Listen, advice is easy for people who don’t do something in reality to give freely because if won’t F up their lives if they turn out to be full of BS.
I ACTUALLY started an indie design firm 3 years ago so all you no believers and people who work for others and talk like you know prepare to take notes.
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Get a business license, do this so you can start claiming write offs for taxes with almost every purchase you are going to have.
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Learn what you can write off and keep notes, buy online so you can have a running record in your email of purchase confirmations etc…
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Ask friends for their accountant’s names or go to the local national chain of accountants at tax time …you will pay the first couple years but you will learn a lot and be able to do this yourself after that time.
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KEEP OVERHEAD LOW, don’t rent a flash apartment or studio with hardwood floors, that is all bling your clients know they are helping pay for with the high prices of the consultancies you plan to compete against.
*You will sell yourself on this point later
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Get one software and know it well, in my experience there is no ONE, but the closest thing is PRO E-Wildfire, it does A class surfaces like ALIAS (SW doesn’t) and it gives you true 3d spline placement (unlike SW)
You won’t have the advantage of the 4-window setup that makes Rhino easy for some folks, but the parametrics will save you a ton of time.
Next best get SW and Rhino together.
Honestly, I still bang out a quick shape in SW and then go in and touch it up on Sketchbook to pop out drawings like a horny rabbit on speed.
*Be sure your computer hardware can support the software you buy
Consider a Toshiba Tablet PC…best wacom LCD bang for the $$$
Tablet PC’s run Alias 11 but not 12 or 13, they will run image studio poorly and will run SW and Rhino well enough, I’m waiting for Wildfire 3 to confirm it minimally works but no news yet, just scraped enough together fro the license this last week
6) Portfolio SHMORTFOLIO…portfolios are for other designers to ogle, at this point all you should care about is impressing the client.
If they ask, have one to two sketches you have done of their own products or something similar, this will impress more directly than showing a floorwaxer manufacturer a picture of a nice credenza you designed, as far as they are concerned that just means you can draw…and I have news for you …so can their coworker’s high school age kids …set yourself apart.
Basic rule simple products sell but don’t always make great portfolio pieces, my portfolio is in the house wares industry on store shelves.
And no you don’t get a look-see, most of it is ugly except the final stuff, I deal more in mechanics than renderings these days.
Plus ** here’s a tip for the newbs, most big companies have design teams, who restyle your stuff no matter what, this makes patentable ideas more important but means you get less credit.
7) Go get 11 years of manufacturing experience… this is a bit of a joke since I worked a lot of blue collar assembly jobs and engineering technician jobs with my first Industrial Engineering job …it means I know about 1000 times more about manufacturability that some 10 year vets of the design industry because they have never had to put their own stuff together or work out the bugs of a 4 part water cooled, robotic pick, all electric injection mold.
I realize this is a tough one, but in my experience being a pretty picture drawer isn’t enough, you need to make real intellectual property in the form of patent or trade protectable invention.
It’s fine to sell art or a rendering in the mean tome to fill in the financial gaps but get ready for point #8
For the time being learn everything you can about injection molding, sheet metal fabrication, ceramics and forging, read everything you can on fasteners and different materials.
Learn to patent …even if you never do, talk the language and know that a patent pending can still protect quite a bit even if the patent/and or/product gets dropped.
Try to avoid the patent cost yourself, unless the patent pending cost is easy to get for a year or two (See NOLO legal guides on this), most patents don’t make a profit after costs, but partial protections is better than none and shows companies you are not just a guy/gal who can draw. Essentially even companies who spend millions on patenting still get ripped off in China, so make your money quick and move on to the next 5 things.
- Make a web site, go to every event you can afford, tag your name on the side of busses, web blogs, t shirts, girl’s thongs, scooter stickers, whatever
Have business cards that are pro…NOT home made
10) Hit the bricks, when I promo’s punk acts I flyered from one end of a town to the next, stopped at high schools and gave special notice to cars with sweet stickers in their windows.
It’s the same idea here, plaster randomly on the Internet and places it’s cheap like word of mouth design focused events.use the direct contact with people you WANT to work for. Avoid inventors, they are one-hit-wonders.if that, they want you to do all the work and get none of the pay.
An inventor who already has product on the shelf or is working on a second or third invention is NOT an inventor anymore; they are an innovative business, DO work with these people.
CALL don’t just email, yeah it costs money but most OLD PEOPLE from before the days of computers, don’t quite get the warm fuzzies from email that us twenty somethings do…they will put you off and delays only really cost YOU money. The faster you dish them IP and bail out the better.
- Price LOW you are untested in their eyes, price the local cost of a CAD jockey then add %20-%50. Tell clients up front, you do the job of the CAD jockey the patent attorney, the engineer and the graphic/packaging artist.
If they want to hassle hiring all those people for less, welcome them to try.
Stand firm, and if you must bid a set price up front with 0-%1 royalty so you can walk fast to the next job.
Never let a job last more that 3 months, always have 12jobs on going.
I’m no Karim Rashid owner, but I am a fan because he has a true work ethic, they guy single handedly works over a dozen jobs a month so aim for that, if you can pay the bills with less, don’t settle, remember there are lean times no matter how good you reputation is, work as hard as you can and put a way for a rainy day.
Don’t …go buy a new car
Don’t fly if you can avoid it.
Don’t splash out for the bling, unless it’s a wedding ring.
Remember The “indie” title carries with it the idea that you will tolerate some delayed gratification because you won’t tolerate working for any more dinosaurs.
One final goal, (maybe this is a twelve step program after all) try to have short and long term work ongoing at the same time, really this means scheduling and that is really the hardest thing to do out of all of this, everything I just told you I could teach a high schooler for less money than a college degree in less time. The thing that can’t be taught is when to say NO, and when to set weekly/monthly deadlines. I typically try to force companies into a 2month to 3 month cycle, but most companies are used to the OLD WAYS and take 18 months, YAWN, they are what I call “long term†or Dinosaur….the conversation you want should be, “Hi, I’m going to give you patentable IP in less than a year, possibly 1-2 months, and I’ll do it for less money and you can have 2-3 selling seasons a year instead of just one, which means more profit to you, would you like to hire me so I can make you more money?!â€
When someone says no, or doesn’t cal you back, move on to their competitor, and their competitor and the next one. There is ALWAYS someone who will buy IP, even if you have to sell to China, make some money off it ….even if you have to start a web store.
Now would someone kindly answer my post about euro patents, so I can have a double reason to fly over and party with you cool cats.
I’ve tried contacting agencies such as Adrem, where I received a very short emailed response saying there was no work for me. I then tried other agencies who sent me on interviews for Sales Support / Draughting / Admin positions…