A Decade in the Top Tier… Part Three
Continued…
Late summer 2000, I met with two people at Unilever's Wells St location; let's call them Clark & Bruce. They sat me down and showed me the creative deck for a variety of Suave shampoos; this was my initiation. I knew next to nothing about Packaged Consumer Products! Again, I learned by doing! Over time a variety of Unilever brand managers filled my in box with one concept request after another.
This was everything I dreamed it would be! The work was steady, but the lifestyle of a freelancer was a lot to get used to. I was not used to the invoice cycle; do the work, send an invoice, wait 30 days, get paid… if there were no problems! Otherwise you had to wait, and wait, and wait for your money. Guess who doesn't wait? The phone bill, the light bill, the rent, etc. etc. Money was a constant juggling act; sometimes the phone got "disconnected"; it was fun! Estelle was a grad student at the time, so she didn't make any money. We were solely dependent on what I made.
Not long after starting to work for Unilever; TaigMarks Advertising, a local agency called me up. I had interviewed there earlier in the year; the creative director asked me if I was still interested in a job. I informed him that I just started doing freelance work in Chicago, so I wasn't looking for a full-time job at the moment. This was another cross-road for me; a person with sense would have taken the slight but steady pay increase at the small local agency, instead of continuing a freelance relationship that might lead to a very good gig one day. I chose to continue freelancing, but I freelanced for TaigMarks as well. My daily workload was a russian roulette but, needless to say, Unilever got top priority. When they needed me to come into the city; it was instantly 8 hours of billable time, and their hourly rate was double what anyone in SB could pay me (it would later become triple). Much to the chagrin of my local clients; everyone else would get my time based on who asked after Unilever.
It wasn't all gravy though; even though I was relatively young, I had NO insurance. Estelle had some insurance through Notre Dame, but I would not have any until after I left freelancing. I had no dental insurance, and TAXES… to this day I am still paying for the back taxes I owed from freelancing (although I hope to be done soon). But still it was awesome getting to work on some of America's biggest brands: Suave, Dove, ThermaSilk, Q-tips which led to Wisk, All, Snuggle, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers; virtually all of Unilever's catalog. Two of their offices (Chicago and Greenwich, CT) were giving me work. I earned a reputation as "The Concept Guy".
Somewhere in late 2001 I got a referral to Millward Brown Marketing Research to create some graphics for them.
In early 2002 Bruce gave me a call again. He left Unilever and started working at Quaker so he brought me in with him. I did some concept work for Quaker Instant Oatmeal and eventually a lot of their special foods, supplements, and beverages. By summer 2002 I did some storyboard concepts for Kraft Foods… my dance card was very full. By this time I pretty much "fired" all of my local clients. For the last year and a half in South Bend I no longer had any substantial assignments in Indiana. By this time, I was so busy at home, I rarely needed to go into the city unless it was for a focus group, or a brainstorm… or both!
Working at home has many great advantages; the commute was as far as my bed to my home studio. I set my own schedule (which was still 9-5, I worked when my clients worked). But I could adjust; I could take a nap in the middle of the day (which I did a lot); but I'd also work all-nighters if I had to.
2003; although I made a whole lot more money on paper, the lack of insurance, getting further behind on my taxes, and the constant lookout for the repo truck made me realize I needed to go back to work full-time again. After three successful years as a freelancer; I started to put out feelers again; time to get a J-O-B!!
Continued…
Late summer 2000, I met with two people at Unilever's Wells St location; let's call them Clark & Bruce. They sat me down and showed me the creative deck for a variety of Suave shampoos; this was my initiation. I knew next to nothing about Packaged Consumer Products! Again, I learned by doing! Over time a variety of Unilever brand managers filled my in box with one concept request after another.
This was everything I dreamed it would be! The work was steady, but the lifestyle of a freelancer was a lot to get used to. I was not used to the invoice cycle; do the work, send an invoice, wait 30 days, get paid… if there were no problems! Otherwise you had to wait, and wait, and wait for your money. Guess who doesn't wait? The phone bill, the light bill, the rent, etc. etc. Money was a constant juggling act; sometimes the phone got "disconnected"; it was fun! Estelle was a grad student at the time, so she didn't make any money. We were solely dependent on what I made.Not long after starting to work for Unilever; TaigMarks Advertising, a local agency called me up. I had interviewed there earlier in the year; the creative director asked me if I was still interested in a job. I informed him that I just started doing freelance work in Chicago, so I wasn't looking for a full-time job at the moment. This was another cross-road for me; a person with sense would have taken the slight but steady pay increase at the small local agency, instead of continuing a freelance relationship that might lead to a very good gig one day. I chose to continue freelancing, but I freelanced for TaigMarks as well. My daily workload was a russian roulette but, needless to say, Unilever got top priority. When they needed me to come into the city; it was instantly 8 hours of billable time, and their hourly rate was double what anyone in SB could pay me (it would later become triple). Much to the chagrin of my local clients; everyone else would get my time based on who asked after Unilever.
It wasn't all gravy though; even though I was relatively young, I had NO insurance. Estelle had some insurance through Notre Dame, but I would not have any until after I left freelancing. I had no dental insurance, and TAXES… to this day I am still paying for the back taxes I owed from freelancing (although I hope to be done soon). But still it was awesome getting to work on some of America's biggest brands: Suave, Dove, ThermaSilk, Q-tips which led to Wisk, All, Snuggle, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers; virtually all of Unilever's catalog. Two of their offices (Chicago and Greenwich, CT) were giving me work. I earned a reputation as "The Concept Guy".
Somewhere in late 2001 I got a referral to Millward Brown Marketing Research to create some graphics for them.
In early 2002 Bruce gave me a call again. He left Unilever and started working at Quaker so he brought me in with him. I did some concept work for Quaker Instant Oatmeal and eventually a lot of their special foods, supplements, and beverages. By summer 2002 I did some storyboard concepts for Kraft Foods… my dance card was very full. By this time I pretty much "fired" all of my local clients. For the last year and a half in South Bend I no longer had any substantial assignments in Indiana. By this time, I was so busy at home, I rarely needed to go into the city unless it was for a focus group, or a brainstorm… or both!
Working at home has many great advantages; the commute was as far as my bed to my home studio. I set my own schedule (which was still 9-5, I worked when my clients worked). But I could adjust; I could take a nap in the middle of the day (which I did a lot); but I'd also work all-nighters if I had to.
2003; although I made a whole lot more money on paper, the lack of insurance, getting further behind on my taxes, and the constant lookout for the repo truck made me realize I needed to go back to work full-time again. After three successful years as a freelancer; I started to put out feelers again; time to get a J-O-B!!
Continued…
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