Ladies and Gentlemen, My name is Michael Beckwith, and I am a self-confessed minion. I am at Rachael’s command. When she tells me to go make a site update, I go do it. When she tells me to go convert a newly arrived web design into a theme for your new favorite blog, I go do it. When it comes to her bidding, I’m on it. Such is the life of a caffeinated minion, and you know what? I would not have it any other way.
The Meeting
Perhaps I should tell you how I got to this minion state. Let me take you back to the start of Rachael’s and my acquaintanceship. I was at a point in my life where I was just starting with twitter and microblogging in general, and was following anyone who seemed interesting. Rachael was one of those people. I am also a self-confessed coffee junky so when “caffeinatedelf” showed up on my screen, my ears perked. At some point I read a post on her blog about a financially tight time for her and her awesome husband Troy. My little heart percolated with intrigue and kindness, and I contacted Rachael about donating $5 of my hard earned money to help two people who I didn’t know at all. I reasoned that $5 is not a lot and is equivalent to giving up a large mocha from Starbucks or any higher end coffee location. I could live with parting with one beverage worth. Needless to say, Rachael was extremely touched by the gesture.
The Hiring
During the course of our friendship;, another idea started percolating. I attended college for five years studying graphic design and multimedia/web development, but have yet to really find my footing afterwards. I knew I needed a way to stay in the game while working a general 40hr/wk job. I was not, and still not, completely confident in myself yet to go full time freelance but if I could pick up some work from time to time, that would be wonderful. I knew that Rachael was running Caffeinated Design Studio so I offered my knowledge and skills. I reasoned that if some of the work load was off her chest, together we could get work done faster and have more time for new work. I felt confident in her company and wanted to help make Caffeinated Design grow.
The Work
My first minion assignment didn’t arrive right away, but I got to get my hands dirty soon enough. Rachael proceeded to introduce me to a client named Amy Crook. She runs Antemortem Arts, which she uses to promote her paintings and traditional arts. The website was going to use Wordpress as its CMS and Amy had a theme design ready, being a designer herself. This was my first assignment. I had a good fun time making the theme work and provide an awesome website theme.
Minion assignment number two was very much like the first one but with an added layer of work. Once again I was working with Amy but this time she had a separate client who also needed a wordpress theme implemented. This time I was sent the design’s .psd file and I had to export the elements myself. The rest of the theming process was like the first assignment and in the end, another lovely website was given to the world.
The Payoff
Through these two assignments, I have helped provide some wonderful looking websites for people using the ever-awesome blogging/cms platform Wordpress. I am confident enough to say that everyone involved is more than happy with the final results and the internet is that much of a better place.
There is no telling what the future holds for me and my minion status with Rachael. I know that I have really enjoyed the work provided to me so far, and hope that Rachael will let me continue along the same vein. I have heard some rumblings that I may be given some practice runs at creating designs myself to see how well I do there. I know that that half has never been my forte because I think I may be better suited on the developer side working with the code and markup. The design experience would be positive and would definitely help refine my rough edges, allowing me to be a bigger asset to both Rachael and anyone I work with in the future. Now if you excuse me, I think I hear an overhyper elfling calling my name.
Michael Beckwith is a budding Graphic and Web Designer residing in Sioux Falls South Dakota. Some of his interests in graphic/web design are Wordpress, vector graphics, and available open source tools to make it all work. He dreams of the day when pirates and awesomeness rule the world.
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