Re-imagining the World One Mouthful at a Time . . . . .

Time for a New Sketchbook

17 July 2011

Being a Designer I know how important it is to have a new 'Sketchbook'

Being a Designer I know how important it is to have a new 'Sketchbook'

My leaving present from diva, a very limited edition Jon Burgerman A2 printed artwork. YAY, I finally have a piece of Mr Burgerman!

My leaving present from diva, a very limited edition Jon Burgerman A2 printed artwork. YAY, I finally have a piece of Mr Burgerman!

Cindy/Missie has a box full of sweet and tasty plans for moving forward. I hope you will follow my crumbs!

Cindy/Missie has a box full of sweet and tasty plans for moving forward. I hope you will follow my crumbs!

 

It was my last day. Sad. I’d made an adorable collection of colleagues who I’d call great friends! Thanks Diva Creative…A new adventure starts tomorrow – and it’s when the real hard work begins.

This week I filled up an old sketchbook. I love sketchbooks and who doesn’t? I knew it was time to move on. There’s so much more creative things to pursue, a world of new and tasty people to meet and my fork/mouse were hungry to get their teeth into interesting design projects.

Gradually, I’ve learned it take two things to be a real independent design professional: money, and big ideas. And while I don’t have the money for entrepreneurship, I do have plenty of big ideas. Huge ideas. Picture this: you go to a theme park with your friends (Alton Towers’ my favourite :) – You’re enjoying the ‘safe’ rides – teacups and saucers perhaps? colourful exotic sugar-based foods (candy floss?), a healthy ride on the Skyride, be-costumed trademark cartoon characters and then you enjoy a Wiener from The Towers Hot Dogs stall — the friends or family-fun image you’d expect from a theme park you’d just paid £40.00 to enter. And at the same time, you’re enjoying the peace and harmony of the outdoors, as the entire park floats down one of nature’s most beautiful lakes!? – very picturesque indeed.

But something’s missing… where’s the real adventure? The thrills? I didn’t use to be a Nemesis (Europe’s first inverted roller coaster) or Oblivion kinda girl – it would’ve taken my friends hours of persuasion to get me just into the queue! But once I experienced that first vertical drop from the Oblivion, I didn’t get on that monorail crying my eyes out, into the car and head off home…because in mere moments you/I, and the entire park, shared the experience of a lifetime as we fastened our seat belt – a ride on Rita anyone? :)

Being a successful freelance illustrator is a rollercoaster ride
I suppose what I’m trying to say is, I’m on the road in pursuing my own delicious design adventure and will probably drop an endless trail of crumbs on the way to pursuing exciting things too but that’s OK. Being a successful freelance illustrator is a rollercoaster ride – some of my creative friends are freelancers, they work really hard to experience wonderful ups and then some very hard downs, luckily every down is a learning experience they tell me. I’ve read and have been told it’s not easy to survive as a freelancer, but I’ve been working in this creative hub for almost 7 years and haven’t really taken risks to challenge my personal goals and seek out opportunities – until this week.

I’m still learning, evolving my design styles and developing to work in a better and more productive way, year after year. The new sketchbook I have will be filled with an on-going process of change and learning, new aims and new experiences. It’s all ahead of me and if I’m not prepared for anything, ups and downs then I better get myself down to the nearest Job Centre Plus ASAP!

I’m passionate about what I do and understand the benefits that good design can bring to my clients. My experience in delivering design of the highest standards on time and to budget has resulted in many long-standing client relationships and I’m really looking forward meeting new clients on this ride to being a freelance Graphic Designer. I’m buckled in and will make sure I enjoy the ride. Hold on tight Cinders!

Finally…
I will be undergoing some changes (it’s all good stuff of course) and like they say, a change does you good. I assure you Cindy/Missie won’t change in personality but I might be a little quiet on the Twitter scene as networking and curating up tasty stuff independently isn’t easy – hope you understand. You’ll be able to follow my design adventures over at CCH_Designs (I know, very grown up isn’t it? :)

If you are looking to commission a forthcoming project, or would like to speak to me about some freelance design, illustration, writing or blogging or to just share a really tasty recipe with me, then please get in touch. Email to hello@cindycheung.co.uk

Missie Cindz