Shhhh! Undercover design

Like many victims of the recession, Tristan King lost his creative manager job in a cost-cutting exercise and couldn’t find a suitable role with the right geography and pay. He then experienced a rapid learning curve – not knowing redundancy payments were capped and finding out you can only claim unemployment benefit for up to six months, regardless of what you have paid into the system. Discovering that you can’t claim certain things if your wife works and the actual act of ‘signing on’ was a whole other story!

With nothing to lose, coupled with a scheme from Telford’s Job Centre Plus, Tristan decided to become self-employed, launching Voodoo Design. He said he could almost hear the voices of friends, family and colleagues saying you should have done this sooner.

“Call it sensible or cowardly, there was too much at stake with children and a mortgage to leave a job with a well paid, regular income,” he said. “Now in a position without risk, I took the help and small financial support from the government and attended a series of courses to guide me in my new start-up venture. Graphic design and advertising had been my chosen industry since college, for two decades in fact, but never before was I responsible for my own wage!”

He was lucky enough to have a few loyal customers from previous freelancing and picked up a few more clients mainly through word of mouth. However, when the main clients are printers or print brokers, there’s a secrecy that has to be honoured. Tristan often wants to shout “it’s mine, I did it!” to all the work he’s proud of, or include his company name in the small print somewhere, but alas, he can’t. The end client thinks that their printer has done it all. “I’m undercover, creating artwork for companies large and small, local and national, from a small room in Telford! I’m like a spy designer, distributing ghost graphics and anonymous ads.” He added. “A small price to pay though for regular work,” he admitted.

He regularly drives past businesses featuring his logo or literature. In fact, if you’re a business owner reading this, he could actually be responsible for your graphics – but mum’s the word.

Despite not earning as much as with full time employment (yet!) there’s a massive sense of satisfaction in being your own boss and the freedom that goes with it is uplifting. After being perfectly happy enough to be able to pay his half of all the bills and have a little ‘treat money’ left over, Tristan’s ambition has kicked in fully and Voodoo Design is growing fast.

“To anyone thinking of working for themselves, my message would be weigh up what you’ve got to lose initially, ask the Job Centre for what help is available and go for it.”

His work has also been widely varied for all types of industries, from advertising Viagra to the livery of an aircraft. There are a lot of big names already in his portfolio – National Accident Helpline, ASDA, Fruit of the Loom and more and more on the horizon for Voodoo Design but it’s a little difficult to declare them! Just remember, if fame and fortune is round the corner, you may not be able to celebrate too loudly!

Contact Tristan on 07870 2000 26 or voodoodesign@ymail.com for imaginative design and print at recession-sensitive rates. Samples of work that CAN be published can be found at: www.voodoodesignshropshire.com.