Creative Breakdown Insurance: How to Survive Your Worst Days of Creative Freelancing
Imogen Dall
https://www.imogendall.com/
https://twitter.com/ImogenDall
Creative Breakdown Insurance is an A5 full-colour zine about approaching problems that can come when you’re a creative freelancer.
Given the state of the world these days, I thought this zine would be a most appropriate read. Especially for all of the people who aren’t used to working from home.
Creative Breakdown Insurance opens with a minimalist first page that lets you know that it’s okay to hate the guide; that doesn’t mean you can’t use it. I had a smile at that, given that is how anything helpful can often go. Most of us don’t like being told what to do, but what works, works.
From there Imogen introduces us to the changing world of freelancing and how it can often come along with unexpected problems. Those problems (at least some of them) are laid out on the next page in the table of contents. I quite liked this page, as Imogen broke the contents into sections: Emergency Problems, Short-Term Problems, and Long-Term Problems. Each section is accompanied by an appropriately coloured alarm light.
Imogen covers many things from mental health matters to creative blocks to money matters. Every section is beautifully designed with readable fonts, bolded headers, colours, and even some lovely drawings to go with some. My graphic communications professor would have adored this. (And, of course, I adore it.) The quality of this zine is wonderful.
Each problem is also met with a number of different things you can do about it. I especially liked the checklist for “I Feel Miserable And I Don’t Know Why” checklist. I’m currently finding my way through a particularly harsh depression, and I was reminded of how easily it can be to forget the basics like even drinking some water.
All up, I found this to be a great zine that I will be referring to plenty. I highly recommend you check it out.