Well, it’s about time. I’ve been wanting to start a blog for ages, but never got the time. Now I do. I’m jobless, for the first time in my life. Weeelll…. maybe not quite, if you see freelancing as a legitimate career option. I’ve done it before, and quite frankly, now more than ever, I can’t see myself working for a boss again.

Incompetent bosses, bosses with no managerial skills, bosses without imagination (especially if you work in the design and advertising industry – in what alternate universe did they think they can run an ad agency without a creative hair on their bodies?). Sexist male bosses, weak bosses who cannot handle employees, especially of the female variety, to have opinions of their own. Female bosses who try to out-do each other in the bitch-department… the list goes on and on.

So, potentially I can be boss-free for the rest of my career. I can even have a different career – I am my own biggest fan, and I will give myself the opportunities no other short-sighted, closed-minded employer out there is willing to give me.

Pretty exciting? Maybe… if it wasn’t so damned scary!

But the truth of the matter is that jobs requiring my particular skill set, with my 20 years of experience, are scarcer than chicken teeth, like you would say in Afrikaans. And people are just not willing to take a chance on you, or pay you the money that you deserve for your years of blood, sweat and tears. The other side of the coin is obviously that freelancing is not a consistent earner. And I’m single. With debt. STREEEESSSSS!!!!

So the thinking behind this ranting comment on the state of the job market for graphic designers (or any creative) is this: we should stand by each other, plug ourselves and each other on every occasion that presents itself, pool ideas, resources if the need arises… designers, illustrators, photographers, copywriters, developers, and anyone that contribute to the collective creative process. That’s it – a Creative Collective made up of superior individualists. Maybe we could start a political party…