Hell´s Kitchen Loft

[CA Portugal]

To be real or not to be real. I think when a client sees your portfolio he will know what´s you main objectives in digital work, and if he likes one thing or another, he will contact you or not.
But, when a client starts being a pain because the sky has to many clouds (and then says it has not so many), or the bushs should have a tiny little red flower, or that book needs to be moved 0,1 cm to the left, you start to question what´s the goal here after all? Architecture or architect´s fetishs?

And yep, fully agreed with Bernard, personal work is totally different thing.

[BBB3]

Well, posting (and taking the time to do) portfolio work is not completely gratuitous, of course. One interesting side-effect is that it brings leads from people who like the particular style and so may help you land the type of work you would rather be doing and are generally better at (look at Alex Roman now being able to pick his clients after investing all this time and effort into 3rd&7th).
It is a form of advertising or promotion too, but in a slightly more convoluted sort of way.
But sure, I would not do it if I didn't get a kick out of it. The above is just a pleasant side-effect.
As for the spare time, yes, that's a real problem. I'm afraid it too often comes at the expense of sleep.

[lukx]

To be real or not to be real. I think when a client sees your portfolio he will know what´s you main objectives in digital work, and if he likes one thing or another, he will contact you or not.
But, when a client starts being a pain because the sky has to many clouds (and then says it has not so many), or the bushs should have a tiny little red flower, or that book needs to be moved 0,1 cm to the left, you start to question what´s the goal here after all? Architecture or architect´s fetishs?

And yep, fully agreed with Bernard, personal work is totally different thing.

HAHA, yeah how often we got this... it start with bed of roses and then suddenly small change here, small change there and hell got loose at some point

[Neilg]

what´s the goal here after all?

Massaging the ego of someone who's used to being in too much control and having to have input over everything, no matter how insignificant.

On the subject of personal projects, I've done maybe one a year for the past 3. I'm a couple of weeks into this years and got some months left to go - not a big fan of doing 80 hour+ weeks when I dont have to, and it'd end up getting in the way of real work.

[tricky]

I share the wonder of how people find time to do all this 'personal' work. 8-12 (14 or sometimes 16!) 'paid' hours a day in front of a PC means that the last thing I want to do is start doing some personal stuff as well. I do however, understand that it can help pull in other types of work.

The other thing is that all our fast kit is at work. I only have a basic PC at home so even if I could be arsed starting a session of Max at home, it would be rubbish. I am too used to working with a dual mopnitor setup with a 30" panel at work. Moving to a 17" laptop is a nightmare - I might as well be modelling on my iPhone!

[rivoli]

Moving to a 17" laptop is a nightmare - I might as well be modelling on my iPhone!

agree
I used to do loads of projects at home, in a sort of spare time which in fact was a different kind of working time. but the older I get the more I value the time I manage not to spend in front of a monitor, I don't even have a pc at home anymore..
in retrospect I'm glad I dedicated so much hours trying to get better though, and I totally understand the passion that drives the effort of making quality work. even when it seems to be completely useless from an economic point of view, the hard work of making something worthy is kind of a goal in itself.