‘For The Exposure'.

I see people being quite snarky about doing work for free, and with no expectation of anything in return, but I do this quite a lot. I’ve got no blanket rule about it - every request is assessed on its own merits, for there may be something I like about the job, I might like the people, the product, the brief - or all three. And, I might just fancy doing it!

Every year I get many such requests and I’d say I maybe accept one in four, something like that. If only this, such things are a chance to play with some materials off the clock, where it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit wonky or, ahem ‘experimental’, as there’s no client breathing down your neck fretting about how their crayon dollars are being spent. Which they do QUITE understandably, but from time to time, it’s quite freeing not to have that! I don’t need exposure (well, I do, but it’s part of my job to choose where and how that’s achieved) and no, I certainly can’t pay my lipstick bill with it, but it’s not all about that, and it’s certainly never my sole consideration.

This was a nice little one that came in when I was MEGA busy, but I really wanted to do it, so the poor lad had to wait, but I think he was pleased with the result.

Scrawlrbox is a nice idea - a modest monthly subscription which brings a surprise package of new art materials to your letterbox each month - and to kick it off, Chris the founder, Crowdfunded it with decorated boxes (the ones they send the art materials in) auctioned off to raise funds. Simple enough!

I agreed to do it (putting in my disclaimer about not being able to commit to a deadline), and the ‘Inkymole’ box was bought by Greg at Infringe Films, who make fictional films, documentaries and other productions for a wide variety of quite impressive clients.

Having recently completed our own film, Stupid Enough, I wanted to make a comment about how tricky it is, and how surprisingly easy at the same time. I knew I’d heard a quote somewhere about film-making being just ‘groping around in the dark’ so I did my homework, tracked it down and unearthed some more great quotes about film-making.

Here’s what the box looked like in the end - I did the inside too of course, and got to use all my pens and glittery things in a completely relaxed no-stress way! And yes, that IS a set of B&M neon and glitter gel pens, alongside the posh inks and limited edition nibs.