inflight magazine

Image: Flight of the Conchords

In this past week I’ve continued to meet up with more talented designers and started talking more about my future ideas when it comes to THE FDG. Knowing that there is plenty of support from good designers and developers to move THE FDG vision forward, I am still concentrating on the job at hand.

I haven’t been working for myself for very long but it all seems to be slotting into place very nicely. All those years of working for design agencies, listening in on business strategies and design best practices are now paying off. By example I’ll quickly run through my first business meeting with a client in Auckland (New Zealand’s big city). The team for the project is made up of 3 people; 1 Graphic Designer, 1 Web Designer, 1 Web developer.

It was a long day and very draining but all worth while…

• 5.00 am: Wake up and prepare for the day ahead
• 6.00 am: Drive from my home in Upper Hutt to Wellington to meet Caspian the Graphic designer
• 7.30 am: Check-in at the Airport for our flight to Auckland
• 11.15 am: Meeting with the client
• 4.30 pm: Flight back to Wellington
• 7.30 pm: Design conference in Wellington
• 11.00 pm: Finally home to bed

Both myself and Caspian traveled to Auckland for the meeting where Caspian started off by running through the branding. I chipped in after that with how the process will work for the website side of things by briefly going through what they’d like in the website, including any of their future goals.

The client was nice and everything moved along very well. Even though I’d been in design agencies where I’ve given my ideas and set goals for projects, this was a different environment. Now I was the one in charge and like a preprepared speech, the words flowed out without stutter or confusion. I knew exactly what I needed to say and my audience was very receptive.

After the meeting I felt two things…

1. Confidence in the future :

Being in that meeting gave me a slight insight into things to come for THE FDG. Before I was a designer, but now I am a business man (and a designer, I always will be )

2. I was buggered!:

I think after an early morning flight with no breakfast (well, a McDonalds muffin), and lack of sleep really took it out of me that day. I love the idea of catching a flight to see a client but the reality for now is that I’m not so good at the whole flying part.

So in summary, I’ve now had a taste and I want more! Here’s to good thing!