My Story: An Introduction to RC3

Feeling responsible for someone has always made me very anxious. I never thought that I would want to hold myself responsible for someone or someone's business. Especially something as important as their image.

My first team member

While I was in school I studied computer animation with a minor in graphic design. I always enjoyed doing graphic works like ads and posters for event and club fairs. Nothing to fancy but it was fun. In my senior year my best friend -- and one of my marketing mentors who still provides guidance -- opened her first business. It was a packaging store. She asked me to assist her with her with creating her logo. This took some research and she was definitely very specific (and I mean very specific with what she wanted.) I knew how to use the programs -- knowing the programs does not make you a designer -- and knew how to design, but creating a logo is very different than posters, flyers, ads or any other materials. Most people “want” a logo, but they do not fully understand the potential a good logo has on your company. I researched and compiled many mock-ups, gave my input and showed her multiple sketches of other possibilities that her logo could have been. She loved my ideas, input, and research with combined efforts we created the logo for her first business.

This was a process that I truly enjoyed and enjoy to this day. Being responsible for a company’s image makes me really eager to see the company succeed. This feeling is something that has never gone away, and I hope it never does. It’s what keeps me focused, working hard, honest and drives the communication to the customer.

The troubles with freelancing:

One client after another and another, I realized that doing branding work, any type of branding work was my favorite. Communicating with the customer, finding out the likes and dislikes, demographics, nature of their business and how they interact with their clientele is some of the main sources of my inspirations. Something that I noticed early on was I did not want to work with large business, this was because often they did not have time to spend on adding personality to there image, it was just business for them. -- Not that there's anything wrong with that, I am just not into it, I really like to get to know who I am working with. -- Thankfully, realizing this helped me discover my target demographic early on. And until this day I seldom waiver and take on a big business. Medium size businesses are hit or miss, I like to meet with them in person before taking on the job. When meeting with the customer, I often get an idea of whether I want to take the project or not.

Turning down certain customers might sound like a terrible thing, but it's not, it can be in the best interest of your business. I can think of a few times where I should have turned down the customer, and going against my gut feeling made my project feel like a job and not fun.

My team of clients:

Though I recently haven’t been taking on new clients. I still work with my team on any new work that they have needed, I have build relationships with all my clients so an open communication system is already established with them. I have not taken new clients mostly due lack of time. If I am not able to dedicate the time and focus to produce a properly designed logo or beautifully designed web app/site. I decided not to add to my team of customer that trust and values my work. Prior to this hiatus, I looked for very specific projects and customers
  • Every project that I take gives me the opportunity to learn something new. 
  • Every project that I take need to be fun and not feel like a job. 
  • Every project that I take teaches me to work with a different personality. 
  • Every project that I need to improve or educate the customer further building their brand 
These are my criteria for selecting project have always been on the back of my mind when creating presentation, proposals, and designs for all of my customers.

Present

About two years ago I started to work at a telecommunication company. My job requires me to work with many people including developers. I often had to google terms and become more familiar with the terms the developers used, I was/am constantly learning. In researching what they were talking about it led me to start learning what I called “real” programming (I laugh now at that thought.) As time went on I slowly understood more and more. Also, my decision to learning a programming language was reinforced.

Purpose

So what leads me to start a blog? I have been reading Linchpin: Are you indispensable by Seth Godin, and he makes what I thought was a very valid point. If you want to be indispensable in what you do, people have to know what you and that you can do it right or better than others. I would like to become indispensable, one day. I know I have a lot to learn, so my goal is to document what I learn on my journey, also I would like to share suggestions and “best” practices that I have learned.

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