We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katharine Cameron a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Katharine, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?
As a graphic designer, remote work makes the most sense for me. I rarely, if ever, actually need to meet someone in person, and it benefits my business 110%. I find that meetings are shorter, working time is longer, less interrupted, more focused, and, in general, I get things done much faster. I absolutely love remote work and encourage people looking for designers to forgo meeting in person when Zoom and screenshare are options. If they do this full time, freelance, and have many clients like me, you get a down-to-business graphic designer who prioritizes working for you over long lunches and driving around town.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Sure thing! I am a graphic designer with a background in designing for the web and print. I have 15 years of experience in the industry, and it’s what I love to do. Because of my in-depth knowledge of the field as a whole, I have worked on everything from magazine layout and prepress to logos and branding packages, business cards, brochures, banners, personal t-shirt designs for Christmas gifts, and Amazon-published books. I like to bring people’s dreams and aspirations to reality, whatever that may be. If you have a project, I can at least help brainstorm the best way to go about achieving it. I’m your friendly neighborhood graphic designer!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The part of the job that makes me go, ‘oh my god. THIS is why I do what I do’ is when I nail someone’s creative vision. A couple of sentences that come up often are “That’s crazy that you turned my dreams into a reality.” and also, “That’s better than I even imagined!” When I hear the excitement of a small business owner seeing their dreams come to life before their eyes, it makes me so happy. It might be as simple as a brochure they need, a fancy business card, or as complicated as a new branding package. But hearing my clients go, “oh my god. My dreams are coming true.” and allowing them to spend time on the part of the business they’re actually excited about brings so much joy to my soul.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
It was not easy to fund my business at first. I was at a job that had no benefits and no raises. I was quickly coming to a point where I was working harder for less actual spending money. So when I chose to start my own business and began this journey, I was on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and business closing sales, trying to scrape together enough to get going. In all, I think I only had to buy a computer, a basic desktop printer, and job jackets at full price. Everything else was scavenged. The toughest part was the plunge from “side hustle” to full-time. Luckily, a couple of my old clients, friends, and family found me and wanted to work with me. So I had enough of a head start to get me going. I kind of did a ‘sink or swim’ thing, which I don’t recommend to most people because it was very scary to start a business with no safety net.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.camerongraphicdesign.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/camerongraphicdesign
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CameronGraphicDesign/