Chuck Anderson is a household name. At least, he’s a house-hold name in any house inhabited by a designer — providing the house has four walls and is not a rock (which the designer was living under).

You get the idea.

He has worked for clients for whom the words ‘high-profile’ seem like an understatement: Adidas, Microsoft, Pepsi, Absolut, Rolling Stone, Nokia, Sony, Reebok… the impressive list goes on. The father of Freelance Switch, Collis Ta’eed, recently had the opportunity to ask Chuck how all this success came his way.

– Skellie

When you got started it was as a freelancer rather than at a design or ad agency working for someone else. What made you choose to go solo straight out of the gates?

I think it was just my only option! I had just graduated high school in 2003 and in early 2004 I started sending my work out to some magazines, smaller companies, agencies, etc. I didn’t go to college, had no resume, no prior working experience at an agency. Just me, my computer, the internet, and Photoshop trying to make something happen. Once I started getting some freelance work, it snowballed into enough that amounted to a career.

Do you feel like there were any drawbacks going straight into freelance work?

I had no idea what an invoice was at first, I was 18 and trying to prove myself to a lot of skeptical people, I had to support myself and just have faith that work would continue to come, I had to sacrifice a lot of time with friends and family in order to work…so yes. There are tons of drawbacks not only just starting out as a freelancer, but well into a freelance career. It’s near impossible to have a separate personal and work life. They end up just kind of bleeding into one another. If you can manage that without driving yourself crazy - no easy task - then it’s very rewarding.

You have an impressive client list, how do you find your jobs? Do you do any marketing?

I think the main marketing comes from people seeing my work online and in other client projects I’ve done. The only marketing I do is getting the word out on design news sites and sending email newsletters out when people sign up on my site for it. Other than that I rely on word of mouth for things to get around. I’ve paid for very little brand marketing. I had some posters made up this year with some of my work on them and my contact info and sent them out to tons of clients and places, but honestly nothing has come from it yet. The best work just comes from someone seeing what I do out of the blue and contacting me to work together.

You’ve had a lot of exposure through appearances at conferences, awards and events. Do you think this has helped you bring in freelance work? Or to charge a premium?

I think it certainly helps with the financial aspect, yes. It gives you a lot of credibility and demand if you are seen to be speaking at schools and conferences. I really believe that affects the way a client approaches you in regards to a budget. As for bringing in work - absolutely. I have gotten work from meeting people at conferences and events. It’s all about networking as hard as you can and making the most out of every relationship. There is nothing worse you can do to yourself in this industry than meet people once and then drop the ball with the relationship. Grow it as much as you can.

I also noted that you list a bit of a who’s who as your friends in the industry. Have you collaborated on many projects and do you feel like they’ve helped you as a freelancer? Would you recommend other freelancers to get out and network?

Like I was saying in that last answer…if you want to freelance, you better become an expert on networking as soon as you can. There is so much more to freelancing than just doing some art and trying to move on to the next project. You have to stay in touch with old clients, new clients, potential clients, other designers, etc. People really appreciate when someone is respectful and always available and easily communicated with. Networking is truly an art in its own right. The better you are at it and the more you learn how to establish and build relationships the more successful any career in any industry will be.

If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice for your freelance career ahead, what would you tell yourself?

Great question. It’s really tough to answer that with only one thing. I would go back in time and tell myself to make sure you keep your work life and personal life balanced. Plan ahead! Make sure you don’t take on work that is going to interfere too much with other plans you already made with friends or your wife or your family or whoever and vice versa. If you commit to something, you need to follow through. I’ve become pretty good at this in general but it’s a constant challenge with any freelancer I’m sure. Just try not to let work stuff drive you crazy with personal relationships and don’t let personal problems and relationships affect your work.

As an artist you have a distinctive style, one I’ve seen pop up a lot since you hit the headlines a few years ago. In fact you’ve even written tutorials to produce some of your effects. How do you feel about others leveraging your work or having you as an influence?

It’s a weird thing, really. If imitation is really the greatest form of flattery then it’s at the same time a very hard thing to understand. If I see someone do something that looks like my work directly influenced it, it’s a good feeling for sure…but at the same time you have this feeling at first like you’ve been copied. As artists we have to understand that what we do is meant to be seen, tried, tested, expanded on, and spread out. I’ve seen people do terrible ripoffs of my work and on the other hand I’ve seen people who have done things that look like they possibly were inspired by something I did but they took it to a whole new level that I’m now striving to achieve. It’s a constant growth pattern in regards to style and evolution of trends. I will say, however, that I’m not a big fan of tutorials anymore. For two reasons - one, from my experience, people have taken things I’ve done in a tutorial and just claimed them for their own without credit. Not in every instance, but enough that it annoyed me. The other reason is they’re just a hell of a lot of work to do. Ha…I think they’re beneficial for all though, just make sure if you follow a tutorial and put it on your site or something, you give credit to the artist that essentially taught you what you created.

With your client list, exposure and work, you’ve already achieved what many of us set out to as designers / illustrators, where to from here? Do you see yourself building an agency, continuing as a freelancer, or going in a whole other direction?

Maybe all three of those things. As far as building an agency - who knows? I think in a few years after I’ve really really expanded my contacts and network I will be in a potentially great position to start to build a larger entity than what NoPattern is right now, just me. But for now I’m just enjoying what I do as a solo freelancer. Not having to answer to a boss, making my own schedule, choosing what work I take on and turn down, etc. I can’t think of a much better job for an artist. You get to be the one that dictates how things go and how successful a project may or may not be. So - where to from here? Just keep having fun and doing what I love and being thankful that I’ve been so blessed thus far.

Chuck Anderson’s portfolio resides at http://www.nopattern.com.