Find Your Mentor - Motion Designer Stu Denbigh

Motion Designer & Creative Editor Stu Denbigh took a step back to move forward.

Despite being a motion designer, he became a runner at a top production house so he could learn from the best.

He chats about the importance of continually improving, finding a mentor and cash-flow - all part of being freelance for 10 years.

“You need to build trust with your clients”

— Stu Denbigh on client relationships

Here’s some of the key takeaway points:

Sometimes you need to step back in your career to move forwards
The importance of referrals in getting new work
Even though his agreements say he’ll charge interest on fees not paid after 30 days, he’s never done it in case it harms the client relationship
Ask your bank for you a big overdraft to help your cash flow be less painful
How hard it can be fitting in to a company’s culture when you’re working on site as a freelancer
The challenge of re-do loops for designers
The benefit of working with other freelancers and learning from them by seeing how they work
The importance of finding a mentor, someone to pull you up a level
When putting together your portfolio, ditch your oldest work and show the most recent, it forces you to keep improving