FA+
Shop
Update: Commission Status and Life/Job: PROMOTION!
10 years ago
Heya guys, I know I'm not typically a person who uploads multiple journals in a short amount of time, but I felt a new journal was needed for a) keeping updated with my current, new commission list and b) to let you guys know of some awesome news at work! :D This is gonna be kind of a long journal, so if you're here for the commissions updates, they'll be right here, right up front. ^^
Commission List Status!
1.
Saber_Glo Progress: Sketched (PAID)
2.
Sasuki Progress: Sketching
3.
takeachancemica Progress: Sketching
4.
SchrodingersFeline Progress: Sketching
5.
empirewolf13 Progress: Not yet started
6.
karmadragon Progress: Not yet started
7.
Corezy Progress: Not yet started
But yeah, the rest of this stuff will be all life/job updates! Whoo! Let's get started~
As the title says, I received a promotion at work on Friday! I had my yearly review and it went VERY well- my bosses are very pleased with me (I have three bosses; one is my direct boss in the office, another is a boss for the plant who I also report to, and the third is the CEO of the company himself) and as of late, as you guys may have picked up on through my various updates on recent commissions, I've been doing a bunch of graphic design projects for my CEO (I'll call him "T" for now), and while T has given me many a headache with some of these projects, they've also all gone well and T has told me that he's chosen ME over his previous designer that he commissioned work from when he first started the company to be the new graphic designer for the entire company.
Now, I won't change jobs immediately- between now and the next 6 months I will be "transitioning" away from what I currently do (counting/printing emails, stamping/sorting papers, etc) and moving into an office, away from a cubicle, with a computer set-up to help with growing the company in regards to advertising, promotions, social media networking, etc etc. I am INCREDIBLY nervous about all what this entails, since I still don't feel 100% qualified for all that he wants me to do, but T told me during my review that he thinks I am a "diamond in the rough" and wants to help me 'grow' and become a polished graphic designer, tailor-made for his company to help it grow.
As far as my thoughts on this go, well, I still have a lot of fears and doubts regarding the two scary words "graphic design". I have a bachelor's of fine arts, yes, in ANIMATION. I took only TWO classes on Graphic Design... the first one, I busted my butt, worked my heart out and got a C+, because, while my professor acknowledged my hard work, he told me many times that I just "didn't have it", that my stuff wasn't of "professional quality" and that I "wouldn't make it as a designer". The second one, I lasted three days before breaking down crying (I kid you not) in the middle of class, the first and only time I walked out of a class during my four and a half years of college, because I couldn't understand anything we were doing, and I dropped the course that same day. So... You guys can probably tell from that alone my fears/wariness of becoming a "Graphic Designer"... Even with all the projects T had me do over the past half year, I never really thought any of them were good or stuff, but, hey, I guess T thinks they were?
This is, of course, NOT to say that I'm not excited about this. On the contrary, I am SO thrilled and SO ready for this! Holy crap! I've been living at my parents' house for the past year because the salary which I had been paid for this printing-counting-stamping-filing job was not anywhere near enough to cover all my expenses- including paying off my car AND student loans. However, this this promotion... comes a SUBSTANTIAL pay raise. I'm talking enough that I can now afford an apartment. I can get OUT of my parents house and start being INDEPENDENT. Start LIVING the life I want to live! Of course, my dad (and negative-nancy sister) have been cautioning me to wait and save up, but they don't realize that I HAVE been saving up, this past year living at my parents' house. I HAVE enough money to jump into an apartment.
Thanks to you guys.
Thanks to the money I earned at TFF...
Thanks to the commissions you all have thrown at me, and the work I've thrown myself into making art this past year...
I have enough saved up.
And tomorrow (3/23) I'm going to be visiting my first apartment complex to check it out and tour it and see about moving in as soon as possible. I'm going to, over the next few days, write down and figure out and budget how much it will take for me to afford an apartment (though I know I will be able to) and what money I will have left over to continue saving and putting aside, becoming more and more independent with each step.
This is it.
It's scary, it's uncertain, it's doubtful and it's thrilling. For a long time I've felt stuck in a depression, a rut, because of my place of living; my parents' house. I turned 24 two weeks ago and I loathe that, as an adult, I'm still forced to use my parents as a crutch. Living here has been an incredible damper on me and my life- my only escape, every day, has been FA and drawing for you guys, some youtube and video games, Skype friends, and basically the world contained in my computer in a corner of my room. Anywhere else in the house is misery for me... But now, I'll be able to move into an apartment of my own, and be in an entire 'house', with a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, all that I can feel comfortable and myself in.
I realize that I'm probably ranting now... haha... I guess I'll close it off with a lovely tldr;
I received a pay raise at work which will let me move into an apartment very soon. I will also be taking on a new job as a Graphic Designer which I am nervous but excited for. And you guys are the reason I have saved up enough money to move out of my parents' house. So, thank you.
With all that saaaaaaaaaaaaid...
This might be the longest journal I've made in a while... xD; Like I said, I'm still very scared about all this. I feel like I'm walking a tightrope out of hell- I'm going to a better place, yes, and I now have a route to that better place, a way to get there, that I didn't have before- but it's still a tightrope, I could fall at any moment and the darkness is looming beneath me just waiting to swallow me if or when I make the slightest slip-up... But I've been in hell for far too long, and I'm going to keep walking that tightrope no matter how scared I get. I need to get out of this darkness. I WILL get out of it.
And you guys help me out so much.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I love doing this for you guys and it's thanks to you I'll be able to move in much quicker than what others in my life are trying to make me wait for.
No more waiting!
Time to see all what my life's got in store for me! :D
Like always...
Ya'll are awesome!
-Tigger
Commission List Status!
1.
Saber_Glo Progress: Sketched (PAID)2.
Sasuki Progress: Sketching3.
takeachancemica Progress: Sketching 4.
SchrodingersFeline Progress: Sketching5.
empirewolf13 Progress: Not yet started6.
karmadragon Progress: Not yet started7.
Corezy Progress: Not yet startedBut yeah, the rest of this stuff will be all life/job updates! Whoo! Let's get started~
As the title says, I received a promotion at work on Friday! I had my yearly review and it went VERY well- my bosses are very pleased with me (I have three bosses; one is my direct boss in the office, another is a boss for the plant who I also report to, and the third is the CEO of the company himself) and as of late, as you guys may have picked up on through my various updates on recent commissions, I've been doing a bunch of graphic design projects for my CEO (I'll call him "T" for now), and while T has given me many a headache with some of these projects, they've also all gone well and T has told me that he's chosen ME over his previous designer that he commissioned work from when he first started the company to be the new graphic designer for the entire company.
Now, I won't change jobs immediately- between now and the next 6 months I will be "transitioning" away from what I currently do (counting/printing emails, stamping/sorting papers, etc) and moving into an office, away from a cubicle, with a computer set-up to help with growing the company in regards to advertising, promotions, social media networking, etc etc. I am INCREDIBLY nervous about all what this entails, since I still don't feel 100% qualified for all that he wants me to do, but T told me during my review that he thinks I am a "diamond in the rough" and wants to help me 'grow' and become a polished graphic designer, tailor-made for his company to help it grow.
As far as my thoughts on this go, well, I still have a lot of fears and doubts regarding the two scary words "graphic design". I have a bachelor's of fine arts, yes, in ANIMATION. I took only TWO classes on Graphic Design... the first one, I busted my butt, worked my heart out and got a C+, because, while my professor acknowledged my hard work, he told me many times that I just "didn't have it", that my stuff wasn't of "professional quality" and that I "wouldn't make it as a designer". The second one, I lasted three days before breaking down crying (I kid you not) in the middle of class, the first and only time I walked out of a class during my four and a half years of college, because I couldn't understand anything we were doing, and I dropped the course that same day. So... You guys can probably tell from that alone my fears/wariness of becoming a "Graphic Designer"... Even with all the projects T had me do over the past half year, I never really thought any of them were good or stuff, but, hey, I guess T thinks they were?
This is, of course, NOT to say that I'm not excited about this. On the contrary, I am SO thrilled and SO ready for this! Holy crap! I've been living at my parents' house for the past year because the salary which I had been paid for this printing-counting-stamping-filing job was not anywhere near enough to cover all my expenses- including paying off my car AND student loans. However, this this promotion... comes a SUBSTANTIAL pay raise. I'm talking enough that I can now afford an apartment. I can get OUT of my parents house and start being INDEPENDENT. Start LIVING the life I want to live! Of course, my dad (and negative-nancy sister) have been cautioning me to wait and save up, but they don't realize that I HAVE been saving up, this past year living at my parents' house. I HAVE enough money to jump into an apartment.
Thanks to you guys.
Thanks to the money I earned at TFF...
Thanks to the commissions you all have thrown at me, and the work I've thrown myself into making art this past year...
I have enough saved up.
And tomorrow (3/23) I'm going to be visiting my first apartment complex to check it out and tour it and see about moving in as soon as possible. I'm going to, over the next few days, write down and figure out and budget how much it will take for me to afford an apartment (though I know I will be able to) and what money I will have left over to continue saving and putting aside, becoming more and more independent with each step.
This is it.
It's scary, it's uncertain, it's doubtful and it's thrilling. For a long time I've felt stuck in a depression, a rut, because of my place of living; my parents' house. I turned 24 two weeks ago and I loathe that, as an adult, I'm still forced to use my parents as a crutch. Living here has been an incredible damper on me and my life- my only escape, every day, has been FA and drawing for you guys, some youtube and video games, Skype friends, and basically the world contained in my computer in a corner of my room. Anywhere else in the house is misery for me... But now, I'll be able to move into an apartment of my own, and be in an entire 'house', with a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, all that I can feel comfortable and myself in.
I realize that I'm probably ranting now... haha... I guess I'll close it off with a lovely tldr;
I received a pay raise at work which will let me move into an apartment very soon. I will also be taking on a new job as a Graphic Designer which I am nervous but excited for. And you guys are the reason I have saved up enough money to move out of my parents' house. So, thank you.
With all that saaaaaaaaaaaaid...
This might be the longest journal I've made in a while... xD; Like I said, I'm still very scared about all this. I feel like I'm walking a tightrope out of hell- I'm going to a better place, yes, and I now have a route to that better place, a way to get there, that I didn't have before- but it's still a tightrope, I could fall at any moment and the darkness is looming beneath me just waiting to swallow me if or when I make the slightest slip-up... But I've been in hell for far too long, and I'm going to keep walking that tightrope no matter how scared I get. I need to get out of this darkness. I WILL get out of it.
And you guys help me out so much.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I love doing this for you guys and it's thanks to you I'll be able to move in much quicker than what others in my life are trying to make me wait for.
No more waiting!
Time to see all what my life's got in store for me! :D
Like always...
Ya'll are awesome!
-Tigger
As you said, if the boss has already chosen you over the existing designer then you know that you've been doing something right. :) I wouldn't stress too much about the "graphic design" title, though--just give it your all and don't be afraid to do some research on the net for inspiration, tips, and tricks. And, if your work will pay for you to go to a conference for professional development, check this one out:
https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/91114
I've been to that conference for the past 4 years (sadly not going this year) and it is amazing. It has tracks targeted towards in-house design teams (what you would be--designers that work full time for a company instead of the company hiring an outside firm to do the job), freelance designers, managers, etc., and all of it is centered around the creative industry.
Do you know what kind of projects they'll have you working on? Anything in particular that you are stressing about and looking for help/advice with? While my degree isn't in graphic design explicitly, I have had to do a decent amount of it on the job (including learning a good deal from the graphic designers on our team, heh) and I would be happy to offer any advice or whatnot that I can. :) You can do this! :D
Happy apartment shopping, and congrats again on such a wonderful opportunity!
As far as the projects, my boss listed off a bunch of social media sites like twitter, facebook, linkedin, and how he wants to get our company on those sites to spread our image and become more widely known. One of our biggest competitors recently went under a week or so ago so my boss has been scrambling with advertising to try and scoop up all the business that used to go to that company. xP A lot of what I make for him are inserts for print magazines, or full-page advertisements, or email-blasts for promos, etcetera. I also designed a few banners for him to put on some pull-out banners that he was taking to an expo. So... yeah. All new to me stuff, but at the same time I've been willing to tell T that yes I'm new to this but all he needs to do is tell me what he wants and I'll make it to the best of my abilities. It's worked so far... ^^'
And what I'm mostly worried about is that I'm not really 'qualified' to do all this stuff. I don't have any degree, certification, or even a professor's nod of approval in design work. On the contrary, I was flat-out told (politely) that I'd never be a professional graphic designer. And yet if there's one thing I've learned from working with T is that as long as I please my boss, it doesn't matter who else thinks the design is good or bad. I've made designs for him I've hated but hey, as long as he likes it, then that's what I need to focus on. xP What I'd really like to do is take, I dunno, an online college course about graphic design or something, or a crash-course on working professionally with Illustrator/InDesign (I have basic knowledge on those software, etc, but no professional skills or fluency)... Y'know, just to feel more confident about my knowledge on the basics when I sit down and start working on a project. And even if T doesn't offer or pay for them, I may end up taking said classes on my own time to make myself feel better. I guess we'll see how that pans out. xP
Goodness, I'm making you read so much... xD; I'm sorry! And again thank you SO much for your kind words! ;_; Makes me want to jump through the screen and give ya a big hug (while covertly stealing some of your graphic design talent that I must learn~)!
Hmm...ok, based off of this reply I absolutely think that the HOW Design Conference would be an excellent thing for you to attend. It could even be good for T to go to as well (or whoever the "creative team" manager would be) as they added a track last year for managing creative teams and it was good stuff. They will absolutely talk about the different social media strategies and whatnot.
For technical details on software, another thing to ask for (or just get a personal subscription) is Lynda.com:
http://www.lynda.com/
TONS of great video tutorials on just about anything you could ask for. If I think of any other good resources I'll send 'em your way, but it's past my bedtime so the brain is just a tad fuzzy (no fandom pun intended :P).
He he, I will take a rain check on that hug for TFF 2016! Though you might be hugging Nullstrukt instead of Kaynus if everything goes well. And no stealing necessary! If it will help, I can note you my personal email and you can ask me all the design stuff you want (and I will do my best to answer, heh). Independence and pride in what you do are both huge things, and I want you to succeed in this! :)
I've heard of Lynda.com before, actually! All good things, too- when I was in one of my Maya courses, our professor took a few tutorials off Lynda for modeling and rigging and gave them to us as "lesson plans". :P And no worries! Get your fuzzy brain to sleep! xP
Aaahh thanks so much for everything, you're super super awesome. ;w; I'd love to get a hug from Nullstrukt next year (or Kaynus, hey, he's great too!), definitely can't wait for that, haha! ^^ I'll let you know if/when I hear more back from T about the position and what other graphic stuff I'll be needing to do for him... So far things seem to be going smooth with the projects we're doing (he's even going to start paying me overtime by the hour for projects I take home to work on, instead of just giving me a flat 'bonus' like he used to do) so, hey, I can only go up from here! :3
This is a lot of fantastic, albeit terrifyin changes in the works, but you seem to be handling it very well, and like I said, Im proud of you ^_^
Kudos, congrats, and best of luck with everything and Id personally love, if its not too much trouble, to continue to hear pdates as things progress! Ill be the first to say I have literally zero knowledge of, or experience with, graphic design, but Ive watched you improve tremendously both mentally, becoming more stalwart and disciplined as an artist, and physically as your art style has evolved and expanded, so I have complete faith that you will do just fine in your new position as you transition!
Also hope you still have time for art with all the changes, I really want to get a ref sheet next time you open for commissions :)