Well, I've started to venture into the commercial world. Only a toe dipping but it's a start. I decided that I should start to build a commercial portfolio of character designs. So to begin with, I went to a business networking event called Beermat Monday and presented myself as a character designer. I explained my plan and said I was willing to do my first few commercial jobs for free. What's commercial about that? Well, it means working to a brief rather than off the top of my head in my usual arty farty way.
So I got three takers in that one evening. One is Phil Reed who is a sort of life coach to teenagers in inner city schools. He uses a dial with colours to help the kids communicate what emotion they are feeling and proposed to use characters to represent the emotions. We had a further meeting and I'm really interested in helping him. It's a good cause and will be an excellent discipline for me. We're going to develop the characters iteratively, by showing them to the kids, seeing how they respond and redesigning as necessary. This is quite a big project, so I'll spread it out over the year. This could lead to earnings because if the characters work, Phil could sell them from his website as sort of teaching aides and I could get a cut.
Next was Drinking Water Solutions, who also want to reach kids, in this case, to convince them to drink more water. Apparently they get really dehydrated. Did you drink water at school? I remember drinking orange juice in little tiny glass milk bottles and then a few years later, hot chocolate (brown sugar and water!) in a crinkly plastic cup.
And I met a French guy who does web video and wants a kind of video camera character. This is one he bravely did himself which I thought was quite cute! A video camera stick man! He's currently starting with his business, so if you need a free web video, or very good deal, he might be able to help. www.local-video.com The 'character' of his business is: simple, easy, quick, quality, on demand, low cost internet video.
I've had a bit of a hectic two weeks... I was looking for a job and made some adjustments to my CV and suddenly all these recruitment companies were phoning me every two seconds, I had a big birthday celebration, did lots of networking, interviews, coaching sessions, had a date with a scary caveman, and then got offered a job (on a much better salary than before).
Friday was a highlight, when I went out with some people from Trusted Places to Shunt Vaults (full description / reviews from me and others) underneath London Bridge station. A girl with the user name Idoru works for Tickex.com and she needs a female ninja for their site... Plus I got chatting about the Trusted Places logo and I've had a bit of an idea for it (keep you posted). Alot of people say it reminds them of Ghost Busters... I said the same which was weird, as I couldn't actually visualise the Ghost Busters logo, the words 'Ghost Busters' just came into my head. Actually this is an older version of their logo - I couldn't download the current one from their website and I can't be bothered to faff around with screenshots just now. Anyway I like that Ghost Busters thing, it's got drama. Maybe TP are perfectly happy with their logo, but they're interested in ideas and feedback at this point. This all reminds me of the Michelin man! I love him!
Anyway, new day job and lots of characters to beam up... I'm going to be busy.
Alot of things get on my nerves for a moment but then I think just let it go, let it go! Like people who stand in front of magazine racks blocking the way and they're not even looking at the magazines, they're on the phone. Yeah anyone who stands around in shops on the phone.
