by Justin Merino

Blog

Being a Freelancer

It has been several years now that I have been working as a freelance animator and illustrator. At the moment, it seems that I have found the job that makes me feel happy, complete and keeps me thrilled before every new challenge.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT FREELANCING.

I must say I enjoy all the parts of my job, starting from the communication with the client or the agency. It is always exciting to meet new people from different backgrounds who need different things. One of the things I really enjoy about being a freelancer is the flexibility that I have in meeting different people and working on a broad variety of projects and not sticking to a specific style or type of work. Being a freelancer allows me to search for challenging projects or co-workers that I am interested in working with - with choice comes great responsibility, but also the opportunity for huge achievement and growth - it is me deciding whether I want to proceed or not. Having this level of control and the ability to choose is one of the aspects of freelancing I appreciate the most.

THE BEAUTY AND UTILITY OF WORKING TOGETHER.

Although I do enjoy solo work a lot, I find myself being more creative, motivated and secure when I take control and lead artistically a project with colleagues whom I trust, and with whom we share more commonalities than just our projects.  Sometimes a project requires the skills of a completely separate creative practice, so a solo freelancer's skills may not be enough. When forces are joined with several other freelancers, opportunities are created for more diverse work greater than the sum of its parts. 

FREELANCING: NOT ALL PUPPIES AND ROSES.

Of course being a freelancer means also a few things that are sometimes discouraging. A lot of stress, long days of work, insecurity or exhaustion when under heavy deadlines. You rely fully on yourself to keep busy and deliver projects, attract new clients and maintain relationships with existing ones. Although this probably sounds a bit off-putting, being persistent, hard-working and keeping an eye on what’s new in your respective field of work makes a huge difference, and means you reap more of the rewards freelancing has to offer.  All the above attributes help the freelancer to be appreciated by his coworkers and clients and offer him the opportunity to create a sustainable freelance business.

KULTURSPACE AND I: PROVIDING THE MISSING LINK IN MY FREELANCE PRACTICE.

Despite the challenges, I see myself working as a freelancer into the future - the wonderful creatives and projects I have the opportunity to collaborate on and with through my association with kulturspace offers the extra level of security and camaraderie which can sometimes be missing from a solo freelancer business. It also offers a huge opportunity for me to grow and develop my own business and offer additional services I would not be able to alone. My recent collaboration with kulturspace has been exceptional and offered me the necessary ‘space’ I needed in order to put my skills into practice and deliver quality work.  I am eagerly awaiting the next project and collaborative opportunity with the kulturspace team.


Yorgos is a Berlin based animator and illustrator. He graduated from the Fine Arts School in Athens and has a Master’s in Media Art and Design. His strength is in conceptualising and visualising different communication needs while delivering and executing a variety of design and animation styles (digital animation, frame by frame, cutouts).

Yorgos Karagiorgos