The project got picked up by blogs and the design press – the snowball got rolling," he says. "I was genuinely passionate about the subject and had relative freedom to take it in the direction I wanted. That's not always the case with client work, and self-initiated projects can be a useful source for scratching that itch that your day-to-day projects aren't able to reach."
If you've been working on a number of personal projects, you might consider turning them into a selfpromo campaign. Whatever you do though, don't fall into the trap of focusing entirely on your audience and losing yourself in the process. A mailer that's true to your personality will always have something genuine to say about you – if it just looks nice, people may have trouble connecting it to you at all.
Artist and designer Kelli Anderson uses New Year cards as an opportunity to show some personality and have fun. "I get to indulge in an experimental format, freed from client constraints," says Anderson, who is well known for finding new ways to use (or misuse) existing objects, including making innovative creations out of paper. "This is mostly about me getting to experiment, but also to say hi to people I haven't seen in a while," she explains. "I'm sure it serves a promotional purpose even if it isn't promotional-feeling."
Anderson writes about her big projects at length on her website. "I do this mainly to fully own and present the idea on my own terms," she says. She uses the tagline 'Tools and