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Learning and Leading by Design

No matter how much you invest in mastering your craft, or how committed you are to staying ahead, the industry will eventually force you out of your comfort zone. I spent most of the first ten years of my career fully immersed in Flash, determined to be among the best in the world. Even as I began transitioning into creative direction, I refused to let my Flash skills fade. I would spend my days leading teams and my nights perfecting builds, driven by the idea that being a great leader meant staying deeply connected to the work itself.

At the time, I couldn’t imagine a world where Flash wouldn’t be relevant. Then one day, Steve Jobs made the decision to effectively end Flash’s role on the web. I spent a few months convincing myself it would somehow bounce back, but it quickly became clear the shift was permanent. That December, instead of taking a break, I spent my entire two-week holiday learning HTML5 and CSS3. I built my first responsive website from scratch. I had never even created an HTML portfolio before, but I understood that staying still wasn’t an option.

Moving early turned out to be one of the best decisions I could have made. While my love for Flash never really disappeared, it was obvious the opportunities were shrinking fast. At the same time, responsive design was gaining momentum, and clients were already expecting websites that worked seamlessly across devices. I decided to leave Ogilvy and start my own agency, which allowed me to apply this new approach to our work from day one. We embraced WordPress as our CMS of choice and focused on building responsive websites that delivered value across desktop, tablet, and mobile.

Over time, running the agency became more challenging. Fully responsive WordPress themes and powerful plugins flooded the market, making it harder to charge a premium for work that increasingly could be done by almost anyone. I returned to agency life, directing campaigns and continuing to support teams. Flash never completely disappeared, and I was fortunate to still be involved in some remarkable projects, but responsive web design had become the norm.

After a couple of years, I was laid off. For a while, I freelanced and kept building websites, but the fallback of being able to rely on that work was already under pressure. When Squarespace launched, I struggled with the idea of taking a client’s money to build something I could set up in an afternoon. It felt disingenuous, and I knew I needed to rethink how I created value.

I leaned further into design leadership and systems thinking, areas I had already started exploring long before they became popular talking points. While working on a design system for Nikon, I saw firsthand how critical this approach would become for any large-scale design operation. Later, when I transitioned into an in-house role, I was responsible for centralising a fragmented design team around a single system, ensuring that multiple squads across the organisation were aligned. This alignment allowed teams to focus on improving the experience rather than spending their time reinventing the interface.

As I moved into early-stage startups, I applied the same principles to help teams align and scale products effectively. Even now, I believe systems thinking remains one of the most important aspects of delivering great design at scale.

I was fortunate to avoid the more speculative side of trends like crypto and NFTs, though I still took the time to understand how blockchain technology worked and explored what it could mean for creative industries. Learning for the sake of staying informed has always been part of how I work, but I have also learned not to chase every shiny new object.

We are now in the middle of the biggest shift since the dot com boom of the 90s. AI, automation and emerging platforms are forcing everyone to rethink how they work and what value looks like. While I have always embraced technology and continued to learn new skills, the heart of my work has been leadership. I have been doing that far longer than I was a full time practitioner of any single discipline.

Over the years, I have spent time learning everything from designing logos and working in print to storytelling, 3D, animation, video editing, motion graphics and countless other skills that would take too long to list comprehensively. For me, these were not isolated capabilities, they were simply part of delivering more complete and considered work. Often, it made sense to bring in specialists who could focus on a particular area while I concentrated on ensuring everything held together strategically and creatively.

It honestly makes me laugh that so many people are not even willing to work across lanes, because I have spent my entire career moving between them. I have always been curious to explore new things and never cared whether the challenge involved creating an AR experience, designing merchandise or staging an event. I am creative, I always have been, and I am comfortable doing just about anything I get the opportunity to do, while still making leadership my primary focus.

Today, I still believe in staying close to the work, but I know where I add the most value. I am first and foremost a creative leader. I have never stopped learning, and I do not plan to. Experience has taught me that no matter how confident you are in your skills, history will repeat itself. Sooner or later, you will be forced to adapt, evolve and find new ways to contribute.

That is the constant in this industry. Nothing stays still.

What They Won’t Teach You at Design School

The design industry is going through a lot of change. AI is taking over tasks that used to be done by juniors. The mockups, basic layouts, and repetitive production work are increasingly automated. Agencies are consolidating, budgets are shrinking, and even experienced designers are being pushed into freelancing because full-time roles are disappearing.

Tools are more advanced and focused than ever, but that emphasis on efficiency means less room for creativity and more pressure to produce work quickly. The first few years of your career are about gaining varied experience, building a solid foundation, and positioning yourself to handle the inevitable shifts in the industry.

Get Experience in Different Environments
Your first few years are not about finding your dream job. They are about exploring different work environments to understand where you thrive and what suits your strengths.

Agencies move fast. You will juggle multiple projects, deal with demanding clients, and deliver under constant pressure. The work can feel like production more than design, but it teaches you how to deliver quickly, handle feedback professionally, and build resilience.

Startups and product studios are unpredictable. Teams are small, resources are limited, and you will be expected to handle various roles. One day you are wireframing a product, and the next, you are creating marketing assets. This chaos forces you to adapt quickly, solve problems on the fly, and work without a safety net.

In-house roles are slower but more strategic. The focus shifts to aligning design with business goals. You will refine assets, maintain consistency, and deal with stakeholders who might not understand why a three-pixel change matters. It is not flashy, but it teaches you how to work systematically and see the bigger picture.

Freelancing adds another layer of experience. If you did not freelance while studying, you missed an opportunity to build real-world skills and make money doing it. Freelancing forces you to manage clients, scope projects, and handle difficult conversations. Even after landing a full-time role, keep freelancing. It keeps your skills sharp, maintains a safety net, and lets you explore work that may be more interesting than what you are doing in your day job.

Build Your Network
Keep relationships strong with the people you studied with, your teachers, and anyone you meet along the way. These people will move around, gain influence, and may one day open doors for you. Your network is not just about finding a job. It is about having people who will vouch for you, recommend you, and pass opportunities your way.

Master the Fundamentals
Software changes constantly, but the basics of design do not. Typography, colour, and layout are the foundations of good design. If you cannot structure a layout, balance colours, or handle typography effectively, your work will always look amateurish, no matter how polished the interface appears.

If your typography is weak, it does not matter how slick the visuals are. If your colour choices are random, the design will feel amateurish. If your layouts lack structure, the work will be confusing. These are not things that can be fixed with a plugin or a design system.

You won’t learn these fundamentals on the job. Employers expect you to know them already. If your education didn’t cover them deeply, teach yourself. Study strong design work. Recreate it pixel for pixel, paying attention to every decision. It is not about building portfolio pieces. It is about training your eye, refining your taste, and developing muscle memory.

Keep Your Portfolio Alive
Your portfolio is not a one-off project. It is a living asset that should evolve alongside your work. The projects you did a year ago might not reflect your current abilities. Waiting until you need a job to update it is a mistake.

Every project is an opportunity to add new work. Internal projects, freelance gigs, and hypothetical projects can all be valuable if they show how you think through design problems.

A strong portfolio does not just showcase polished visuals. It shows how you approach problems, navigate constraints, and solve challenges. If you are aiming for product design roles, highlight interface work. If branding is your focus, lead with identity systems and visual campaigns. Align your portfolio with the work you want to do next, not just the work you have done in the past.

Develop Craft Before Chasing Titles
Early in your career, focus on refining your craft rather than collecting titles. A senior title means nothing if you do not have the skill to back it up.

Agencies keep you in junior roles longer because the work demands speed, precision, and resilience. It is not glamorous, but it builds the kind of muscle memory that will sustain you later.

In-house roles may promote you faster, but the work can feel repetitive. You are aligning assets with brand guidelines, refining templates, and maintaining consistency across touchpoints.

Startups will give you more responsibility than you are ready for. Fast promotions can feel good in the moment, but without the skill to back it up, you are setting yourself up for failure and burnout.

Build Systems, Not Just Projects
Every project is an opportunity to build reusable assets. Design systems are not just collections of components. They are frameworks that save time and maintain consistency across projects.

If your company already has a design system, study it. Understand why components were created, how they function, and how they are meant to be implemented.

Dan Mall’s Design System University is a strong resource for learning how to build and maintain effective design systems. It breaks down the principles behind creating scalable systems that work across multiple projects and teams.

Build Strong Relationships with Engineers
Your work is a product that engineers will implement. If your files are disorganised, unclear, or poorly documented, you are making their job harder. Engineers remember the designers who make their life easier.

Ask how they implement components, what they need to make the process smoother, and what frustrates them about design handoffs. You do not need to learn how to code, but you need to understand how your work impacts theirs.

Learn to Facilitate Workshops
Workshops are a fast track to becoming the person people go to when they are stuck. You do not need to be a manager to run a session. Learn how to run sprints, facilitate feedback sessions, and guide teams through creative processes.

Facilitation skills make you more valuable. You can align people around a problem, extract useful insights, and keep projects moving forward. Jake Knapp’s Design Sprint book and AJ&Smart’s course are excellent resources for learning the structure and execution of effective workshops.

Be a Designer Other Designers Want to Work With
Do not be a dick. Talent does not matter if people hate working with you. The industry is small, and your reputation will follow you from one job to the next.

Be kind. Give credit to others, even when you did most of the work. You will build a better reputation by being someone who makes others look good rather than someone who hogs the spotlight.

Own your mistakes. If you mess up, admit it, fix it, and move forward. Screaming in the car on the way home is fine. Losing it in a meeting is not.

Stay approachable. If people are afraid to give you feedback because you are defensive or dismissive, you will end up isolated and missing out on valuable lessons.

Find a Mentor Early
A good mentor is someone who has been where you want to go. They can give you perspective, help you navigate difficult situations, and provide honest feedback. Seek them out early.

Reach out to people whose work you admire. Ask for feedback, a coffee, or a quick call. You do not need to ask them to be your mentor outright. The relationship will form naturally if they see potential in you and you show a willingness to learn.

The Work Is Just Beginning
Graduating from design school is not the end. It is the start of everything. Every project, every critique, and every difficult client is a chance to learn.

You are not here to produce pretty work. You are here to solve problems, handle pressure, and stay relevant as the industry evolves. The work starts now, and it does not end.

Designers: learn to code

For a while now, designers have been able to fire up their favorite design program and whip out some layouts which are sold to clients and then handed over to developers. While it would be damaging to some talented individuals to expect them to be able to do anything else, other than what they are primarily good at. For everyone else, they must learn to code.

The problem is that more often than not, is that the design does not come out built the same way it looked when it was designed. There could be any number of reasons, such as the designer not understanding what development limitations there might be, the developer does not pay attention to the details a designer might see, or things like responsive behavior and animation which you can’t explain in a static design.

The only logical solution I see is for designers to become great coders, learning how to design in the browser vs in a visual design app like sketch or photoshop. Of course, if developers came to the party and teamed up with designers like copywriter/art directors come together, that would be ideal.

Designers please, enroll in some online courses and learn to build your own responsive layouts, code animations and build a set of tools that will speed up your process with best in practice functional UI. Designers must learn to code.

50 Things 2016

The past year was not all doom and gloom for me and I thought I’d mention a few things I appreciated about 2016 and I hope to continue adding this sort of good stuff into 2017.

  1. Gratitude. I have been practicing giving thanks for the things I do have and I really believe it makes all the difference. I can get lost thinking about all the things I am grateful for.
  2. Cape Town. I moved down in February and returned in August. But still, the Mother City was a special experience and certainly helped shape who I am today.
  3. Secret Sunrise. My favorite thing to do, well maybe my second favorite thing to do in the morning, was getting my groove on with the no danger diary crew in some of the most amazing locations, with some of the coolest people to some of the most gorgeous sunrises I’ve ever seen.
  4. Kidz Banking. Secretly for the past year I was working on a banking app for Standard Bank and launched after I had left the company and not completed as I would have liked, their app was finally released later this year.
  5. Lego Minifigures. I still have not built my lego display, despite my most recent efforts, but I am excited to now have over 500 Minifigures in my collection. Almost 300 of them are from the series, which looks to be growing in early 2017 with the superheroes series being released in January.
  6. Creative Mornings. I was delighted to be asked to talk at Creative Mornings in Cape Town in October on the subject of transparency.
  7. Probiotics. I started drinking kombucha and kefir early in 2016 and what it has done for my body is incredible. Adding live food sources into my body has really helped my anxiety, my digestion and overall well being like nothing I have experienced before.
  8. Dexter. My beautiful boy turned 8 this year and he is turning out to be such a kind, well mannered and gentle human. I love you, my boy.
  9. Surfing. I never got to surf enough to say I can actually surf, but I loved every moment of paddling in the ocean and I have not given up on my dream to learn and surf waves around the globe.
  10. Friends. I have reconnected with old friends, continued with many of the same friends and made many new friends this year. Thank you to each and every one of you for contributing in your own way to my life.
  11. Sacred teacher plants. As I continue to raise my vibration, teacher plants like Ayahuasca and San Pedro have really opened my mind, taught me so much and done much healing.
  12. Road trips. I got to drive up and down to Cape Town, on my own twice this year and while road tripping with friends is great, a little solitude on the road can be equally rewarding.
  13. Romance. I have loved and lost like no other time in my life this past year. To every one of the beautiful people who shared time with me, giving me a chance and sharing yourselves with me, thank you. Guys be a little braver, there are some beauties out there. You know who you are, thank you for the love.
  14. Joburg. I left you and returned, but I came back a better man and given my career opportunities I’m here to stay, so I’m ready to take on the city of gold in all it’s glory in 2017.
  15. Prom walks. Long walks, great talks and the most fantastic views. Nothing beats a good prom walk at the end of the day.
  16. Coconut oil. The say that if you have 99 problems, coconut oil will solve about 80 something of them. Eat it, cook with it, moisturize your skin with it or use it as lubricant, this magic stuff will seriously add value to your life.
  17. Roommates. I got to be roomies with a lovely couple in Cape Town for a couple of months and with a great friend in Joburg and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed living with people, especially when they are so damn cool. Thanks guys.
  18. Yoga hike. Two of my favorite things to do, go on a hike, followed by some yoga made for some of my favorite outings.
  19. Hiker. Some call him Superdawg, others hikey, but the coolest dog on the prom was hikey, the bergie dog I got look after whenever John was out of town, much love little guy.
  20. UFC. Conor McGregor, stole the show. But selling the UFC for 4+ Billion was pretty impressive too.
  21. Nedbank. In-house agencies are the new black, that’s why I am proud to have joined the Nedbank team as their Creative Director in what will be an exciting new opportunity to do some amazing work.
  22. Day Parties. I went to a couple of day parties which was something new for me as I have not been going out as much. They were not huge events, just big enough to have a good time and some sunshine.
  23. Love. I have learned how to love myself, how to give love and receive love. It’s abundant, just like kindness, sprinkle that shit everywhere.
  24. CrossFit. I trained at a new box in Cape Town and really got my technique improved, but I am happy to be training at my original box again at B4C. When I can;t get there, I have built up a home gym that’s great for getting a workout in.
  25. Forest Bathing. Or more commonly known as Shinrin-yoku in Japan is kinda like forest therapy. I have literally soaked up the trees and literally become a tree hugger.
  26. 21 for the 20th time. I turned 41 and I couldn’t feel more alive than I do now. Age really is just a number and being in my 40’s is great.
  27. Table Top Tuesdays. Every Tuesday, weather permitting I got to work with some of my colleagues from Treeshake and their friends on top of Table Mountain.
  28. Friends of Design. I got to give a really great talk to start the term off at this awesome design school. Thanks for the opportunity to share my knowledge.
  29. Farmers Market. My Saturday routine always started with a trip to the Oranjezicht farmers market to eat good food, drink great coffee, enjoy great conversation and take home the best pastries and organic fruit.
  30. Being present. I learned this year how to not focus on the past or worry about the future as much and really just be present. I learned that you only have energy for today, so stop worrying about tomorrow.
  31. Secret Sunset. If dancing at sunrise was not cool enough, we got to enjoy a silent disco on the beach at sunset, which was absolutely epic. After some meditation, we rocked out to thunderstruck along with hundreds of beautiful ladies. Thank you no danger diaries!
  32. Training. I would do yoga in the morning, crossfit in the afternoon, gym in the evenings, throw in a prom walk at sunset and that I generally cycled everywhere during the day. My training was great and I have really shed the Joburg armor and I’m feeling so much more comfortable in my own skin.
  33. Airbrn. I joined a great partnership in a gamification platform for business, which will hopefully launch early this year and I am super excited about.
  34. One meal a day. I generally only eat one cooked meal a day now, snacking in between on kefir and fruit and I feel better fueled than I have been for many years where I was over-eating. Don’t believe the hype in all those meals, eat when you’re hungry, listen to your body.
  35. Netflix. Local Netflix is not as great as international, but it’s still great to chill and their original shows have been pretty impressive.
  36. Simplicity. The ultimate luxury is simplicity. I have purged so much in my life and I have proven that I need little more than what I can fit in my car. Yes, I have a storage locker, but that really just some basic furniture. Keep it simple.
  37. Time. It’s the one thing you are never getting back, but it’s also something that is an art to manage. Time is art, it’s the only true currency. Make it count.
  38. Letting go. If it comes, let it, if it goes, let it. Don’t try and hold onto to anything that does not want to be part of your life or that is taking up time or space.
  39. Hiking. I have gotten to climb mountains, forests, and velt. Being out in nature is one of the best ways I can show mother earth that I appreciate her in all her glory.
  40. Good health. I have not been sick more than a headache once or twice or an upset stomach. Through lots of training, excellent diet and great mental space, I have had the healthiest year of my life.
  41. Design thinking. We have moved out of the pushing pixels around phase of design and gone into using design thinking to really solve problems.
  42. Movies. It’s been a great year on the screen and 2017 looks like there will be even bigger films coming our way.
  43. Less social media. I literally only have facebook and Instagram on my phone now. I occasionally visit twitter and LinkedIn, but I have successfully managed to eliminate all the social media addiction and focus on living my life away from social media.
  44. Podcasts. The best way to not be bothered by traffic, listen to podcasts. There’s just about every topic on earth discussed and there’s something for you. I have really learned so much during the times I’d usually be frustrated driving my car.
  45. eBooks. I literally cannot keep up with all the incredible eBooks released. But it’s simply the easiest way I know to read books I’d never be able to get locally and for a reasonable price … oh and I’m saving trees.
  46. Coffee. I got to drink some of the best cups of coffee and while I will need to kick the addiction, I enjoyed so many great roasts at places like Giovannis, Origin, Bootleggers and my local favorite Seattle.
  47. Fashion. I switched up my wardrobe a bit this past year, found the most comfortable well-cut chinos, stylish sneakers and comfortable sweaters. While summer is all board shorts and slops, winter I arrived a whole bunch cooler. Next, some tailored suits, not because I work at a corporate, but because I want to feel slick and really show up. Besides, I’m tired of dressing casually all the time.
  48. Sunsets. I probably took more photos of sunsets than anything else this past year, the most beautiful part of the end of a day. On the promenade, I literally took one great photo after another and used to struggle to choose which I’d post.
  49. Purpose. I have truly started gravitating towards what I believe to be the purpose of my life, by simply moving towards the things that make me the most excited.
  50. Sharing. I know I don’t have all the answers, but I have learned so much this past year and I feel no greater joy than being able to share with people. Maybe not everyone, but someone can learn from the things you know, nothing could be more generous than sharing your stuff, giving talks, teaching, blogging, mentoring or any other way, please share!

Wishing you all the best for 2017!

Transparency

This morning I had the pleasure of giving a pretty open talk titled “10 Things Craig Jamieson” at Creative Mornings in Cape Town on the topic of Transparency. Thank you to everyone who woke up early and was present, you were a great crowd, I truly hope you enjoyed it. Please find my deck below.

50+ Things they won’t teach you at Design School

This morning I had the pleasure of giving a talk to the world class second semester students of Friends of Design. I gave a brutally honest 50+ point presentation on things I have experienced and thought they ought to know.

The 32-Hour Workweek

Back in 2002 I first met Ryan Carson at a Macromedia Flash event in London, (although he probably won’t remember that) but somehow through the industry and social networks we have crossed paths. I think at the time he was involved in the BD4D (by designers 4 designers) projects, but he has since gone on to do amazing things, most importantly Treehouse, my go-to resource for online learning. He has always come across as a genuinely nice guy, and would treat his staff fairly. So it’s no surprise to me that he subscribes to the 32-hour workweek. Inspiring stuff.

Theres no rule – you have to work 40 hours, you have to work more to be successful.

Freelancing Creative Director Failure

My career has never been the norm, not by any standards. I did not get a matric, I dropped out of college, I was self-educated in design, computers, development etc and instead of joining an agency, I started freelancing from day one. But eventually I joined an agency and was quickly hired as a Creative Director and did a descent job of leading the digital charge within the Ad industry. But it was never smooth sailing and I have had to resort to freelancing again, with very little success. Now if I had the answers, I would at least have a fighting chance of understanding why after 10 years of successfully freelancing, I was suddenly unable to. So I have a whole lot of assumptions as to why, freelancing as a Creative Director is doomed to fail.

Before I start explaining, I want to apologies for the mixed use of CD and Creative Director, I simply felt it made sense to use one or the other as I typed it. It’s how I roll … deal with it.

Networking

Any good freelancer will tell you that one of the must have things you need to go it alone, is a pretty strong network. Well I have been a CD is some of the most respected agencies in the country, if not the world. I have successfully worked on many campaigns for multiple brands and formed relationships not only with my colleagues, but the clients too. I don;t mind saying I contacted everyone I felt comfortable enough to reach out to, but with very few people able to offer much more than encouragement. Which leads me to wonder, why that is.

Expensive

My first thought is that people may think I’m an asshole, it’s possible, but I can’t control what people think of me and I try not let that get me down, besides that would make a lot of people pretty two-faced, cause I generally feel pretty liked. So my next thought has to be that people assume I am too expensive. Truth is, I probably am too expensive. While I would not dare charge the rates an agency does, I do believe given my experience, I am worth a descent wage. Even if I wanted to work for less, I’d also have to be responsible and charge the type of money, I am used to earning, or what am I doing this for. I can;t exactly be a homeless CD, it just doesn’t work like that. Any CD would understand what I’m saying, firstly we don’t earn as much money as people think, we gave up getting rich a long time ago when we chose creativity as the main focus of our career, by joining the creative leadership team at an agency. It was a very conscious decision. The hope being that maybe one day we might be promoted into a higher earning position, get profit share or some day get our name on the door. The industry is pretty good at coming up with reasons not to give you the annual 5 – 8% increase agency folk might get, there is no pay for overtime and a world cup period where festive bonus cheques comes once in a lifetime, at least it did for me. But still, I believe I charge a fair rate, so much so that the number I had in my head is actually less than I earned, before I joined an agency.

Skills

You’re the big cheese, you direct creative, so your skills are probably a little rusty. Now I’ll explain this in detail next, but to be clear, you cannot freelance as a creative director, you are a creative director freelancing in digital. So it means you have to do the work, the teams you used to manage did. You have to design, develop, art direct, write and so on. And truth be told, there’s a lot of CD’s I know who were never very good at doing any of those things before taking on the CD role, they were good at brown-nosing the man who hired them over Friday drinks. But that’s not me, as I said, I successfully freelanced for a decade prior to becoming a CD, and given that I was self-taught, I made it a habit to constantly keep learning, so despite being a CD by day, I used to study at night. I admit my confidence in this area, was not as high as I would like, but that’s only due to the high standards I aspire to for myself. I was always a believer, that I need to know as much as anyone I manage, so I can make informed decisions. I am also quite a geek, and wanted to stay up to date and engage with colleagues in my industry who were doing big things, away from managing talent within agencies.

Director

The creative part of what I do, combined with the skills I have, means I’m pretty much covered. It’s the director part that I debate, even if it’s only with myself. Good CD’s lead by doing, they have the respect of their teams cause they lead from the front, but another important thing is relationships of mutual respect. If you think it’s easy to walk into an agency and actually freelance as a CD, let me tell you, it’s tough work. Creatives in agencies have mis-guided egos, so trust me, being told to lead a team is challenging. A CD is supposed to direct creatives, and depending on the agency, be responsible for not just the teams, but the direction creativity goes within the agency, but if you’re only a temporary resource, it’s not likely you will factor into the operational or drive the vision. It has been my experience that other than being a contractor, you are rarely ever asked the CD at an agency. Often I have been asked to help with campaigns etc, but I tend to fill the role of an art director or designer. Positions on a freelance level that are not a whole lot of fun for someone who has been leading creative teams for the better part of 7 years.

Conclusion

Freelancing is supposed to be about working for yourself, choosing when, how and what you work on. Waking up late, going to bed later. Sure there’s a bunch of challenges associated with that, but for a long time I did it, producing some amazing work, that spans a client base and a network across the globe. But then things were simpler, I had no education, so I earned enough money to pay the few bills I had, but it provided me the opportunity to free up my time to learn more, usually by playing. However now, as I furiously head towards my 40’s and I’m responsible for more than just myself, but now a 6-year-old kid and some poor financial decisions, I can no longer earn what I need to be a freelancer, yet alone a freelance Creative Director. I don’t know that I have explored this in it’s entirety, so perhaps there will be a follow up post and it might only be a play on words or my own understanding of responsibility, but you might be an art director, a designer or even a contracting creative director, but you will never be a freelancing Creative Director, it simply makes no sense and you are setting yourself up to fail.

Available for hire

I have recently joined the team at Treeshake, educating people on different digital design topics, something I consider a privilege and really rewarding. In my enthusiasm I posted an update to my LinkedIn profile and have had plenty of people congratulate me on my new position, thank you. However, I only teach part-time. I am still looking for a full-time employment or freelance projects, which ever comes my way. I’m writing this post to hopefully clarify for people. If you have an opportunity, please get in touch, I’m available for hire.