I’m excited: as December rolls on, I’m winding down from client work and indulging in a big pet project I’ve been dreaming up for quite some time, with the aim of releasing it early next year. I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for pet projects and currently have a few in the works: the big one, two collaborations with friends, and my continuing (and completely un-web-related) attempt at music. But when I think about the other designers and developers out there whose work I admire, one thing becomes obvious: they’ve all got pet projects! Look around the web and you’ll see that anyone worth their salt has some sort of side project on the go. If you don’t have yours yet, now’s the time!
Have a pet project to collaborate with your friends
It’s not uncommon to find me staring at my screen, looking at beautiful websites my friends have made, grinning inanely because I feel so honoured to know such talented individuals. But one thing really frustrates me: I hardly ever get to work with these people! Sure, there are times when it’s possible to do so, but due to various project situations, it’s a rarity.
So, in order to work with my friends, I’ve found the best way is to instigate the collaboration outside of client work; in other words, have a pet project together! Free from the hard realities of budgets, time restraints, and client demands, you and your friends can come up with something purely for your own pleasures. If you’ve been looking for an excuse to work with other designers or developers whose work you love, the pet project is that excuse. They don’t necessarily have to be friends, either: if the respect is mutual, it can be a great way of breaking the ice and getting to know someone.
Figure 1: A forthcoming secret love-child from myself and Tim Van Damme
Have a pet project to escape from your day job
We all like to moan about our clients and bosses, don’t we? But if leaving your job or firing your evil client just isn’t an option, why not escape from all that and pour your creative energies into something you genuinely enjoy?
It’s not just about reacting to negativity, either: a pet project is a great way to give yourself a bit of variety. As web designers, our day-to-day work forces us to work within a set of web-related contraints and sometimes it can be demoralising to spend so many hours fixing IE bugs. The perfect antidote? Go and do some print design! If it’s not possible in your day job or client work, the pet project is the perfect place to exercise your other creative muscles. Yes, print design (or your chosen alternative) has its own constraints, but if they’re different to those you experience on a daily basis, it’ll be a welcome relief and you’ll return to your regular work feeling refreshed.
Figure 2: Ligature, Loop & Stem, from Scott Boms & Luke Dorny
Have a pet project to fulfill your own needs
Many pet projects come into being because the designers and/or developers behind them are looking for a tool to accomplish a task and find that it doesn’t exist, thus prompting them to create their own solution. In fact, the very app I’m using to write this article — Ommwriter, from Herraiz Soto & Co — was originally a tool they’d created for their internal staff, before releasing it to the public so that it could be enjoyed by others.
Just last week, Tina Roth Eisenberg launched Teux Deux, a pet project she’d designed to meet her own requirements for a to-do list, having found that no existing apps fulfilled her needs. Oh, and it was a collaboration with her studio mate Cameron. Remember what I was saying about working with your friends?
Figure 3: Teux Deux, the GTD pet project that launched just last week
Have a pet project to help people out
Ommwriter and Teux Deux are free for anyone to use. Let’s just think about that for a moment: the creators have invested their time and effort in the project, and then given it away to be used by others. That’s very cool and something we’re used to seeing a lot of in the web community (how lucky we are)! People love free stuff and giving away the fruits of your labour will earn you major kudos. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making some money, either — more on that in a second.
Figure 4: Dan Rubin‘s extremely helpful Make Photoshop Faster
Have a pet project to raise your profile
So, giving away free stuff earns you kudos. And kudos usually helps you raise your profile in the industry. We all like a bit of shameless fame, don’t we? But seriously, if you want to become well known, make something cool. It could be free (to buy you the love and respect of the community) or it could be purchasable (if you’ve made something that’s cool enough to deserve hard-earned cash), but ultimately it needs to be something that people will love.
Figure 5: Type designer Jos Buivenga has shot to fame thanks to his beautiful typefaces and ‘freemium’ business model
If you’re a developer with no design skills, team up with a good designer so that the design community appreciate its aesthetic. If you’re a designer with no development skills, team up with a good developer so that it works. Oh, and not that I’d recommend you ever do this for selfish reasons, but collaborating with someone you admire — whose work is well-respected by the community — will also help raise your profile.
Have a pet project to make money
In spite of our best hippy-esque intentions to give away free stuff to the masses, there’s also nothing wrong with making a bit of money from your pet project. In fact, if your project involves you having to make a considerable financial investment, it’s probably a good idea to try and recoup those costs in some way.
Figure 6: The success of Shaun Inman‘s various pet projects — Mint, Fever, Horror Vacui, etc. — have allowed him to give up client work entirely.
A very common way to do that in both the online and offline worlds is to get some sort of advertising. For a slightly different approach, try contacting a company who are relevant to your audience and ask them if they’d be interesting in sponsoring your project, which would usually just mean having their brand associated with yours in some way. This is still a form of advertising but tends to allow for a more tasteful implementation, so it’s worth pursuing.
Advertising is a great way to cover your own costs and keep things free for your audience, but when costs are considerably higher (like if you’re producing a magazine with high production values, for instance), there’s nothing wrong with charging people for your product. But, as I mentioned above, you’ve got to be positive that it’s worth paying for!
Have a pet project just for fun
Sometimes there’s a very good reason for having a pet project — and sometimes even a viable business reason — but actually you don’t need any reason at all. Wanting to have fun is just as worthy a motivation, and if you’re not going to have fun doing it, then what’s the point? Assuming that almost all pet projects are designed, developed, written, printed, marketed and supported in our free time, why not do something enjoyable?
Figure 7: Jessica Hische‘s beautiful Daily Drop Cap
In conclusion
The fact that you’re reading 24 ways shows that you have a passion for the web, and that’s something I’m happy to see in abundance throughout our community. Passion is a term that’s thrown about all over the place, but it really is evident in the work that people do. It’s perhaps most evident, however, in the pet projects that people create. Don’t forget that the very site you’re reading this article on is… a pet project.
If you’ve yet to do so, make it a new year’s resolution for 2010 to have your own pet project so that you can collaborate with your friends, escape from your day job, fulfil your own needs, help people out, raise your profile, make money, and — above all — have fun.
Comments
Got something to add? You can just leave a comment.
18/12/2009
Pet projects are a must if you really want to develop your skills, and it’s a good way to keep up with all the new and fancy APIs.
I find Evernote an invaluable program for keeping track of idea’s. That way I don’t forget them and can investigate the idea when I have some spare time. That’s how font dragr started, crazy idea born into a pet project.
Your link to Jos Buivenga site keeps timing out for me, I put a www in front and that stopped the timeout issues.
18/12/2009
You’ve got some great points here. I’m looking forward to seeing your pet project with TIm Van Damme. No doubt I’ll hear about it on the ol’ Twitter.
18/12/2009
Thanks for the mention Elliot.
My take — after going a extremely long time without a truly satisfying pet project, is that unless you happen to have the freedom to spend all your time doing work that you’re completely engaged with and that hits all the right buttons to excite and challenge you, pet projects are something of a “must” to maintain some level of sanity and creativity.
In other words, they’re a good way to balance the things you have to do with the things you want to do. The trick is to treat them as you would real projects though – give yourself deadlines and be realistic with your expectations.
18/12/2009
Great, great piece, Elliot. Everyone and all should have a pet project — outlets for passion, obsession and creativity. Looking forward 2010!
18/12/2009
Great article Elliot! As someone with a pet project I totally understand the necessity for one.
The thing I always struggle with is the ‘client vs pet’ work balance. Do you have a structured way of splitting time between client work and your pet projects?
Looking forward to see your new pet project when launched!
18/12/2009
Hi mate,
This is sound advice. :)
Two thirds of my portfolio is made up from pet projects or jobs I’ve done for nothing for friends. As well as being a lot of fun, these projects are a great opportunity to populate your portfolio with work that you’re not only really proud of but that says something about you. These projects let you express yourself and keep you fired up, which I think is really important.
Have a great Christmas and New year, mate!
18/12/2009
Excellent read Elliot.
First off, it’s great to see such a positive article. We need more of these in the web community and less of our techie arguments.
Anyway, completely agree with the points you raise and it’s an idea I’ve always tried to follow in my career. Over the years, 75% of what I’ve learned has been self taught through pet projects.
You really can’t overstate the benefits: Pet projects are always fun, they always teach me something new and they keep me motivated.
That’s exactly what my works mates and I are doing right now. We have our full time jobs together on a web team, but have started a gaming site on the side (sorry, shameless plug – see above URL). And it’s been another great learning experience.
Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing more of your inspiring work in the New Year.
18/12/2009
I already work on my own pet project but this article gives me some confidence. Another reason is to fill its timetable. I just started working as a freelance and it makes my work less depressing :-)
18/12/2009
It’s true, pet projects allow you to produce something you REALLY love. Even better if you make something that other people will love (and is useful to them) too!
I have about 10 pet projects in my head, I need to pick one, make some time and do it!
Thanks for the article, Elliot.
18/12/2009
This was a great reading! I think everyone just loves pet projects. And the fact that you might be able to achieve something in your professional/personal life through it.
And I agree with Phil: I really gotta take one of my ideas out of the drawer QUICK!
Best regards Elliot.
18/12/2009
Fantastic article! The only downside is when pet projects (which should include redesigning your personal site, I think) start taking over every evening and weekend hour.
I’ve built or helped built http://tweography.com, http://readyinrealtime.com, http://weddingtype.com, http://stacyplease.com (and redesigned http://limedaring.com) in the last month alone with friends or by myself. But the best part of pet projects is that it doesn’t feel like work when you’re doing it; more like play (and takes the place of TV watching time too).
20/12/2009
A nice one there Elliot.
Perhaps, also worth mentioning is that when picking a pet project that is intended for public use, you should pick a project that has not been done before, or a simplified version of what people already know (and it should be understandable why a simplified version is needed).
The reason is that it doesn’t feel too good to spend so much time on that project only to find that you’ve been the only one using the application for over a year after launch. People have taste for the best, and will rather stay with the best.
It is also a good idea not to waste you efforts on duplicating other people’s creative idea, unless you are refining it. Or proving an important point.
Yea, it wouldn’t matter if you had built it for in-house use.
20/12/2009
It was a good reading. There’s no Christmas mentioned (except the title), but it was full of Christmas easiness and generally inspiring.
Is your own (in the article called “pet”) project a great solution to make your day, your life more colorful? Absolutely YES. As talked about, it’s a pursuit of happiness. Remember, that it’s not enough to have an idea. Without acting it’s worth nothing. So if you have it – do it!
24/12/2009
Outside of the website(s) I work with every day at my day job, I just have my own personal site as a pet project. I should probably find another project to play around on the side.
Speaking of pet projects, I’m really enjoying 24 ways.
28/12/2009
Outstanding advice.
Creative work is primarily about ENERGY. When our day-to-day tasks are able to drain our energy so easily, there needs to be a way to gain some of that energy back.
You could strap a solar panel to your body, carry around a 2-ton wind turbine or just do something because you love doing it.
I’m guessing the last one will be the most successful.
01/01/2010
I made pet projects since i started to work because i realized too early That working in a big company will teach me how to work, but not on fun projects and not the way i want. Two years ago i had troubles with my car and my mechanic, so i created allogarage, a comparative website to find a good mechanic in France. Since july i leave my Job to be full Time on my project. Thanks to that i understand that i don’t want to work in a company anymore, and i realized that i can earn money with my pet project. A fantastic experience, i hope that 2010 will be even more succesfull.
26/01/2010
I have several pet projects. I wish I had more time for them, but they are a huge help when I’m working on a client’s project and just need to get away for a while, while keeping the work atmosphere intact.
I strongly believe that, as creatives, we all need to have our distractions. I can’t imagine only building websites for other people. Sometimes, I have to satisfy myself, as well. It’s even better knowing that one of my projects, a pen pal support group, helps others, while the other complements my bookworm side.
Life is good with pet projects. (:
Commenting is closed for this article.