The PBB (Potentially Big Break) – Part 1

During one of my “I need to get back into it” phases I applied to Unicorn Factory, an agency of sorts, but doing things a little differently. Got accepted, set up a profile, forgot about it.

A few weeks back I got a message in my inbox saying someone had requested me specifically for a project they wanted me to join. My first thought was “no, I can’t do that”. But I researched the company, did some sketching, gave it some thought and decided I had nothing to lose. If I did well it would be a big step forward. If I suddenly found myself struggling, surely I could still come up with something that met the brief (i.e. a low-quality work in my eyes would still be good enough if I just relied on muscle memory) – and that was all the reassurance I needed. I took the job.

I even went all out and started using HelloBonsai for Project organisation – it later turned out this was not exactly necessary, but it sure made me feel important. Thankfully, my day job as a Food Designer works along the exact same tracks as working on client projects – when you cook it down to the very essence, the only difference is that there I fine-tune flavours rather than colours. So as it turns out, even during the long leave I took, I was still gaining invaluable experience from my day job.

So I discussed with the client, outlined my terms, their requirements, the scope, their mock-up, their contract, my timeline/availability. The last one turned out to be the most critical. My profile on Unicorn Factory had clearly stated that I was a side hustler and only available for a few hours per week, but the project happened to have a very close deadline and I still had to find those hours somewhere. I put my husband on toddler-duty during the evening, worked on the weekends and until late at night. Felt bad about it of course. Emailed back and forth for feedback, approvals, timelines.

I got really lucky. Again, in my day job I have worked with many a client. Occasionally there is a “good communicator”, but the majority tend to be somewhat relaxed (yay for working with Kiwi’s – sorry). But this client got back to me right away, pushed for approval from their team, went out of their way to give clear feedback (in writing PLUS visualised). It was a joy. It was exhausting and I had a marathon headache, but it was a joy.

And then we were getting closer to the deadline and things got real...