It was a dark and hot night in the valley; there was no moon. Despite the temperature being in the high 90s -- even at such a late hour -- a cup of steamin' joe sat on the desk next to the keyboard. The only light in the office came from a banker's lamp on a credenza across the room and the glare of a computer screen.
The soft glow of the flat panel illuminated the designer's face as Stevie Ray Vaughan's Tin Pan Alley emanated from the iPod's external speakers. Wearing flip-flops, a flowered Hawaiian shirt and a pair of well-worn khaki shorts, the designer moved and tapped the mouse as he created a direct-mail piece for a client.
Clients typically gave him at least three days to design a direct-mail piece or advertisement. However, this time, this particular client could only give him two nights. No matter; tonight the piece would be designed and a proof emailed so that the client could edit it during the next business day … while the designer was toiling at his day job. The next evening the edits would be made and the final digital files sent to the printer via FTP.
But that time frame was the furthest thing from the designer's mind at this point. He'd never missed a deadline and he wasn't about to start.
He had another project on deck but had a week to complete that one. A week was a long time in his line of work -- that of a freelance designer who provides... art for hire.
Chapter Two - About art4hire
Contact: art4hire@art4hire.org