Chapter 9: Freelancing

May 2013 - Sept 2014

I’d thought about being a freelancer for a while, as many friends and past colleagues had done it, and I liked the idea of variety and a fast working pace. I also knew by this point the clock was ticking on me leaving London, and I wanted to test the market to see how busy I could be and hopefully it might help me quickly save up some sort of deposit for a house! I had been in London for so long, and even working full-time, with the cost of living, it’s really tough to save anything up.

However, after working for Ancestry, the first couple of new freelance gigs were perhaps false starts - Debenhams and M&S were too similar to Tesco - all being retail-based, and so wasn’t the right fit for me. Despite that, knowing I was only temporarily freelancing helped, and so I kept busy and tried to achieve as much as possible in the time I had. The work was very much a combination of visual user-interface design and wireframing mock-ups of website user journeys. Both roles involved mini projects looking at existing websites or helping to design and test new things. The company locations were also much more central London than I’d worked before - Bond Street and Paddington, so was good to explore these areas a bit more in my lunch breaks.

I moved on to then work with Moo.com - despite being established for a few years, they still had a start-up environment, which was fun, and a great bunch of passionate people working there. Work here was a little more hands-off the visual design - but instead elements of research and wireframing and basic website prototyping. Plus it was great to get some free printing done - at this point I’d been thinking about some kind of freelance creative branding since I’d started freelancing - so used the opportunity to get some nice Luxe business cards made. This spell of work also took me through Christmas - and we had a fun Moo christmas party with lots of cocktails! It was the first time I’d worked over in East London - another interesting location - very inspiring for it’s many creative studios and businesses nearby.

Early ideas for my own branding for freelance design work back in 2009

I was already now thinking at the start of 2014, I would start seriously looking for work in the north - I liked the idea of leaving London and finally living with my long-distance girlfriend of seven years. But I then one day I got a call from a recruiter - asking if I would be interested in freelancing at BBC. I couldn’t say no. I’d always respected their design system, and many designers often referenced BBC as an influence on their work.

I’ll always remember the day before starting at BBC however, I had been out the night before on some leaving drinks with guys from Moo. I then had 1 day off before starting at BBC. I’d been out to get a some new clothes in central London - I seem to remember a stripy top. On the way home, I was travelling by bus, and just browsing on my phone, I’d seen something on Twitter saying Prince (the musician) might be in town, doing a secret gig - and rumours were it was going to be Camden Electric Ballroom. At this point the bus was coming right up to Camden Town station. I was a massive Prince fan, so hit the bus stop button and jumped off to take a look. Sure enough there were already some people gathering in a queue outside the venue. I followed it round the corner, asking people if they were doing the same thing as me - and they said yes we heard rumours too, so I started queuing.

It was a cold February afternoon too - I wasn’t dressed properly for this - but ended up putting my new top straight on for the extra layers. I texted one of my regular gig-going friends Gavin, and I knew he was a big fan too, and so a few hours later he joined me in the queue. A guy came out the side exit door of the venue and basically confirmed the rumours were true, he’d been up all night getting equipment and stage stuff ready for soundcheck. More and more people continued to join the queue. We had been there for a total of maybe 7 hours… then the queue suddenly rushed forward, and I remember running around the corner, only to see people pushing in, and general chaos. We were slowly creeping closer to the front - I can only compare it to football crowds or trying to get into festival gates. It was stressful and I remember looking at Gavin at one point and we were both considering giving up… it was cold and now it felt stressful and in danger of becoming a crush. However we were almost to the main doors, when suddenly the doorman said “sorry we’re full…”

Searching online, I found pictures of everyone queuing for Prince’s secret show, and then a press shot from inside Camden Electric Ballroom, 5 Feb 2014

I couldn’t believe it, we’d wasted hours waiting and trying our best, and got so close… we were about to leave, but then someone from the front said “hang on guys, he’s doing another show, just hang on...” We then had to wait another 1 hour or so, and it was so cold, it felt like forever. But then we thought come on, we’ve got this far and we’ll definitely get into the next one. When everyone from the first show was pouring out, we could hear them saying how it was amazing, best gig ever they were telling us… you’re in for a treat. Then we were suddenly ushered in - almost the first through the doors! We paid £10 - got right to the front, and not before too long, 3rd Eye Girl came out, followed by Prince himself, and they blasted through a 2.5hrs set! Later I felt like I had dreamed it all. Wow - what a show - and how amazing was it to be that close! The other thing is Prince is really strict about not taking photos & videos - so I don’t really have any evidence, you just have to take my word for it.

With all the other spells of freelance work, I was only with each client for a few months, but at BBC it kept being extended every 3 months until I had 9 months under my belt. It was a really good way to end my spell living in London and seal a lot of learnings combined with new insights and methods, especially user research. What I was now understanding and putting into practice is that good web design comes from research and testing with the end users, and there was lots of new user research opportunities with this project. They had a regular schedule of research topics and participants coming in to be interviewed. We had an in-house research room - full of old television & recording equipment. It was great to understand how to prepare for interviews, writing questions and preparing anything we wanted to test out. The work was interesting, and without all the pressures from marketing and sales - it was more task-based consuming of information and entertainment projects. I was based in the West London office, but also got to spend some time in the new offices and TV studios over in central London - even touring the news rooms and design depts over there, very exciting!

I revisited my freelance branding and had a tidy-up in 2014

Whilst living in North London, one day I decided to post an advert on Gumtree to find someone to play tennis - this is how I met my Spanish friend Pablo - we played almost every day at one point - either on the edge of Hampstead Heath, or sometimes in another smaller green space near my flat called Waterlow Park.

During my job at BBC - I also moved into another shared house in Highgate - it was a very last minute find - having agreed to end the lease on the previous place after a year - I quickly needed to find something - and even dabbled with Airbnb again - just to tide me over, as already I knew I wouldn’t be staying in London too much longer. I found a room in a large quirky shared house, with an easy 1-month rolling contract. The house was old, but the rooms were enormous! It was a little expensive, but all bills were included, and it had a huge garden that joined onto other gardens and school grounds nearby - you could wander off into the garden, and eventually find the school tennis courts - which meant free tennis!

As I knew my London days were counting down, I was also cramming in lots of live gigs by this point, and also catching up with lots of friends and colleagues from over the years. I even saw Prince again! Gavin texted me one day in September saying, he’s back - and he’s doing another Hit ‘n Run show at The Roundhouse in Camden - they are putting tickets online later. Anyway he managed to get us two tickets somehow - and we saw him again! It was another great show - lots of celebs there too, but it didn’t have the magic of that cold February night.

I left the BBC in early October, with an inkling that public services was a field I enjoyed. On my last day, my manager mentioned to check out new government digital projects that were starting up in Newcastle - as it could be a good fit for me, and she knew someone who had left BBC before me, and headed into that area.

I don’t regret freelancing at all, a lot of people are nervous to take the risk - and prefer the security of a full-time job - but I saw it as an opportunity. I felt confident with my experience up until this point, and in this period of working at 5 different companies in about 16 months, I learned so much and at a very quick pace too. I felt more confident in my abilities as a result too.

I made the move up north, after securing a job with a small new design agency in Newcastle a few weeks earlier. Starting in October 2014, I was going in as their first ever Head of UX. It was a great place to put into practice all the new techniques I’d been learning about in the last few years since moving into digital web design and research.

And so I got on the train at Kings Cross, and all my stuff was in a van travelling up north at the same time. It was a strange feeling, I’d only bought a one-way ticket for the first time ever... Farewell London, thanks for all the fun and memories x