Since it looks like I won't be in Cambridge for the summer, my current plan is to try my hand at freelancing for my whole income. This is actually kinda risky considering that I already end up scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes time to pay tuition every semester, but I think I can make it work. During a three-week period last summer I spent a few hours each night doing graphic design, and managed to make more than $300 from it — and a lot of those were contests, so I worked on a lot of stuff with no reward. I'm pretty confident that if I devote all my time to freelancing this summer I can match the $400/week that would be provided by most other full-time jobs. I can even do some web programming if the need arises.

The hardest part is getting clients. About half of the income from graphic design last summer was from people coming to me by reference or reputation, the other half was from open contests. Ben has sent a few references my way just this semester, but I often do free work for campus locals. Sometimes it seems like everyone needs a logo or two. Patty and I have been discussing the idea of starting a design company, with her on photography and fashion and me on illustration and web design.

So I guess our first job is to get noticed.

If you know anyone interested, here's some of my work to take a look at:

More recently, here's what I've done in the past month. These images are pretty big, so your browser might resize 'em:

As you can see, I specialize mostly in vector art, but I can probably be convinced to write some mean Python for money as well. I can be reached at exogen@gmail.com.