ROOT: a new blog

I decided to start blogging again. I can't bring myself to delete this one, because I like reading back on the art I did in college. It gives me a good sense of where I've come from, and where I'm going. However, this new blog won't quite be the same thing.

I'm not JUST a designer. I know when we originally set these blogs up, the purpose was to be quite focused on one thing, but I just can't. I have never been a terribly single-minded person, and I have a great variety of hobbies, likes and talents. Even my job never lets me do just my own job.

So I've renamed the blog ROOT: depending on the context this word has some pretty disparate meanings which seem to sum up my professional and personal lives right now. To put down roots means to settle down in a place and make a home. Root also denotes the base of anything, getting right down to the base of the matter. To root around can also mean to go snooping or looking for something. Currently, my life is all these things- settling down in a new location in a new home while also searching for new creative ideas and fulfillment.

This is as personal as it will get though, folks. What I will be posting here are the efforts of all this ROOT(ing), which will mostly be art and design with the rare DIY project or cool idea I'd like to share sprinkled in. Please stay tuned- I would love to hear your criticism, ideas, suggestions, queries, you name it. Thanks for stopping by.

It's been a while...

I wasn't too sure what to do with this blog after school stopped. I'm not really an illustrator by nature and I'm not big on deadlines unless I'm being paid or marked to meet them so I stopped doing Illustration Friday. I've been peeking at the topics and I'd gladly do another submission if the mood struck me, but it's not something I'd like to do regularly.

Instead, I was thinking that I'd like to post things that might be helpful to other designers out there that I'm encountering while setting up my own freelance business. I may still post things that I'm working on, but overall, I think readers get more out of things that help them rather than things that look pretty.

After school, the first natural inclination is to want experience. Once you get the word out that you know how to use design programs and you've got some spare time on your hand, people will come out of the woodwork asking you to do things for them. Rates are up to each individual designer, but what happens when the client needs an invoice and wants you to charge them taxes?

I found this very helpful blog post by Nubby Twiglet giving tips on how to design an invoice, and in that post she has a link to an Illustrator template from Adobe. I found this post extremely clear and easy to follow- thanks Nubby!

As for taxes, they vary from province to province, and I can't even begin to explain the complexities for all of them. I can tell you that in Ontario, as a sole proprietor (aka. you are your own boss and have no one else working for you) you can obtain a GST number without having to pay fees so long as your income will not exceed 30,000 per fiscal year. If you want to register a business name along with that, it costs money, but to use your own name with your GST number is free. You can go here to start up that process and look at the different options for GST registration. I was told that once HST kicks in, your GST number will stay the same for charging HST.

That being said, there are kind of strange rules regarding charging GST on freelance work. For example, you do not need to charge tax on something you are sending over the internet. For all the do's and do not's, check out this document here.

I must have a disclaimer here that I am not a professional, and I am not claiming that all this information is exactly what freelancers should be following- I am just pointing you in the direction of government publications that may be helpful when starting up a freelance business.

Thanks for reading!

IF: Linked

I don't have too much of an explanation for this one. This is the business that came out of my head when I asked it to think of being linked.

Rescue Idea redux

This is the project I originally had that birds/face idea for, and I thought I'd post how the final came out.

Illustration Friday - Rescue

This drawing is something I've had in my head for the last little while. This is it's first attempt- I did this drawing quite small with an ink brush, but I think it needs to be much larger...only problem is, how to scan it in?

It's supposed to be a combined image- a woman's face, and a bunch of crows hovering over a dead person's bleeding body. It's based on a book I've had on my mind. I think the woman's face is clear, but I don't think the other image is too clear- I'll have to come back to this one after I think about it for a bit.

Hammer Cancer postcard

This is my postcard for the Ride For Cancer Research project. I layered a bunch of imagery together. In the background there are blurred out cancer cells with gears on top and the words "hammer cancer" right below a bike. I didn't want it to be obvious that there were cancer cells in the background- it was more something that was in the back of my mind that should go there. I wanted to make a visually interesting image that would capture someone's attention quickly and communicate instantly the subject matter at hand.

Let me know what you think!

Self Promotional Postcard

I'm a little slow on getting this done- after just finishing up one round of strep throat, I got round two and it knocked me out last week. This postcard was made from a photo I took and altered in photoshop. I'm trying to keep with this collage style I've been developing- I really enjoy building images this way. Please let me know what you think!