hello it's me again how you doing it's a very gray dull and
rainy day in England so I've bumped up the contrast on this video hopefully I
fixed it we will see but I thought today it would have a chatty little Q&A mainly
because I think I've all designed out I've been trying it definitely hard to
film a video this week and it just wasn't happening I think I'm all all my
creative juices are gone I need a top-up so I thought I would answer your
questions I get a lot of DMS all the time on Instagram I get a lot of
questions on Twitter and on my youtube channel and I don't always get around to
answering them because I am ignorant but today is the day so I have asked for
some questions and I've also asked for some questions that I don't usually
answer so hopefully I'll be able to cover cover some topics here I've
brought my friends hope you don't mind them joining us if you are watching this
video by the way and you aren't subscribed please do press the subscribe
button it's completely free for you to do for life and you get some good videos
hopefully hopefully I don't annoy you too much and hopefully you learn some
things question number one what made you switch from a photography to graphic
design PS I love your work thank you very much
so a bit of a back story I started doing photography around the age of 15 16 I
got obsessed with DSLR cameras and I really wanted one I saved up and I
bought myself one eventually I've just always taken photos like when we were on
holiday I always had the camera with me or the camcorder or whatever so that's
kind of where photography came into it and then I was desperate to work as a
freelance photographer which I did for a little while I registered myself as a
freelance photographer at the age of 16 and did if you like photo shoot so I did
like portrait photo shoot family photo shoots dance school photo shoots like
event photo shoots I did a lot of stuff actually I was I'm pretty impressed with
myself looking back at the time I didn't really think anything all them so then
once I kind of done that I realized there wasn't much money in being a
freelance photographer or at least in the area I live that isn't maybe I was
doing something wrong who knows but I ended up working with a local event
photographer every single weekend like 12 hours a day both days in a weekend in
between my you need I did a lot a lot photography work at
one point I actually worked six days a week photography and I think I just lost
the love for it like probably because I was wasn't doing it for myself like I
wasn't my own boss I could see too many things wrong with how things were run
and I could see I don't know I could just see other things I got fed up for
doing the same thing over and over again yes we went to different events every
weekend but it was the same thing just a different place and it was just tiring I
didn't get to see my friends or my family so I lost a lot of photography
then went to uni didn't really know what I was gonna do definitely knew I wasn't
gonna do photography and my uni course let you study like six creative areas so
I did like film TV radio script writing photography there was six altogether I
feel like I've missed one off and as we got through the years you picked the
ones you preferred and I just happened to pick graphic design so there wasn't
really real tactical reason as to why I chose graphic design in photography but
looking back I understand why I have that was a long-winded answer wasn't it
let's try and keep them short from now on
are you buying your own house yes yes I am
while I'm buying it I don't know I have an icer account and basically it lets
you get free money from the government I think they're closing that soon actually
I put some info in the description if you're in the market for house buy it
I've saved up a chunk of money but I definitely need to save up some more I'm
always on Rightmove looking at houses I can't afford I'm
also not 100% sure where I want to live I know I don't want to live too far away
from Doncaster my parents house where I am now because family is a big thing for
me but I want to make sure I'm like near a train station so I can get to London
pretty fast near the motorway so I can drive wherever I want pretty fast but
not in this same area but also affordable but there's a lot of things
what I do definitely want to buy a house I look at a lot of Pinterest boards
around houses I've already got a collection of things up in the loft for
my future house I don't yet own I've got pans I've got a kettle a toaster all
that kind of stuff so it's coming it's coming
and you bet I'll be vlogging it do you pay for everything for your boyfriend no
I don't I am a stickler for making sure everything is fair I want to do it half
and half like even when we go to dinner we'll make sure we're either pain
equally or taking interns you know I pay for everything equally and I feel like
that's what you should do that's what I've always thought you should do anyway
do you ever speak to your older sister I actually saw her the other day we don't
see each other very often she's got six kids and she's much older than me but
yeah we see her as and when I go and visit them and yeah yes I do
some people might be confused by that but my dad has a daughter from a
previous relationship do you still talk to your old friends from uni I do and I
am very glad I do I'm actually going to see Jade daddles soon we've booked a
little date in for me to go to Lincoln and go visit which I'm excited about cuz
I've not seen Lincoln or Jade for a long time
message Matti yesterday I'm sure you can all remember Matty he was giving me
design advice for my and I'm all pins that hopefully you guys voted on on
Instagram they'll be coming up to my shop very soon by the way and also
Leonard I spoke to learn I like two days ago three days ago I went to see Sigrid
and Sigrid is from Norway so is Leonard it's my message Linda like I miss you do
you still talk to your ex now do you ever wish you didn't work freelance or
do YouTube and did something different sometimes I don't wish I did because if
I felt like that I probably would just kind of give it up and go and do
something else but I do wonder sometimes what it'd be like to have a normal job
and then I realized that you have to wake up at the same time every day you
have to finish at the same time a day generally anyway most jobs and you also
have to be told what to do because you're not your own boss so the more I
think about it the more I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing but there are
things I wish I had which obviously I won't get as a freelancer I would love a
Christmas party I'd love to be able to like go down to the pub with my pals
from work but then again would I actually go missus anti-social probably
not but yeah I miss like look the little work
community but I'm also not getting the drama not getting the boss and I get to
sleep whenever I want how to start a stationary ecommerce so
how to start a stationary shop I'll let you know when I've done it because all I
have is prints at the moment soon to be enamel pins which I'm very excited to
release and then I will be doing stationary soon I say just do it look at
the prices and make sure you're making money per unit and go for it start small
build it up that's like new did you go to school for graphic design I sort of
did I didn't study a graphic design degree I studied a degree called media
production I graduated last September so September 2018 in my final year I did
specifically graphic design but the entirety of the three years wasn't just
graphic design and I know for a fact that the graphic design course at that
uni is completely different and a million times harder so I probably know
an eighth of the stuff the actual graphic design students know but I'm
picking it up as I go along so yeah I didn't actually study graphic
design feel like a bit of a fraud always winging it but I feel like you don't
need a degree in graphic design you don't need to have gone to school for it
when there are so many things online for you to teach yourself via and at the end
of the day your clients generally don't really care what degrees and
qualifications you've got as long as they get in a good design out of you so
yeah would you prefer to be working in a design agency as an in-house designer or
freelance definitely freelance because that's what I do right now and I like
the freedom however kind of going back onto like do I wish I had a normal job
effectively it would be interesting to do in-house graphic design for a little
bit just to kind of learn more about the process like the corporate side of
things that would be interesting I'd I wouldn't be against doing like a actual
in-house design job for maybe two days a week so I still had time to do my own
thing but it's trying to find something flexible enough for me to be able to
like pop down to London when this event you know some
one day in the future I could do that I'm open to the idea of it I'd love to
do that I just need to actually do it most annoying client experience so
there's not one in particular there's been like a handful that just made me
want to pull my teeth out or my hair or both to be fair it's nothing that
they've done purposely it's just a lack of understanding and it makes the whole
process so frustrating like it's my job as a graphic designer to interpret your
words or your kind of vague ideas and put it into a final product the trouble
is when the client doesn't know their ideas that's when it gets frustrating so
especially when like recently I nearly completed a logo and then we got right
to the end we were almost ready to sign it off battery died we were almost ready
to sign it off it had already been a painful process and they changed their
mind right at the end and sillily from my point I trashed a fixed rate so I did
probably triple the amount of work that I had charged for so it was frustrating
and I was losing money at the same time oh this one's interesting financially
could you survive and thrive off of the money you make only from graphic design
work so no I don't think I would I've never really sat down and worked it out
specifically but I although I don't really have any major outgoings like I
pay for my phone and pay for my car I pay for like my Adobe subscription and
like all the internet stuff all that kind of stuff but obviously I don't pay
for my own house I don't have a mortgage so that is where I wouldn't know whether
I'd be able to afford it or not right now just my graphic design work would
definitely not be able to pay for a mortgage and a life and it's definitely
a combination of the two which I'm quite happy about although I do want to put
more focus into the graphic design side of things I would like to shift my own
income a little bit so it's sort of 5050 from youtube and graphic design
hopefully I'll get there I'm interested to see if the balance is different this
year I did like a pie-chart video last year
and I had like the majority of my income coming from YouTube which scares me
because this platform could close tomorrow and I'd be screwed so I want to
make it like 50/50 and see where that goes well it's a work in progress tips
for getting started with YouTube just do it if you're thinking about it do it
stop thinking about it just get it done because the more time you waste the less
time you have to practice and get used to it you don't need a fancy camera you
just need to sit in front of a window you don't need any lights I don't have
any lights on me right now I'm just sat in front of the window in my office I've
got a really cheap tripod I've had for years and I've got a little tiny camera
on top of it you don't need like a big camera big lens big microphone anything
like that just natural light and a semi-decent camera will be great even
the new phone cameras like if you've got a decent iPhone or one of the fancy
smartphones you could totally use that as prop it up and film from that ooh
can you talk through your decision to get an agent how early in your career
did you get one so it has been almost exactly a year since I had an agent I
like to call it in management but I suppose it's the same thing so
effectively my manager gets me work he deals with the emails he negotiates the
price like how much I should charge for my services and this is just YouTube
wise he does not do any of the negotiation or emails or anything of a
graphic design work I'm working on that I do want someone to do that for me but
yeah YouTube side of things I've had a manager for a year and how did I go
about it it got to the point where I was spending more time replying to emails
and chasing people up than I was creating and it was taking the love out
of it for me that's not why I started so I knew that I needed someone to take
that part off my hands and kind of lessen the burden I guess so actually my
money manager approached me he'd emailed me and it was the first management
company that approached me that I actually kind of had an interest in he
obviously must have said something right in that first email because within a
couple of hours we were on the phone chatting about it and a couple of weeks
later I was signed alright last couple of questions are you
going to move out anytime soon hopefully soon I said last year that I would like
to have kind of got the ball rolling house-buying by this time this year
obviously that's not happened but I think next year hopefully fingers
crossed that will be when I'll will be properly looking for houses go into like
a mortgage advisor and all that stuff so hopefully next year but things change
money happens life happens when you might not happen
so I'll figure it out and I'll let you know
all right last question is it too late for a 22 year old like me to start
learning design by being self-taught need your opinion and advice no it's
never too late if you wanted to start a new kind of skill go for it 22 is not
old at all I'm 24 and if I decided tomorrow I wanted to learn animation I'd
go and do it like if you have the passion and the drive and the motivation
teach yourself something new even if it's just for a couple of hours in the
evening couple of times a week you'll be able to pick things up slowly it's all
about practice I wouldn't limit yourself to the thing that you already do in like
don't just narrow your life down to like one vocation one thing I will do this
one thing and I will be good at it I think it's good to have a lot of talents
and to kind of hone down in on the ones that you have the most passion in and
hopefully develop them further and then eventually might be able to make some
money from it but yeah if you've got passion currently go for it there's not
an age where you're gonna be too old ever alright I feel like that's a good
question and to end on I hope you enjoyed this little chatty video
hopefully next week I'll be back on the design game and with all my motivation
back I've just been so busy designing the pins and I'm designing greetings
cards and stuff like that so hopefully there'll be new products on a soul on
fire very soon to show for my lack of videos thanks again hope you subscribe
if you enjoyed this video and I'll see you soon
for another one bye