Highgate

Exhibit A. one of a handful of current designs for tanner moore design.

Has it really almost been a week since my last post? most likely. Where to begin... As of last week, I've gone into business for myself. Things being as they are I've got over 60 hours of work a week to divide between 4 clients, 2 of which are looking to be regular long-term involvements, which is what led me to decide to give freelancing a go.

The problems there being that i haven't the slightest idea of what it takes to organize this sort of venture. Luckily that's where having alot of smart friends comes into play. I'm gonna be picking alot of brains in coming weeks. For example, I've collected (and billed.) a few times already, and upon payment i realize that no taxes have been withheld, while that makes a payment look extra special, it also makes me think about how much I'll be paying in quarterly (thanks for that tip Jay.). If i don't start setting a percentage aside, preferably in some kind of high interest bank account, i could be in a bit of financial trouble.

Next is getting things like a printer/fax/scanner - I've been needing one of these for a while, so nows a good time to pick one up. Printing invoices and all that important stuff. Setting up a business through the state, that means going to Montpelier and signing some papers, and then printing companies start sending me pens with the company name written on them in generic times font. I know the score. sort of.

I've been reading some great books on the matter over the last few months, mostly supplied to me by Jay (if didn't already know by now, Jay's has a bit of experience in the design/multimedia industry.) , two i highly recommend are Hillman Curtis's: MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice of a New Media Designer and my current read Karlssonwilker's Tell me Why: The first 24 months of a New York design company - Both are a brilliant reads, full of wit and insight into an industry already jam packed and bursting with people like myself, trying to snag clients, make a name, make a living and ultimately have some fun. It's pretty inspirational stuff, on different levels, one being to see their work and read their wisdom, and i'd say even more so for myself, to read about their mistakes, about the clients that dropped them, or projects that never made it to completion. That these guys fuck up and don't always hit the mark was shocking to me, somehow I've always imagined that these top tier firms never screw up... that they do, makes me think i might have a chance... slight as it may be.

Beyond the work and the papers, i need to start developing a website for myself, something that I've been dancing around for a while now, mostly because I'll have an idea of how i want it to look, write it down, consider it for a while, dissect it, deconstruct it's contents, rearrange it, and by the time i think i might have something i either get sick of it or see something else that shoots me off in another direction... the idea of creating a website that represents my ideas professionally as a web designer is an exciting and extremely scary idea. Now that it's become necessary I'm gonna have to bite down on something and chew... having to do it, actually makes it alot easier to, oddly enough.

Then there are business cards, letterhead, blawdy blaw - etc etc. But the work comes first and that also means keeping up with the times and doing what i can to stay on the ball, i have some decent design skills, or at least a good eye for good design, and i may be a damn fine standards based HTML/CSS coder / photoshoper, etc. There are so many areas that i need to tune up, and while i don't want to spread myself thin - it's important to have a working knowledge of all sorts of tools, who knows when i'll be asked to add AJAX functionality to older code, and even if I'm not all there on my Javascript, if i know even a bit of how it works, I'll be able to code my sites ahead of time to allow for easy integration and upgrading.

Anyway - with any luck providing the floor doesn't fall out and the sky come crashing down, (which in this industry happens, all the time.) you should be seeing alot of changes to Highgate, namely that i'll be moving. Unfortunately some douche from the south named, sadly, Tanner Moore, has already gone ahead and registered tannermoore.com (check it out, for a larf.) so i'm gonna have to see what else i can find. Perhaps a catchphrase? we'll see...