davemcnally.net

As you are probably aware, I have recently been working on a Premium News Theme with the Wordpress Rockstar known to us all as Adii. The design stage is now complete and theme development is pending.

It has been somewhat of a learning curve for me, not so much in the design process itself but working with someone else on a joint project. Up until now, I had worked strictly on a solo basis from initial mock-ups to the polished, live site. I have thoroughly enjoyed this collaboration and not only learnt a great deal about working with others but also about revising a design based up feedback due to the fact that Adii ran a feedback competition.

This brings me to the idea behind this entry which is all about collaborating with others. In my case, I was greatly honoured that Adii not only liked the idea behind my initial concept but even gave me the time of day to show him something in the first place. Being completely unknown in the design community, I really felt like this was a case of the Rockstar agreeing to listen to a pub singer’s demo and I can’t thank Adii enough for giving me the opportunity – regardless of how much the finished theme makes.

But enough about me! How can this benefit you? Well it depends, if you are working freelance or part time with client work at weekends, collaboration could really boost your profile as well as your knowledge. I’m not suggesting that working with someone else will make you an instant hit, but it could give you that extra piece of exposure that leads to your next job.

A joint project will also cut down the amount of time invested as you are not handling the entire project yourself. Working on a specific piece of the project exclusively, allows you to focus more on that area and not get tied down planning other parts of the development. Also, when working with someone else, you don’t want to be in charge of the stage of the development that lets the entire design down – you want to make sure your work is up to the level of the others collaborating on it. This may mean an increased effort, but if not, it will at least force you to think about things more and look at the details. After all, you wouldn’t want to disappoint the people you’re working with because they would be unlikely to work with you again if you did.

Whilst it may seem like a great idea to begin with, I would be cautious about a couple of things. Make sure you trust the person you are working with and that you fully understand the terms of the collaboration. For example, if you are the designer as I was for my partnership with Adii, make sure you understand what is going to happen once you pass over the design – you don’t want to be handing over your source files to someone who is going run off with them so to speak. I think it’s also important to understand how shares of any profits will be split up before getting started. Arguments down the line aren’t going to help anyone to get this sorted out first.

So, are you now thinking about working with someone else on a project? Maybe you should.