 CREDIT: Amanda Moore Working as a freelancer - especially with tiny human dependents - can offer a lot of flexibility but presents many challenges including; finding new work, programming workload, actually getting paid and earning a regular income. Here are some tips to keep you safe and sane:
Realise that your work is valuable and it takes very little to impress people. Just turn up on time and do what you said you’d do.
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When working at a large architecture practice, I remember going to an interview where we were shortlisted for a student services building project and I offered to collect the competition submission my practice had entered, and not won, for a another project within the university. I entered the room to collect our physical model and saw that there were dozens of models waiting to be collected. Each one was beautifully made, crafted from wood veneers and etched metal shims. Some had lights within them and model trees. These sat alongside rolls of drawings with well-worked out plans, elevations and hand-sketched views. Each set of information was good enough to at least be submitted for a pre-planning application.  CREDIT. Amanda Moore And all of this work had been completed for free.
There was no shortlisting process, a winner was selected based on the information submitted and fee proposal. The cost of our submission likely ran into several thousand pounds for the practice in staff fees. This process differs vastly from the majority of art competitions I enter. Usually what’s required is a written response to the brief including an idea of how the artist will approach the brief, along with images of relevant work and a CV. From there at least three artists are normally shortlisted and paid a fee to do a more detailed proposal and attend an interview, a final artist then being selected. The shortlisting phase often includes a workshop where more information is given and there is an opportunity to ask questions. This seems a fairer process, paying artists for their time to come up with a submission. If the ideas are used at least in part by the client, at least the artist has been paid for their time. And surely the client gets a better deal as they get 3 sets of worked up ideas over many multiple stabs in the dark regarding what the client is looking for? The client also gets to meet the shortlisted artists and get a sense of what they will be like to work with. I recently completed a submission for a community centre, producing a plan and 3d views on the back of a very brief brief which listed the spaces required. Months later we were informed that we hadn’t won the project and were given a score out of 100, a very low score. This was based on many aspects regarding form and views out. The selected architect looked to be less of a design-led practice, suggesting that the project was won on fees which may or may not offer best value for the client. It seems likely that if we had won the project and were appointed, we could have discussed all aspects of the brief with the client and worked from initial sketches through to more worked up designs, rather than submitting developed designs for a competition without much of a detailed brief. Not all art competitions are the same and many simply select a winner from multiple entries. However, I’ve not yet worked on any architecture competition which has gone through a paid shortlisting phase. Surely a client should be able to shortlist or select an architect based on their fee rates and portfolio of previous work. Unfortunately, architects have no choice but to be compliant and tender for these competitions as others are willing to do it. However, a good idea may be to publish the submissions at least to prevent ideas being used if they are actually appointed.  River Droplet Installation on Closing Night: CREDIT: Jayne Jackson Photography Public artwork is usually commissioned and exhibited in non-arts spaces; town centre spaces, estate gardens, hospitals, commercial buildings, new housing estates, etc. This differs from art exhibited in galleries which may already exist and it is meant to be site-specific. I have applied for many temporary public art commissions within the arts sector, commissions with briefs written by arts organisations. These commissions have often been designed to frame a piece of public space which will then be activated with other events such as temporary sculpture, performances and music. The ‘River Droplet’ commission I completed in September 2024 was in collaboration with Lorna Rees/Gobbledegook Theatre and was commissioned by Dorset National Landscape. There have been some interesting advantages in being commissioned by a landscape organisation rather than a body within the arts sector. ‘River Droplet’ was the pilot for Dorset National Landscape’s ‘Sitting Spaces’. The aim of ‘Sitting Spaces’ is to connect people to the local geology of a place and the landscape along with historic food production in that landscape and increase dwell time. We chose to focus on the River Frome which is a chalk stream running through Dorset and provides the perfect conditions for diverted water to be used to grow watercress. Dorset is one of the world’s largest producers of watercress. We suspended 600 bottles of water from the River Frome in a droplet formation from a temporary scaffold. The work was installed in Frampton, Dorset, on their Millenium Green and the structure became a room which hosted a range of events and music. The project was not dissimilar in form to ‘Art Vaults’ shown in Canute’s Palace, Southampton in 2018, commissioned by A Space Arts. This involved hanging 1,000 bottles of water from the Solent which related to the fact that the Old Town in Southampton is reclaimed land, once flooded by the sea. The space then hosted a month of events including live bands and temporary sculpture and performance, many related to water or seafaring.  ArtVaults 2018, rope installation and workshop under the exhibit. CREDIT: Amanda Moore The main comparison between the Dorset project and the Southampton project was the key outcomes. Dorset National Landscape were aiming to highlight ‘specialness’ of the area and to attract new visitors to the Food Trail, a cycle route which runs past the location. The project was not designed specifically for arts visitors, those who are already interested in the arts. It was installed in an unexpected location, not close to an arts organisation, and did not have an invitee mailing list from an arts organisation. Although this meant a smaller attendance, partly due to the rural location, the advantage here was that the project attracted an audience organically over the month, from local people within the village, to cycle trail riders and those hearing about it by word of mouth. The positive feedback about the project was hard-earned and developed over time, often coming from those who were initially sceptical about art. The audience later included those with a special interest in the history of the river including farmers and geologists. That's not to say that art organisations aren't aiming to attract a diverse audience. The installation itself was extremely site-specific as the water displayed above peoples’ heads was taken from the adjacent river which is sunken down in the site, thereby showcasing it. The chalky river sediment could be seen in the bottles. The events and music put together by Gobbledegook were also incredibly site-specific and stepped outside of the art world into the world of scientists and geologists. Songs were written which could be played via QR codes in the space. The first of these was a folk song about watercress production in the chalky stream. Later, additional versions were produced which sampled the voices of local watercress growers, local residents and recordings of the river. People smiled when they heard a recording of their voice worked into the tracks when they were played via mini-rig speakers. Lorna had recorded people talking about tasting watercress and had interviewed specialists including the director of a local watercress company.  People tasting watercress and being recorded inside 'River Droplet'. CREDIT: Jayne Jackson Photography Every Tuesday night we hosted ‘Glow-ming’ events which celebrated sunset and highlighted how much shorter the day became throughout the month. These events included a talk by geologist Dr Anjana Khatwa one evening, storyteller Martin Maudsley another and expert nutritionist Dr Sumanto Halder on another. The attendees all talked about a very specific aspect of the location which gave more variation to the project outside of the arts, but did rely on the visual spectacle of the chandelier of water droplets in the background to elevate the talks somewhat.  Talk with Dr Sumanto Halder. CREDIT: Amanda Moore  Bookmark hand-outs I created relating to different aspects of the installation during the month, commemorating the different talks. The closing event included new songs developed through the month being performed and also a fire juggling act which lit up the droplets of water with a golden glow. The performer even sourced a white outfit to represent the chalk. Throughout the events, Lorna had produced costumes including overalls for us to wear with elements about the work and local geology embroidered onto them and a chalk head piece for her to wear one evening. People became more and more engaged and were encouraged to sing or to light candles in the space. The project aimed more and more to deepen people's understanding of the location rather than become of showcase of artist's work.  Fire juggling on closing night. CREDIT: Jayne Jackson Photography Another interesting aspect of all of this was that the installation became a project which evolved over the course of the month. More and more audio recordings taken were worked into the songs written for the installation. Artworks were made in the space including photographs of it lit in different ways. Events had been partly programmed at the start but also developed and changed in response to what had worked well. Even times shifted for Glow-mings due to changing sunsets and a celebration of the Harvest Moon was included with costumes and props when we realised that it was occurring whilst the installation was open. The legacy of the project is that more Sitting Spaces may be commissioned and ‘River Droplet’ is well documented and will be included in the village archives. Deeper legacy includes greater appreciation of the local landscape by residents and visitors and memories of the spectacles seen and songs played. We jotted down reactions and comments by visitors throughout the month which form part of the documentation of the project. Working on a commission with a landscape organisation over an arts organisation meant attracting a wider audience than an arts audience and improving perceptions about the worth of art and what it is for. The project also included collaborators outside of the art world who in turn brought their own wider audience. The project also had the freedom to develop over time and respond changes in the site and audience feedback, it treated the audience as participants over an audience being performed to.  Dorset National Landscape attended all events as hosts, providing a welcome to visitors and tying the project back to its purpose. CREDIT: Jayne Jackson Photography
 River Droplet installation. CREDIT: Amanda Moore ‘River Droplet’ is a temporary installation in Frampton, Dorset, that shines a light on the unique character of chalk streams in Dorset, due to open for the month of September 2024. This project follows on from the installation I completed at Canute's Palace, Southampton, in 2018. This involved hanging 1,000 bottles of water from the Solent in a wave formation from a scaffold structure. The installation referenced narratives around Canute who was said to have demonstrated that no man can hold back the tide. The bottles displayed the clay sediment found in the Solent and interestingly, brought water into the town in an area which would have belonged to the sea, this area of the Old Town being reclaimed land. The installation was activated by a series of events and performances as it allowed full use of the ground floor of the palace below and many events related to water and seafaring. River Droplet has has been commissioned by Dorset National Landscape as the first installation for the 'Sitting Spaces' project. Sitting Spaces aims to encourage a wider range of people to visit the countryside by creating temporary structures to sit and enjoy the special qualities of the area. Sitting Spaces supports the new Dorset Food Trail, which highlights the food heritage of the Frome Valley between Maiden Newton and Dorchester. The brief was to design a sitting space which highlights local geological properties of an area and relate them to food production. This encouraged me to think about the project I did in Southampton as part of a possible series, rather than a one-off. This is a new way of working for me and shows that you can often do something once, and then disregard its potential value in a different context. This installation consists of 600 bottles of water taken from the adjacent River Frome. The chalky bed of the river can be seen through the sediment in each of the bottles. Chalk streams are perfect for the production of watercress which is grown locally and shipped around the UK and across the world. It is also giving me an opportunity to work with an artist I've wanted to work with for a while, Lorna Rees of Gobbledegook Theatre, https://www.gobbledegooktheatre.com/. Lorna is bringing the installation to life with events and recordings that explore the story of watercress production and what makes chalk streams so special. She is crafting songs based on folk songs about watercress, recording audio from people including scientists and growers, and we are holding 'glow-mings' where we celebrate sunset and the illumination of the installation. Audio can be played via QR codes online. Pretty much every town and city in the UK has been created around a river and each river tells a different story. This model of showcasing the water, slowing creating a physical installation which the local community grow interest in, and activating it by telling stories, is proving to to form an interesting and valuable model for outdoor art. https://dorset-nl.org.uk/project/sitting-spaces/  Canute's Palace, Southampton. CREDIT: Amanda Moore
 PHOTO: Amanda Moore In how many industries would you question whether you are going to be paid after doing some work?
In architecture and other creative industries this issue seems to be fairly prevalent. Architecture involves expensive costs such as insurances, staffing, administrative fees, software costs, etc, etc. It can be very disheartening when a client says that they will not pay your invoice. But why does this happen? I’ve seen it happen when the client is having a financial dispute with the contractor and they withhold architect fees ahead of the value of any dispute with the contractor. They want to hold onto any money which they may have to give the contractor in a contractual dispute. But how is this fair as the two relationships are separate? They may feel that the client could have avoided the contractor dispute somehow. Sometimes the client’s project funding is in jeopardy, according to the AJ, this is one reason along with projects being held up in the planning process. Other times it is because the client simply doesn’t like the work that you’ve done. Architecture is complex but it doesn’t always look complex. If you ask an architect to produce a design which meets your needs and will get through planning, should you trust their opinion as much as any other professional? I have had a similar experience with public art projects where the commissioner hasn’t set a very defined brief to respond to. You try to produce concept designs which meet their need but all they know is that they don’t like this particular idea and they are not paying until they get an idea they do like. Or they are made up of a panel of people who are all disagreeing about which ideas they like and don’t like. Recently, I’ve also seen clients proposing that you get a fee if you get planning permission. But you can’t guarantee this, just as you can’t guarantee that a particular medical treatment will work or that the value of your pension will go up. General advice appears to be to try and resolve things out of court which only incurs fees. My own view is to take regular stage payments and to stop work if there are non-payment issues. As an Adobe Creative Cloud user I’ve been very impressed with the new Generative Fill tool within Photoshop. The tool allows you to select an area of your image and remove items with a patched background generated. It also allows you to add items to images and looks to put them in in the correct scale and perspective. I guess that this is an AI tool and AI as a topic seems to have blown up over the last couple of months. As an architect and artist constantly trying to put together photomontages of buildings and artworks in their context, this tool seems incredibly useful. Gone could be the days of removing left over construction items from photos of finished buildings, adding people to mockups of concept designs of buildings or artworks. Even shade seems to be matched in and you can type in quite detailed descriptions of what you are looking for such as ‘people having a summer picnic’. Here is a base image of Herzog and De Meuron’s ‘Stone House’…  … and then with ‘people having a summer picnic’ added to one side and then the other. Oddly there are different choices of people with the same search term but different parts of the outdoor space selected, the left and then the right. The faces of the people are also blurred a bit and I have a floating leg on one.   About the tool, Adobe say: "Generative Fill—part of the revolutionary and magical new suite of Firefly-powered, generative AI capabilities—is grounded in your innate creativity, enabling you to add, expand, or remove content from your images non-destructively using simple text prompts in over 100 languages. Use this feature to automatically match the perspective, lighting, and style of your image, make previously tedious tasks fun, and achieve realistic results that will surprise, delight, and astound you in seconds. The new content is created in a Generative layer, enabling you to exhaust a myriad of creative possibilities and to reverse the effects when you want, without impacting your original image. Then, you can use the power and precision of Photoshop to take your image to the next level, surpassing even your own expectations." Thankfully, this tool is designed to help image editors rather that replace the creator. But I thought I’d see whether the Generate Fill tool would design an extension for me. I got these three variations for ‘house extension’, selecting the right side of the outside space.    I then got something lightweight when asking for ‘glassy house extension’.    I then selected the whole right hand side off the building space beyond and got a few other variations for extensions...     There are some pretty interesting and impressive results. Some slightly odd things happen with the perspective of elements in you look at the colonnade parts. But there are some interesting design 'thoughts' from the AI tool such as windows aligning with the external wall above.
The tool will continue to improve, I don't believe/hope that AI cannot be used to generate design and take into account all of the information we use such as sun paths, internal room sizes, adjacent views and properties, etc, etc. However, it is certainly a powerful image-making tool and could be worth using to create inspiration images and references for designers.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore I’ve been working freelance as a creative for almost 3 years now and some obvious pros and cons have become apparent:
Pro: Making your own Decisions You can decide which projects to work on, when to programme them in and set up your own terms. You might have to take on projects you don’t want to in the beginning but then as you get a bigger client base you can start to choose. For example, if you’re an architect you might not want to design houses, or you might only want to design houses. You can also choose to work with nicer people, and people who pay on time. Con: Finding work You have to find your own work and schedule it in so that you have an even workload. Clients will sometimes hold on projects because of funding when you were banking on that project to pay your bills. You might be too busy at times if too much comes in at the same time. It might be best to start working a consistent number of days for your previous employer on a freelance basis, adding in the one-off projects on top. As an artist you may have to apply for 10 times the number of competitions you want to win and you have to remember if not selected that your work isn’t bad, they were just looking for something different. Pro: Making your own Routine No 9-5 may be the main reason people want to work freelance. You can take your kid out on a Monday and work on a Sunday, you can eat your lunch when you want, you can fit your hobbies in, and chores. You can work where you want, if your kid is sick you can have them at home with you. Con: Having no Routine You need discipline and a calendar to get your tasks done which is hard. You will need to impose a routine. I like to start with an hour of my hobby first thing before my kid is up so that each day starts with some kind of routine. Meetings can be all over the place, and people will think that you are sitting in an office all day and cancel a meeting about to start online when you’ve geared your whole day around it and you could have done something else. Pro: Becoming Entrepreneurial You will be more self-sufficient because you will have multiple clients and hence income streams. You will look out for opportunities but you have to stay in contact with people to hear about them. Con: Loneliness No work friends, no work friends, no work friends. I used to hate being in an open plan office, (25 people asking you every Monday whether you had a nice weekend), but no contact can be depressing, even during COVID times there were a lot of online meetings. You could do some work in a work hub with others in similar fields to have some contact, or work for a client in their office once a week for contact. Listening to podcasts while working or having a lunch break out can help if you work at home. Pro: No cap to your earnings If you work harder you make more money, in theory, rather than working harder hoping someone will give you more of the money they are making. Con: No guaranteed earnings - or benefits. You will need a reasonable emergency fund, ie, an amount of money you can live off until you can find a job if needed which may be 3-6 months. You will need to pay your tax, national insurance, set up a pension or long-term savings. You will need to take care of your own sick pay, holiday pay, software costs, training and a decent chair to sit in. Don’t use a wonky IKEA stool. Calculate a day rate of your previous gross PAYE salary x 30% to cover other benefits like pension, then divide by 220 days.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore I spend a lot of time mocking up artist impressions of projects I’m working on. I’m no good at photorealistic images and so a filter which makes them look more like hand sketches saves me the time creating a hand sketch and also doesn’t look like an early 2000s computer game still. The most useful Adobe Photoshop filter I’ve found is the ‘find edges’ one which creates a version of an image which looks like a pencil sketch. When desaturated and overlaid onto the original image, it creates a kind of watercolour effect. Here is an example of an image I did for a commission during the Covid lockdown era for People United. I designed a floor mural which could demarcate social distancing in lockdown times, and in non-lockdown times it would make a public space more interactive. You can see the difference before and after using the filter:   CREDIT: Amanda Moore I created the image using a photo of the place and adding in people and the design. I then saved a copy of the layered Photoshop file and flattened the layers. I went to Filter > Find Edges to create the line drawing. I then used Mode > Grayscale to remove the colour, although you could also use the Hue/Saturation settings to just reduce the colouring.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore I then copied and pasted this layer onto the original file as the top layer and played with the transparency levels. You may need to cut out bits in places using the wand selection tool if the white background is too much.
The other thing which you could add to de-realise the image further is a watercolour layer. You can find a watercolour image online and copy and paste it into your image file. Desaturate it and then reduce the transparency to around 10% or below and this adds a mottled texture. This filter has allowed me to produce many last-minute artist impressions.  CREDIT: Michael Huber Architects You can use softwood plywood to create a finished floor surface. Depending on timber prices, this material can be less expensive than other products such as pre-made timber planks which are specifically made as flooring products. I used plywood in a bedroom and would do it again in other rooms. I wouldn’t install it in a hallway or anywhere with heavy traffic or heavy items being dropped as it will ding and dent.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, installing hardboard insulation, working out the cutting list I started with the subfloor of my 1950s house. You might have a concrete subfloor. I laid a hardboard layer, (the green material), which provides a little insulation, evens out any raised planks to make a flatter surface and is air permeable as I didn’t want to create any condensation issues around my existing subfloor. I removed the skirting boards as the new floor would be higher than the existing laminate which was there. I bought standard 18mm plywood from my local DIY shop which comes in 2440mm x 1220mm standard size. I did a cutting list to try and fit all of the pieces I needed on as few sheets as possible. I wanted squares as the final finish with the grain running in alternate directions and so I divided the width of the room by 3 for the typical square dimension, allowing a few millimetres gap between each plank and 10mm against the wall all the way round. The squares, when laid out onto a sheet of ply, left lots of odd offcuts and so I used CAD software to lay them out as a layer beneath the squares. The squares would be fixed to them to make a more rigid floor a total of 36mm thick.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, floor installed and screw holes filled The small pieces of plywood when cut easily stacked into my car. I countersunk holes in each corner of the top layer of squares and screwed them to the layer below. They were also fully glued and I applied wood glue with a big brush. So essentially, the ply floor is not fixed to the subfloor, it’s a big rigid floor made up of 2 layers of ply sitting on the hardboard layer. The wood tended to have a nice side and then a not so nice side, (knot so nice side), which I laid to the bottom. I then used a high-quality yacht varnish with a satin finish to lacquer the floor, after filling the holes with wood filler in a light colour to match.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, installing mineral wool and supports for cill  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, fitting the skirting and cill I bought high density fibreboard skirting which was pre-primed. The hardest part was cutting 45 degree mitre cuts for the corners. The adhesive was applied with a caulking gun and I pressed it against the wall with my feet!
There was a gap left against the sliding door. I added support battens and mineral insulation and then made a cill from Red Sapele timber. I’ve built an oak parquet floor in another room which I’ll put in another blog post and the price comparison is very different. The oak ran me £40 per square metre plus glue and hardboard whereas the ply cost around £10 per square metre but per layer, so £20 per square metre and I got away with cheaper glue than the carpenter’s glue I needed for the oak. The whole thing was also done in a day. It's a pretty simple way to make an attractive floor.  CREDIT: Richard Chivers. Gosport Mural, Amanda Moore 2022 Over the last two years I’ve been creating more public artwork using vinyl printing rather than hand paint or applying art traditionally. The process goes like this…design an artwork which is site-specific for the client, (usually local authority), approach a vinyl printing company to survey the site accurately and quote for the work, have them print and install the final work like outdoor wallpaper. I’ve used adhesive wraps for three types of installation:
The advantage of using a vinyl printing subcontractor is speed. I tend to mock up artwork using Adobe Illustrator mostly using vector-based lines and shapes which cuts out concerns over image resolution. I then approach a subcontractor I’ve worked with previously and ask them to measure on site and quote for the work, plus provide a method statement detailing how they will install safely and any product warranties. I’ll often have a sample installed on the site so that we can see how the material will stretch over textures such as brickwork and how easily it is removed.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore. Testing vinyl wrap. The project I worked on in collaboration with Studio BAD in Gosport in 2022 involved designing a wrap for a snooker hall building as part of a trail of new art within the town centre. I designed a mural which picked up on Goport’s naval heritage by taking dazzle boat painting patterns and combined this with colours and motifs seen on heritage buildings around the town. All of this was drawn in Adobe Illustrator and sent to Mac Signs based in Southampton who installed the work using a scaffold tower within a week, although this week of labour was spread out around poor weather.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore. Eastleigh translucent vinyls In Eastleigh I designed a large set of translucent vinyls which were based on Art Deco patterns seen on an early twentieth century building in the town. These were installed to glazed colonnades and create reflections onto the ground. The prints were cut around the unevenly spaced mullions on site rather than needing to measure each piece of glass. The works were installed to the underside around the town, bird poop not landing on top.  CREDIT: Richard Chivers. Southampton Guildhall urban rug. For Southampton’s Guildhall Square an urban rug was formed using coloured squares made from recyclable aluminium. These squares were arranged as pixels forming architectural motifs on the Guildhall building. The texture for floor art is important in terms of guaranteed slip resistance in public areas. These didn’t quite hold up as well with the local skateboarders and they tore at the edges but it worked well as a temporary installation.
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AuthorWhat am I doing here? I'm collecting sea water to fill 1,000 bottles and hang them from a scaffold inside an old ruin. Why? Why not? Archives
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