So, you're running your own solo creative gig, and you love working for yourself. Awesome.

But my bet is that you're finding it a bit more challenging than the romantic notion you had about freelancing before you started. (In my brief stint as a freelance writer, I hated the business-development side of things.)

We've heard more than a few of you say you wished there was some way you could learn all the business and marketing stuff you need to know when you're on your own. That's what the new Creative Freelancer Conference is all about. HOW and Marketing Mentor are teaming up on this first-time event, August 27-29 in Chicago. We've just launched the conference website, where you'll find info on sessions and speakers (most of them seasoned freelancers themselves), plus some helpful resources and a blog.

This conference isn't just for designers: if you know any freelance copywriters, illustrators or photographers, let them know about it, too. It'll be a place where designers can network with other creatives whose services they might need.

Like HOW's very first conference for in-house designers 3 years ago, we expect this event to fill up fast. Interested? Learn more and register now.

I was bummed that I had to miss Justin Ahrens' session at the HOW Conference, but super excited when he emailed us today to let us know he's posted the videos he collected for the session online. My personal favorite, is the designer Pash explaining what he loves about his job while dressed as a hotdog.

You Gotta Love It! from Rule29 on Vimeo.

Posted by Megan

Find type, color and layout inspiration in this growing collection of bottle caps by artists Maura Cluthe.

via box vox

Posted by Megan

I can't believe it's over. Really. This time last week, we were all in Boston, juiced up on caffeine and creative energy, and here we are now back at our desks.

A huge thanks to all of you in the design community -- nearly 4,000 of you! -- who attended, making this the biggest HOW Conference ever. It was such a blast being with ALL of you in Boston last week.

As I was digging through the mountain of email that came in last week, one message from a conference attendee stood out: She sent in a request for tips or advice for keeping that HOW vibe going strong now that we're all back at work. So in lieu of a session-by-session recap, I'll share some ideas for extending that creative energy in the coming months.

• First, unpack. Remember all the paper samples, photo catalogs and print brochures you picked up in the Resource Center -- the stuff you spent an hour in line waiting to ship home? Yeah, that. Unbox everything, and place your conference binder on your desk beside your Mac for more inspiration this week.

• Schedule a show-and-tell. Set a half-hour meeting this week to share all the goodies you collected in the Resource Center with your team. If you chatted with a vendor and got scoop on a new product, be sure to pass that info along to your colleagues.

• Relive the experience. If you purchased the registration package that included all the MP3s (from sessions whose presenters gave us permission to audio-record), you're all set. If you didn't, then check the conference website this week and purchase select sessions you want. Schedule brown-bag lunch meetings with your team once a week for the next several weeks, cue up the audio and get an hour's worth of instant inspiration. A few of my fave sessions that would make great post-conference listening:
Bill Strickland's inspiring keynote
Justin Ahrens' Designer Sobriety
Maggie Macnab's Decoding Design
Von Glitschka's awesome Illustrative Design
Erin Sarpa and Steven Morris' session, Lovin' Your Job
Joe Duffy's A Designed Life

• Make your own presentation. Last year, a design firm here in Cincinnati scheduled a meeting where two designers who attended HOW in Atlanta gave a casual presentation about all they'd seen and learned. They put together a simple slideshow of photos and shared the key ideas they brought home to the office.

• Do your homework. In their session, Lovin' Your Job, Erin Sarpa and Steven Morris asked the audience to complete several worksheets, and then gave everyone a homework assignment to work on when they got back to the office. If you were in that session -- or even if you weren't -- do these career-affirming exercises.

• Review your notes. While the information is still fresh, go back through the notes you took in your conference binder. Jot down new thoughts that come to mind, use a highlighter pen to mark key ideas that you want to remember, fill out any worksheets or checklists provided by the speakers. Make notes on handouts for sessions you missed, too. Keep the binder as a resource you can refer back to six months from now.

• Stay connected. If you were in Steve Gordon's Networking Lunch, you heard his advice on this topic: Don't let that stack of business cards you collected in Boston lie in a pile on your desk. This week, send emails to people you met and want to stay in touch with. Encourage a longer-term connection and build your network.

Stay tuned this week for more post-conference goodness, including links to photo sets, other blogs and more.

As part of Jim Krause's "Smashing Photography" pre-conference workshop, he had us tackle three assignments in and around the room we were meeting in. The first assignment was to capture visual textures, abstract images that can be used in backgrounds and layers of design work. One of the best ways to capture texture is to get really close to whatever you're shooting. Here are three of my images:


This is a close up of a curtain in the room.



This is ice floating in a clear pitcher on the speaker's table.



This is a super close up of a slinky.

Posted by Megan

Dang it Bryn, you're making me look like a slacker with all your posts. When are you doing this? It's 4:17 on Tuesday and I'm only now finding a few minutes to pull out my computer. I was blown away by the the two sessions I saw today. Charles Anderson is a wise and generous man with endless creativity. The big lesson I got from his session is the value of persistence and believing in your own vision. There was a similar theme to Chris Sickels' presentation about his creative process. He shared his roughest early sketches, through tight drawings to 3D sculptures to animation. It was incredably inspiring to see the creative process laid bare.

I had my own creative fun a few days ago at Jim Krause's pre-conference workshop "Smashing Photography." I'll post a few of my fun photos later.

Posted by Megan

Turns out, Doug Bartow is doing a waaayyy better job of live blogging the conference than we are. (Hopefully, we can be forgiven; our time isn't exactly our own this week. Seriously. You should see my schedule.) Check out Speak Up for play-by-play details.

Another morning when I could use a clone, but since I'm not introducing a session I'm free to hop among the three openers this morning: Debbie Millman & Michael Bierut, Charles Anderson and Katherine McCoy.

Debbie and Michael are engaged in a really neat conversation covering a lot of ground, from tips on personal hygiene (Michael's daughter advises singing "Happy Birthday" three times while washing your hands to be sure you're nice and clean) to selling your ideas. Michael offers three tips: Listen to clients, and they'll stop being freaked out by your mysterious creativity; understand the politics and power roles in the room during a meeting ("all you do is create the script for the little play they're acting out for each other"); adopt a "rope-a-dope" strategy (let the clients tire themselves out discussing one idea, then surprise them with a better one).

In Hall D, Charles Anderson is showing a ton of his firm's terrific product designs, from his super cool stuff more than a decade ago for Paramout to his current CSA images. He shares a bit of wisdom from one of his manufacturing partners: If it smells, it sells. The reality of the marketplace means that gorgeously designed things will sell less than run-of-the-mill, cheaply produced goods.

And here in Ballroom B, Katherine McCoy has invited us all into the Wayback Machine for a fantastic trip through the Swiss influence on design in 1960s and 70s America. Long live Helvetica!