I'm Open for Business

ANNOUNCEMENT ALERT – I’m officially open for business as a freelance graphic and web designer!

If you need any design work done, I’d love to chat.

This is all very exciting, but risky too.

Last week I left my steady part-time job in marketing to move towards a life with music and art at the centre. At a time when ‘making it’ as a musician may be harder than its been in fifty years, I’m going to try. Because I don’t always bow to logic.

I may fail or I may succeed but either way, I’m going to find out. I’m not going to wonder ‘what if’.

In freeze-frame, there’s little difference between flight and free fall. You’re up there in the clouds, descending or rising. Either way, suspended. Today I’m the Coyote, just run through a false paper horizon off the edge of a cliff. My legs are spinning hundreds of feet above the ground. I’m suspended. I fly or I fall.

Here’s what I can tell you so far. I feel the breeze. It’s invigorating. Life-giving. I know this move is right. I just can’t look down.

Next week my first pay-period-without-a-paycheck will arrive and this will all get very real.

I’m not worried because I’ve got a plan that just might work.

While I seek out more and better show opportunities and plan summer tour dates, I’m also going to start writing and submitting music for film and TV. And while I do all of that, I’m going to pay the looming bills with design work.

All the while I’ve been making music, I’ve been designing and drawing and taking pictures. I’ve taken freelance jobs here and there. I’ve designed my own website, logo and all marketing materials for my music projects. Design is in my blood – just as much as music. So it seems right to bring the two together.

I want to be the designer local artists call when they need help.

I’ll be focussing especially on helping musicians and arts organizations with their design needs. Band logos. T-shirts. Posters. Websites. Logos. Programs. I also want to work with local restaurants and craft breweries. These are all things I love, and the chance to work closely with more of these people while making an income and moving my music career forward is exciting.

It’s not all cake and gravy. I lost all romantic notions about ‘being my own boss’ years ago.

“Be your own boss” is a myth. For a freelancer, every client is a boss. So you don’t have one, you have several at any given time. Still, I can work on my own schedule and contribute in ways I’m proud of. It’s worth it.

I’m going to help Edmonton’s music-makers and mom-and-pops look stellar online and on paper. Because they are stellar and they deserve good design at a fair price from a fella who knows how to tie a bow tie.

So yeah. I do that now. I’m open for business.

Hit me up at dave@vonbieker.com and let’s start something.