This logo was designed for MDR IT Services, a local computer repair company that was looking to branch out into business IT solutions and wanted to stand out from the multitudes of mom and pop computer repair shops.

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Keep in mind that everyday for a design, especially a business owner, is new and full of unique challenges but this is a generalization of a typical day.

8:00 am: I am getting into my office and getting situated. I start by firing up some tunes to help me wake up and start reading any new emails I may have. Luckily I don’t get the hordes of mail that some of my colleagues get but I sort through it never the less. I immediately follow up with any emails that I can provide an adequate answer to and tag the others to reply later if needed.

I also skim my RSS feeds to see if there is anything new and interesting before I get down to my “real” work. I follow various design blogs and a few tech blogs just to stay somewhat current on what’s happening today.

Usually by 9:00 am I check in with the social networks quickly. I hit Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn just to see if there is anything that requires my attention but I don’t stay long. I skim, post, and put it away, mostly.

I am a Facebook junkie so I do check in throughout the day when I’m not really, really busy and I use Tweetdeck and have it running while I work so I can quickly check things when I take a break.

10:00 am: This is when, what some people consider, the “real work” begins and some still don’t consider it really real. I’m talking about client projects here. I usually break the bulk of my day into chunks depending on how many jobs I have going. If I have more than one I will dedicate a few hours to each one a day. When I don’t have client work I am reading and researching ways to not only be a better designer but a better business owner. Let’s face it, in today’s economy I am will to take all the advice I can get.

By the time 4:00 pm rolls around I am usually in “the zone” with whatever job I am on but when i notice the time I start winding down that job and making sure I have everything saved. Then I copy what I am currently working on to my Dropbox account which allows me to have basically 2gb of shared space on any computer that I have Dropbox installed on for FREE. This is useful if I have been working on revising a contract or proposal as I can pull it up on the laptop if I need to.

I check my email again and make sure to reply in some form to any mail that needs a response. Even if I don’t have the particular answer for them just yet, I email them to let them know I got the email and I will find out whatever the email asked.

About 5:00 pm I am finishing up last minute stuff and getting ready to call it a day. I want to be available for my kid once he gets home from the babysitter.

As you can see the amount of time I actually get to spend designing is only about half my day if that. And when I don’t have client work it’s even less. I focus on making my life as a designer and business owner easier and more efficient when I don’t have client jobs and that usually means organizing my desktop, cleaning up Quickbooks and developing workflow systems that make things run smoother. I wish I got to tool around in Photoshop all day but that just isn’t the case.

You may have noticed that I didn’t really include any administrative tasks like paying bills or invoicing. That’s because I don’t do it every day. That happens on an as needed basis and I adjust my schedule accordingly.

I hope this has been fairly informative for any of you that didn’t really know what goes into being a freelance designer.

By the way, just because it sounds like I am really busy, I certainly welcome any new job inquiries so hop over to the contact page and shoot me an email!

This logo was designed for Second Look, a marketing service in the Central Florida area. I was also hired to design business cards and letterhead for the client.

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This logo was designed for the Lake Eustis Area Chamber of Commerce to represent the Georgefest event during February 26-28, 2010. It was decided to go in a different direction than the past years (they all used an image of George Washington) and to represent the patriotic spirit of the  city of Eustis. The heron depicted in the logo is a silhouette of a metal sculpture located in the downtown area and has become an icon for the city.