At Studio Orb

Change of scene

Took a breather (that was probably too long in retrospect, but hey, it was worth it!) after leaving the National Trust, but, was always thinking about where to go and what to do next giving I had made up my mind to leave that organisation in my last year there: freelance was always going to be the main focus to slowly building my contacts and the awareness of what I was able to offer and complete to new prospective clients.

After seeking accountancy guidance and hearing of the few important details to keep in mind, after a little more consideration, I eventually went ahead and got Studio Orb set up officially as a limited company.

Picked up a couple of jobs from my previous employer the National Trust (after having serving the obligatory three-month, post-leaving-there-will-be-no-freelance-work-given-to-you thing the organisation follows) and was able to invoice and helpfully, through the business bank account I had set up for it, receive payment for those freelance efforts for them!

Also picked up some additional work, with the AHRC, through an old colleague that had a new (at the time) job there and helped a few projects along. One of them even getting, albeit slightly by association because of its wider and more important aims, praised by royalty for its stand out and effectiveness in amongst the objectives and achievements of the wider project itself.

Getting on

From a little luck I was also able to get some freelance work with an agency that was small but effective in delivering for its clients and managing its own resources to achieve the required aims and objectives.

I also picked up a job from possibly a connection of a connection but likely it was just the business finding and taking a punt on having seen Studio Orb’s website and asking me to transform their words into a suitable vision for their mission.

I always remained, however, open to checking for and being open to suitable, even full-time, opportunities in the design industry, but I wasn’t going to be jetting off anywhere just for the sake of it.

Eventually, through my own endeavours and receiving no assistance from others, I found a part-time opportunity, relatively locally, that was with a company that was trying to do something beneficial and useful for others so seemed a worthy opportunity to go for, given that its approaches and attitudes seemed a good fit to my own values.

Reality check

Despite that job not being great in the recompense stakes it was part-time and so would allow me flexibility in my schedule and a little monetary safety to paying bills and all that while slowly building my business and its connections and the opportunities in and around freelance work.

In a privileged, white-collar world, it’s taken a pandemic to prove to many (up the working hierarchy especially) to realise remote working is actually possible – certainly more so in the 21st century. It empowers staff through no, or very minimal, commuting, more trust and increased productivity all showing just how possible it is to reframe (a lot of) office-based work and show that much of it is quite unnecessary and that good things can happen from meaningful and involved change not made by top-down (and figuratively and literally distanced) people ‘in charge’.

I also explored and did get produced some product to sit alongside Studio Orb’s professional endeavours. It was a means to scratch some creative itches, test the waters for gaining and seeking interest in those things and ultimately selling a few to see that the product is appreciated, potentially the creator of them too as a respected creator and slowly add to new product being made and supporting and helping to grow what could be learned, guided and offered by the studio.

Still, all the those efforts were worth a go but didn’t quite work out.

Oh, well.

We’ll see what happens next . . .