With a lot of hard work, and definitely some luck too, I had my dream job (or what I thought was my dream job all through college) of being an Art Director at a magazine in the media capital of the world, just two years out of college. Setting up photoshoots, working with illustrators, doing a lot of photo styling, designing layouts. I thought that was about as good as it got.
2 years later though I was bored. While the actual work wasn't bad by any means, working at a magazine was pretty repetitive. I also realized that I would much rather be doing the art, then the one directing it. Luckily I had always taken on a lot of design/illustration work on the side, and eventually had enough work to quit and do it full time. So two weeks into the US market crash in 2007, when everyone else was desperately holding onto their jobs like grim death, I quit and started my own studio.
I've been doing it ever since, and it was the best decision of my life. What I love most about my job is that every week is different, and every client provides a new challenge. Some days I am doing work for some Fortune500 company, the next day I'm designing identities for some mom and pop operation.
On the downside, as any business owner knows, everything is on you. There is no such thing as "checking out" from work, there is no such thing as paid vacation, and every good or bad decisions is the result of your actions, no excuses. That, and the more successful a business gets, the more of a managerial role you have to play instead of your core competency. I spend half of my days these days writing emails and managing projects, while my junior designers do the fun stuff.
All in all though, I think I have it pretty good.
|