This article has also been published at A Better Freelancer.

Whilst writing an email to Ole Martin Kristiansen about the globetrotting freelancing lifestyle, I realised that I have quite a few tips that hopefully will inspire freelancers looking to work abroad for an extended period of time.

Respect the WiFi God

In countries with unstable internet access, make sure to download everything you want to view when you get a stable internet connection. You never know when the power will go, and then you’re stuck without being able to access what could be vital documents. Download all email, open all interesting articles from your feed reader in different tabs etc. There were so many times in Vietnam when I just couldn’t work effectively because I was waiting for client feedback (from Europe), so suck every last drop of WiFi-blood than you possibly can.

Take advantage of your situation and enrich your life

Give your computer a well-earned break

That being said, make sure to take in your surroundings and experience the new culture in which you find yourself. Working half days are usually enough, leaving you with time to engage with the locals, learn a new sport/recreational activity (surfing, scuba diving) or perhaps even take lessons to learn the local language. These skills last a lifetime, so take advantage of your situation and enrich your life. If you sit in your hotel room day-in and day-out, I bet you’ll end up regretting all of the strange, cool and satisfying things that you never experienced once you’re back in front of your desk back home. I worked as a volunteer English teacher at the English School of Mui Ne; a truly rewarding and humbling experience.

Internet is everywhere

If you’re traveling in Asia, don’t worry about internet access: pretty much all hotels offer free WiFi, and if not there always seems to be an open network close by.

Sweet Business Exchanges

Whilst I was in Vietnam I managed to do a deal with a local hotel. I created a website for them, and in return I received free accommodation including breakfast for two people for the entire two months. The same can be done for restaurants, diving shops and other similar businesses. Just make sure to sign a contract, and keep the client up to speed more than normal, so they don’t think you’re enjoying the free ride for nothing. The opportunities are endless: not just websites but menus, brochures etc. If you play your cards right, you can the only expense you’ll have for the duration of the trip will be the flight!

Go for it

Whether you’re stuck the northern Swedish boonies, or in a hectic North American megalopolis, I definitely recommend taking a few months from your daily routine to travel and embrace a foreign culture. In today’s day and age, web and graphic freelancers can work from pretty much anywhere with a power source and internet connection, and if you’re lucky you can end up with a living cost of zero (+ a website).

If you’re thinking of doing something similar, I have one word of advice.

Go.

Here’s a bite sized version of my travels:

Mui Ne, Vietnam

December – February
Volunteer work as an English teacher at the English School of Mui Ne. During this time I also created a website for Sunshine Beach Resort.

Singapore

February/March
Created a website and did media consultancy for BrainFit Studio

Bangkok, Thailand

March
Web Consultancy for Advance Ed

South Africa

April
Travelling around the country, sightseeing etc.

These various trips have enabled me to gain a firm grasp of Asian culture, business methodologies and way of life. I am delighted by the result of the trip in its entirety, as well as the individual stops.  The diversity of my experiences were compelling: working as a teacher, web designer and consultant are three very different challenges.

Now I’m finally back in chilly Stockholm rearing to go, just in time for the beautiful Swedish early summer. I’m currently working on a couple of intriguing projects, but don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’re interested in working with me in the coming months!

How can it be that Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland, 0.3% of the world’s population, produce 3% of all world exports? Strid and Andréasson claim that it’s down to the countries’ Viking heritage. Sure, they were mind-bogglingly brutal and viscous, but they were also hundreds of years ahead of their time in areas such as business and philosophy.

Look out the window. Listen to your instincts

Trust your instincts

Before the launch of Aboslut Vodka, several marketing experts were called in to analyse the new brand and give their opinion on the new Swedish spririt. “No one will ever buy a Swedish vodka. Forget this whole Absolut thing,” they cried after extensive market research, studies and surveys. Yet the team behind the product stood strong, found a distributor, published ads in only the most avant-garde of periodicals, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Absolut team trusted their instincts from the get-go, something that many start-ups and established companies alike overlook. Market research often has priority over inner beliefs, which can cause a product or even a company to lose its way.

This is not some ninth century hogwash; some of the most cutting edge companies around are going with their gut feelings for the big decisions. Spencer Fry of Carbonmade observed in a blog post that WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg employs a similar tactic. According to Fry, Mullenweg made it clear at a recent Master of Fine Arts talk at SVA that WordPress “doesn’t have a five year roadmap. There’s just a feeling they get in their gut that naturally moves the product forward to a new stage whenever they’ve completed a segment of what they want to do.”

Have you ever put together a slightly risky design which you initially think is great, but after pondering what the client feedback might be like, you send it to the bin? Trust your instincts and put together a kick-ass case for your idea. You’ll probably be right.

Dead Time

On trains and planes modern day travelers can observe a common phenomenon, the one of the I-need-to-take-advantage-of-every-spare-moment-I-have-during-the-working-week syndrome. But letting your mind wander is a recipe for success and awesome ideas.

Dead time should be used for anything but efficiency

The Vikings would be ashamed of the 24/7 ‘stressoholics’ that effectively define the world we live in. For months on end at sea the Vikings had an abundance of time, and from it came plans of great grandeur. Staring across the vast oceans was a soothing and stimulating practice. “Working on those little trays next to your fellow sardines [on airplanes] is not only inefficient, it’s an affront to your creative self,” the authors declare. “Dead time [...] should be used for anything but efficiency. [...] Dead time is when your creativity is at its highest. But only if you surrender to it.”

I don’t have time to think

There is a key concept that the Vikings kept close their heart, but that has somehow eluded the typical twenty-first century citizen: thinking is important. “Thoughts do take time – not just the actual thinking, but also the complicated cocktail of emotional, biochemical and subconscious impulses that make creative ideas possible,” Strid and Andréasson write.

This is especially valid in the design industry. The level of creativity is often what sets us apart from the competition and is essentially the defining factor in determining our paycheck. So sit back and think. Spending that extra half an hour to actively think might start to pay dividends. Thinking takes time, after all.

In the summer of 2009 I began work on a new design for Ghana-based Great Andoh Orphanage. It’s an inspiring place, with almost 100 orphans and tons of smiles. But during my initial design phase, I felt that my work was not hitting the right chord one iota. So I began a desperate search for finding something that would get me back on track.

An online cul-de-sac

Through the years I’ve assembled my fair share of bookmarks, so step one was to browse my “Non-profit organisation” folder, to see what others sites do well. The general feeling from the collection of sites was murky, to say the least. Almost all of them were dark and gloomy and after trying out that look on my wireframed-based layout, I knew it was a dead end.

The search continued into offline territory, skimming through magazines and books on Africa. To my dismay nothing was helping, so I decided to switch gears and come back to the project in a few days. I figured a well needed creative rest was desperately needed.

Walk around town

The following day I strolled through Stockholm’s picturesque area of Gamla Stan (the Old Town) on my way to a client meeting. Glancing through shops and cafés, my mind was wandering when I caught myself stopping. My eyes had found their way into a tiny African shop, with a door just big enough for a young teenager to fit through. However, I didn’t need to move another inch. I’d finally found my long lost inspiration.

The store was filled with colour, coming from African artwork, clothing, sculptures — the works. In the midst of the fusion of colour was an array of African national flags. Basic in structure yet so lively in feeling, it struck me like a bolt of lightning what to base Great Andoh’s site around.

To see the flags in their natural setting was what it took to get my creative juices flowing again

Get out

I had naturally done plently of research before designing the website, and had seen the Ghanaian flag many times. Yet it hadn’t crossed my mind to base the entire website on it. It seems like an elementary idea, and one that I should of thought of from the get-go. But to see the flags in their natural setting, in their true environment, was what it took to get my creative juices flowing again.

So when in need of some well-needed inspiration of any sort, take a step back (from the computer screen), and see things in a truer, more natural setting. It’ll work like a charm.

There’s a common expression among web designers, that goes something like this: “designing your own website is the hardest job of them all.” I can’t agree more. Under normal circumstances the web designer’s distance to the client makes it relatively easy to see the big picture and create a clear plan of action. When designing your own site, you take into account so many different aspects of yourself that things can, at times, get quite messy.

Designing your own website is the hardest job of them all.

Just another day at the office

The solution to the problem is simple enough: approach the project like any other client project. By clearly defining my key values, how I want to be perceived, my short and long-term goals etc, I was able to focus my thinking and ultimately create a better website.

I was determined to create a site that expresses the following characteristics and values: professional, international, personal and creative. With these four keywords in mind throughout my four-month long design process, it certainly made it easier to embrace certain elements and ideas, and discard others.

Reasons for change

But why did I embark on this long struggle of a design process? I evaluated my previous site, and came to the following conclusions. I knew that I needed to:

• Have a designated page for each portfolio piece. This would enable me to have longer descriptions of my work, giving visitors and clients alike a better idea of my thoughts during the design process.
• Implement some sort of modular layout / pleasing tension, to create greater sophistication and customisation possibilities.
• Create a design that represents me as much as possible.
• Integrate WordPress to a much larger extent. Previously, only the blog section was driven by WordPress, and by using it throughout the new site I would of course be able to update content more regularly.
• Rewrite all of the content, as the old stuff seemed outdated and stale, and didn’t express my four keywords.

These steps were all undertaken, and I believe they will ultimately help me reach the following goals:

• Have a website that  expresses my four keywords
• Enhance my reputation in the design community
• Attract even bigger and better clients
• Have a design that I’ll be happy with for the foreseeable future

Enjoy

I hope you find my new website both beautiful and insightful. Whatever your opinion, leave a comment below and let me know what you think!