Conversation with Omar Sosa Tzec

There were a couple things that Omar brought up which intrigued me primarily regarding how he conducted his freelance experience as a student, before receiving specific visual design training. 

Personally, I've taken on many small projects for friends and acquaintances to create logos, album covers, packaging, and stickers. I worked on most of these projects before completing my degree at SFSU because once I joined the design program, I didn't have a lot of time to assist other people on their work since I needed to focus on my own. 

There were many things I didn't know about design or the process and so looking back I definitely feel as though I could've produced much higher quality work, however I am incredibly thankful for the experiences, nonetheless. 

With that said, I always found freelance work extremely difficult to manage for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I would find myself undergoing numerous revisions despite having produced a design that I already felt was extremely strong. I placed all of the decision making in the hands of the client, which is not necessarily a bad thing because they are the ones paying for the service. However, in some instances, I felt as though following all of their feedback resulted in a worse product despite the client being satisfied. 

I now know that part of our jobs as designers is to also educate our clients about what makes a successful visual outcome, as well as the intentional design decisions behind that outcome.  

I was unfamiliar with that part of our job before joining the design program at SFSU and so I would be curious as to how Omar approached those instances before receiving formal training, but also afterwards. I would ask him if anything in particular changed.

Another aspect of freelancing that I've found very difficult is pricing. It's always been difficult for me to figure out what to charge my clients. Even if I felt very confident about my end product, and the client was in love with it I feel like I would end up lowballing myself. This is partly because of social anxiety and fear that my proposed price would be rejected, and I would lose the opportunity. Or that having completed the logo my client would simply stop responding once asking for payment if I didn't require them to pay beforehand or if we hadn't already outlined a price. 

I think it's especially hard because it's not like I can find a similar product on the store or online and then use that price for reference to configure my own. 

As a graduate now of the Design program, I would love to start working on freelance projects right away while I spend a couple more months at my current job before just taking some time off to travel, however I still feel a little bit lost in regard to what I'm worth. 

I would love to sit down with Omar and pick his brain about what he charged as an amateur designer, what led him to that number, and how that pricing and thinking changed as he became more established in the industry.