The Darkest Day Of The Year

Happy Income Tax Day everyone! After 8 years of filing as a sole proprietorship, two accountants and a bit of my own research I've learned a lot about income taxes. Of course there were a few missteps along the way, but I think I'm finally at a point where April 15th isn't the yearly nightmare it once was. I mean it's never a good day, but at least now I've learned to manage my estimations, deductions and earnings much better. 

My new accountant has many creative freelancers as clients, and even works with a few promotional agencies in the area. The accountant I had previously wasn't as versed with deductions and classifications which cost me a lot of money over the years. Taking full advantage of your available deductions is critical, and having an accountant who knows exactly what those deductions are is even more so.

For instance, what are the pros and cons of writing off a home office? Which is better, writing off your milage, or your vehicle and it's maintenance? Is it better to amortize computer hardware, or write it off for the current year? Lot's of complicated questions that need accurate answers. Hopefully your accountant knows his/her stuff. If not, send me an email and I'll hook you up with one who does.

Slim

Don't Mourn, Organize!

I saw a bumper sticker today that said "Don't Mourn, Organize!". Usually I don't even look at bumper stickers let alone give them any credence, but this one struck a chord. 

Over the past several months I've been wringing my hands over the current economic situation just like everyone else. And for good reason. But at what point do you stop wringing your hands and decide that enough is enough? For me that point came last week. Concern had turned to fear, and fear had turned into paralysis. Paralysis is failure and failure, my friends, is not an option. So, I organized my thoughts, organized my home office and have been working overtime to organize my portfolio. My goal is simple. Find new clients and new opportunities both in and outside of the promotional marketing industry.

Apparently, I'm not the only person out there who is organizing. I have have heard rumblings that the clients are starting to loosen their purse strings, and I know several agencies that are pitching new business like there's no tomorrow. Let's hope the trend continues, but there is no reason it wouldn't. I think it's safe to say that both brands and consumers are beginning to relate to the "paralysis = failure" philosophy, and are changing gears to create success. While it may take some time to see things really pick up I'm becoming more and more optimistic.

Wait a minute, did I just say that I was optimistic? Wow. Things must be turning around for me to say something so un-Slim-like!

Photoshop World 2009

Did you know that Photoshop isn't just for Photographers? It's for designers and illustrators, too! This was a shocking little fact found in my workbook when I attended last week's annual Photoshop World Conference in Boston. I was very surprised to find that most of the attendees were photographers of varying disciplines. As a designer, I was among a severe minority. To make matters weirder, not only did I not meet any other designers during my three days, but most people I did meet started off conversations assuming that I, too, was a photographer. Then when I explained what I did for a living, a lot of them were puzzled. It wasn't til I started name dropping well known brands that they understood more. I guess I've just been spoiled by the agency world, in which most photographers I've worked with, knew little about Photoshop, nor cared to know.

To be fair, representation from the designer community could have been low due to budget cuts now facing most companies, thereby not making it easier for their employees to expense continuing education and travel. A few people even admitted to me that while the 3,000 some odd attendance was a good showing, it was certainly down from previous years that saw numbers closer to 7,000.

Overview:
3 Days in Boston's Hines Convention Center with over 80 classes in various tracks from Photoshop basics, design, productivity, printing, Photoshop for photographers and Adobe Lightroom. The event also including a daily EXPO show, featuring latest software, hardware and camera equipment.

Favorite Classes:
Mastering Curves!: Now I finally know how to properly use that panel. Plus, the instructor was awesome and didn't try to push CS4 too much. Textures and Special Effects classes were also pretty cool.

Favorite Instructor:
Bert Monroy is an amazing photo-realist painter who uses Photoshop to construct his incredibly detailed compositions. Even though I know I'll never have the talent or the patience to create something close to his masterpieces, I really enjoyed his seminars. He's currently working on a panorama of Times Square that, when finished, will be about 20 feet wide and over 750,000 layers! www.bertmonroy.com

Turn-ons:
Each attendee receives a humongous workbook that has all the instructor's notes for every class. So if there were two classes you were interested in, taking place at the same time, you could still go through the tutorials for the classes you missed on your own time at home.

Everyone is very friendly and if you have the extra dough to spend, the conference offers some interesting after hours activities. (I was penny-pinching, so maybe I'll catch them some other time.) It was kinda like camp for Photoshop nerds. A little weird, but still pretty cool to be around so many people jazzed about their craft.

Turn-offs:
Some class instructors had a tendency to "oversell" the features of the brand new CS4. It's great that Photoshop CS4 Extended has neat-o 3D features, but as a self-employed designer, I can't say when I'll be able to afford the upgrade. CS3 works just fine, thank you very much. How about showing me some cool tricks in that version that I never knew before?

All in all, I don't regret going. Back when I was still in the office, management would always encourage you to go a conference. Then you'd find a class just to be told that there was too much work to afford losing you for a couple of days. So even though, I had to pay for everything myself, it's a business expense and I'm glad I finally got to attend one of these events. However, next year, I think I'll save my pennies for the HOW Design Conference. Maybe there will be some more designers there.