Meet the Community: Clari

Last friday, 5pm, our doorbell rang. Frieda and I, after very busy week, were not quite yet dreaming of the weekend, but almost. It was then that we remembered that one of our dear jovotoans, Clari, had announced she was planning a visit to the jovoto office. And we also remembered that Clari had promised to bring a cake!

So, we ended up spending the rest of our friday afternoon in the jovoto kitchen, eating a glorious chocolate-cherry homemade cake and chatting about design, the merits of freelancing, jovoto and many more things.

Clari, in the front, and Frieda and the (remains of) cake

Because we thought it might be fun for you to learn a little more about who you’re exchanging your ideas with on jovoto, Clari agreed to share her story on this blog.

Clari, born and raised Berliner, is fairly new at jovoto. She joined the platform in October 2009 and has been an active member ever since. And, funny thing is, she learned about jovoto at Volkssport Design, where jovoto founder Bastian had a presentation slot and was a panel member. Yay, so good to know that these events do help us build up the jovoto community!

Frieda and I felt flattered when Clari explained she definitely preferred jovoto over similar platforms, even though she has tried several, because of the fair conditions, the friendly community and the quality of the tasks. Yep, that’s what you like to hear on a Friday night! More about Clari: She has been working as a freelance designer for about 3 years, and is now one of those designers who exclaim full-heartedly that they would never, ever, return to a steady job in an agency. Of course, she says, the projects could be more and better paid, but she lives reasonably well off her freelance jobs and is much happier being her own boss.

She participates at jovoto because of the interesting challenges for well-known clients, something which is not necessarily part of everyday work. And she also loves the social component: talking about design, improving, or simply having fun with a silly idea. Her favorite challenges are classic graphic design tasks, such as logo development.

We learned from Clari that it can be a lot of work for a ‘newbie’ to settle in with the community, to learn the ‘jovoto ways’ and to feel confident submitting own ideas, commenting and building up a network. Yeah, we got the point, some improvements on welcoming newbies and a ‘how to’ support center are still in the making…