SuperQuest - The Race of Your Life

What did you do this weekend? I ran a race through the city of Charlotte and in doing so I played a life-sized game of Jenga, hung out with good friends, answered trivia questions, deciphered a coded message and followed clues to over a dozen local establishments. No this is not my typical Saturday. All of this was the result of an idea a friend of mine had to celebrate her husband’s birthday last year and it was so wildly successful that it evolved into a new business for her.

This company is known as SuperQuest Races and they plan and implement private and corporate "Amazing Race" type pub crawls throughout urban areas. Their races are customizable to suit the needs of your group. The idea is that racers must complete tasks and solve clues to move through various bars, restaurants, landmarks, and public art in a specific order. Bottom line, it’s a blast!

I recently had the privilege to be a part of this experience in more ways than one. After having competed in one of these races myself, the owner approached me about helping her create a website. I was thrilled to be a part of it. Be sure to check out the website I created for them (below) and look for them on Facebook and Twitter.

http://www.superquestraces.com/

In addition to that I’m going to shamelessly plug my web design company DesignInk. A link to this website can be found at:

http://www.design-ink.co/

I hope you like what you see. Enjoy!

The Designer is “IN”

In an effort to continue reflecting what is going on in my life I have produced the following single-panel comic. It’s part reflection and part tribute…to the late, great Charles Schultz of course. It is also indicative of my quest for work. I have been living the life of a freelancer for the last two years. I have pursued opportunities in architecture, the field in which I am formally trained. I’ve done graphic design & illustration, which is and has always been my passion. Lastly, in an effort to diversify I went back to school to earn a degree in web design. All of this has been in an effort to invest in myself and facilitate my own personal advancement.

All I need to be happy as a freelancer is a creative outlet, challenging projects, good clients and the ability to work or collaborate with people I enjoy. I’ve been lucky in this regard. I’ve been doing exactly that however my biggest challenge has been finding enough work to stay busy “full-time”, as in 40 hours worth of work a week. Don’t’ get me wrong…schedule-wise I’m putting in the time. I’m working a lot more than that but I have single-handedly put the “free” in freelancer. I find myself doing lots of work to get work these days- it’s a new world of business out there and those are the breaks; lots of free advice (hey, you get what you pay for), marketing and competition…and don’t get me started on spec work. I value my time enough to charge for it, even if it’s just peanuts. (pun intended Mr. Schultz)

On any given day I remind myself of the opportunity I have; I am working for myself and doing what I love. I want to take this opportunity to thank the people that have put their faith in me to assist them in bringing their ideas to life or assisting with their business; be it a website, logo, architectural design or otherwise. Working together has forged wonderful relationships and those relationships mean the world to me. I truly believe that it is these relationships that will contribute to one another’s success. I sincerely invest in them but I’m not only talking about professional relationships but personal ones as well. People have continued to support me, pimp me out to their friends and grant me opportunities to do what I am passionate about. Just wanted to say thanks and over the next few posts I will plug a few of my colleagues in an effort to return the favor.