Hi guys. I'm wanting a place to be home w/ like-minded peeps

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#1

Figured i’d come say hello to other creative individuals who may be needing to talk with someone else.

My apologies ahead of time, this is sort of a rant, sort of scatological thoughts.

Hiya :smiley:

So, i’m a old school graphic designer, mostly self taught with a lot of digital design up my sleeve. got into the biz in 1995-1996 right out of high school. worked at the same ad network for about 10 years from 2006-2015, made ads for big brands and in-house products…

Made most of my work in Macromedia/Adobe Flash… I had trouble finding work and rent and bills just got to be too much.

These days, i’m homeless living in florida. trying to get more freelance work while job hunting for a full-time gig in my career as visual designer/artist.

My portfolio is ugly due to a) not being able to post client work or work from my full-time gigs and because i want my portfolio to look over the top but don’t feel i have the time to make it happen.

eh… can’t make excuses… but it is nice to talk… i feel alone in this world of millions. hopefully someone reads this and wants to talk. if not… at least i put my feelers out there with this post.

I guess I could just start with a clean slate, white page, put a graphic on it and nicely spaced out text… (I’ve thought about this before and then just get overwhelmed in my thoughts… then I think: “wordpress will show a much better job then the minimal work i’m putting together… am i wasting my time?”)

Back in the day i used to be a part of a lot of online forums and live online chats where we’d exchange critiques and grow together… it’s a great thing to be a part of a community like that. Thanks for being here GDF.

Sometimes just posting something like this makes your vision become clear… sort of like organizing all your thoughts and pow, a laser pointer shows you the way.

Here’s to that white page with content soon to have new stuff on it.

-Line

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#2

Welcome Aboard Line :slight_smile:

You are in a tough situation for sure. I don’t really have too many sage words. But, you are welcome here and someone is always around and we talk about all sorts of stuff.

I was really into the whole live chat/video thing back in the day. I was a fixture in PalTalk … God… hurts to even say the name LOLOL :smiley: It was very freeing when I yanked myself away and never looked back. It was an odd form of addiction. It was scary.

Forums on the other hand, I love … I’ve been a part of them since the very early 90’s and stayed with them until they all pretty much faded away. We are lucky to still have this forum and it’s filled with some amazingly smart folks who are always willing to lend a helping hand. :heart:

Glad you found us. :slight_smile:

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#3

Hi RedKittieKat,
Thanks for the kind words!
PalTalk, I haven’t heard of that one. I feel bad that I missed that one. I used to be on AOL making my own web design chat, digital art chat rooms… also was on a chat site called collaboration.nl and on one more major site I forgot the name of.

1 Like
#4

Hey, you’re not alone. Feel free to post whatever you want here. I know people will help any way they can – though it may just be advice and encouragement. I know sometimes it makes you feel better just to get something off your chest.

I can’t answer this question for you, but it’s one you have to ask. Is it time for you to expand your search and look for work outside of the creative industry? This isn’t an indictment of your work or skills. This industry can be a beast to keep up with. I’m not sure where you are in Florida, what the creative scene is like there, what the job market is like, how many creatives are looking for work, etc.; but these are things you need to take into account. I’d say your highest priority is getting into a position that will get some income generated so you can get a small place and get off the street. If that’s not in the creative field, so be it. Once you get back on your feet, you can do an assessment, update your portfolio, hone some skills, learn some new skills, and figure out how to get back in the creative field. But don’t let a desire to be in the creative field be your downfall. There’s nothing wrong with getting a job doing whatever to get stabilized and get back on your feet. Also, you need to do am honest self evaluation of yourself and figure out what got you on the street. I won’t ask as that’s a pretty personal question. If you ended up on the street because you had to have a Starbucks every morning and had to have satellite TV and had to have this and had to have that, that sort of behavior needs to change. If that comes across as harsh, I’d say “sorry” and “not sorry.” My goal isn’t to kick you when you’re down. But it would be a disservice to tell you that you can have all of the goodies while you’re trying to get your life back together. Take whatever job you can, put food in your stomach, pay your rent and utilities, and chart a path forward.

I’m not exactly sure what you’re saying or asking here. WordPress is largely where it’s at with websites these days. If your goal is to get into website design or work in a web design or web development position at an agency / studio, yeah, you better know WP.

If you’re talking about putting together a WP site for yourself, yes, it would be a great endeavor. But, again, you need to make sure your basic needs are being taken care of before your worry about what platform your website is built on.

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#5

Welcome home.

1 Like
#6

Hiya Steve_O,

Thanks for your awesome response! I appreciate the welcome! :smiley:

I wish it were starbucks and satellite. I just got creamed with rent getting raised three times and the commute to work going up in cost… then i a low salary full-time gig after my 9year gig which i had to get freelance work on the side to help pay for the commute… well, when i get let go from that job without severance… that killed me.

yeah, definitely have dwindled all expenses to bare necessities and am eating on a few dollars a day now :smiley:

I am currently working out of my field full time in sales but at min wage just to help pay bills while living out of my car. Hoping to get back into the swing of things. I do like working with people, that’s why I like my sales gig. Nice environment, nice coworkers, great customers, great management. If I can get my old debts paid… could be awesome! :smiley: Will take freelance until then.

In regards to WP… Yes, I am also a web designer. Back in the day I considered myself - and still do, a Multimedia Designer. Doing everything from illustration to design to animation and web site design and Flash animated / interactive sites. I loved doing it… now html5 seems to be the way to go but to me requires more coding than I want to do.

So yeah, I mentioned a white page just to put some graphic / visual art and design samples on just to get work on a page that looks clean. Then, do a over the top site when I have time.

Thanks again Steve_O!

#7

Thanks grfkdzgn! :smiley:
-Line

#8

damn man…
why you don’t move to a cheap country, get a dual citizenship
where I live you can buy a home for 10k$ and never pay for renting an apartment again,you can live from 400-500$ a month
electricity,water,internet is 60$
you can spend the rest on food and clothes
as a freelancer 500$ a month is doable I think
however there are downturns, the unemployment rate is around 70%. chances to find a job equals zero.