A New Chapter

Hey guys.

Figured I’d kick off my blog with a post about the biggest decision I’ve had to make this year. So for those who don’t know me my name is Vic Bell, I’m pretty regular, from the North of England, I live with my partner. Probably the most interesting thing about me is the fact that I get to do what I love for a living, which is mainly illustration and icon design.

So heres the story, the beginning of this year two pretty insane things happened to me which I can say changed my life forever. The first happened on the 20th of January at 12:50pm. My 7 year old sister, Rebecca, died after a 7 month battle with cancer. She had a brain tumour which only 11 days before she died we thought was shrinking. Having to look into my baby sisters eyes as she slipped away from us was in fact the hardest thing I ever have and will ever have to do. This moment changed the way I think, act, sleep, breathe, eat, talk and work… forever. The biggest and most obvious lesson I learned (and I mean really learned) on that day was that life is too short, anything in my life that made me unhappy or uneasy had to be changed in whatever way possible.

The second major thing that happened this year came not long after. I got an email from one Mr Gavin Elliott, he asked me if I could come in for a meeting with him regarding some potential badges and icons for the company he worked for, Happiest. That meeting was amazing, I had the chance to chat with Gav and Bobby Patterson, the CEO over at Happiest. I was inspired, the idea that I could be involved in an app to help people feel happier was just what I needed. I started sketching as soon as got home from that meeting and never looked back. From then on I was the iconographer at Happiest and I really loved every minute of it. I felt the positivity and excitement with every new part of the project. I felt happier than I’d felt since finding out Becky had cancer, like this massive gaping hole in my heart was eased a little. This is how I knew I was doing the right thing stepping away from freelance into a full time position.

Yesterday, I handed in my notice to Bobby. You probably think I’m a idiot. I’m doing what I love every day, getting paid well to do it yet I’m handing in my notice?

Around 6 weeks ago, I started to feel really down and stressed out. I didn’t understand why when I had the perfect job, the perfect home, perfect relationship… perfect everything, why I was so down? After a long chat with my partner, Amy I realised, yes I had the perfect job but it wasn’t perfect for me. I made a list of pro’s and con’s to staying with Happiest and another to being freelance. No matter how I wrote it down freelance won every time, however, there was one major pro that made me stick with Happiest… a pro that in some ways out balanced all the other cons. Last week this “pro” changed and wasn’t part of the equation anymore. I’m not comfortable talking about what the change was (it’s not my place) just know for me, it was MASSIVE. From the moment it happened I knew what I needed to do. My time at Happiest was coming to an end and for me to deny that would mean me being more stressed and unhappy and in turn the quality of work slipping. I felt it only fair to myself, Bobby and the team at Happiest to step away.

The truth is, I love being freelance. Being able to choose your own working hours, your own holidays, the projects that you want to work on and be paid really well for it is something I’m not sure any job offer will beat. Being my own boss is what makes me happier than anything, yes being in a role at Happiest was right for me at the time but man am I glad I took the plunge to go back to freelance with a whole batch of new skills and experience. I learned a lot over my time with Happiest and I will always look back at this time as a really great experience. Now, though it’s time for me to look to the future, new side projects of my own that have been on the back burner for years now, exciting new projects that I can’t get my teeth into. Things just feel right again, I honestly advise anyone who is not happy in there job to just take the plunge.

So! To conclude, I’ll go back to what I said at the beginning of this post… loosing Becky taught me life is too short, anything in my life that makes me unhappy or uneasy has to be changed in whatever way possible.

Cheers Guys : ) Have a wicked day wherever you are!