In the first of an occasional series, we’re profiling freelancers who did a wonderful thing: joined PPH and won work on the first day. So Ben, please introduce yourself to the PPH community…
“My name’s Ben Brown, I run Citizen Design in the UK, we specialise in corporate and arts design and I’ve been offering a marketing and design service for 10 years to a large client base including Apple, BBC, Universal Records and Dune Shoes. Everyone seems to like me, they keep coming back for more. You can find everything on my site at www.citizenstudios.co.uk.”
You signed up for PPH and won work on your first day, which rocks, what was the secret of your success?
“Winning work on the first day was lucky, but it was what convinced me to leave my job as a Creative Director at Creation Agency in Milton Keynes, and set up my own company. How did I do it? Good question, I think I applied an approach that I’ve done to all of my bids on PPH since. I was realistic with my pricing, and not greedy, honest with my experience, tailored with my actual bid and tried to put some personality into my bid statement.”
Have confidence in your own ideas and your clients will believe in them.”
If I were a client why should I choose you?
“Clients should choose me because every job I’m working on at that time is what’s keeping me up at night. I approach everything with an aim to build a long-term working relationships, so I offer professional level of service at all times. Coupled with my experience of working with some of the biggest brands in the world, the lessons this has taught me can benefit you, at a fraction of the cost of working with a big agency.”
“And you know, not to boast, (actually to massively boast), I’ve created art for Mercury Music Prize nominated bands, and DVD covers for BAFTA winning BBC3 shows.”
What killer work tip or insight do you wish you’d known ten years ago?
“Have confidence in your own ideas and your clients will believe in them. If you absolutely know something is the right approach, sometimes you can’t get that passion across by sending a PDF over, you have to present it in a way that breaks down your thought process, and get’s them inside the creative. I’ve also learnt that deadlines inspire creativity, and panicking doesn’t.”
Tell us a fun fact about yourself or what is the funniest thing that has happened to you while working?
“I used to play drums in a rock and roll band called Maps who went on to be Mercury Music Prize nominated and tour the US and Far East. The terrible thing is I left before all of that happened, after 2 years of touring the toilets of the UK, and being in a bus crash that mangled me and my drum kit, so I jacked it in, 6 months later they’re all at the Mercury ceremony sipping Champagne live on TV.”
Ben Brown on drums…
- Know a PPH freelancer who rocks – and we don’t just mean they’ve played in a band – and deserves to know it? Then email us on martin at peopleperhour dot com and you might see them right here, on our blog.
On reflection I reget sending that photo of my head in.
In my defence I was pretty pleased with myself that day. I’m not always that happy.
Hey that’s okay, you look nice enough for a news article
And yeah, you look like a first-time-kissed teen LOL