Mint

Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Margot will be here on Mint each Monday, and Ellie will be over on Pitch Design Union at the same time.

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After Ellie shared her blogging history on Pitch last week, there’s been some interesting commenting going on about why and what leads people to blog and how they finally take the plunge into it. You guys got me mulling about my own background in the medium and the part it plays in my career as a freelance designer.

Back in 2004, I’d cobbled together a life that I barely knew what to do with. I was a brand-new grad with a Jr. Designer job, lonely and bored in new city where I hardly knew anyone. Lacking in creative inspiration and longing for more community, I picked up a design magazine one slow day at work and poof I discovered what blogs were. HOW had done a piece on Under Consideration and from then on something clicked and I was completely hooked. And by hooked I mean obsessed, and by the time Google Reader launched I was already a “heavy user”. I jumped quickly from a small handful of big name blogs (even then Dooce was huge) to more widespread topics and themes, fascinated by all the things people could present in this new medium.

During all this, I kept my habit under wraps because a lot of people write off blogs & blog-reading as a self-indulgent dalliance. A productivity-hindrance instead of a legit form of community & inspiration. Still, I absorbed everything I could find and I always knew I would join the community myself one day. It took getting laid off in September of 2008 for me to actually get my act together and get Pitch off the ground.

If I wasn’t enough of an internet addict before, I definitely am now. I have an average of 50 tabs open in Firefox at any given time, sometimes in multiple windows, which admittedly is a bit out of control. I rely heavily on the internet for any kind of project inspiration, it is my train of thought, launch pad, sketchbook and extension of my social life. There’s a real sense of instant gratification seeing so many different things, ideas and concepts instantly, reading people’s specific & unique views. It feels fresh & raw; endlessly flexible and un-curated. The more the better and it’s yours for the finding.

However, my most favorite thing about blogging and what it does for me is that it’s a point of contact. It gives me the ability to approach someone online and off and say, ” Hey I run this website (credibility), it’s about (x) and I love your work, can I post it/ask you about it/etc.” And there you have a new contact. It’s pretty easy and super fun to hear what people have to say. I honestly attribute my continued ability to stay afloat freelancing because of this. Especially so on a dark day when I’m barely scraping by, because there is always another resource to seek out and start talking to. Because it might even lead to a paying gig.

So if you’ve If you’re unhappy with your work or clients, start a blog. You’ll find like-minded people, and thus the greater chance of being hired to do work you want to do. And with better clients, as Ellie said her last post: “instead of asking me to make their logo bigger, they trust my judgement and also hold me to a high standard.” Indeed, sista. New better clients and better work in the end. So true. So do it. Start your blog. And send me the link, will you? You know I will want to read it.

{Photo Credit: Diagram of Geek Culture [ed note: ie- Internet Culture too] by Ibrahim Evsan. Via Fast Company + Steve Heisler.}