Review: Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business

Ironically, the writing in this creative guidebook is sharp while the design begs for some punch

By Alysse Dalessandro
Published: August 31st, 2010 | 1:30pm

In this economy, creative individuals may find themselves really putting the “free” in freelancer. But Meg Mateo Illasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho, who are both designers and writers, have written Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business, a guide that both warns of potential challenges freelancers face and also still manages to breed positivity. In addition, the book features testimonials from creatives across the country to demonstrate that it is in fact possible to make money as an independent artist.

Illaso is no stranger to combining the arts with business savvy. She authored Craft, Inc. and the Craft Inc. Business Planner in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Both books offered practical business advice for crafters looking to turn their hobby into a money-making venture. Creative, Inc takes on a similar approach only this time with an emphasis on financial independence in fields like graphic design, illustration, animation, styling, and even writing. The introduction references one of pop culture’s most famed freelancers, Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, who made writing look unrealistically lucrative when Vogue paid her $4 per word in Season Four.

What Illasco and Cho manage somewhat seamlessly is combining painful realism and cheerful optimism—often in the same sentence. In the first chapter they write, “The road to a profitable freelance career doing cutting-edge work may not be the swiftest, but if you keep building your body of work with an emphasis on quality, prized clients with meaningful commissions will soon be knocking on your door.”

The approachable finance advice, which served as the crux of the Craft, Inc. Business Planner, is present again in Illasco’s latest venture. In a chapter entitled “getting paid,” Creative, Inc. discusses calculating business expenses, determining appropriate hourly fees, and filing taxes. Cleverly designed graphics makes accounting tips and equations applicable and easy to understand. However, the simplicity of the book’s design doesn’t quite flow with the total concept which is, after all, about art and design. While the layout remains in line with the style of Illasco’s other books, Creative, Inc. lacks the playful feel of its predecessors. For a book meant to inspire creatives, there's an absence of artistic inspiration. The illustrations of nametags, swatches, and paintbrushes seem generic and out of place, even though they fit cohesively into the look of the pages.

And while the volume features original interviews with successful freelancers in the fields of photography, illustration, and prop styling among others, we aren't offered any photographs or reprints of their work. Perhaps it's a licensing issue, but the deficiency forces intrigued readers to search the web for evidence of talent from these so-called experts.

Still, what Creative, Inc. lacks in design, it makes up for in practical advice and hopefully accomplishes the goal of inspiring artists while preparing them for setbacks and successes that will surely come with entering the risky business of freelance work.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business

by Meg Mateo Illasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho

Chronicle Books

184 pages