Peter Wocken's Ambaadasssssor Song

Tuesday the 7th I and another member of my Business for the Professional Artist class (though I was the one who arranged the call, he wound up with more interview questions than I) had a teleconference that devolved into just a phone call (bad connection) so phone call mostly, interview with board game graphic designer Peter Wocken.

My graphic design plan at one point was to do board games before switching/settling on the serigraphy thing, so I figured I'd solicit a professional's opinion on the lay of the land. The other class member had actually gotten accepted as an illustrator at a startupish sort of board game company, so I invited him; members of the board game design workshop were also invited but none of them could make it. The phone call portion lasted 45 minutes, from 1:15ish to just before 2:00; the failed Skype attempts before that had been going on for, well the Skype call had initially been scheduled for 12:30 pm, so, about that same length of time.

I recorded the entire phone call portion of the interview; fortunately I always both record my interviews and also take notes, because my phone's kind of 'WOL. I'd been going to transcribe the whole phone portion to post up, but 45 minutes of convo would take a while to transcribe so I was putting it off, and now that I've accepted that I may never see that phone again I'm just posting up the transcript of my notes instead, spelling mistakes and all (some of which are actually fairly amusing ("stationary"!))

He's on Freelance 3.0 by now. FREELANCE 2.0- Temp agencies work w/ a bunch of company. Best Buy→ FFG.
RPG→ everyone (FFG local) be availible when op shows its face.
Connection→ just "contact us!" and tell them your story/portfolio or GAME ART DIRECTOR. Always looking for fresh blood so graphic design over illustration pays better. \ Until they're real publishers (you can work with newbies) don't go accepting. They don't know the industry and might make unrealistic demands. Publishers w/ in-house artists is Plaid Hat- Fernanda Suarez.
FFG art director- ??? Works directly w/ graphic design departments. AEG- Send to Peter. forwarded emails to John Goodenough (super awesome dude.)
Freelance & full-time job don't mesh very well. Discipline- your brain will be mush at end of 8-9 hours, so you need to force yourself.
Board game industry super difficult to compete- people all over the world with lower rent etc. do well. Have savings to fall back on in freelance, have portfolio- job something creative.
Work on what you enjoy- you'll find work in it. Peter chose to go superspecialist, and good thing people are getting into it. France "how do I rebrand myself" so he went specific, be seen as a specialist.
Get a good contract- people will take advantage of you. Read over contracts super specifically or have them sign your contract. Have agreements in writing (email is fine) invoices & contracts must be on-brand
Cons are great use of your time. The more cons you attend, the more optimal. Peter as a graphic designer doesn't booth, he's mobile. Get on dudes' calendars. GenCon & BGGCon.
GenCon- get 'em between schedules. BGGCon smaller, last con of year.
Now Peter Wocken is big enough for people to seek him out. Have business cards/post cards? Or ping everyone on your portfolio? Either way have contact info on every page, as part of stationary. Have template but customize per client. ALWAYS DEADLINES! BE NICER THAN GOOD! Be good ambadassors for creativity. Be pleasurable to work with.

I like that. The word is "ambadassor" from now on.