How I Became a Freelance Illustrator

So I looked up other freelance animators for inspiration, right? I wondered, “What do people usually write on their first post?”. After looking at a handful of them it almost felt like a pattern.

“Hi, my name is so-and-so. Worked full-time at a design studio, wanted more in life, quit and became freelance.”

Well I’m going to be a little different, then.

Hi, if you haven’t already guessed by the website name, my name is Nicky, a freelance animator, illustrator and designer. I’ve been freelancing from the start, partly because getting a full-time job in Singapore was nigh impossible as a foreigner, and partly because the freelance life sort of fit me.

Though I’m from Indonesia, I studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in Singapore for three years, netting myself a Diploma in Design & Media (Animation) with Distinction and a bunch of experience. College was vastly different than the working world, though. Granted, I’m not speaking as someone comparing a glitzy full-time job at a famous design studio, but that should only further prove my point. If I – a freelancer – can say that college life is vastly different than working life, then it must be doubly vast for people who work full time from a desk in an office.

1. It’s not your degree. It’s you

You see two portfolios in front of you. One contains shitty work from a guy with a Master’s degree, the other is some beautiful pieces from a self-educated teen. Who do you hire?

For design-related jobs especially, your work speaks louder than your certification, but that’s now what I mean when I say “it’s not your degree, it’s you."

Whenever I was given a project in college, I would research further. Find ways to make it better, go beyond what was taught to me. These days, it’s easy. Resources are everywhere, from paid to free, and all you have to do is Google them. A college education means the entire class is given the same pot of dirt, but you get to choose how much nutrients you absorb, how fast and healthily you grow, whether or not you branch out and even dip your roots in other pots.

What’s important is that you’re willing to learn, willing to spend the effort.

2. Above the sky is yet more sky

This comes up more often than you think, at around my circles. I think so much potential can be lost when you settle, when you think you’ve reached the peak, when you think you’re good enough.

Don’t dismiss yourself, no. If you’re good, you’re good! While there are hundreds of artists way better than you, there are hundreds of artists better than them, and hundreds of artists who look up to you and think you are better than them too. Just stop comparing. It’s an endless exercise. Just focus on improving what you can.

Conversely, don’t be full of yourself either. Being proud is fine, but not so when you think you don’t need to improve anymore. I look at my work with pride not because I made something good. I look at it with pride because I made something better than the last one.

This also means you should always be open to comments.

3. Fake it till you make it

Ahh yes, the third point. See, I’m going to tell you exactly how I started being a freelance animator. I lied.

When the Graduation Show for NAFA came, I was hoping my stack of business cards would dwindle fast, spreading my contact info and wait for the job offers to roll in. In reality, it was crickets and tumbleweed. I resorted to the hard way of e-mailing a bunch of places and browsing job boards, and while I got a handful of interviews, the fact that I was a foreigner always came up. It’s really hard to get a working pass in Singapore, mainly because I applied to smaller companies, who just didn’t have the capacity to hire me.

Weeks pass, then I get a phone call. Imagine the unlikelihood of this scenario: Someone got my business card from the Graduation Show, who then showed it to their friend several months after, who happened to need some animation work done. I got the call. I was ecstatic. Then I got cold for a bit.

She asked if I could do motion graphics work with After Effects.

At that point, I had never touched After Effects or done motion graphics animation in my life. So, there was only one sensible thing to do.

I lied.

I said I could do it. I wanted to be able to do it. I Googled for tutorials, I fiddled around with it myself, I did a few test animations, then I got used to the tools. I made the animation, she liked it, and she became a returning client. She in turn spread word of my services to her co-workers, who also needed animators. After doing a bunch of work for this company, a friend of someone from that company heard about it too then hired me. It was like wildfire, all originating from that first client, that first contact.

So yeah, if I can shoehorn a fourth point here….

4. A bit of luck

…because you can’t deny that it was super lucky. Person A gets my business card, hands it over to Person B who hires me, who spread the word and got co-workers Person C, D and E to hire me, then Person E told a Person F who was in a different company about me, who then yadda yadda yadda you get the picture.

What you have to keep in mind is you do indeed have some semblance of control over that luck.

Imagine if I had not printed business cards. Imagine if I didn’t take a risk and told my first client I couldn’t do motion graphics. Imagine if I didn’t impress my first client enough.

If opportunities are rare, you stand a better chance of catching one with a wider net. If 10 job applications get you 1 interview, then 100 applications get you 10 interviews.

Control the odds. Work hard. Cast a wider net. Be impressive.

There are obviously way more things to keep in mind before taking the dive to the world of employment, but for today I’ll stop it here. I’ll be sure to show you just how bad my first client work was compared to what I have now. It’s so bad that it’ll probably give prospective animators hope hahaha.

See ya.

#update #freelance #tips