Journey to Amsterdam

I’m thinking that since I will be writing with an Amsterdam perspective, at least to some degree, I’d like to start by sharing my quick thoughts on being a creative in this city. For context, some background is needed, methinks.

I have a B.F.A in Graphic Design from the Corcoran (at George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. This means I learned design in a US setting, with a US mindset on work, and a technical approach to design. It means I studied MORE design than many of my Swedish counterparts because a B.F.A. takes four years. It also means I started my career thinking that Working a Lot™️ is the answer, which is a long story for another day. I detest and reject the protestant work ethic that permeates (or at least did back then) US workplaces. Ater my time in the US, I thought working in a studio setting was the way to go and that typography and identity design were the shit. Sometimes, I still do.

After that, I started the Employee Era of my career in Stockholm, a city in which a four-year, high-quality, well-rounded B.F.A. from GW doesn’t mean shit. I found that creative Stockholm doesn’t want you unless you went to Berghs or some other local school (us outsiders talk shit about that quite often). I had a job at a Facebook advertising agency for a bit—where I met the amazing Sofia!—and then in-house at Sandqvist. Both good jobs, but not the studio career I had imagined. I was bummed that I started my career in jobs that focused so much on social media, a communication channel I hate with a burning passion.

Anyhow.

My other creative know-how and passions didn’t matter in Stockholm, either: I had been doing screenprinting for several years on a weekly basis by the time I moved there, but the only way for me to get studio access was to take months- or year-long courses that cost a fortune only to be able to rent incredibly expensive studio space. I’m still bitter about how that killed my individual creativity. For me, Stockholm never felt like a place where I could be my version of creative.

I burned out and went on sick leave in 2018, which shattered my idea of working in a studio (fuck open offices) but lead me down the path of freelancing. There was a small freelancer community in Stockholm, mostly international, and while it wasn’t easy, it felt like a better fit for the way I work and function (+ variation, better hours, more money when there was work to be had).

In 2020, my husband and I moved to Amsterdam. I de-registered my Swedish company, registered in the Netherlands, and learned two things: the Dutch make it so much easier to be self-employed—SO MUCH EASIER, I don’t even know where to begin—and Amsterdam is full to the brim of the creative, ambitious, connected, inviting Self-Employed. I was blown away by how easy it was to connect with communities and how much both entrepreneurship and creativity permeates the culture. Ambitious, capitalist entrepreneurship has drawbacks, but as a creative, I have felt welcomed with open arms.

In Amsterdam, printmaking studios make it easy to pursue your craft. Creative output and tools are easier to access. The tax agency makes it easy to navigate both your great and your shitty years (compared its Swedish counterpart). Freelance communities abound. Companies actually hire freelancers. There is room to breathe. It feels good.

That said, it’s still not an easy market to break into. If I’m not mistaken, I’ve had a total of four paying Dutch clients in my six years here, and some of those projects were teeny-tiny! That’s just my experience, of course, and it’s partially because I tend to be booked with Swedish and British clients, but I’ve heard it said from others that it’s not the easiest market to enter.

There’s no real point to this aside from the fact that Amsterdam is the best fit I have found so far as a working creative. I have community. The clients I’ve had are able to give clear, usable feedback (I’m looking at you, Sweden: get better at giving feedback, please, I beg you). I feel free to create here.

And that’s pretty darn nice.