Meeting my “client” and “students”

I am not good at making money.  I am not good at it at all.

Yesterday I went to Toronto to meet my “client” and my “students”.  As I wrote in a previous post, I designed a logo and business card for a friend of mine for free.  I’m not paid, so she is not really my “client”.  As I wrote in another previous post, I go to McMaster to serve as a teaching assistant in a class where I leaned last year. Yesterday’s class was at OCAD in downtown Toronto.  I am an unofficial volunteer TA, and they are not really my “students”.  But these are priceless experience for me. Networking is one of the things I expect, but it is only a tiny part.

Designing a logo and business card was an interesting experience for me.  Firstly, I used some Adobe Illustrator functions that I knew but had not used.  If I choose to do a freelance design job, I need to be familiar with those functions, and it was a good chance to practice it.  Secondly and more importantly, I found my role as a designer. There are many web services to help freelancers to design logo, business card and web site.  Those users choose some design from templates but not everyone know how to choose good ones.  Moreover, those templates do not satisfy everyone’s preference and the users have to compromise in some degree.  My role is to derive the client’s needs and preferences, visualize it with a set of design skills, and realize it with another set of design skills.  I need to practice it some more times before starting a business.

As I wrote in a previous post, I like teaching, and hearing “thank you, Hiro” after teaching is my delight.  It does not matter if I make money by doing it or not.  Am I stupid?  Maybe.  But who cares?

April 3, 2013Permalink