learning more about user research, concept iteration, testing, etc.  One thing that’s been a big motivator for me in continuing the learning has been getting out into the UX community (obviously, a HUGE one here in the bay area) and meeting experts in the field, asking questions, learning from the best in the biz and making connections with them.  It’s really fun learning something new, and San Francisco can be a very supportive environment to do it.

Who are you working for now?  And good luck on your pursuit.  I think you’ll find, if you haven’t already, that it just takes some time and getting your name and work out there and the wheels will start turning in your favor.

Austin