#and said that they're also looking for freelancers... and to send over my portfolio + rates... and i did....

[lovvelorrn]

.

[robbobrain]

Big fat update

Last week we had the call with Fê and Ellen- it was super nice chatting about agencies in the North. They emphasised branding ourselves to stand out. One thing that did send me a little bit left though was Ellen gave her experience and said that trying to get into a big agency in the North was difficult because there were so many applicants coming up from London with flashy work that got the places. After this I did have a bit of a breakdown, London has never really seemed appealing to me and that comment did kind of scare me. I know everyone's experience is different but looking back I think having that chat after the day that Lisi and Cicely had come in and spoken about London was a bit information and conflicting experiences overload.

Fê also sent us a nice email with some website portfolio feedback. We've acted upon some of it- such as making our 'about us' page a bit more sueprmarket-y with the language we use, and we've made some market style offer stars to have on the pages (we've incorporated these on out PDF portfolio to switch things up a bit). She did mention maybe taking the Frank stuff off, but I think that it is representative of the issues we care about, and shows that we can address sensitive subjects in an appropriate way.

Half an hour after my little meltdown we had a chat with Lucy Dale- I found her on Young Creatives Council. She's a freelance copywriter based in Berlin. She was super nice and explained how things work over there in Berlin. From her experience placements aren't really a thing, and it was nice to know that a lot of the agencies (especially bigger ones) don't really mind if you aren't fluent in German which was good to hear. She also gave us some feedback on our website portfolio. Particularly the Frank work, it's given me some inspo on how I could rewrite it to tell more of a story. She also gave me a list of some Berlin based agencies she knows of.

The day after that we had a video chat with Emily Breech and Faye Gibbons. They're a creative duo who work at The&Partnership in Manchester. They made me feel better after the chat with Ellen and gave their experience going pretty much straight into a big agency in the North. They also gave some first hand feedback on our website portfolio, very positive from a first glance. We got given some pointers to show things in situ, as well as showing some of our workings out- but I think that showing scamps would be more appropriate in a pdf portfolio. They also said to get in touch with them in a month or so when we've made some tweaks, and we can arrange to try and come down to the office to have a propper book crit.

Finally, yesterday we went to Manchester to visit Dinosaur agency- one that we've had our eye on for a while as a place we really like. We met with Jess and Joe, two Junior Creatives there. We showed our pdf portfolio to them and had a chat about getting into the industry and what kind of different portfolios and stuff to have and how to lay them out. They were both super nice and they really liked the thinking behind our stuff, just a few pointers on how to lay things out in terms of putting things in situ and that.

[sushi4robots]

Finding an artist to work on the game

As I said in a previous post, I wanted to start experimenting with art styles. As long as the game had my ugly placeholder art, I wouldn't be able to properly set up testing sessions or really polish the small details.

So I openned twitter and wrote a simple message.

Why go to social media for this? If you're a studio you'll probably want to post it on job boards and more traditional places, my time is more limited and I knew twitter would get me tons of great portfolios. Plus finding people who don't usually work in games was a priority for me.

They aren't familiarized with the usual production pipelines (and you need to spend some time there explaining things) but they can easily come up with styles and ideas that feel refreshing.

I tried to write a short message that explained the style I was looking for, pace/schedule and that tried to encourage people to get in touch ("if unsure, just get in touch", "don't need previous experience in games", etc).

So people started sending me their portfolios and, if I thought they could be a good fit, I'd send them a document detailing what I needed and asked them for their daily rate. My goal was to find an art style (even if the sprites were still quite rough) and my budget for this was around 1.200€. I didn't tell people that though, as a freelancer I'm not very comfortable when a client tells me I have to do X in Y days and for Z €. I just asked, "Hey, what's your daily rate? and how much time would you need to do this?". I was ready to be flexible with my budget if I liked their work.

I got over 60 messages and, though it took me some time, I reviewed and answered each of them. That was actually a bit exhausting. And if I felt their work didn't click with me, I tried to let them know as soon as possible.

I managed to find one that I really loved. And then something kinda unexpected happened, let me provide some context. I share the office with two more people, one of them(Igor) is a very experienced concept artist with a dark/mature style (so pretty much the opposite of what I was looking for), but he manages a group of freelancers (Monsterspit) that take new gigs when he is busy.

We were discussing all this and he said that if my goal was to try different art styles, I shouldn't work with just one artist. Even if they're experienced and can switch styles, I should let everyone do their thing, what they're really good at.

But somebody had to coordinate the artists. He voluntereed to help me with the project but he also suggested picking three artists from his team (which would be easier to coordinate). And my answer was "show me three portfolios that match what I'm looking for and we'll see".

And after seeing their picks, I decided to go with them. Though these choices are never easy.

[themarshmallowzeitgeist]

04.21.2020

So here I am, chewed up, spat out by the Internet. Rolling in to Tumblr like a tumbleweed, anxious but propelled by my good intentions. Hunter says this website is like a graveyard and she is a ghost. I say, "I need something to do." I'm voluntarily quarantined, shamefully unemployed by my own hand and I have to look busy lest they say something about that. My long-procrastinated, failure to launch writing career is lying next to that expensive vintage typewriter that I bought at the antique store in a fit of hopefulness with a look on its face. The look says, "you promised me" and she's right. I promised her. The same way I promised Hunter in the sixth grade that I would write more than just fan fiction. The same way I promised Tonia that I was a real writer. Katie was the first editor to believe in me and I got 125 followers on Instagram to also believe in me. So what are we waiting for?

I'm aiming at the target that says "freelance writer?" punctuated by a question mark because that's the next step. Because I was supposed to be a social worker but I ended up a case manager and I guess sending people to die wasn't my life's calling. Giving up is an art form if you do it with enough of a bang. And like I do so many things, I went out in a fit of rage, pried the N95 mask off my face, never to walk the squeaky-shoe halls of the hospital ever again. I made peace with that. Over several shots of vodka but it's peace nonetheless. I'm not a healthcare hero, I'm not a living angel, I'm full of piss and vinegar and now vodka. We can press the restart button any day now, can't we?

The Lesser Miseries are unpublished. They're pieces of a lesser me, less evolved with greater fear but still good. Still worth the read. They are finished but not illustrated and if I'm going to do something I give a shit about, I'm going to do it right, to the Nth degree, so complete and so full that by the time it is published I will feel like I have given birth for the second time. That being said, I don't know what I'm going to put here yet. The Marshmallow Zeitgeist was a story I once wrote about a plus sized girl from the woods who aspired to be a writer with a big enough career to match the size of her thighs and then I realized I was writing about me. So okay. I guess here we are. The lady who wrote the guide on becoming a freelance writer said that I should have a blog to act as my portfolio, to entice people to want to work with me but. I'm getting that sinking feeling that maybe that's not the kind of writer I am. Like maybe I use too many cuss words or something like that to be featured on any self respecting website. Maybe I've already shot myself in the foot. It wouldn't be the first time.