Blog posts filed under Freelance

As a freelance motion designer I get to work on a whole host of projects. It really is a mix of direct to client projects and working third-party for agencies to help out with their motion design workloads.

I love both kinds of work equally, but as a freelancer... Read more →

I’ve been a freelancer for 13 years or so now, initially working as a web designer and then, for the past 10 years or so, as a freelance motion designer.

Like so many other freelancers before me, I made the leap into freelancing without truly knowing what would be... Read more →

My latest project for Loop is an online course to help motion designers with the business side of motion design.

The new course: business processes for motion designers, is basically everything I’ve learned over the past 14 years or so of freelance life, and it’s everything I wish I’d... Read more →

As part of my freelance motion design business, I often have to create proposals for prospective clients. Over the years I’ve tried to perfect the proposal process, and I’ve found that a simple professional approach often works best when trying to win... Read more →

Creating a custom logo animation for your business is a great way to enhance your brand image and make your logo more memorable, especially when it’s being used in video content, and on your website.

Take this custom animation for Dropkick Jonnys, it now serves as a great animated... Read more →

Before starting a new motion design project you should absolutely be putting together a statement of work: a simple document that puts down in writing exactly what is going to be done throughout the project and the deliverables to be produced along the way.

Having a written log of... Read more →

A few years ago a client of mine needed a voiceover for a motion design project we’d been working on. With a limited timeframe and budget to play with, I decided to invest in a home studio setup and record the voiceover myself, which I’m happy to say, the... Read more →

I’d love to be able to give a single figure answer to the this question, but the truth is; costs vary from project to project depending on client needs and style considerations.

As a very rough ballpark figure, projects tend to start from around £6000. This sort of budget allows... Read more →

* Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer and this post is not legal advice. This post is advisory, please do your homework and consult an actual lawyer before making legal decisions. *

I’ve made a new addition to the Freelance checklist, an item which should... Read more →

On the last day of my week long takeover of the Motion Hatch podcast Instagram account, I had an idea to post my latest motion design reel alongside the first ever reel/promo I did… all the way back from 2010!

For those of you that weren’t following here... Read more →

A couple of weeks ago, Hayley Akins from the motion hatch podcast got in touch to see if I’d be a guest on the show and I just had to jump at the opportunity.

For those of you who haven’t heard it before, the motion hatch... Read more →

2017 was a great year, I’ve been lucky enough to work on some wonderful projects with some ace clients and agencies, if 2018 is as good then I’ll be a happy motion designer!

As it was a busy one, I’ve only now had the chance to update my portfolio with... Read more →

Spurred on by some eye-opening documentaries like: Chasing Ice, Chasing Coral, and A Plastic Ocean (all of which I cannot recommend highly enough) I’ve been looking at ways I can change my daily habits to help reduce the impact I... Read more →

I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading recently, first up was: Thinking, fast and slow; a wonderful insight into how people think, and how humans make decisions in everyday life. The second was: The checklist manifesto - a fascinating read about the power of the humble checklist... Read more →

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, Video was the fastest growing format in 2016, Up 56% on a like-for-like basis since 2015. With statistics like that it’s not hard to see why companies are turning to motion design and animation to... Read more →

Following on from my post about starting voice over work as part of my motion design projects I thought I’d do a quick run down of the setup I use:

Before I started I did quite a bit of... Read more →

After trying out freelancing from Berlin and Lisbon, I was searching for a new place to explore and freelance from. Then a couple of months ago, in one of those strange serendipitous moments life throws up every now and then: I discovered NomadHouse.

The... Read more →

If you take a look at a couple of my most recent motion design projects, you may notice the voice is actually the same:

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

It... Read more →

Following on from my freelance adventure in Berlin I decided to check out Lisbon back at the beginning of May, again taking a week and working from out there while exploring the city.

I decided to repeat what I’d done in Berlin and get an Airbnb, at the... Read more →

As a freelancer I’m always saying to people I can theoretically work from anywhere; all I need is a decent internet connection and I’m sorted.

Up until now I’d never properly tried it though, so I decided to book a trip to Berlin and give it a try. A bit... Read more →

Update:
I now operate on the following basis: in order to confirm a booking the client agrees to pay for the specified number of days in full.

Confirming a booking means potentially turning other work down, as a result that time should be paid for in full.

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My... Read more →

Well it’s more of a design refresh than anything else! If you haven’t visited the site for a while you may notice some slight design changes here and there, I thought I’d write a quick post to run through the changes.

Let’s start with the portfolio design - there’s... Read more →

Over the past couple of weeks I swapped Manchester for a freelance motion design contract at The Guardian in London.

I had a great time working there, as you can imagine the projects are pretty varied. In the first week I worked on this from the 99 seconds series:

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been down in London working freelance on some more motion design projects at The Guardian.

This time I worked on a couple of different projects, the first of which was a video detailing what the Ebola virus is, how it’s transferred, and what... Read more →

Following on from freelance tip #1 - here’s the second tip I thought I’d share:

Consider getting some office space

When I first started freelancing I did what most freelancers do: I worked from home. It was great at first, no more commuting! I could jump into work straight... Read more →

I’ve been freelancing full-time for a couple of years now (I freelanced part-time while at Uni so I’ve actually been doing it for quite a while!) and in that time there’s been a fair few ups and downs. As a result I’ve decided to put together a couple of blog... Read more →

I had a random idea the other day while I was looking at my current business card design - why not create a business card with a bit of a difference? Something which showcases the motion graphics work I do, something which could act as a little introduction to... Read more →

I was recently asked to create a short tutorial for the new Computer Arts Photoshop Studio Training magazine.

The tutorial aims to provide a basic overview of the video timeline feature in Photoshop. As well as covering how to import and work with video... Read more →

Captains log, star date December 31st 2010.

I find myself writing a blog post looking back on the year that has seemingly flown by and I can’t help but smile.

At the start of 2010 I was heading into the second term of my final year at Lancaster University and... Read more →