Owner of Wee Taps and Full-Time Indie Illustrator & Designer: A Top Designer Interview With Paddy Donnelly

Indie Life

How did you transition from a “normal job” to being a freelancer? And what are the challenges working on your own?

Start. Just make the leap. There’s something that has been rattling around in the back of your head for a while now. An idea. Something you’ve always wanted to do. It might not work. It’s scary. Everyone is scared. Just start it.

Essentially I just took more and more freelance work on in the evenings and weekends until I was sure that there was enough work out there for me, then I made the leap.

I quite like working on my own, from home. It doesn’t bother me, in fact, I really enjoy the peace and quiet. Forcing myself to keep active and get out of the house can sometimes be a challenge, but I’m getting better at that.

Paddy’s simple, yet beautifully creative workspace.

Paddy, can you tell me what an average day looks like for you? (i.e. 8:00 wake up…)

My current routine looks something similar to this;

• 8am: Wake up
• 8:15am: Coffee
• 9am-10am: Breakfast and emails
• 10am-12pm: Illustration work
• 12pm-2pm: Usually do something active, head into town, go for a walk or coffee
• 2pm-6pm: More illustration work
• 6pm-7pm: Dinner
• 7pm-11pm: Either do more work, usually creating pieces for my portfolio, writing, Netflix.

Many of our readers have had a challenging time making a successful business out of selling apps on the App Store. Out of the apps you’ve worked on, have any been a success financially?

We’ve had a bit of luck with a few of our kids apps however it’s all been dependent on Apple choosing to feature us or not. That’s the only thing that’s really worked I’ve found.

A few times our apps got picked up in a feature list, or sometimes in a banner in the App Store and we get a spike. We couldn’t give our freelance lives up just yet based on the revenue, however, it’s a nice extra passive income each month. It is very tough though making a living in the App Store. There is so much competition now.

I guess create something unique and look at what technologies Apple is focusing on and create something in that space to be in with a chance of featuring.

Focus

Developers really struggle with procrastination. What kind of distractions do you get and how do you handle them?

Paddy is at his best in the morning!

I do get distracted a lot, however, I also keep pretty flexible working hours. Working for myself from home means I can get a burst of creativity in the morning, take a break to do something else and then continue on in the afternoon or in the evening.

In the last few months I’ve really switched up my schedule and I am working when I’m feeling it, rather than sticking to a 9-5. I’ve found that’s really helped with being creative. Just keep the deadlines in mind, and disable the “autoplay” on YouTube.

For me, my noise-cancelling headphones and Spotify are the number one things that keep me focused. When I can close off the rest of the world and get in the zone, I can be creative.

How do you manage the wearing of multiple hats, for example managing clients and then doing the design?

Over the years I’ve figured out the kind of design work I really like to do and I stick to those areas.

Keeping focused on what I like to do and being honest with clients about not doing other types of design work has been important to me and my workflow. I haven’t had much trouble with the invoicing and contracts side of things. I have a pretty standard workflow now after working for so many years.

I’ve found what works for me and I think good communication with your clients is vital.

Paddy has really found what he loves to do!

Can you tell me more about your business process? For example; What do you use to create invoices? How do you make sure payments are received on time?

I’m a huge fan of Freeagent it’s a lifesaver. So easy to keep all your client contacts, invoices, time sheets together. I always work with contracts and require deposits before I start on a project. That’s really important.

Good communication with a client and settings expectations is also important. Make sure in your contract that it says you don’t deliver the final work or source files before your final invoice is paid is my ultimate advice.

Where To Go From Here?

And that concludes our Top Designer Interview with Paddy Donnelly. Huge thanks to Paddy for sharing his journey with the community :]

Having a clear direction on your career seems to be key to Paddy’s success. Paddy knows exactly where to get his clients, understands his workflow and has perfected his skills on the illustration side of the business.

I hope you can pick out the key’s to Paddy’s success and put in to practice in your work-flow.

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