David was one of my first friends here in Portland, OR. He is a Parkour coach, craftsman, and an avid lover of all things to do with letters, type, and calligraphy. He is in the middle of a 30 day personal lettering challenge right now – inspiring stuff! Dribbble just featured him on their blog & I am excited to feature him on my blog through an LFC!

Not sure what LFC is? Read this!

Enjoy these beauts of photos from our chat!

Pro Tip: Wear your glasses upside down.

What is your name?
David Grimes

What do you for a living?
I’m a freelance designer!

How do you know Jehn/David?
JG: David & I met at Startup Weekend here in Portland, OR.
DG: We met at PDX Startup weekend last November

What has inspired you lately?
Sean McCabe, Seb Lester, Evgeny Tkhorzhevsky.

One word to describe how you feel about this project:
Potential

What did you eat for breakfast today?
JG: A banana and some Chai Tea
DG: Water. =(

What did you two talk about today in the LFC meeting?
JG: We talked about how life choices influence the progress you make in life. How the people you surround yourself with, the individuals you look up to, how you spend your time – how those factors are what make who you are and are what drive you to become who you want to be.
David hand-letters everyday and usually posts his results. He is currently posting something everyday over on his Instagram. It has always been something I have admired about him – His ability to focus on that same objective day after day after day and the crazy progress he has made in his hand-lettering. He mentioned that he listens to Sean Wes’ Podcasts and one of them talked about how Sean ships what he is working on even if it is only at 90%. He used this metaphor:

Someone who writes a book that has a typo is more respected and admired than someone who has a book idea in his head.

It was overall a very refreshing conversation – Sometimes I get to wrapped up in what is happening in my work life, that I forget to stay grounded and present and how to focus on the sole reasoning behind what I am doing and why. For example, David was talking about various aspects of his life and what is going on with them & I noticed a reoccurring theme.. he has an intent for everything he does in his life, both personal & business. I overall think I am a generally balanced person, but I get caught up in the stress and I forget to let go and let be sometimes. Listening to David talk about having intent and focus grounded me today.

DG: Jehn talked about showing up, and how it’s important for us to be reliable and participate in the local design community. She’s excited about the next PDXSW and Design week next week!

I talked about a concept I had heard @firstname_galo on Twitter talking about called “making moves” and how I’m doing a 30 day streak where every day I’m going to publish a piece of lettering or calligraphy artwork. I think it’s important to preserve momentum when you’re a creative and always stay moving forward.

Did you learn anything?
JG: Today reminded me how important it is to take steps back from time to time to refocus and remember why I am doing what I am doing.
DG: That Design Week Portland has a flaw in it’s website where registering on their site doesn’t actually register you for an event…

One word to describe today’s meeting:
JG: Refreshing
DG: Overdue

Any additional comments?
JG: Show up & Make it Happen
DG: I love Jehn, she’s amazingly talented and I’m looking forward to spending more time around her. (Editor note: Awww shucks!)

Connect with David:
Website
Twitter
Dribbble

Not sure what LFC is? Read this!

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Dave & I have recently connected and I admire his approach to business and life in general – so I asked if he would like to do an LFC. I was excited to hear he was game! Enjoy!

What is your name?
“Disruptive Dave” Marcello

What do you for a living?
Inject creative kick-assery into small business marketing

How do you know each other?

JG: Interesting enough… from the Internet! I posted my first LFC post on Medium, Dave read it, felt re-inspired by the idea of connecting freelancers & the self-employed with each other as he had shelved a similar idea a while back and we decided to have a Skype chat about LFC as a whole and his original idea and just bouncing ideas off one another. I noticed we kept talking about other aspects of our careers which is what LFC is all about, so I asked him to be part of a future post, he said yes & here he are today!

DM: I read a post of hers on medium about The LFC and immediately sent her an email, wanting to get to know her (since we obviously share some similar thoughts).

What has inspired you lately?

DM: A friend who left her established corporate job to chase her dream of starting her own design agency. Also, A former client turned business partner who pushes me closer to execution when it feels safe to live in idea mode.

One word to describe how you feel about this project:

DM: Opportunistic

What did you eat for breakfast today?

JG: Black Coffee – I don’t normally skip breakfast, but today I did
DM: My Usual – Oatmeal With Cinnamon And Honey, With A Vanilla Protein Shake

What did you two talk about today in the LFC meeting?
JG: We talked heavily on pricing, which is interesting because that is what my last LFC was mainly about. Pricing is such an interesting and ongoing topic. I would love to see how every one lays out their pricing in a completely honest way. I should probably do that myself… oh, that might be scary.

We talked a lot about how important it is to price yourself at what you are worth. Meaning, if you price yourself at what you should be pricing yourself at & a client thinks it is too high, it is important to stick to what you are worth instead of completely low-balling your price. This is because, if you price yourself too low, it de-values the community as a whole and that client will always expect to get that service at a lower price than what is appropriate. (I am now stepping off my soapbox). We also touched base on freelancer sites that are out there, (guru, freelancers). Do you guys use any of those? I have looked into them but have not signed up, but am possibly thinking about it.

DM: A potential joint venture together that I am very stoked about. The need For freelancers and the self employed to connect with each other more often and in more meaningful ways. Getting Paid! How cute our dogs are. Portland as a startup community. A really cool flowery-feel-good idea Jehn Is working on.

Did you learn anything?
JG: I learned the real value of connecting with other freelancers. I learned various things from Dave today,  – a stranger that I connected with over the internet – and that is a beautiful thing. To me, that is what LFC is all about!

DM: Absolutely. I’m not the only one experiencing typical freelancer challenges. Other people yearn for connections the way I do. Importantly, opportunities are all around us; You just have to get outside your comfort zone a little to find them.

One word to describe today’s meeting:
JG: Eye-Opening

DM: Valuable.

Any additional comments?
JG: I am really happy that Dave & I connected, I am looking forward to chatting with him again.

DM: With each passing day, I’m learning more and more that unexpected greatness happens to those who love and appreciate the grind.

Connect with Dave:
Website: Disruptive Dave
Blog: My Disruption
Twitter: @DisruptiveDave

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Andrew & I had another lovely LFC!
Not sure what LFC is or want to learn more about Andrew? Read this!

We enjoy making silly faces & screen-shooting them

What did you eat for breakfast:
JG: Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk with a Banana, some Frosted Mini Wheats + Plain Cheerios all mixed together for one delicious bowl of cereal! & black coffee.

AK: 2 cups of coffee and a dark chocolate, nuts and sea salt Kind bar. Additionally I may have consumed some stray RiceWorks Sweet Chili chips.

What did you two talk about today in the LFC meeting?
JG: We started off the meeting by going over some recent projects (Web Design UI/UX) we are both working on & we gave feedback to each other on them. Andrew’s client is having him build his site using Photoshop, Illustrator &  WIX. I think the last time I remember being aware of WIX it was entirely a flash based website building platform. It was nice to see that they have upgraded to all HTML5. I did not play around with the interface, so I am unsure about the ease of use – but the project Andrew was working on looked good. If you are interested in checking it out – he recommends it.

I have been designing my project using Illustrator, Photoshop + Fireworks. To show it to my client and to Andrew I uploaded .png files to the prototyping & collaborating tool inVision App. This is my first time using InVision and so far I like it. You get a unique URL to your project to share with whomever & you can easily click through the project like a regular site & make comments where they see fit. I am about to send the project off to my developer and am really stoked to see the final project. The site is a redesign of a site I helped design about 6-7 years ago? Eshk! It was cool talking to Andrew about it, because he remembers when I first helped design it. I am planning on doing an entire blog post all about the entire process, so stay tuned!

We also talked a lot about pricing – Him & I seem to touch on that subject quite often. How do you know how much to charge? How do you know when to charge? I have a method I use… but I am sure it could be improved. I would love to create some sort of worksheet that my freelancer friends (and you guys too, if you wanted) could fill out about their pricing – we compare notes – have an open conversation & see what each of us could learn and improve on. Money is a very touchy, sensitive topic that isn’t discussed openly enough. Let’s change that….

AK: We reviewed some works in progress between the two of us and provided feedback for each other. It was fun to reference a project that I remember Jehn starting years ago and is now in redesign mode – that moment as a designer looking back at work you did back when you still drank 40’s and shopped exclusively at Ikea and wondering what in the hell you were thinking. It brings up the question of whether we are always improving as designers or are our tastes simply changing? I feel like it is a little bit of both, although I would like to think that I am exclusively growing my skill set to become the most bad ass graphic designer of all time.

Did you learn anything:
JG: I learned the value of showing my entire project to someone else. Which I generally do, but normally just parts of it. I had been designing this site from the UX to now the UI for many many hours and have been staring at it for so long, some details had been over-looked. I made some changes & while I was showing my client the site later that day, I was grateful to Andrew for giving me great feedback.

AK: I always learn something when I am taking the time to take a mental exit from my “working mind”. I think that it is a lesson in an of itself – sometimes you just need to chill out and let your brain coast and things become more clear.

One word to describe today’s meeting:
JG: Collaborative

AK: Introspective

Any additional comments:
JG: Freelancing = Hustling.

AK: How in the hell do designers decide what they charge and when? Why is it all over the place and so different from person to person???

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Not sure what LFC is or want to learn more about Andrew? Read this!

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Being a freelancer who works from home, I sometimes wish I was working in a team and office environment. Mainly due to the fact that I am missing out on interacting with other creatives in terms of sharing, learning, and experiencing together.

My friend Andrew & I were on the phone a couple weeks ago and he mentioned to me that he wanted to talk to more creative people on a regular basis and I quickly jumped at the opportunity to be one of those people. We set up a time to chat the next week during our “lunch hour” at our at home offices and the Lonely Freelancers Club (LFC) was born.

I have been following the fun experimental project: 40 days of dating. In a nutshell the project is about two single friends, who decided to date for 40 days and document the experience. What I am most drawn to is how at the end of each day they are both asked the same exact questions. What even fascinated me more about this was the different perspectives & experiences each of them had during the times they spent together. I was inspired by their project and knew I wanted to apply a similar structure to document our meetings. Since this is our first meeting, I asked introductory questions to get to know us better & then asked the general questions you will see each time.

Enjoy!

What is your name?
JG: Jehn Glynn
AK: Andrew King

Where do you live?
JG: Portland, OR
AK: Tempe, AZ

What do you for a living?
JG: Freelance Creative Designer
AK: Graphic design and consultation for various industries, mostly in the biopharma sector

How do you know Jehn/Andrew?
JG: We met while in college. We both attended the Graphic Design program at Scottsdale Community College (Incredible program if you are in the area & interested) and the Graphic Information Technology Program at ASUs Polytechnic campus.
AK: Jehn and I met long long ago in the days of community college, student loan misuse, and general rambunctious youth shenanigans.

What has inspired you lately?
JG: Understating how I internally view situations.
AK: Lately I’ve taken lots of figurative inspiration from traveling in Europe that has translated into the use of bold photography and simplified, clean design elements.

One word to describe how you feel about this project:
JG: Hopeful
AK: Invigorated

What did you eat for breakfast today?
JG: Two small bananas
AK: Cereal and a plum

What did you two talk about today in the LFC meeting?
JG: We talked about what we have been up to lately design wise along with some aspects of our careers we want to work on. I talked to Andrew about Portland’s Startup Weekend I attended and he wants to fly out and attend one with me, that makes me excited! I have a friend, Kelly Tomlinson who has opened my eyes to the whole startup community and it felt good passing the information on to someone else. (Kelly also attended SCC with us).

Andrew and I also talked about a topic I feel like no one touches on… Designers being self conscious about their work, especially when showing other designers. I have brought this idea up to some designer friends of mine and I generally get the response “I never feel that way about my work.” Which really surprises me. I didn’t even have to bring it up to Andrew, he brought it up.. Which instantly made me feel not so alone on my thought and has given me the courage to publicly talk about it.

We also talked about apps and software we like to use such as; Asana & Muse.

AK: We talked mostly about what being a freelance designer means emotionally and how we process our thoughts, feelings and related emotions as independent workers.

Did you learn anything?
JG: Yeah, I learned that it isn’t just me that feels semi-disconnected from the creative world as a freelancer that works from home & it has ensured me that us doing our LFC has already been a very positive thing.
AK: Lots. I learned that I need to leverage more often the benefits of interaction with other freelancers to remain inspired in design and abreast of industry events and trends that I may be missing otherwise.

One word to describe today’s meeting:
JG: Enlightening
AK: Insightful

Any additional comments?
JG: Andrew and I have always been friends and have always stayed it touch… But it’s great knowing that even if we don’t talk for a while, we always pick up where we left off. I am looking forward to our next LFC meeting!
AK: Not today.

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