Mr. Dorn returns to work

After about a year and 1/2 of going it alone, I’m pleased to announce my return to full time employment. I’ve accepted a roll as the web designer/developer at Orange Door Direct which is part of the West Canadian group of companies.

Having a print shop on site is going to be a great learning experience and give me the opportunity to really explore the world of print more so than I have in the past. Now proofs come back in a matter of hours, not days. And on the plus side it gives the opportunity to more tightly integrate web campaigns with the print.

Why Return to work?

Despite the freedom that freelancing entails it was never my intention to be an entrepreneur and run my own business. Fulltime freelancing was nothing short of a necessity during the economic downturn where layoffs were in style and competition for new job postings was tight. So in that senerio it was sink or swim. Although I’m glad I was able to swim, it’s much easier to be in a boat.

Going it alone is also a lot of hard work, interrupting phone calls, invoicing, project planning/budgeting, and sales all take focus away from what I want to be doing, designing great websites. I wouldn’t say my work quality suffered as a result of all these other roles, but it definitely fell into a bit of a rut in that I wasn’t improving or being pushed to improve by others around me, such as other designers or art directors in the same room.