056: Leveraging teamwork to make passion projects a reality w/ Zac Dixon
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Release Date: 12/17/2019
101: How to niche down as a motion designer w/ Giuseppe Forestieri
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Should you niche down as a designer? We’ve all heard this advice! So, does niching down help you to win more clients or empower you to be seen as an expert? In this podcast, Hayley speaks with one of our students, Giuseppe about how he niched down his animation studio to work on projects he loves. About Giuseppe Forestieri Giuseppe Forestieri is the Animation Director of his own studio, and has a background in visual communication, specialising in animation and Illustration. Motion Aptitude is the fusion of two of Giuseppe’s biggest passions in life: creativity, and the great outdoors....
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100: Lessons learnt from making 100 podcast episodes w/ Hayley Akins
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Hayley Akins is a motion designer, animator and the founder of Motion Hatch. Hayley launched this podcast in November 2017! In this episode, Hayley explains how and why she started this motion design podcast and what she’s learnt along the way. She hopes these
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99: How to create motion design side projects that complement your day job w/ Charli Marie
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
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98: How Giant Ant became a leading motion design studio w/ Jay Grandin
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Jay is Co-Founder of Giant Ant, an animation studio in Vancouver. As Creative Director, Jay oversees nearly every project in the studio—leading the concept development and script writing processes as well as being actively involved in design and animation. In this episode, Jay unpacks how Giant Ant became a leading motion design studio.
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097: How to make six figures as a motion designer w/ John Filipkowski
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
John Filipkowski is a freelance motion designer from Chicagoland, with over ten years of experience. He’s worked with some huge brands on projects such as Dr Strange and Ant Man! In this episode we discuss how to earn six figures as a motion designer, the importance of outreach and how to build trust with clients.
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096: How to scale your income through productized services w/ Brad Hussey
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Brad Hussey is a web designer, online educator and digital marketing consultant based out of Canada. Brad has taught more than 600,000 indie designers, developers and professionals how to get better at their craft and make a living doing work they love. In this episode we explore how you can use a productized service model to scale your motion design business.
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095: How to make passive income as a motion designer w/ Justin Archer
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Justin Archer is a freelance motion designer who also makes passive income selling templates for final cut pro editors. He has almost 22k sales from Envato alone! In this episode we explore how he started making money through After Effects templates and how you can still be successful even if a market is saturated.
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094: How to get signed by a motion graphic design agent w/ Drew Melton
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
For some people, the idea of having an agent seems like a dream come true. But how do you actually get signed by a motion graphic design agent? What are the benefits? And once you’ve been signed, how do you make sure you get the most out of the relationship? Find out in our latest episode!
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093: How to work effectively with difficult clients w/ Ryan Koral
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Ryan Koral has spent the past 13 years telling brand stories through video storytelling. In that time, he’s learned a thing or two about working with all different kinds of clients. Join us as he shares his top takeaways on how to build a great working relationship, no matter the brief or project.
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092: How to use brand strategy to grow your motion design business w/ Melinda Livsey
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Melinda Livsey is a former graphic designer turned brand strategist. In this episode, she’ll teach you how you can use brand strategy to grow your motion design business and how to price your projects based on the value they’ll provide.
info_outlineMany of us creatives have diverse interests and passions. Yet, often enough, we find ourselves spending our time and energy doing client work and leaving our passion projects on the backburner. But what if it's actually that client work that can make your personal projects a reality? Today’s guest has mastered doing just that.
In his episode, I’m chatting with Zac Dixon, the creative director and founder of IV Studio and previously the host of the Animalators Podcast. As prolific as ever, Zac has been doing a ton of awesome things including making a new board game called Moonrakers.
With so many different projects in the works at one time, Zac tells how it can only happen through the power of teamwork. Having surrounded himself with other passionate and dedicated people, Zac and his team have been able to produce some really impressive passion projects. Zac shares how he decides which projects are worth pursuing and which are going to be the most rewarding.
Creating your own work is going to require some level of marketing if you want it to make a profit. Zac has learned a lot about marketing simply by being a motion designer. This has helped him make these projects a success, but it has also helped him gain a better understanding when working with clients as well.
As someone who has been on both sides of the table, Zac shares some great thoughts on getting noticed and hired by studios and clients in a crowded field. From the best types of reels to have in your portfolio, to what type of references are most valuable, this is great advice for any freelancer looking for more work.
In this episode
- Leveraging teamwork to make passion projects a reality
- Determining which creative ideas are worth pursuing
- How being a motion designer can prepare you to do your own marketing
- How to best utilize your portfolio to get the attention of clients and studios
- Fitting in your side projects when working on other gigs
- The payoffs that come with branching out into new skillsets
- Building your company up to be bigger than just yourself
Quotes
“I really want to take as many shots as we can at making things that we love and that we’re proud of. I think that feeds into everything else that we’re doing.” [6:11]
“Anything you can do to just make sure at the very least that [potential clients] are watching what you want them to watch and reading what you want them to read is huge. They need to latch on quick.” [25:29]
“Figure out what you want to do and just chip away at it. Put a little bit into it each day and eventually you’ll get there.” [37:46]
“Having a range of experiences will only make you a better creator. It will also give you a better pool of diverse experiences to pull into any work that you do.” [39:43]
Links
Follow Zac on Twitter | Instagram
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
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