Your digital footprint refers to the record of your online interactions. It's everything you do, share, or post online - some of which can tarnish your reputation. But, according to Statista, only about a third of people who use the internet...
It is a widely known fact that big clients do things differently. The largest organisations in the modern brandscape will have millions of dollars to spend in marketing budget, but they obviously won’t be keen on spending them all in a risky...
I used to think I would never understand TikTok. It was clearly not for me, made for natural performers and younger people who loved to mess around with silly challenges. But then I saw some friends following influencers who did educational content,...
It was 2003 when DOTA (Defence of the Ancients), the first true Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), hit the shelves of PC gaming. Since then, esports have been on a constant and steady rise, leading to widespread popularisation for a new kind of...
Your client just dropped a bomb - they want a medical animation or MOA for a conference in four months. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you have to produce an animation for the 2021 ASH Conference at the end of November. ASH is still four...
Have you ever found yourself in a gravity-defying bus stop, with upside-down bottles, roses and Victorian surrealism? Thanks to Space and their work for Hendrick's Gin in selected UK locations, you just might soon. As restrictions begin to relax,...
Henry Ford believed that “failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Yes, that Henry Ford. The man we all know from history for being incredibly successful in the car business had actually failed...
A guide to retouching rates, with tips and advice from experienced professionals in the industry Commercial Retouchers make the beautiful perfect. They are architects of polish, masters of design and how to present a product/campaign under the best...
With the consumer world increasingly moving online, brands are being faced with the challenge of developing top-notch platforms to replace otherwise clunky and dated experiences. Long gone are the days of stiff, counter-intuitive and painful User...
In 2015, nearly 40% of the UK’s self-employed workforce did not file their taxes by the HMRC deadline. That accounts for over 890,000 freelancers in the UK, who all faced a £100 late fee. The mere thought of taxes is often nightmare fuel...
Freelancer or not, the dream of working in advertising is real for many creative professionals out there. It gives us a career prospect and a much concrete way to give shape to our dreams. As much as it would be lovely to live off prints and short...
You can hear horror stories from all over the industry, and unfortunately any agency leader can tell you that they are far too common. Clients leveraging their influence and the power of their wallets to have agencies submit to abusive behaviour,...
We’ve all had to deal with difficult clients or customers in our lifetime. If you’ve ever been through retail or hospitality (and I think most of us will have, to be fair) you know how difficult people can be. Surely not all of us will...
How do you usually feel on Sunday nights? Well, apart from when there’s a football match which fails to make history. If the answer is ‘awful,’ ‘anxious’ or anything in between, you might be looking at a case of Sunday...
As businesses, agencies have the grave burden to make profit with which they can generate growth and help the team thrive. With that in mind, pricing your agency services is arguably the most difficult part of founding and running a successful...
Spoiler: if you’re reading this, you probably are Like most other sectors, the creative industry is one of deadlines. There’s that deadline to deliver the pitch, that other one to complete a project, that copy to write, that award to...
The one of pitching is an interesting business. On one hand, we love the thrill that comes before winning a new account/client. Agencies thrive in that addictive spiral of pitch, win, repeat - and same goes for freelancers. From the perspective of a...
Have you ever seen a job ad for the perfect job role? I’m not talking about the role that makes you consider whether leaving your current position would be a good idea. I’m talking about the one that makes your eyes glimmer, and your...
It was just a few months ago, in February, that the AF&PA (American Forest & Paper Association) released a comprehensive research document in which it surveyed a number of paper mills around the US, offering then some guidelines on how to make more...
A guide to writing rates, with tips and advice on how to price your freelance services Writers are masters of words, weavers of stories and often incredible storytelling enthusiasts. When writing freelance and online, structure is their best friend,...
A guide to animation rates, with tips and advice from an experienced professional in the industry Animators are extremely fascinating professionals, often with a broad skillset and a full range of incredible ideas. They work with static images to...
A guide to photography rates, with tips and advice from experienced professionals in the industry Telling entire stories with the power of one frame. Capturing emotions in a shot. This is the matter of which photographers are made; masters of...
People love coming together for a number of reasons, and more than anything else. It is one of the many things that this global crisis has taught us - and a positive lesson, for once. There is nothing like a worldwide illness to make people feel...
It's been an interesting 12 months for the creative jobseekers out there. To some, career prospects have become quite grim. Others have just started to get back on their feet. In this climate, there are some unsung heroes who work behind the scenes -...
A guide to graphic design rates, with tips and advice from select professionals in the industry Graphic Designers are masters of design. Comfortable with a number of different mediums and often possessing a large skillset, Graphic Designers can...
A guide to 3D modelling and illustration rates, with tips and advice from experienced professionals in the industry 3D artists shape reality to build the products, characters and worlds for all of us to dive into. Be it a commercial artist, a...
Despite some may say Facebook is declining, it is still the biggest social network worldwide with billions of active monthly users in the second half of 2020. With such huge potential, advertisers all around the world should be experts in crafting...
A guide to freelance music composition rates, with tips and advice from experienced professionals in the industry Musicians and composers set the mood of the stories we love and cherish the most in our hearts. Without musicians, horror films would...
At Southpaw we’re kind of obsessed with storytelling in the brand building process. Within storytelling’s golden trio of character, incident and plot, it’s plot that provides the vital framework to hang everything from. Enter the...
A guide to freelance illustration rates, with tips and advice from experienced professionals in the industry Illustrators are the makers of dreams. By combining art, design and creative skills, illustrators work to produce original images for a wide...
Every time politics gets into the frame, it is tempting to resort to one of the first world-recognised writers of dystopian fiction, George Orwell, to pay a much heartfelt tribute to such a great master of English literature. Well, as of January...
Freelancers had an interesting year. Alongside events and production, the freelance industry was the most hit and the one that took some of the hardest blows - especially when certain governments started to ignore their needs. With the wave of...
So you’ve decided you want to go freelance. Congratulations! Choosing the freelance life is a huge decision and I’m sure you didn’t take it lightly. Of course, autonomy and independence comes at a certain price; and that price, you...
A young graduate looking to enter the industry in the middle of a pandemic? Well, you're not alone. According to the BBC, there are at least seven ways in which young people employment (or lack thereof) has been affected by the Covid crisis, either...
And what the self-employed need to know about leaving the EU. That’s right, I used the dreaded ‘B’ word. As you can imagine, Brexit will have a certain impact on freelancers in the UK, and to an extent, to those working from Europe...
Clearly, this has been an interesting year for everyone in the creative industry. Whether you are in the music industry, in live events, production or freelancing (aka: trying to hold onto your clients), 2020 has brought a new, unprecedented range...
