Activity Log Sheet Nos. 2-5

Careers Paper

Although I’ve decided to study Anthropology in university, I’m not yet set on any career yet. I’ve debated plenty of options — web designer, music producer, journalist, novelist, comic writer, sculptor, architect, web entrepreneur, being the owner of a replica 1700s sailboat tour company, photography — but haven’t settled on anything. The two careers I’d like to explore here concern web entrepreneurship and webcomics, but I wish to point out that these aren’t the only options available to me, and the list of options I do have isn’t prioritized in any order.

Ideally, I would stick to no single career. My dream life is making money with various projects — one month doing an artist exhibit and selling art, another designing websites, another doing wedding gigs as a DJ or photographer — all while making money steadily from websites (advertising, paid services) that I don’t really have to take care of. There was a time in middle school when I was making $40 per month just from advertising on a website I ran, and it required almost no upkeep.

Anyway, if I were to choose a single life (which would inevitably bore me), I would probably first turn to web development. There is a strange “startup” culture online, where developers and designers get together for a single project, complete the website, which usually provides a service to users, and just let it run, only maintaining it every once in a while. The founders of the site share equity, and usually part ways to work on other projects, maybe seeing each other later down the road to work on something different.

One site I’ve been monitoring is Forrst (http://forrst.com/) — it’s a social code-sharing, image-sharing, question-asking forum for web designers and developers. It has a transient content structure, somewhat like Facebook, where posts by users usually disappear by the next week, because content is coming so fast. Forrst was created mostly by a developer named Kyle Bragger, with help from illustrators and designers. Kyle said it was just an idea he was playing with and once he got friends and contacts on board to help him to the project, and investors to pay for it (investors for online projects don’t really have to pay much, since websites are so cheap to produce), he got it rolling (Rocheleau).

I think this would be one way to live life that could definitely suit me. Kyle is an entrepreneur, but he’s also never left the actual coding side of things. There are so many stories of people like Mark Zukerburg, who start a website (like Facebook) and end up hiring other people to do all of the code and design. I prefer the Forrst model, because I want to be in the middle of everything, doing the actual code, or the actual design.

Another lifestyle I could live would be that of a webcomic artist. One case study in particular I’d like to highlight is the life of Ryan North, creator of Dinosaur Comics (http://qwantz.com) and Project Wonderful, an online advertising. His source of income comes from commissions on Project Wonderful, advertisements on his comics site, and merchandise that he sells regarding Dinosaur Comics. Ryan North repeatedly announces his love for his job publicly (on his Twitter account, @ryanqnorth), and is in the perfection situation if his webcomic ever fails (which it probably won’t): he has a degree in Computational Linguistics (University of Toronto), and says he “could always get a job in programming” (Whaley).

Being a webcomic artist would be great, especially because by its nature, there are different income sources associated with it. If I got bored doing one thing, I could switch to a different project, maybe another comic, and possibly, throughout all of this, becoming friends with a very close-knit community of webcomic creators.

I did a webcomic before, and it wasn’t too successful, but I began to see where that kind of project could lead me. The greatest thing for me about working with webcomics, is that it would be an almost self-sustaining community. I would just update the comic each day with a new strip, but other than that, I could go about my life. It’s the perfect career to go along with anything else, since I would have so much free time.

There are many other careers and jobs I’ll probably end up having over my lifetime, and will probably cover a wide variety of disciplines and subject areas, because that’s just how my personality works. I don’t think I would be satisfied in any “stable” job position unless it was exciting. I need adventure and risk and such in my life, and most importantly, doing something I actually like. I know for a fact that there are careers out there that, for me, have zero downsides. Money isn’t something I care about, as long as I can buy food and make rent. All I really care about is being happy, and if that means doing something fun that doesn’t pay well, I’d gladly take that.

The last position I want to be in is where most Americans are today: not looking forward to work, and while working, only looking forward to the end of the day. Then, by the time they get home, after combing through the distress of rush hour, they are exhausted and have no time to pursue other projects. I’ve told my friends numerous times before that if they ever find me in the future in such a state, I’d like it very much if they would slap me out of it.

Works Cited 

Rocheleau, Jake. "Interview with Forrst Founder: Kyle Bragger." Webdesigner Depot. 10 Sept. 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/09/interview-with-forrst-founder-kyle-bragger/>. 

"Ryan North." Computer Science. University of Toronto. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~ryan/>. 

Whaley, Karen. "Tall Poppy Interview: Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics." Torontoist. 17 May 2006. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://torontoist.com/2006/05/tall_poppy_inte_31.php>. 

Journal Entry No. 10

I went to Astonish Designs this week, and Tim wasn’t there, being sick. Unfortunately, he left for a business trip the following day, and I wasn’t able to meet with him for the rest of the week.

I did, however, talk to the designer about a new project I’m working on—stevencampbell.org—and asked him to critique my design. He didn’t have much to say (I suppose that’s good!), and so I just worked on a couple of things. We talked a lot about news in the industry of web development and design, the differences between Drupal and WordPress, and the declining usage of Internet Explorer (also a great thing!).

Mostly we talked. I worked on the design for SC.org for a bit after that, and then went home. I’m considering changing my product from the photo contest benefiting the Nobelity Project to this personal website, stevencampbell.org. I think, first of all, it’s an easier start.

Also this week I sent several emails to people needing designers using builditwith.me, a community designed to connect developers who need designers and vice-versa. Currently I’m corresponding with developers all over the world—Croatia, England, New Zealand, Toronto, Portland—and starting to help them with their projects.

Most of the projects on Build It With Me offer 50% equity, meaning that if any of the projects I’m working on with these people get big, I may end up with some money. Nice!

Journal Entry No. 9

I wasn’t able to meet with my mentor this week, because of scheduling conflicts, but perhaps we’ll meet tomorrow or next week sometime. I have been, however, busy with a lot of auxiliary web development projects.

The first is my personal website, which will function as a blog and portfolio and business card and laboratory test bed. It will essentially be all my character posted online, content coming from several sources — including external RSS feeds which will be parsed using PHP XML processing routed through WP plugins, linked into the program’s core — and being aggregated on one site. That site I’ve been putting a lot of work into, because it will be what I hope to use as advertising my services to the world (and perhaps I can make money off of selling ad space on the site itself).

The second is a website for a local filmmaker, which is now completely done and online at http://nervtubeproductions.com. Eric Goldberg so nicely agreed to, in exchange for me doing his website for free, film a screenplay I’ve been working on. So now, he gets a brand-new website (which uses a lot of jQuery, something new I’ve been playing with and haven’t really gotten into lately), and I get a completely produced short film!

Maybe I’ll enter it in some contests.

I found him on the barter section of craigslist, which I’ve been browsing pretty regularly now. Does it make me an anarchist to reject the use of legal tender?

The third project is a project for the Nobelity Project — I will end up probably making a few different websites for them, and earning service hours in the process. I think taking non-profit efforts to the web can really benefit a lot of people, and I hope to help Nobelity move in that direction.

Journal Entry No. 8

Tim and I discussed with Michelle's mentor the prospect of doing a site for Westlake's Senior Service day at the Mentor Appreciation event. The project will be very Westlake-oriented, and be a very good exercise of my web development skills. It will also get me more involved in the Nobelity Project, which is something I've always been interested in.

My mentor provided me with a client, referred to me by him, and I was able to contact her and we are working on her website together, which will likely launch in January (because I have other clients, plus college applications for the next two months). The site will be mostly static content, but will need a nice, clean design.

We (my mentor and I) also spoke about me possibly shadowing other people in his company, especially because he does more sales and marketing and HR, and his employees are doing other things I'm really interested in: design and development.

Journal Entry No. 6

I met Tim at his office and we discussed other web design projects I’m working on, like the Westlake Featherduster website and a website I’m doing for a local filmmaker, Eric Goldberg. He had another large project to work on, so we worked across from each other in the conference room, mostly without conversation.

I also set up an interview with a local web designer, the girlfriend of a local DJ I know, but she cancelled yesterday and rescheduled it for this Thursday at lunch (so that’s why I’m not turning in my interview).

On Monday, I met with her (Nikki) and the DJ (Kendall) to work on Kendall’s website. Although unrelated to my mentorship completely, I thought it might be relevant to my career study. We sat on the couch, listening to the Bad Plus, eating BBQ tofu and asparagus while putting together a website to promote Kendall’s DJ’ing. Nikki had already designed most of the website, but was having trouble managing the server — there were issues in the server’s configuration.

Although we never actually found the source of the problem, we narrowed it down a lot, and I suspect it should be running well within the next week or so.

Interview: Nikki Hampson

Type of interview: In Person

Name: Nikki Hampson

Occupation: Web & Print designer

Job Title: Freelancer

Place of Business: Past: Rural Rooster, now, Ume7 (ume7.com) 

Mailing Address: Her house (not comfortable with sharing)

City, State, Zip: Austin, TX 78741

Phone Number: Personal phone number

E-mail address: hello@ume7.com

I met Nikki Hampson through her boyfriend Kendall Clark, who I knew as a local DJ and drummer. Kendall told me about how she designed (the first design I saw by her was the promotional stuff she did for Kendall’s shows). We met in Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse on South 1st for lunch (I got a poppyseed bagel, always delicious), and talked for a while. Since we are somewhat friends, we began talking for a while before the interview actually started. My recorder broke halfway through, and a lost some of the information (about 5 minutes worth), so I ran to my car to get another device (my laptop) to record the rest. Other than this unfortunate mishap, everything else went perfectly. We talked about her beginnings and personal experience as a designer, the differences between freelancing and working for a studio, various design-related magazines, and what the Austin community is like for designers as well as other topics. Unfortunately because of the data loss I only have about 5:39 of the interview.