(EDIT: Contest is now closed. Winner and correct answers here.) As a character designer I'm fascinated with product mascots. A good mascot, when combined with a strong ad campaign, can be an enormous benefit when promoting a product or service. My favorite freelance projects are when clients hire me to design a mascot or character, either for advertising or animation. To help...
I've had a Facebook account for a while now and have found it to be a terrific way to stay in touch with friends, clients, and other artists. It's also a great way to meet new people and make stronger connections in the industry. While there's no substitute for personal one-on-one relationships, Facebook makes it possible for me to stay...
My friend and fellow illustrator Tom Richmond recently posted this YouTube video on his blog. It's a hilarious illustration of the ways some clients will try to take advantage of freelancers. Fortunately I don't run into this kind of thing much anymore. My clients for the most part have been great and treat me like a total professional, and I've...
The second annual Creative Freelancer Conference (sponsored by HOW Magazine and Marketing Mentor) will be held in San Diego August 26-28, 2009. I attended last year's conference in Chicago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though I've been freelancing for over twelve years I still picked up quite a few tips and tricks. As a result of what I learned I've...
My wife and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Los Angeles to visit clients and to attend the NCS Reubuens Awards Weekend. We started off the weekend meeting with one of my favorite clients, Ray Comfort (evangelist, author, and co-host of the TV series The Way of the Master with actor Kirk Cameron). We were given a tour of their...
As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend I had the privilege of meeting animator and author Tom Sito. I just wanted to take a moment to plug his book, Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. You are probably thinking it would be hard to come up with a more...
