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!
