#we are carefully excluding some details as to what muse was doing with her free time beyond Having Kids for spoiler reasons

[mantisgodsaus]

there isn't really a specific question on the ask games that fits but we want to hear you talk about what muse is/was like in selkieverse. she fascinates us based on the roughly two things you've said about her

Yes we can do this absolutely! Fair warning - There Are Things Here We Are Not Stating, mainly for spoiler reasons. Hopefully, they are excluded cleanly enough that this still flows well, but this is a long-ass thing so

Muse, though she wasn't a selkie herself, was close enough to Leif that he felt entirely safe leaving her with care of his pelt. She knew that he was a selkie pretty much from the moment that she met him - there wasn't quite as much baggage built up around the risks of having your pelt just Out And About, at the time, though a lot of selkies were a bit skittish about it, and Leif didn't really hide things.

A marriage, at least for moths, is more a contract of trust than anything else - an expression of trust, a unification of families, and so on and so forth. Somewhat more of one for selkies, with the big blaring weak spot they've got - it's a lot like showing your back to someone and just... hoping that they don't fuck you over. You welcome this particular bug into your family and you trust that they'll watch your back and help raise your children and look after your family when you're gone.

She was the usual person to keep ahold of Leif's pelt during expeditions, so as to keep it safe even when his bug body was in danger from being hurt or killed. She was trusted to keep it safe, or to use it for its transformation if the need ever presented itself - it was more shared between them than anything else during the later stages of their life together, and that meant that she was very, very familiar with how it felt.

Leif died in Snakemouth after having given her his pelt for safekeeping. Just to make sure he had an anchor. Just to make sure he didn't go too deep. Just to make sure that, if something happened, she would know he was okay from the heartbeat of his pelt - or, that if it went cold, she would know to stop, and get out while she still could.

She felt his death in the pelt wrapped around her shoulders. The aftereffects of the venom coursing through his veins, reflected in his pelt, giving the warning she needed to order a repeat. She felt his death throes reflected in the very literal piece of himself still trusted with her all the way out, and all the way home.

She sat at home after submitting the report that declared his death, a dead pelt still settled around her shoulders, standing over the shells of their eggs, knowing that the larvae were in the Ant Nursery where she couldn't know if they were all right or if her whole family had been killed where she couldn't even see, and she felt the shudder of a body restarting as the cordyceps settled into his husk.

Muse knew, for absolute certain, that he died. She felt his death throes. She felt his heart stop on her back. She also knew, for an absolute fact, that he was alive after that, even if she didn't know how or in what form. She knew this, and she could feel the dull pulse of his cordyceps self starting to take over his body in his skin, and she could feel the sealskin starting to change under her fingertips, and she was deadly, deadly afraid of looking away- of taking it off, or simply ceasing to pay attention for slightly too long, and returning to find it dead and vacant again. To that end, she just... didn't take it off.

She didn't take it off, in fact, for several years. Past the point where people thought she was in shock and morning and long into the point that people thought that her husband's death had broken something irreparable in her. She continued to wear it long after her children had emerged from the ant nursery, and long after they had begun to grow into fully-fledged selkies of their own, and long after they had the context to know about It All.

She got into arguments about it. As far as anyone else knew, she was dragging her dead husband's equally dead pelt around 24/7, and once her kids were old enough to understand that whole situation, there was a certain awareness of "hey, this is maybe a bit fucking bizarre to do, don't really like that". It was, in particular, a recurring argument with the son that would eventually become known as Grandpa, as he was of the firm opinion that it was Fucking Weird to walk around with a loved one's dead pelt twenty years after said loved one's death, and that she shouldn't Do That.

Unfortunately for him, this was not an argument he was going to win. Muse, being as stubborn as a bull and with no particular regard to what the neighbours thought, had been doubling down on this particular argument for twenty-eight years already. She had chosen to see this through, and no one could really convince her otherwise, though many of her children would try.

As such, she would remain "that weird lady carrying around her dead husband's pelt and skulking around doing who-knows-what since there's no damn way her husband's life insurance and her dispatch salary from the explorer's association would account for the care and feeding of eight kids plus herself without at least a few jobs in-between and no one knows what the hell she does for a living". The argument, however, would continue.

It would continue, in fact, until after Grandpa had had kids of her own, when Muze was fairly young. The old argument got brought up again, Muse refused to entertain the idea of maybe not being seen as The Local Weirdo, she went off to her room with the usual pelt. She sat, alone, in her room, thinking about the whole Situation. She put on the pelt.

This time, specifically, she chose to put it on in such a way to attempt to shift into Leif's selkie form. It had been years with barely any chance in it, after all. Though she had initially feared disrupting whatever delicate balance was keeping him alive, it had been stable for long enough that she was pretty sure that wearing it wouldn't disrupt something, and she... wanted the assurance, really, that she wasn't going mad. That her choices were based on truth - and that he was still out there, somewhere, even if dead-and-resurructed.

It... worked. With some caveats.

At this point, Leif was entirely merged with the cordyceps components, entirely hosted on crystal hardware, and the mirror that his pelt offered to his body was one where the bone marrow, connective tissue, and structure had entirely been eaten away by now, and the vast majority of the flesh was now composed of cordyceps tendrils that were a whole lot more obvious when they were puppeting around a skin suit with an internal skeleton, and not a relatively rigid exoskeleton.

No one could really deny that her old paramour was alive enough to animate a pelt. Unfortunately, no one could deny that whatever the fuck had happened to him, it had warped his selkie form beyond anything that anyone had really expected to be possible, and absolutely no one wanted to learn what the fuck his body looked like back in Snakemouth, or what form he was alive in, and no one really wanted to touch the pelt that had offered a form like that.

In particular, no one really wanted to see that particular pelt anywhere that someone might try to put it on after that whole fiasco, and no one was particularly fond of the idea of continuing to let Grandma Muse walk around with the living pelt of whatever her partner had become.

After a great deal of arguing, she accepted the compromise of hanging it over the mantelpiece, where she could keep an eye on it even without physically wearing it. She would then proceed to relocate herself to the living room for most of the rest of her days, if only to make absolutely certain that that faint, dull hum beneath the skin was still active- that he was still alive out there, somewhere, in whatever form.

Against all odds, she would live to see his awakening. Unfortunately, she would not live to see him actually return to his family - just to see the tell-tale shudder of a pelt growing active again, as miles below, Leif stirred from his slumber.

Her family are currently engaged in Trying Very Hard Not To Think About The Whole Situation. They are fairly certain that whatever the pelt belongs to, it's still in Snakemouth Den. They are fairly certain that Leif's relation to the family is through it, though theories are more "he's the kid of whatever-it-is and a different moth" than assuming that he Is In Fact Todd's Great-Grandfather.

No one really wants to take the pelt down from the mantelpiece at the moment, and absolutely no one wants to explain the whole Situation to Leif unless they have a better idea of what he's inherited from his other parent, but there's also enough shit going on with them in general that it might just never get brought up until someone directly mentions it.

Leif is currently under the impression that Muse remarried to a selkie because the whole "being a selkie" thing wasn't terribly relevant to the way that his current cordyceps took up residence and after that whole Situation he was not especially eager to delve into previously repressed memories.

Predictably, this whole setup goes Terribly when poked at, especially as Leif's pelt is a whole lot more autonomous than your average selkie pelt, being more than a century old by now and belonging to a fungus who is very much set up in a way where his disconnected individual body parts can act autonomously on remnants of whatever priorities are/were in the main control system.

It is still hung over the mantelpiece.

[soulsickened]

Well, we’ve got relationship calls for the other two muses, and now it’s Ellen’s turn to have one! Naturally, I’m going to go ahead and advise you to avoid this relationship call if the possibility of your muse getting killed is something you don’t want to explore just yet! Ellen isn’t so trusting with people as she likes to pretend she is, and the littlest of things could make her snap without warning. Nonetheless, if this doesn’t concern you, then please feel free to go ahead and leave a like! Just like on Stella’s, I’m going to quickly mention that I’ll be heading away in the caravan for a couple of nights, so you’ll most likely find yourself receiving an IM from Flora’s account ( applesmiled for those unaware ), but I’m more than happy to discuss these on Discord or Twitter too; just ask for them when I IM you! And with that out of the way, let’s get into the potential possibilities for relationships with Ellen!

“Friends”; This category is the one most people tend to find themselves falling into naturally, but don’t get too comfortable here. It is this category that has Ellen lying to people the most, trying to keep up a specific facade around these people. These are people she has yet to try and figure out, as well as simply keeping an eye on them to make sure they’re not trying anything. It’s also this group of people that she tends to act more childish around to help with her facade, but won’t go into too much detail about her background. Only little facts that make her seem pitiful. This section is the most likely to have a murder occur due to a misunderstanding, so it’d be advised to avoid this section if you don’t want that kind of scenario happening! You can only go up or down from this category though, so let’s explore the others!

Friends; Not to be confused with the category above, this is the group of people that have managed to either see through Ellen’s facade or get her comfortable enough to start going into more details about her background. While she may not trust these people more, she is more likely to spend time with them. It’s also in this category that you begin to see the more questionable thinking and morals this girl has, as well as the true extent of her illness that she doesn’t normally show to not be perceived as weak. This is where any murders Ellen may attempt on your muse begins getting a little personal and maybe the result of unexplained anger... Ellen may claim to not enjoy her time with these individuals, but there is a reason she keeps coming back, you know...

Close Friends; How you ended up here is a mystery, but you must be someone that doesn’t care too much about the obvious problems she has! Or maybe you’re trying to help her with them in a mature way... either way, she trusts you a little more than the others! Still not enough to not murder you if you happen to anger or upset her, but it’s least likely to happen here! These people are some of the few that Ellen will tolerate a little more, but will make her anger known if they happen to cross a line. Alongside this, Ellen is a lot more comfortable with using her magic around these people and even explaining how she got it if they’re so curious. She’ll even let them take glances at her current diary in Spirale, which might not have much in terms of information regarding herself, but at least it’s a sentiment that lets you know she trusts you. Better not try and break that trust...

Family; Oh boy. Ellen is only familiarised with mother and father figures, so siblings are going to be excluded from this! She’d only find herself getting jealous of them and killing them anyway... but if you’re looking to try and be some form of parental figure for Ellen, you need to tread a lot more carefully than the other sections. This is a stage of trust that is very fragile to Ellen, and one wrong word or action can completely break it. The minute she thinks you’re going to leave her or do something similar will be when she strikes, and it will take twice as long to get back to this point if that happens. Regardless, this is one of the only sections where Ellen will be completely honest with you; her strong facade she always puts on fading away to show the scared child that still hadn’t grown even after hundreds of years. Any concerns she has, she’ll come straight to you instead of murdering someone. Unless you happen to tell her to murder someone. Then she will. It’s also these people that she’ll gravitate towards for physical contact, and can actually get quite clingy with if they let her. She holds these people to a higher standard than the rest and won’t let them get away with as much. If something upsets her, you’ll know about it. Hopefully before you find yourself with a newly lodged knife somewhere on your body... she likes to make loved ones’ deaths the most painful.

Enemies; Shockingly enough, this is probably one of the more safest sections to be in. Ellen doesn’t consider these people a threat to her, just people that she doesn’t get along with for whatever reason. Your morals could be different to hers, you could be very strong-spoken about right or wrong or just even had an unpleasant conversation with her. Regardless, this is one of the other sections where she won’t even try and put up a facade around you, being completely honest with her opinions. However, this doesn’t mean she’ll go ahead and kill you. If she enjoys the conversations and fights you have, then she’ll keep you around just to spite you and bring herself enjoyment. But the moment it starts getting a little boring... well, consider yourself at risk of dying. It’d honestly be best if you kill her first, because it would make most of her boredom in you go away. But how long would it be before even death gets boring for her...

Manipulated / Manipulator; The manga very much shows us that the black cat was a big part in why Ellen ended up the way she is now, even going as far as to manipulate what she could do by making her believe it was the only thing she could do to get herself a cure for her illness, something she desperately wanted. Ellen definitely recognizes these techniques, and will not hesitate it to use them against someone who is or is similar to how she used to be upon entering the witch’s house. But this doesn’t mean that Ellen recognizes all forms of manipulation. If your muse knows how to do it well, then I’m also open to the idea of Ellen getting manipulated yet again for either good or bad purposes! But god help you if she figures out that you’ve manipulated her the whole time, because it’s this section that’ll have one of the more painful deaths she could cause someone... you know. Out of hatred.

Other; If there are any other ideas that weren’t mentioned or if you have a more complex one in mind, then we can discuss that too! I’m open to most ideas for Ellen aside from those of romantic nature as she isn’t about that. This section may require a little more conversation than the other ones in order for us to figure out exactly what relationship would best suit our muses!

[asrarmukadamworld-blog]

How to Start a Successful Freelance Graphic Design Career

Freelance is a natural fit for graphic designers. In fact, 20 percent of people in the design industry are self-employed. But why has freelance graphic design gotten so popular? How does such a huge group of people do it successfully? And what can you do to stand out in a saturated industry? In this article, we’ll discuss everything from the pros and cons of freelancing, to building a portfolio that gets you noticed, to landing clients and dealing with them.

1. Why freelance graphic design?

A freelance career is something almost every graphic designer has considered. From students about to enter the workforce to seasoned designers ready to work for themselves, it’s an industry that has thrived on self-employment. But just because it’s a popular move doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Why should you freelance?

 There are many personal questions to answer when deciding whether a freelance graphic design career is the right path for you. Do you have the right temperament? A good amount of willpower and internal drive? Do you thrive on an office environment, or do you prefer a different pace? Are you a self-starter or do you need someone breathing down your neck to get work done? Unfortunately, there’s no aptitude quiz that can determine whether you’ll be successful as a freelancer, but your work habits, professional goals, and overall personality are all criteria to the consider when you make the decision.

As you make your decision, keep in mind the pros and cons of a freelance career.

You’ll have more freedom and flexibility, but also more responsibility. With the ability to set your own schedule you’ll be free to listen to your muse, which doesn’t always speak up during normal work hours. But this freedom can also be a burden, as you are the only person who can take responsibility for your work and your business as a whole.

You get to choose who you work for, but that also means managing who you work for. Instead of having clients built into your work, you’ll have the chance to select and screen them (depending on how desperate you are for work). Once you choose them, however, you also have to manage them. This means running point on all communications, keeping them happy, and eventually chasing down payment, which isn’t always a walk in the park.

You’ll learn new skills, but it’s pretty much required that you do. Freelancing is a bootstrapping endeavor.  While you have the opportunity to pick up new design skills, you’ll also have to invest time to develop less glamorous skills like bookkeeping and time management.

Your lifestyle could improve, or it could be consumed. The flexibility of freelance means you have more time for the things you truly want to do. But if you don’t work towards an appropriate work-life balance, it can easily consume your life – sometimes more than a full-time job.

With all these pros and cons to weigh, why does it seem like so many people in the design industry still lean towards freelance? Flexibility might be the biggest draw. People want to work how they want, where they want, and when they want. This comes with challenges, but with commitment and diligence a fruitful freelance graphic design career is possible. We talked to two graphic designers who found success in our article examining why so many designers choose to go freelance.

2. Starting your freelance graphic design career

If you’ve determined that a freelance career in graphic design is for you, it’s time to think about how to establish your business.

 But there’s also the more creative side of the business. Where will you work? How will you work? What type of work will you do?

One of the hardest things to conquer as a freelancer is time management. Without a boss sitting in close proximity or co workers bustling around you, it can be hard to find the motivation to work. Face this challenge by setting up specific working hours that define your day. You should also set up a physical environment that’s conducive to work. Some freelancers work from cafes, others chip in extra to work from a co-working space, but many just work at home.

The key to working from home is creating separation between your office and living quarters. In our article on the pros and cons of freelancing, designer Grace Fussel describes her work-life balance ritual:

“Every evening at 6, I lock my office door and put the key in a separate room of the house. Even if I receive seemingly urgent emails after that time, it’s a handy technique to achieve absolute separation between my work time and my leisure time. In the morning when I take the key out and unlock the door, it makes me feel like the work day has officially started.”

This isn’t always possible, but you should try as hard as you can to distinguish your work life and personal life to keep you focused and sane.

 When you’re just starting out another question to ask is whether you intend to specialize. While it always pays to be well-versed in many areas of your industry, there’s benefit to having expertise in one or a few areas.

We looked at possible graphic design specialties and the upsides and downsides to opting for a specialty in this article. Some of the pros include more professional respect, a more specific career trajectory, and the huge asset of expert knowledge. On the flip side, the cons include a potentially smaller client base, a career trajectory that’s too rigid, and the pressure of having to always be the best.

Like becoming a freelancer in the first place, developing a specialty is another big decision to make. Think carefully about the pros and cons and how your personal and professional goals might be affected by the choice.

3. Building your portfolio

A portfolio is every graphic designer’s greatest opportunity and most crucial asset. It is a representation of your experience, your aesthetic, your skills, and often your personality.

 Building a website and online portfolio can be quite meta if you’re a graphic designer. The entire look and feel of the website will speak to your talent as a designer. Even the parts that don’t speak specifically to your work, like an ‘about me’ section, need to be impeccably designed. It should also showcase your aesthetic, acting as a litmus test for potential clients. This is one of the biggest tips we share in our article on crafting a distinctive design portfolio.

Most designers have a personal website that houses the basics: their portfolio, contact info, and ‘about me’ section. But a great way to boost your portfolio is to include a case study. This is a deep-dive into the work you’ve done for a client, showing how you took them from problem to solution with your expertise. If you’re just starting out and don’t have the experience to base a case study on, you can create a prospective case study based on a real brand or something hypothetical.

As you write your case studies, keep these tips in mind:

·         Focus on a past client that represents your ideal future client.

·         Detail the client’s perspective so new ones can easily relate.

·         Don’t be dry – tell a story about the client’s needs and your design process.

·         Show the success of your work through cold hard facts and numbers.

 A social media presence is another must, and one that can be used to supplement your online portfolio. Several platforms offer the equivalent of a portfolio with added social features, like Behance or Dribble. These popular websites can be instrumental to getting feedback on your work, networking with other designers, and ultimately connecting with clients.

The general social media sites Twitter or Instagram can also work in the graphic designer’s favor. You can join groups, use hashtags, weigh in on conversations, and keep people updated on your work.

With all of these functions on social media, some might be asking whether a social media presence can replace an online portfolio. We dissect this issue closely in our article on social media vs. traditional profiles, and the conclusion is clear: Social media should be used to bolster your online portfolio, but don’t rely on it to replace the foundational and professional tone of a portfolio.

4. Building your network

In addition to a stellar portfolio, a freelance career is dependent on connections. Clients won’t just fall into your lap – you’re more likely to find a paying job when you have relationships to tap. These relationships might be with other designers who can ultimately recommend you, or with clients who have been following your work. Either way, there are several methods for building your network.

Marketing isn’t just for brands and big companies! As a freelancer you are your brand, and you have to get it in front of the right people. This doesn’t mean you need to have a huge budget to buy display ads or send direct mail. Our article on marketing yourself as a freelancer spells out 10 realistic and low cost ways to market yourself successfully.

The best advice? Make your website much more than a portfolio – make it a place where you develop an ethos around your brand. This will lend credibility to your name and expand the reach of your website. To do this, brands usually share content that engages, informs, and excites, and you can do the same. Try out some of the typical mediums used to do this like a blog, video tutorials, email newsletters, or social media.

Speaking of social media, this is one of the best ways to meet and communicate with other designers or clients. Make sure you maintain a presence on traditional social media sites that have broad audiences, but don’t exclude the graphic design communities where you can get feedback on your work and impress prospective clients with a body of work.

Want to get out and meet people in person? Professional networks are a fantastic way to branch out in your industry. These organizations typically offer many services that will help you grow as a freelancer, including:

·         Networking opportunities

·         Legal advice

·         Templates and forms

·         Client connections

·         Workshops, talks, and conferences

5. Getting clients

Finding them

Discovering clients to work with doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark. In fact, there are many sites built specifically to help you with this task. We break down the list of sites in this article.

Some of these sites are better than others, and some may serve you better at varying points in your career. Fiverr’s micro-style commissions are a great option if you’re looking to fill in the gaps on an already busy schedule – or if you’re totally desperate for work. On the other hand, Toptal is a place for the uber talented folk who are ready to service top-tier clients and receive a fair compensation.

Beyond these dedicated websites, there are also basic methods of discovery. Cold-calls might work if you’re looking to service smaller businesses. Keeping your social media maintained and reaching out to clients through these platforms might put you top of mind for a brand’s next project. And staying in touch with peers in the industry is always a good idea, as they can pass along offers or leads that they’re not ready to pick up.

Pitching them

Often, you’ll have to convince clients to work with you because there is so much competition in the freelance graphic design space. When you want to work with someone, it’s up to you to make the sale. If you’re making your case on the phone, in an email, or in person, there are a few tips to keep in mind:

·         Hook them with something memorable

·         Identify their issue and propose your solution

·         Make it easy to get in touch

Sometimes you might find yourself on the spot, sitting in a room with someone you’ve wanted to work for, or asked by a potential client what you could do for them. In this case, you’ll need a go-to elevator pitch. You can rehearse certain elements of the pitch, which should last no longer than the average elevator ride. Other elements might be harder to prepare for – like information surrounding the specific client, but you can practice your hook, your flow, and your public speaking skills at home in the mirror.

Agreeing with them

Once you’ve found, pitched, and landed a client, you’ll begin the process of agreeing with them. This can be a breeze or a somewhat belabored process.

To protect themselves and their work, many freelance designers will develop a contract for their clients. This can be as long or as detailed as you want, though keep in mind that most clients don’t want to trudge through pages of legalese. The typical contract, agreement, or brief as some may call it, contains key information like the scope of the project, pertinent deadlines, and payment information. For additional layers of protection you can add parameters for revisions, cancellation clauses, etc. that clearly delineate the agreement between you and client.

As you gain more experience as a freelance graphic designer you’ll be able to template your own unique contract to fit your working style.

Of course, sometimes you just can’t accept a job. Maybe you have too much on your plate, or the design work just isn’t up your alley. How do you turn it down without shutting the client out forever? It can be difficult navigating a “no”, but there are a few tools to use when you need to make this tough call. In our guide to declining a job offer, we outline a few steps:

·         Help the client see your perspective. If you’re declining because your work and the client’s mission are unaligned, don’t be afraid to discuss these challenges.

·         If you think someone is better suited to the job, let the client know! This helps all parties involved: Your friend or peer gets a job and your client doesn’t have to dive back into the freelancer search.

·         Think hard before you say no to a project you love because you’re just too busy. If it’s the perfect offer it might be worth reshuffling other lower priority projects. Certain offers are not built to be turned down!

6. Doing the work

The design process

The creative process is unique to every graphic designer. But once you’ve gotten the brief for the job, it can be hard to figure out where to start. Expert freelancer Grace Fussel has outlined a detailed work process to use when you’re getting started on your next job:

Stage 1: The brief

No designer is a mind-reader, so it’s important at this early stage of the graphic design process to assess exactly what the client is hoping for, and for you to communicate what they can expect from you.

 1.   Client meeting and brief analysis Talk to your client about the brief. Ask if they are able to provide information about their brand ethos and competitors within their sector. Get access to brand guidelines, if available. Even simple brand elements, like a colour palette or fonts, can be a fantastic starting point for developing your ideas.

 2.   Market research Do some online research into your client’s industry and their competitors. You’ll find that companies in some industries will share design traits in common — you don’t have to mimic these, but it helps to have an understanding of the landscape. You can also avoid any unfortunate duplicate logo scenarios (these happen more often than you think).

3.   Mood boarding Designers have their own preferred ways of sourcing and compiling inspiration. Some prefer a physical board using clippings, print-outs, sketches, and colour samples. Some use Photoshop or InDesign as a convenient way to drop in images sourced from online. Still others use online tools like Pinterest.

4.   Sketching Step away from the computer, pick up a pencil and paper, and start sketching. Don’t worry about refining your sketches or making them look good; at this stage your focus should simply be on generating lots of rough ideas.

5.   Concept refinement Take a pen and circle the three ideas that you feel have the most potential for development. Once you have a trio of refined sketches, you can digitize them. At this stage, you don’t want to spend undue time refining the three designs digitally. After all, two of your designs will end up on the drawing room floor after presenting to the client.

Stage 2: Presentation

When you’ve got your trio of refined designs, it’s time to touch base with the client. Designers are often hesitant to reveal their ideas to clients before they have been perfected, but checking in with the client at this stage will actually save you a lot of heartache and time down the line.

1.   Three-concept presentation to the client If you find presentations a little nerve-wracking, your best approach is to simply be prepared. Present your three design concepts in A4 or Letter-sized pages, making it easy for a client to print in-house, and keep the pages simple and free of clutter, allowing your designs to take centre-stage.

2.   Client review and further refinement While clients may not know what is best in terms of design for their brand, they will have a fine-tuned sense of what has worked for them in the past. If you’re open to suggestions, there’s always opportunity for a lukewarm idea to develop into something fantastic. With the client’s backing you can make headway on refining the approved design. Review your drafts at various stages and seek outside opinion from collaborators.

3.   Final review and edits It’s wise to periodically print out your drafts, take a break from them, and review them with a fresh eye. Suddenly it seems completely obvious that a piece of text needs some kerning improvement, or your choice of colures is a little too brash.

When you’ve produced a near-perfect draft of your design, it’s once again time to touch base with the client. They may have lots to suggest, or very little, and it’s up to you to decide if the amount of edits required is covered comfortably by your original quote. If not, you should consider asking for the client to pay for extra hours.

     Stage 3: Technical production

Sometimes, you’ve been contracted to complete an entire production from ideation to launch. This often requires a few extra hands, especially if you’re required to print work or develop something online. 

.

 Time Management

Much of the freelance life is spent shuffling between jobs. Sometimes you’re too busy to sleep and other times you’re so free that you drive yourself insane. While it comes with great freedom, achieving a work-life balance in the freelance world might require even more work than the typical full time office job.

One of the greatest challenges of freelance life is figuring out how to schedule your time – how do you complete work for clients while remaining compassionate to yourself and you’re down time? We discussed a few methods above, like setting specific hours, working from a dedicated location, and declining job offers when your plate is full.

You can also invest in tools that help you organize your work and schedule your time appropriately. We have an entire list of free and cost effective tools that will help you keep your business on track. From productivity tools to hourly time trackers, you’ll find something to assist your freelance career.

Sometimes a deadline is so close that no tool can help you manage it. Maybe you procrastinated or misjudged the scale of the project. Regardless, dealing with a looming deadline can be incredibly stressful. We listed five ways to deal with deadlines, even when they seem impossible. Some strategies should be employed at the outset of a project to manage unrealistic deadlines, while others can be used in crunch-time to just get the work done on time.

Managing clients

 As a freelance graphic designer, you should give as much weight to developing your designs as you do to communicating with your clients. A clear and open line of communication will keep everyone updated on the status of the project, and putting in the effort to communicate as you design could prevent a lot of issues that arise once the final design is revealed.

Managing expectations will grow to be a big part of your job. When you agree on a brief with your client, you are agreeing to a specific scope of work and deliverables to go along with it. Clients will push this scope, often without realizing that they’re also pushing the boundaries of your agreement. And a handful of clients might ask for more knowing that it’s out of bounds, just to get more “bang for their buck.”

Neither of these situations is appropriate, and there are a few ways to deal with this scope creep. The first step: Set expectations up front, and reinforce them every step of the way.

Even your best efforts to regulate scope creep can be derailed by a bad client. Almost every freelance designer has one ‘client from hell’ story to tell. There are so many in the industry that there’s an entire website dedicated to the cause. We spoke to the founder of the Clients From Hell, Bryce Bladon, for tips on dealing with bad clients. The best advice is to be on the lookout from the outset. If alarm bells go off during initial communication with a client, trust your gut and move on.

The hunt for clients is so intense that once you have them, it’s worth keeping them around. To do so, you need to build strong relationships. This includes keeping lines of communication open, but also following up and checking in often to keep your name top of mind. Find even more tips in our article on building strong client relationships.

No work?

Almost every freelancer has weathered a work drought, regardless of their industry. This can be a scary time, especially if freelance work is your only source of income. While there’s no trick to begin the flow of work again, there are a few things you can do to make the down time valuable for your career and to earn a few bucks here and there. Read our article on what to do when the freelance work dries up to learn more.

7. Getting paid

The first step of getting paid comes before you even do the work: Create an ironclad contract with explicit payment details. Include clauses on revisions, or at least discuss payment for revisions before you get started on them.

Try as you might, a contract doesn’t guarantee payment. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Freelancers Union, seven out of 10 freelancers working in New York have been “cheated out of payments that they’ve earned.” After submitting an invoice, days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months and the money doesn’t come. When you finally manage to get the client on the phone, you find out the bad news. After all of the time and energy you poured into the project, they’re refusing to pay your invoice. Unfortunately, getting clients to pay on time – or at all – can be difficult.

You can discourage late payments and no payments with a few proactive steps:

·         Set out expectations in a statement of work, and consider protective measures like a kill fee and milestone payments

·         Incentivize on-time payment in the contract by offering discounts or other benefits

·         Keep communication open and remind clients of upcoming invoices.

·         Exercise your right to withhold deliverables if you sense hesitation to pay

8. Tools and additional information

If you’re starting out as a designer or illustrator, arming yourself with the best graphic design tools and technology available will transform your workspace and your creative process. You’ll obviously need the basics – a powerful computer, a reliable broadband connection, a space to work, and an artist’s eye. [Source] https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/freelance-graphic-design-guide

 Jaspal Khalsa - Freelance Graphic Design Services in Mumbai. I can help you for branding by our unique approach on design guarantees prosperity for your product. I want my clients to feel pampered beyond expectations.20 Satisfied Clients, 50 Finished Projects. Check Portfolio.

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Purging Healthcare of Unnatural Acts

BY UWE REINHARDT

In tribute to Uwe we are re-running this instant classic from THCB’s archives. Originally published on Jan 31, 2017.

Everyone knows (or should know) that forcing a commercial health insurer to write for an individual a health insurance policy at a premium that falls short of the insurer’s best ex ante estimate of the cost of health care that individual will require is to force that insurer into what economists might call an unnatural act.

Remarkably, countries that rely on competing private health insurers to operate their universal, national health insurance systems all do just that. They allow each insurer to set the premium for a government-mandated , comprehensive benefit package, but require that each insurer “community-rate” that premium by charging the company’s individual customers that same premium, regardless of their health status and even age (with the exception of children).

American economists wonder why these countries do that, given that in the economist’s eyes community-rated health insurance premiums are “inefficient,” as economists define that term in their intra-professional dictionary. 

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA, otherwise known as “ObamaCare”) also mandates private insurers to quote community-rated premiums on the electronic market places created by the ACA, allowing adjustments only for age and whether or not an applicant smokes. But within age bands and smoker-status, insurers must charge the same premium to individual applicants regardless of their health status.

As fellow economist Mark V. Pauly points out in an illuminating two-part interview with Saurabh Jha, M.D., published earlier on this blog, aside from the “inefficiency” of that policy, it has some untoward but eminently predictable consequences. It happens when healthier people disobey the mandate to purchase insurance, leaving the risk pools of those insured in the ACA market places with sicker and sicker individuals, thus driving up the community-rated premiums. As Pauly points out at length, a weakly enforced mandate on individuals to be insured can become the Achilles heel of community rating.   

Every actuary or economist who instructs students on this point probably therefore opines that, ideally, for the sake of economic “efficiency” and to overcome the untoward side effects of community-rated premiums, one would like to allow insurers to peg the premium charged an individual applicant on the best actuarial estimates of likely future outlays for that individual, that is, to charge individuals so-called “actuarially fair” premiums and publicly subsidize those applicants faced with very high premiums. The word “fair” here signifies that chronically healthy individuals are not asked to cross-subsidize chronically sick people through the premiums they pay, which many Americans consider fair. General taxpayers pay those subsidies.

Alas, thinking about the administrative steps needed to translate our profession’s normative dicta into workable operations in the trenches has never been our profession’s strong suit. Not surprisingly, then, not much is said about that crucial step in the Jha-Pauly interview. But we can muse about what life in those trenches might turn out to be. After all, we do have some idea of how a market for individually purchased health insurance that is based on risk rated (actuarially fair) premiums works, because that is how the pre-ACA market for individual and small-group policies worked in this country.

As Pauly acknowledges, the administrative costs of such a system are high. It is so because every applicant must submit to the insurer a very detailed description of his or her health status and those submissions must then be converted into customized, risk-rated premiums. That information, of course, could be conveniently harvested by hackers.

Pauly cites some estimates of the administrative costs of risk-rating in individual insurance markets; but they strike me as low.  A clearer picture can be had from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, namely the Council for Affordable Health Insurance which represents insurance carriers active in the individual and small group market.  On the third page of a letter dated May 7, 2010, addressed to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the Council noted inter alia that pre-ACA

“The NAIC standards for individual market loss ratios vary between 55%-65%, depending on the type of plan. In fact, most guaranteed renewable plan loss ratios are set by the states at 60% or less.”

What the Council calls “market loss ratios” is otherwise known as the “medical loss ratio” (MLR). It represents the fraction of the premium that insurers lose on procuring actual health care for their insured. The remaining fraction (1- the MLR) goes for marketing, administration and the insurer’s profits. Thus an MLR of “60% or less” implies that 40% or more of the premium does not buy health care, but goes for marketing, administration and profits. It takes a certain fortitude on the part of private health insurers to acknowledge that huge spillage into overhead so openly.

It is hard to imagine that any other country would tolerate so large a leakage of the premium into overhead. While economists would nevertheless call such a market “efficient,” as the profession defines that term, there is no reason why non-economists should take the economists word for it. Indeed, it can be doubted that non-economists would apply that felicitous term to any health insurance system that burns up to 40% or even more of the premium the insured pay just on marketing, administration and profit efficient, if the insured were aware of it. 

We also know from the pre-ACA days that millions of Americans then were denied insurance coverage outright by private insurance over preexisting conditions. Eliminating that problem by mandating “guaranteed issue” was one of the major goals of the ACA. Estimates of the percentage of applicants denied coverage in pre-ACA days vary. Some estimates put the number at 1 out of 7 (i.e., 14%). Other sources quote much higher figures. In an Issue Brief, the Kaiser Family Foundation provides a table with numbers, by state, of “declinable conditions.” It is worth citing here at length from Jonathan Cohn’s “ObamaCare’s New Paperwork Is Simpler than Private Insurers”:

“If you want to know which conditions attract scrutiny, you can consult a Blue Cross Michigan underwriting guide. The list of “unacceptable medical conditions,” which you’ll find on page 23, starts out like this: “Abnormal pap (unless there have been 2 subsequent normal ones), Addison’s disease, Adrenal gland disorders, AIDS, ARC (AIDS related complex), HIV+, Alcohol abuse or alcoholism (unless 12+ years since recovery), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease, Aneurysm, Angina pectoris, Aplastic anemia, Arteriosclerotic heart disease, Atrial fibrillation or flutter, Ascites, Autism and Aspergers syndrome, Autoimmune diseases.” Highlights later in the alphabet include Cancer, Congenital Disorders, Heart Murmurs, Lupus, Parkinson’s Disease, and, of course, Pregnancy.”

What would happen to those denied coverage by insurance companies in the scheme envisaged by Pauly? Would they be assigned to a high risk pool?

Unfortunately, while we do know a lot about the modus operandi of a classic, medically-underwritten (risk rated) market for individually purchased health insurance, there is no experience in the U.S. on how to link such a market to the system of public subsidies that Pauly calls for in the Jha-Pauly interview. How exactly would this work?

Relevant variables here presumably would be, on the one hand, the insured’s “disposable income” and, on the other, the risk-rated health-insurance premiums quoted that individual by competing insurers. “Disposable income” would have to be carefully defined for this purpose. Is it just available money income after taxes and transfers? Or should it be the latter figure minus required outlays for other necessities, such as food, housing, clothing, fuel for transportation to and from work, etc.? Besides that question, a series of others come to mind, to wit:

For what benefit package would the premiums be quoted? Who would specify that package? What might be excluded from the package? Would there be lifetime limits on coverage or annual limits on specific services (e.g., prescription drugs)?

What would happen if the specified benefit package underlying the public subsidy were shallow and the insured got severely ill, facing unaffordable medical bills for clinically beneficial products (e.g., drugs) and services not covered by the policy? Who would pay those bills? Would the cost of such care be shifted to paying patients through higher prices? Or would the insured simply be denied those clinically beneficial products and services, at the risk of avoidable, premature death or chronic illness?

Would premiums be reset annually, in light of changes in the insured’s changing health status?

Could an insurer cancel a policy ex post if the applicant had inadvertently or deliberately concealed a particular medical condition from the insurer when applying for coverage?

What would be the risk-based premium on which any subsidy would be based? Would it be the lowest one quoted in the relevant market area? And what would that area be?

Would the insured’s out-of-pocket cost for the coverage be linked to his or her disposable income, as it is under ObamaCare?

Who would manage the market place in which individual policies are sold, or would the market return to pre-ACA operations, managed solely by an uncoordinated net of insurance brokers?

Who would pay the brokers’ commissions, the insurance companies, setting up an evident conflict of interest, or the insured, as it should be.

Would people denied coverage by insurers in this free market be enrolled in a high risk pool? If so, what would be its design parameters – the benefit package, the premium charged the individual, the magnitude of public subsidies, and so on?

Others undoubtedly can think of yet other questions; but let these suffice.

Probably because of the complexity of operating a risk-rated private health insurance system supported by public subsidies, few nations operating universal health insurance systems have adopted that approach. In fact, I cannot think of any.

Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, for example, all rely on a system of competing private health insurance carriers. Unlike the U.S., they do not have government-run health insurance programs at all. Competing private insurers can quote different premiums for the same, government-specified benefit package, which tends to be quite comprehensive. But unwilling to subject their citizens to the complexity and vagaries on risk-rated health insurance markets, these countries mandate that the premiums quoted by competing insurers be strictly community rated, even with respect to age. Somehow these countries have been able to make this work for decades, without the collapse of their health insurance markets. If we Americans were not as insular and proud as we are, we might explore how these countries manage to do that and learn from it.

We would discover that somehow these nations make the mandate to be insured stick to the point of garnishing the wages of individuals disobeying the mandate to be insured. Perhaps these nations also succeed in persuading young and healthy people that they, too, might fall very ill at some time in the future. One can then view community rating as the analog of a call option on a stock. In this case, it is a call option on a low premium in case one falls seriously ill, the price of the option being the overpayment relative to actuarial costs when healthy.

In the U.S., we consider it unacceptable for government to force individuals to purchase from a private vendor a product they do not wish to buy. To many Americans this makes sense – hence the strong opposition to the individual mandate to be insured – ironically much favored by Republicans during the 1990s but now decried by them. The mandate to be insured has been a major rallying point for those who oppose ObamaCare.

One way to overcome that problem might be to abandon the mandate altogether, but to offer individuals a deal they are less likely to refuse. In his “Averting a Health Care Backlash,” for example, Paul Starr as early as 2009 counseled the Obama Administration to let individuals opt out of the mandate to be insured, but to allow them back into ObamaCare only after 5 years. 

I would have been much rougher. In a blog post entitled “Rugged Individualism vs. Social Solidarity,” published in The New York Times, I proposed that individuals opting out of a system built on social solidarity, with community-rated premiums, should never be allowed to rejoin it later, aside from some very special circumstances. It would be a deal fewer people would refuse. Rugged individuals who turn their back on social solidarity can be asked tough it out on their own when misfortune strikes, rather than rediscovering in those calamitous moments the beneficence of the community. Unfortunately, too many of them follow the mantra “when the going gets tough, the tough run to the government,” as can be seen every time a hurricane wreaks havoc on some area or uninsured rugged individuals fall seriously ill or have a serious accidents, when they expect the best available health care, even if they cannot pay for it. A forgiving nation has always enabled this behavior.

Starr’s and my approach can be viewed as market approaches, albeit ones structured to contain a so-called “nudge” to obtain coverage.

Uwe Reinhardt is a professor of political economy at Princeton University.

Article source:The Health Care Blog