LessFuss Design

On the freelancing side of things, 2009 will be filed under ‘Frustrating’. It’s been a year of interest but not commitment from potential clients, and the work I have taken on has been, at times, painfully slow to progress.

I have not added a single site to my portfolio in 2009, which surely isn’t a great sign. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on things, only that those projects I’ve been involved with have, for one reason or another, dragged themselves all across 2009 and into next year.

For starters I’m working with two charities – one as a pure freelance project, and the second as part of a joint project with other Virgin Money colleagues. With charities I’ve found that decision-making can be a drawn out affair, with approval at the main milestones often getting referred to meetings of the board, sometimes months away from the point I ask for a decision.

That said, the end result of both projects is good and I’m looking forward to seeing them live early next year. Plus I’ve learned a whole heap of new stuff, particularly around using WordPress as a content management system, whiich will come in handy for future projects.

And at the moment, 2010 is looking pretty good. I’ve already got one design-only (no coding!) project lined up along with another new site for a local firm. Plus I’ve got myself a brand new kick-ass laptop, since my trusty eight year old iBook G4 has finally decided I’m asking too much of it by attempting to open two programs at once.

So, while 2009 has been frustrating, and perhaps not where I thought I’d be three years after starting out freelancing, I’m at least going into the new year optomistic that it’ll be a more productive, and hopefully less frustrating, year.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2010 works out well for you.