Logo Designer Blesson Varghese
About this episode…
LOGO & BRAND IDENTITY DESIGNER BLESSON VARGHESE
This time we're off to India to chat to self Blesson Varghese - self taught in design and the art of freelancing.
We cover the importance of networking, 'silent' mentors, balancing work and life, and the challenges faced by freelancers in a society that doesn't yet fully value creative professions.
On top of that Blesson, AKA Bless Creatics, shares insights on his approach to handling clients and projects, and his continual quest for learning in his field
Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.
More from Blesson Varghese
Bless Creatics website
Bless Creatics Instagram
More from Steve Folland
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and Logo & Brand Identity Designer Blesson Varghese AKA Bless Creatics
Steve: Hey, how you doing? I'm Steve Folland. Welcome to another one. This episode is supported by the Being Freelance community because good things happen with good people around you. We're an optimistic, realistic, have a biscuit bunch of freelancers with loads going on, both virtually and in real life. Come along for coworking or hang out in the chat forum where you can ask questions, bounce ideas, celebrate, commiserate.
It's a really nice place to be. Come and try it for yourself and I'll see you in there. The Being Freelance community is at beingfreelance. com. Click the button that says community, funnily enough. But right now let's find out what it's like being freelance for logo and brand identity designer, Blesson Virgis. Varghese.
Blesson: Listened to a lot of these freelancers on YouTube and they were like, this is a full time job, that's what freelancers are, all that stuff. And I was like, yeah, let's do it. Let's try it out. I'm someone who believes you need as much rest as you do work. I can't just keep hustling day in and day night and just expect things to just work out well.
For me, I like to take things slow. Rest as much possible. I had to shift the mindset from not just being an order taker, not just delivering what they want, but to shift the perspective from that to actually being a business owner and actually being someone who helps my clients more than anything, more than just.
charging them or more than just sending them the invoice and getting paid. More than that, how I should just be a partner for them and how my main goal should be to make things easier for them at the end of the day.
Steve: Yes, so there's Blesson, his story coming up very soon indeed. How are you? Actually, this week in the community, we did one of our extra live podcasts. It's called The Freelance Disco. It's a live show where I chat to one of the community about their life. I guess their soundtrack to their freelance life. So they tell us a bit about their story, the good stuff, the not so good stuff, but it's all looped around the music that reminds them of certain things. Or you know, the tune that they love to play when they've just had an invoice paid, that kind of thing. So much fun. It was Harvey Morton, who's a digital consultant.
His turn as guest DJ this week. You can catch the replay in the community. If you fancy being guest DJ, you can be. Details are in there as well. So much fun. Thank you, Harvey. Thank you to those who joined us live and come and join us in the community. Go to beingfreelance. com. Maybe you'll catch the next one live. But back to this podcast, where of course, we hear from a different freelancer about their journey each time. It doesn't matter whether it's what you do. There's over 300 stories to learn from. And this time we are off to India to learn from logo and brand identity designer Blesson Varghese. Hey, Blesson!
Blesson: Hey, what's up Steve? Glad to be here. Thank you very much for having me.
Steve: As ever, how about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?
Blesson: I never had any sort of design background whatsoever. Even any sort of design exposure, to be very honest, because the place where I live, it's not a city, it's not a, you know, metropolitan city or something. It's way more backwards when it comes to literacy, way more backwards when it comes to modernization or westernization and all those terms.
So my exposure to design has just always been traditional designs that are present in India. And we're talking about handmade. billboards with no hierarchy or no sense of design, what we say right now in modern design whatsoever. So I never had any sort of exposure to design, but I was always intrigued by it.
I was always interested in it. And when I figured out there's something called Photoshop, you know, literally just design stuff and make things. I was very intrigued by that. So for my friend Circle, our ambitions were we want to You know, complete school, we want to pass school, and then we want to get into college, get a degree, then get a 9 to 5 job you know, provide for a family, and then have a family, of course, and then provide for them, and then just live your life happily ever after.
That was, that was our ambitions were. And, you know, if, if it's, if it's, Too ambitious, we would just go for a big package salary and and a good house or maybe a good car. So that has been our ambition since we started school or we were in school. So when, when I found out Photoshop, it was very new to me.
I didn't have anyone to look up. Look up to where I could say that I want to be like him because he's a designer or he's an artist. So I just started out randomly just exploring design, just exploring the world of, you know, digital art and digital design, things like that. And slowly I figured out YouTube.
We are talking about. You know 14 or 15 I guess 13 or 14 somewhere around that I figured out YouTube I figured out that there are people those who YouTube tutorials where you can learn design from I learned a lot of things I learned Photoshop from YouTube and I Figured out how to make posters good posters and I figured out how to make flyers or invitation cards and I just started doing them for my family for our church functions or family functions or any sort of events that we had and that's how that that was my entry into design and figured out that there's something called logo design right there are people there are designers who design logos specifically for brands and they earn from it so I started an Instagram page And I said, let's just try it out.
And I have, I'm very thankful that I had supportive parents, to be very honest, because this might not make sense to people who are in the West, because when we say supportive parents, it has to be in the context of Indian culture and Indian society, where artists or designers or creative people are not considered as you know, creative industry is not considered as something that you can build a career on.
It's seen more of as a hobby, seen more of as something that you really like, but you do other things and then you do this on site. But my parents have been supportive and they supported me since day one till now. And you know, that's how I started Instagram and started the page. Few months in, got few clients.
I was On top of the moon. I was like, wow, this is really working. And I think two or three projects in, I decided to make it full time. Just go all in.
Steve: So when you started the Instagram page to just share your experiments, I guess, was that while you were still at college then?
Blesson: I had finished college. I was waiting for my next step. What should I do? That is when I started Instagram. And I decided that the next step would wait for a while, because I'm really liking this. And my parents were obviously supportive, but they were a little suspicious on like whether or not this would work out, because they haven't heard of anybody in our culture, in our friend circle, or in our families who has done this and has been doing this for a while and has a good career.
So it was a bit you know, troublesome for them to accepted that I'll be doing it full time. They were like, so you're not going to do any job. You're not going to you know, apply for jobs. Maybe in the design field, you can do that. There might be something. I was like, no, I want to do it full time because that's when I listened to a lot of these freelancers on YouTube and they were like we do it full time.
This is a full time job. That's what freelancers are, all that stuff. And I was like, yeah, let's do it. Let's try it out.
Steve: And so the first other than friends and family, when you first got hold your hands on Photoshop, your first clients contacted you via How did that go? Like, did you know what you were doing? I'm imagining your parents going, I'm sorry, what, they're going to give you money over the internet to do what?
Blesson: Yes. That's a very, very great question. Truth being told, everything was self taught. So I was just learning things and then doing them what I've learned. I've just, I was just just following along with people those where I was learning from. Right. And I figured out there are a few designers and, and I have to name him out.
His, his name Connor Fowler. He was the one who went by the name c Fowler Design on Instagram. He was the one that I first looked up to and I was like, he's a logo designer, he's a killer logo designer. He designs great logos, minimalistic ones, and I really want to, you know, do something like him. Turns out that we became friends later on on the journey, but I saw him and how he was doing things He was writing captions.
Like this is the type of logo design that I'm doing Reach out to me on DMS if you would like to get some work done, right? I was just copying that and I was just doing the same thing I would design my own things and I would just write them on captions so and so concept logo design reach out on DMs if you would like to get yours and a few months in, I got one client inquiry from on, from a music artist.
He wanted a logo for his album, for his upcoming album. And I was like, yeah, let's do it. I did say let's do it, but I didn't know, like, what's the process like, right? Like, what do you do? Like, do you ask questions to them? Do you ask? For money up front or do you whatever like what's the process like I figured out I just googled google that right what's the process of logo design so let's say you have a logo design client how do you do that and I saw that people do something called contract and I was like do I have to hire a lawyer for this I figured out no you probably just for a few things Just for if it's just a one on one project, you might just need a agreement, a written agreement.
But I didn't do that, obviously, because I was a little afraid of if I did something wrong and I lost the client, if that makes sense, right? So I was like, I then reached out to the client and I I asked, I would go for a 50 percent upfront because that's what I read. When I searched on Google, I read that you have to have 50 percent upfront.
He said, I'm not going to give it to you unless you give me a sketch or a rough version of the logo. I was like, he's my first client. I don't want to lose him. Let's do it. I said, all right, let's go for it. I designed the first version. I still remember. I sat day and night designing the rough version of the logo because I really, really wanted to do it.
And probably in a day or two, I sent him the first rough sketch. And he was like, yeah, I like it, but I would like to have a few modifications here and there. I did that. He asked for another few revisions. I did that and I told him you know, let's lock it. So he said, all right, yeah, I'll just transfer the money.
Please send me your bank details. So I thought it would be as easy as just sending your bank details to the client. He will be sending that money to me and that's all how it works out. Right. But turns out because I am in India, my client was in America. You know, it's not that easy for bank transfers to work, direct bank transfers to work.
I sent him my bank details. He sent me through a wire transfer. And he sent me the screenshot of you know, the payment successful thing. And I was like, all right, let's go for it. I sent him the design, final design files, and I I, I thanked him for the opportunity and I said, if I can get a testimonial, cause that's what I read on Google, that you should get testimonials from your clients, right?
So I was like, if I can get a testimonial from you, he said, all right, I'll give, he just wrote a two line testimonial. And I got the testimonial three days passed by. I still don't get the money in my account. Four days passed by. I still don't get it. And I'm freaking out. So I'm like, whether he sent the money or is he just.
You know, is he just fooling around? I reached out to him and I said, it's been four days. Can you please check it with your bank? He checked it with his bank and he said, it's your, in your account, but it has not yet transferred because of the international bank transfer thing, right? I reached out to my bank account.
And I, I told them hey, can you just check if I have any sort of international bank transfer? So he's like, the bank guy, he's like you are blessed, right? Yeah. Yes, we do have an international bank transfer. We wanted to reach out to you because this is not something that happens in our region. So you have to know that none of the people around in our area had international bank transfers on their bank.
Everything was done domestic. So they were a little skeptical about it. So I had to fill out a form. I had to reach out to the branch manager, to the relationship manager, everybody, and they gave me a form, and I had to declare what this fund was for, where did you get it from, what's the name of the sender, what's the address of the sender, and if they have a company, what's the name of the company, what's the address of the company, I filled in everything, they told me that it will be reflected in your bank account for the next probably in the next two or three business days, but they will charge a fee because of the international transfer.
I was like, all right. Three days passed by and I get the message that the amount is credited into my bank account, but the fees was almost half of what I got.
Steve: yeah.
Blesson: So imagine, imagine charging 80 for a logo. Imagine charging 80 for a logo. And then you get a message that you have almost 38 in fees for the international transfer and.
So, I had mixed feelings. First was, I was happy that I got my first client and first payment. The second was, which was the afterthought. Is it the process that I have to go every time? Like, every time to have to go to the bank, every time I have to give them this amount of cut. And I was clueless, but my parents were happy because, you know, you got your first client at least.
So they knew this is legit, right?
Steve: What? I mean, that might have been enough to put some people off. Did you then Google? How do I not get stumped quite so much? Google seems to be your friend up to this point. What, what did happen next? How did, how did you develop it from that first
Blesson: Yeah my first client experience, so as I mentioned, that was horrible. And I was like, this is not how it's going to work out. It won't work out if I have to do it this way. I then sat down and researched hard on like what is it that people use how do people get international payments. In India, we have a lot of these complex banking systems which doesn't allow international transfers easily.
So I then figured out PayPal. Yes, PayPal works in India too. PayPal works in America too or European countries and most of the countries. So how does that work out? I figured out PayPal works out. in a way where you can connect your bank account. They do all the middleman stuff and they charge a fee for it.
Not as ridiculous as bank transfers. And I reached out to a few more Indian designers that I found on Instagram and I asked them how do they do things. Back in 2017 and 2018 we didn't have too many options like TransferWise or Stripe or all those things. PayPal was the main thing in the market. So everybody said, use just PayPal.
I just got on PayPal, registered my account, and for the next client I used PayPal, and it was just things were just much easier.
Steve: So how did your next clients find you? Was it continuing to share your process and your work? Did you build a website? Like what did you do?
Blesson: Yeah, so Instagram was where I started out, and I kept going with Instagram for a long time, and that's how I got clients, because I kept posting work, I kept getting inquiries, and I figured out like this is the way probably everybody might be doing. So I just kept on going later on in the journey, I figured out that you can also have a website and I was like, wow, that's a great idea, but how do you get the website?
Right? Then I figured out Behance and Dribbble later on but Instagram was my main source for probably two or three years in my journey. And back in those days, Instagram was very good for getting you know, design clients. It was great for showcasing your work. And your potential clients might be on Instagram looking for people that they can work with.
So it just worked out for me. I don't know what I did differently. If somebody asked me, I didn't, I don't know. I just kept posting work. I just showed up every day and just clients just reached out. I never have ever called. emailed or cold dm'd anybody so that was a surprise for me when I learned about cold emails or cold reach out, right?
I was like, wow, that's also something that you can do, but I never had done that. So I didn't have experience of that.
Steve: No. Well, much better when people want to come to you asking you to work for them.
Blesson: Yeah, exactly. I was grateful and fortunate that my clients found, found out about me on social media and they, they reached out to me and not the other way around.
Steve: and most of your clients were they slash are they outside of India?
Blesson: Yeah, even now, 95 percent of my clients are outside of India, you know, because we don't have that sort of mindset shift yet in the Indian industry in the, you know, country or in the society where they value design as much it should be. It's still considered just, just as an, you know, business expenditure that we have to get something because we have to use socials.
Get it done as low cost as possible. Doesn't matter where we get from. Doesn't matter if the designer has copied the design from somewhere. So that culture is still developing. So we are not there yet. But back in 2017 and 2018, like, it had no, no market whatsoever for designers. I'm talking about, this will be very surprising for people, but I'm talking about 10, 20 designs, like everything was just under 50.
Everything was just under 50. So that has been the culture or the mindset around design. So I focused on developing or posting work that attracted international clients that was of the international standard. So I just did that.
Steve: You obviously were learning, learning, learning. Is that something you still do? Like, do you still make time in your day, in your week or whatever to learn?
Blesson: Absolutely. I think being a self taught designer, this, this is something that is a big advantage for me because I feel like I don't know much and I still want to learn as much as possible. Right. So I still keep learning every day. And I think that is something that has helped me to survive all this while to get to where I am because I had the heart of learning.
But I would, I would also say this few years in probably around year four or. Five of my career, I had that bit of thought in my mind that, yeah, I do know a bit when I started getting good quality clients, when I started getting high paying clients, high ticket clients, which was not at all close to what my friends were earning or my colleagues were earning you know, that.
Arrogance hit me a bit. Yeah, I probably I do know something right, but soon enough life teaches you in, in its own ways. And, you know, I was then grounded again figuring out things that I met people, I learned from people and I, I have the opportunity to have connections with designers, those who are better than me.
And when I looked at them and when I had the experience of talking to them. I figured out that no I'm not there yet.
Steve: So have you had like mentors, people who, or communities that you've been part of who have helped you?
Blesson: So when I started out, as I mentioned, I looked up to a lot of people on Instagram because that's how I learned. I literally tracked everything that they did and I just copied that. I just did what they did and I followed their path. So I think for me, mentors have been silent mentors most of the time.
They don't know yet that they are my mentors. And in some or the other way, I also had mentors, those who just started out, and I looked at their designs, I looked at the way they posted their work, they shared their work on social media, or maybe their authenticity or their transparency on social media, I learned some from those who started out and I was like, I don't have that.
I should learn that from them. So but I did also join few communities here and there where I, you know, learn from few people here and there, but I haven't had any sort of, you know, mentor that I would like to call out and say that he's my mentor, she's my mentor. Yet,
Steve: So at what point, cause I know today, like you have a company name, like you obviously you're blessed on, but your company name is,
Blesson: Bless Creatics.
Steve: When did that come into?
Blesson: So, can you guess what Creatics means?
Steve: I presumed it was like a creative, athletic type thing.
Blesson: Yeah. So,
It will be very straightforward to you when you hear this. All right. It's two words combined, creative graphics. That's it.
Steve: It's just because I'm a natural athlete. Blesson that. I went to athletics.
Blesson: Yeah. So when I started out my Instagram page It was called Bless Creatics from the day one.
Steve: Oh, wow.
Blesson: That's funny because I mentioned Conor Fowler. He's a designer from the UK. That's who I actually looked up to when I started out. And he goes by the name C. Fowler Design. So I was like, he's not using his own name.
He has a little bit of, you know, C. Fowler Design added to it. something added to it after his name. So I was like, my name is Bless and I'm fortunate enough to have a name that sounds cool, right? So I was like, let's shorten it up, add Bless, and then just add Creative Graphics, because I thought that I would be doing that for the rest of my life.
Graphics, Creative, and that just sounded cool. Bless Creatics. And I just went with it. And funny enough, Last year, I registered my company as a private limited company so it's, it's a legit thing now.
Steve: Brilliant. I love it. It came from an Instagram handle. With that in mind, though, like you obviously Coming across as a business, you know, like coming across as a professional, were you sharing much of your personality, of your personal life, or anything like that on Instagram?
Or was it, here's just my work?
Blesson: So for a very long time it was just my handle that said BlessCreatics, but everything on my socials was me, my. My story, my work, and my journey. So it wasn't like I was pretending to be an agency or a studio where people, you know, you know that meme, right? Where we say we are just one designer in the team and we just say we are a great agency.
We, you know, develop things and things like that. I always used to use I and I always told my clients it's just me. But it's just that I go by the stage name kind of thing where it's called Bless Creatics. So all this while it was just And I think the reason why I could hear where I am was because of the personal brand that I had on my social media account.
Absolutely. That was the only reason that I had. I used to share my journey. I used to share my struggles and I used to share my, you know, my thoughts on how things would work and how things might not work along with the design work.
Steve: Right. And how did that evolve? Because I know at some point, you started a podcast.
Blesson: So the reason why I started the podcast was to learn from the best in the design industry, right? It was never to to build a following. It was never to build. any sort of personal brand strategy. Like it was a marketing thing for me. I wasn't doing it on those terms. I just wanted to learn from the best in design industry.
And I thought the best way to learn from them to, to, to not like subscribe to their mentorship thing. But get them on board and learn from their insights was to just have them as guests on podcast. So every podcast guest that I have on my podcast are people that I wanted to learn from and it would be beneficial for the design community too.
So that's the reason I started the podcast. It's on hold. Please don't go and say that the podcast has been dead for the past to the listeners. If you, if you just go on you know, any podcast streaming app and just search for the bless show there are a few episodes up there, but yeah, it was fun when I did that.
Steve: So you, so you will be bringing it back, you think?
Blesson: Yes, absolutely.
Steve: I love that the idea was to learn from people, but did it have any side effects that you weren't expecting?
Blesson: Absolutely. Yes. And that's the reason I stopped. So I started it off with the intention of learning. But then it went on to the rabbit hole of content creation, rabbit hole of social media content creation game where I now wanted to be like other podcasters, where I wanted to just, you know, get those short clips cut it out from the long podcast session and then put it out on social media with the subtitles and all that stuff.
Slowly, I just spent a lot of the time working on my content creation game than on the thing that I started with this thing, right? So my, my mind was distracted from design to content creation. And because I love. creating content. That's something that comes naturally to me. If you look at my Instagram, I have lots of reels there talking head reels, where I like to create video content, stuff like that.
I just went down in the rabbit hole. And I, the, the, the focus that I should have been given to design. was now shifted to content creation. Because I saw people doing stuff, saw people doing things, and I was like yeah, I can do that. I should try that. Not knowing that they have a different game plan, right?
They have a different focus, they have a different goal. Which I figured out only later on. So that was something that I wasn't expecting. I didn't need it that, but it's just how things work out, right?
Steve: So you put the podcast on hold because Cause you felt like you were being distracted away from the actual work and the learning that goes with that work.
Blesson: I figured out like this is not working how I wanted it to be and I don't want to do it just for the sake of doing it. I wanted to do it if I really feel like I have a purpose behind it. So I just stopped it because for me I'm a type of person where I give my everything if I'm doing something. So if, if I want to do podcast, I will spend my whole life working on that podcast.
So, I have heard people, those who do multiple projects at a time, and they do really well at it. Personally for me, it hasn't worked out well. Probably something that I should learn more about. But, yeah, that's, that's how things work out for me. So, I just decided that I'll keep it aside for a moment.
I'll keep it in a hole for a moment until I figure out a strategy where it would be a great balance for me when it comes to content creation and design work.
Steve: What have you found most challenging about being freelance?
Blesson: My, you know, biggest challenge in freelancing or being freelance was the mindset shift that you know, I had to take where I had to teach myself every bit of freelancing or the solopreneur journey of, you know, being a solo guy for everything that you do. Because I didn't have, as I mentioned earlier in the episode that I, I didn't have any exposure to good design culture or good design systems or what, what, what do you mean by good design?
What do you mean by a design, you know, aesthetic and any of that, right? And coupling that with business knowledge, like marketing yourself or reaching out to clients or maintaining good relationships with your client, or how do you, How do you stay calm and conscious even when the client doesn't like your work?
And how do you give good feedback and how do you respond to the feedback that you get from your clients? So everything related to communications. So everything related to mindset shift, I had to shift the mindset from not just being an order taker, not just delivering what they want, but https: otter. ai to actually being a business owner and actually being someone who helps my clients more than anything more than just charging them or more than just sending them the invoice and getting paid more than that how I should just be a partner for them and how my main goal should be to make things easier for them at the end of the day.
So that has been I would say that has been the biggest challenge for me. And still, you know, it works because my friend circles on my you know, like classmates or college mates or colleagues, they don't have this sort of mindset going on because that's not the general culture we have. So to always keep yourself on track with this.
It's a great challenge and but thankfully things are getting better. The mindset shift is happening in the society and the culture that we live in. So it's an added bonus. So I would say that has been my greatest challenge, you know, about being freelance. And obviously there are those general challenges of, you know, finding clients or not having clients for a.
Short period of time and freaking out on how you would do that and all that stuff, right?
Steve: Yeah. Are you someone who sets goals? You know, like, do you look to the future and plan ahead?
Blesson: Yeah, so I have been Not at all on the you know range of setting goals like for me I am a man of faith and you know faith is something that my You know, faith in Christ is something that has been the forefront of my business or who I am today, right? And what we have been taught and what I have learned over the years is that future is not in your hands, right?
Things are not in your hands. You don't control the future. But at the same time, I am thankful and grateful for what I have every day, waking up every day. I'm grateful and thankful that I get to do what I love. And I just like to take things one day at a time. It doesn't mean that I don't have plans for what to do next, but it just means that I'm not worried.
I'm not always focusing on that plan. I have that plan in my heart on my mind. But it's not something that I always look up to and just, you know, keep pushing for that. I'm not that kind of person. So one day at a time, being grateful for what I have, have plans, but that's not the main driving factor for me.
Steve: In terms of work life balance, how has that changed over the, what are we now at, like, seven years or so of being freelance?
Blesson: Yeah, seven years.
Steve: How have you found that over the years?
Blesson: Yeah, it has been a great struggle to me, to be very honest, because one thing that I kept always sticking to was weekends off, which was a must for me. I wanted to take as much rest as possible. I'm someone who believes you need as much rest as you do work, right? So, for me, I can't just keep hustling day in and day night and just expect things to just work out well.
For me, I like to take things slow. I like to rest as much as possible. So for me, weekends has It's been something where I spend most of my time on meditation and you know, theology, which helps me unwind as well at the same time, you know, build my faith journey. Also, it helps me spend more time with my family.
and give more preference to the family time when it comes to weekends. But at the same time, it has been a real struggle. I still struggle a lot to have a great work life balance because also I am now a new dad. So things have just, you know, like been upside down and Everything when it comes to your schedules, your sleeping routines, everything is just now messed up.
So, I am at this point where I'm yet to figure out a great work life balance. But, it's not like it's a messed up situation, but I would also say that I have a lot to improve on that.
Steve: Yeah, maybe in 18 years it'll settle down again.
Blesson: exactly.
Steve: But how do you manage your workload to try, okay, so it doesn't always work out, but to try and prioritize
Blesson: Yeah,
Steve: if it's so important to you?
Blesson: I'm fortunate enough to not go beyond. High number of clients, but actually have some good high quality clients in numbers, like less in number and more in the type of clients that I have. So, which helps me not take too many projects at one time you know, which helps me to allocate. set number of hours or days to a certain project and not just go totally bonkers on every project that I have.
So that's something that works out for me. And I also like organizations and I also like, you know, having set my to do's beforehand, set my tasks beforehand or events beforehand. So Those are the things that has helped me have, you know, a decent workload balance.
Steve: Does that mean, say, turning projects away that actually you might want to take on?
Blesson: So there have been instances, yes, but I wouldn't call them a big percentage of my inquiries, but I would have had, I, I mean, I've had instances where I wanted to work on them, but because of the workload, probably I have referred it to someone else, maybe my friends or someone that I know. But that hasn't happened much, I would say.
Steve: And how do you filter the ones that you do want to do from those others?
Blesson: Yeah. That's interesting. I would say there are a few red flags that I have learned over these years. One of them being they don't value design as much as they should. Cause that means they just give you orders and they're like, Hey, we want so and so logo. We want so and so branding done. We have everything sketched out.
We have all the details. We have all the type of logos that we want. And this is what we need you to do that or we need you to design it. That means they're just here to, you know, give orders and get the thing designed from me because they couldn't design it themselves and just get the stuff done. I don't like to work on those projects but I like to work on the projects where I'm equally involved and I like to work with them and not just for them.
So that's something that I have had the biggest red flag that I have. And also if, if they're really hesitant about your decisions, they're suspicious about your choices as, as a designer. Like, hey, do you really think that this will work? Do you really think that will work? I have doubts. I have you know, I'm, I'm very suspicious about whether or not this concept would work.
And all that stuff, if that's how things are with them, I just generally tend to stay away from those clients.
Steve: Blesson, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Blesson: Absolutely one thing that I would tell my younger self, because as I mentioned, I, I have few regrets when it comes to starting work, when I started work. One thing is give equal importance to, you know, networking as much as you do to master your craft. So I was busy so much in, you know, mastering my craft and just learning just design skills that I forgot to network with people that might be potential clients or that might be potential people that Will bring me more leads and people that I can learn from more people that I can look up to and just, you know, learn things from their design journey or career.
So networking is something that was. That's my weak point and it still is, I would say, and I'm trying my best to be good at it and reach out to people and network with people, connect with people those who can help me get better at not just design, but you know, design as a business or design as a career.
Steve: Interesting, yeah. Because, I guess, you know, we think of networking, but it, you were very much watching people online. Your silent mentors, as you called them. When actually, what, you wish you'd maybe reached out or taken part more in things.
Blesson: Exactly, exactly. You know, that, that, that builds more of that personal relationship, right? Which is more human, which is more, I think, beneficial and It is what brings out the best in you when you reach out to the people that help get the best in you out.
Steve: Blesson it's been so good to talk to you. Go to beingfreelance. com. There'll be links through so that you can find Blesson online and what he's up to both now, maybe you'll listen to this in the future and you can go and find out maybe he restarted that podcast. Maybe he's managed to get some sleep. You can find out, go to beingfreelance. com. And of course, we have the Being Freelance community as well. So while you're there, click that button and I'll see you in there. But for now, Blesson, thank you so much and all the best being freelance.
Blesson: Thank you very much, Steve. It has been of great fun and a great experience being here. Thank you very much for having me and all the best to everybody who's listening.
Steve: So there goes Blesson. If you enjoyed that, please do reach out to him. Say well, say so. It's just really nice when you do that. Also, if you've never left a review before, you can consider doing that. I'd appreciate it. Spotify and Apple podcasts are really easy to leave ratings and reviews and make sure you've hit subscribe or follow whatever the terminology is where you get your podcast so that you don't miss the next episode, which will be coming a couple of weeks from now. Okay. I'm out of here. I'll see you in the being freelance community. If you're already there, if you're not come join us and you have a great week being freelance.