Four projects a season, and why I stop there

I went freelance in 2014 and have worked alone, under my own name, in Tallinn since 2019. For the first few years I said yes to whatever arrived. The work was fine, and my evenings quietly disappeared.

Now I take four projects a season, and when the four are booked I say so. It’s the most useful rule I’ve made, for me and for the people who hire me. Here’s how it works, and what it means if you’re thinking of hiring someone who works alone.

Why four, and not five

Four is the number I can hold in my head at once. Each project gets its own day of the week, Monday to Thursday, and Friday goes on email, invoices and the jobs that fall in between.

It’s also the number at which I still know every file by heart. When a bakery calls about its dieline, I don’t have to look anything up, and the call takes two minutes instead of twenty. At five projects that stopped being true, and the calls got longer.

Four also leaves room for what a project throws up without warning: a reprint, an extra box size, a launch that moves by a fortnight. With some slack in the week, one client’s surprise doesn’t push another client back.

A season is about three months. Most projects fit inside one, and packaging with a print run sometimes stretches across two, with a quiet spell while the printer works. Roughly, the weeks go like this:

• Weeks 1 to 2. The brief, a visit if I can manage one, first ideas.

• Weeks 3 to 6. One direction, worked out on real objects.

• Weeks 7 to 10. Final files and proofs, or the site built in Framer.

• Weeks 11 to 12. Handover, guides and a check after launch.

What working alone means for you

Hiring one person is different from hiring a studio. Some of it is better, and some of it you should plan around.

The same person throughout

The person who reads your brief is the one who draws the box and sends the files to the printer. Nothing gets lost between a meeting and a desk, and you never explain the same idea twice.

When a project needs someone else, a product photographer or a developer for something Framer can’t do, I bring in people I’ve worked with for years. You’ll know who they are before they start, and the work still runs through me.

Replies within two working days

I answer every email within two working days. Not within the hour, and I’ve stopped apologising for that.

Two days lets me finish a morning of work before I reply, and it means the reply usually has an answer in it rather than a promise of one.

When it can’t wait

A print slot moving, a typo found on press, a site down on launch day. Those get a phone call the same day, and since 2019 there have been about six of them.

Saying no without closing the door

When the four are booked, I tell people when the next season opens. At the moment I’m booking projects from March.

Most people wait. The ones who can’t usually need something smaller than they first thought, a single box or a menu card, and that sometimes fits between projects.

We booked a season ahead and it was worth the wait. Every question went straight to the person who would make the change.

Founder, Corte

Corte had a launch date that couldn’t move, so we planned backwards from it and wrote the brief two months early. The launch boxes went out on the day.

Questions to ask anyone who works alone

If you’re thinking of hiring a one-person studio, ask three things on the first call: how many projects they take at once, how quickly they reply, and who else will touch the work. Clear answers to those tell you more than a portfolio does.

The answers don’t have to match mine. Someone who takes six projects with good help behind them can be just as dependable. What you want to hear is a number they’ve thought about, said without hesitating.

And if you’d like to be in one of my seasons, write to me. I’ll answer within two working days.