Notes in RGB, blog of Ole Martin Kristiansen

For a year now I’ve been working as a designer in an agency in Oslo. My tasks here has been quite similiar to what I was doing as a freelancer, except a lot less coding and time spent talking with clients.

I would just like to point out one very important thing that I have discovered during the last year.

My progression as a designer in an agency has been a whole lot faster than the progression I experienced as a freelance designer.

This might be obvious to a lot of people, but for a young guy like me it surprised me. As a freelancer you are able to pick your own tasks, pick your clients and working hours. The freedom is great and comes with a lot of benefits and gives you enormous flexibility. As a designer in an agency most of the projects are picked for you. I’m able to have a say at what I want to do and I can definitely express which projects I’d like to be involved in, but in the end it’s my boss who makes the decision. So far I’ve been working on both things I’m comfortable with and things I’m new to. You can do this as a freelancer as well — pick projects you’re not at first comfortable with. But the big difference lies in how you execute your work.

At Jimmy Royal I’ve been working closely with our Creative Director for several projects, where I’ve been in the driver seat and he’s been sitting next to me and basically challenging all aspects of the design I’m presenting. It’s been a great learning process and it still is. The most important and perhaps frightening part is that if he had not sat down next to me, given me his thoughts, challenging me and motivating me to continue working on the design I would probably be satisfied with the job done and send it to the client. Because that was usually my life as a freelancer. It’s easier to be satisified with the work you have done and chances are that the client will be pretty happy as well, as long as you’ve made it look nice.

I can’t emphatize enough how big of a difference it can make, just being more critical and expecting more of yourself (and from time to time letting friends or colleagues take that role). Take another round. Trash your current design and start over. Deliver five designs in 2 hours. Give yourself challenges or find someone that can give them to you or else you can end up losing growth and important insight — and perhaps end up not being as good as you have potential to be.

Although this is something I’ve experienced and learned in an agency, I think the same can be achieved as a freelancer. You just have to share your work with someone. Someone who’s as good as you or better, or someone who doesn’t share your point of view. Someone you’re afraid to show your work to, because you know they’ll not necessarily love it at first sight.

Just a few cents about progression as a designer in an agency.