By Punctuate
“Working for yourself does not mean working alone. Establish a trusted network of friends and colleagues. Find your tribe.” — Arianna Orland
Successful freelancing in a creative field is both an art and a science. If you’re thinking of making the leap from middling drudgery to independent employment, you can’t get by on just the immense genius you were born with or the skills you learned in school.
With that in mind, the team at CreativeLive — those online mentors for artsy types at all phases of their careers — has buddied up with local designer Arianna Orland of Paper Jam Press to present How to Become a Successful Freelancer (Thursday, March 19, 9 a.m — 4 p.m.).
Based in San Francisco, Orland is a designer and consultant who’s worked with Bloomingdale’s, David Byrne, the School of Visual Arts, and many more. Last year, she left her previous position as Zynga’s Senior Creative Director of Global Brand, spiffy title and all, and never looked back.
Orland’s free online course will cover five crucial areas: branding, collateral, clients, finances, and management. Participants will learn how to create a design language that differentiates you from the hordes, plus the ins and outs of filing quarterly taxes, all from an expert who’s done it before and who wants to show you how to spring off the high dive.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if instead of trigonometry your high school had taught project management, with some wise words about how to keep clients happy? Not everyone grasps all of these skills intuitively — not even people who wake up every morning confident they’re destined for rock-stardom (i.e., you). Here’s your best chance for not holding back any longer.
So if you know you’re ready to make the jump toward that upward trajectory you’ve been hungering for, RSVP and let Arianna Orland show you how to do it — and do it well.
Image courtesy of CreativeLive.
