23 Getting Started Right
that it’s possible that you’ll find the design studio that breaks the
corporate mold or negotiate a freelancer career that avoids some
classic freelance pitfalls.
Do I prefer collaboration or working alone?
Freelancers, by nature, often complete a majority of their work solo.
If you do your best work with colleagues around to provide quick
feedback, and you enjoy working on a team, you’ll want an envi-
ronment that involves working with other professionals like a studio
or corporate team. (Check out the sidebar for a story from Envato’s
own design team.) However, if you are disciplined and able to work
efficiently alone, you’ll appreciate the flexibility of freelancing.
I asked Rodney Blackney, Designer for Envato, Rockable’s parent
company, to tell us a little about his toughest design challenge.
Envato’s design team consists of a couple designers, a project
manager, and a couple front-end developers. You can see from his
story how many people are involved in a challenging design project.
Here’s Rodney’s story:
“
The toughest recent project was the headers for the Envato market
places. The previous navigation elements were a bit clunky and also
you couldn't find anything too easily. Jason Ellis, the marketplace
manager at the time, had initially come up with some wireframes,
and Collis had also completed a few draft designs as well ( http://
dribbble.com/shots/118371-New-Envato-Marketplaces-Header )
in which I could design around.
So, I took those designs and created some initial mockups which
were good, but needed some tweaking after receiving some
constructive feedback and criticism. Previously, I thought the
other header was quite heavy with graphics (drop shadows and
gradients, etc.).
The goal here was to make it leaner and take up less height, which
would move all the marketplace items further up the page as a result.
I also wanted to add in a useful drop down menu so that our users
