Artist tips braindump on my @jonjones Twitter feed!
Hi everybody! Long time no chat. I did a 15-minute-long stream of consciousness braindump of artist advice on my Twitter account (@jonjones) and I’m reposting it here — RAW AND UNCUT! ARTISTS! Going through a lot of portfolios this week and have a few general RT’able notes and gripes following this tweet. :) ARTISTS! Unless [...]
Predicting layoffs: How to check your studio’s health
Hi all! With the spate of layoffs recently, I’ve been thinking of how to assess a studio’s health so you can predict whether or not doom will come, and when. These are various ways I usually assess a studio’s health, and it’s upon that basis that I make the stay\go\”sorry, I’m booked out for months [...]
Quick tip: Using images in feedback
Art manager tip: When writing feedback, never use a hyperlink to an image. Links die. Also, many art studios’ work PCs don’t have internet access. Save and send the image instead. If your text-based feedback refers to that file, include the complete filename every time you mention it instead of saying “that image.” Don’t make [...]
From Full-Time to Freelance: The Nine Commandments of Contracting (speech!)
Hi all! Back in December I gave a speech at the IGDA MicroTalks on the subject of transitioning from full-time employment to freelance art. It’s an expanded version of an earlier article of mine. Here’s the video: Here are the slides of the speech: From Full-Time to Freelance: The Ten Commandments of Contracting slides Here’s [...]
Free agency is the future of video games!
Man, I really suck at posting notices about events where I’m speaking. Last night there was an event called Infinite Resolution Zero LatencyI at the University of Texas in Austin. They had several game developers taking two minutes each to describe their vision of the future of video games. After that, they adjourned to check [...]
I did an “Ask Me Anything” reddit post about getting into games!
Hi everybody! For those not familiar with reddit, it’s [essentially] a website where people post links, create discussions and comment on them. There are tens of thousands of small communities there, one of which is called “AMA” — short for “Ask Me Anything.” Sometimes they’ll have celebrities, or politicians, or people in interesting lines of [...]
CrunchCast #27: CES, Student Prep and Relocation!
Another new CrunchCast is up this week! This time we have Chris Holden, Bryan McConnell, Patrick Morrison and me discussing the International Consumer Electronics Show, making better and more hireable students, and the intricacies of relocation!
Why you should blog what you know.
Artists: Having a great portfolio and blogging about what you know is gold. However, I’ve heard of people selling art critiques and trying to charge for basic information. I’ve always made everything I write 100% free, and here’s why: If your blog is for people that have the time to do what you’re teaching\explaining, it’s [...]
smArtist Tools – Dropbox Automator!
Just ran across an awesome new tool: Dropbox Automator! This is a pretty wild one. Essentially, you can create rules (or “automations”) for Dropbox via this web tool that triggers certain actions based on filetypes. I’ll quote TechCrunch‘s linked article: Not only are they trigged by file type (e.g. a photo, a .doc, a PDF, [...]
smArtist hardware! AKA How I manage my business from everywhere.
Hi, guys! I’ve been spending the last few months really digging into the most efficient ways to manage my business from wherever I happen to be while having plenty of backup options for staying communicative even if everything starts exploding. First off, I’d like to showcase my hardware! These are the main tools I use [...]
User interface artist tip: Three tips for a better portfolio
Hello, UI artists! I’ve been going over a lot of UI artists’ portfolios — particularly contractors, hint hint — and I’ve noticed three things in particular that I love to see in a good UI artist portfolio. Wireframes. It helps me get a sense of your talent, planning and user experience sensibilities when I can [...]
Artist tip: First impressions matter. Buy a domain and email from there.
Something I see from a lot of artists (and even some studios) soliciting their services for artwork is people with MSN, Hotmail and Gmail addresses. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. To be honest, my primary email address is still with Gmail, but only because I’ve been using it for seven and a half [...]