ACCOZZAGLIA

1. You have quite an impressive resume. Did you learn most of your skills on different jobs, because you enjoy them, because you felt like you need to set yourself apart, to make up for skills you feel were lacking or a combination of all of the above?

this is going to sound about as unromantic as one could get: i learned most of what i know in large part because of survival — trial by fire, really.

much of it was an adapt or perish proposition. i didn’t get to attend university. well, not yet, at least. while i worked for a copy centre and desktop publishing chain when i was 21, i learned how to work with many of the tools i use today. someone made the cursing mistake of telling me that i had an eye for creating strong visual statements.

while part of me really took an interest to creating visual ideas in printed form, it wasn’t ever anything i expected to lean upon as any kind of living. i can’t illustrate or freehand draw to save my life, and i don’t have an academic background in this field. but when i got paid $500 for a logo i made for a New Zealand company in 1996, i suddenly got it into my head that “hey, i could make money doing this!”

ummm, naïve mistake #2. live and learn.

thank you for speaking highly of my credentials. i’m pretty hard on myself when it comes to them, cos i see nothing but “second caste” stamped across them, especially compared to many of the people my age who work in the same industry.

so, like i don’t think i really answered that question very well, did i?

2. I’m interested on what it’s like to be a freelance artist and independent contractor dealing with the corporate world being not of the corporate type?

ummm, it’s hard, cos i’m like the runt piglet looking helplessly at the bigger piglets who are hogging all the teats, all whom know the way to get past the other piglets to paydirt.

many of the “true” freelancers out there worked for a corporate agency for a few years, building a lot of applied experience which only comes from being in a long-term arrangement with an advertising or marketing agency. they can opt to charge their own rates and are pretty well-connected to the local creative community on the whole.

i’m more a contractor and am generally represented by creative talent agencies. the work is piecemeal that way, cos the talent agency can just as easily pitch someone else on their roster over you. moreover, they get a few units of bling for the work you do, which means you see less in your paycheque.

(can you tell that i’m not thrilled about what i do lately?)

if anything, i’m in the survivalist mindset of late to just get anywhere on a perm basis, even if that’s some kind of insidious corporate place like Microsoft or Starbucks’ home offices.

ultimately, though, i’ll prolly end up running my own real business, where i have real employees working with me and so on. maybe.

3. What does your lj name mean?

it’s an Italian word that more or less means melange or a jumble of items. i saw it in a NY Times article right about the time i opened my account, and i thought how appropriate that was in describing me.

4. What are you doing to keep yourself sane in times of stress?

ummm, well, moving my body. talking. listening. hoping. holding out. waiting. wondering. crying. panicking. laughing. getting out of the house when i can.

5. What shoe are you most likely to wear and why?

now that it’s summer, i’m wearing my summer 2002 Unlisted brown open-toe sandals. they’re cozy, they’re designed for lots of city walking and they make my feet look nice, especially with most of the stuff i wear (which much to my disdain, has been suburban and HET-looking lately! i blame it on the influence of my mainstream-looking girlfriend and in part because i’m in the remote suburbs, WHERE EVERYONE IS THE SAME, ew, i know, i know). of course, they also make me about two inches taller, since they platform slightly. and i get to show of my toe rings that way, too.

for walking around in cooler months, i live in my Ryka running shoes.

at size 11, there aren’t many options, but i’ve managed to find a few in the Kenneth Cole brands, and in Rykas and Dibas. Keds and Converse old-skool high tops are nice, but i’m wihout a pair of either right now, so. DSW is my friend, but i no longer live near one, so my options are more limited here.