I think it might be time to hang up the quote unquote freelancer hat.
I’ve dabbled in graphic design for the last 15 to 20 years. If I’m honest, I’ve had people asking me to make stuff since eighth grade. Draw this. Design that. It was always there. I never chased it as a career. I treated it like a hobby while still calling myself a freelancer.
Some years I stayed busy. Not big money. Small projects. Print layouts. Random design work. Enough to keep the creative gears lubed and moving. Then the last few years hit, and the work trickled off. I tried to scratch the itch with personal projects. T-shirts. Graphics for blog posts. Even the writing itself. Sometimes it helped. A lot of times it didn’t. I missed the feeling of finishing something and feeling proud of it.
Now it’s present day. I have one person who still calls on me. I’ve never advertised. Never pushed myself. Never went looking for clients. Outside of that one client and the occasional family ask, that’s it.
I’m using August to refocus and get organized. New to-do lists. Better habits. More structure. Partly because my brain needs it. Partly because fall is going to be busy with Harrison and I need things in order. Years ago, I used these tools to juggle a bunch of client projects. Categories. Tags. Deadlines. When I tried to set that up again, I realized there is no bucket for client work anymore. Just personal projects and a tag for that one client.
You step back. You look at that. And you realize maybe you’re not this anymore. Maybe you never were. Maybe you just liked the idea of being a freelancer. Either way, calling myself a freelance designer now is a stretch. It does not fit.
So I’m sitting with that. Self-reflection bordering on self-retirement. Time to quit holding on to pipe dreams I never fueled. Time to admit which ideas have withered.
I have carried so many names it’s silly. Parsons Media KY is just an email domain now. Parsons Creative had a moment, then I closed the door when Jenna and I considered teaming up. Loved the idea. Didn’t have the energy then. Sapling Creative means a lot to me. The name carries weight. We still never did anything under it worth claiming the title. Then I spun up Parsons Works as my sandbox. My shirts. My projects. My whatever-I-feel-like-making space. Which sounds great until you remember I have tried versions of this a few times, including Dusk Designing. It is a cycle of me trying to find a foothold and ignoring what the lack of motivation is telling me.
So here we are. I think it is time to hang up the freelancer hat. Time to set the sun on a few names and ideas I love more out of nostalgia than value. Time to wrap my arms around the chaos like a dozen eggs and line them up in the Styrofoam Parsons Works carton.
And let me be clear. I am keeping the Parsons Works name. This is my catch-all. My playground. Next to Sapling, it carries real weight for me because of the icon I built for it. Yes, it is a simple triceratops silhouette. No, it does not tie to the name. Yes, plenty of people use triceratops as an icon. Original or not, it is mine for a reason.
I have three kids. Two older teens. One four-year-old. You want a clean symbol for three? You pick a triceratops. I love dinosaurs. I love my kids more. I do not need a flashy new name. I need a reminder to keep moving for them. The triceratops does that.
No one is going to notice if Parsons Media KY, Parsons Creative, Sapling Creative, or Dusk Designing quietly disappear. Truth is, most people never noticed they existed. You cannot miss what you never saw in the first place.
It stung to admit this, but there have been plenty of days I felt like a failure for not being a decent freelancer. The reality is I never chased it. I liked the idea more than the work required to own it. Accepting that feels like relief.
So here is the plan. Fewer labels. Fewer accounts. More making. Parsons Works becomes the home base for everything I create. Shirts. Graphics. Posts. Whatever I build next. If it matters to me or my family, it lives there.
Here is to new and better things. I think it is time.