How to make a name for yourself !

Hello

I need some help. I have been working around boats for the past 15 years. I have been designing for around 6 years. I have drawn hundreds of boats and build many as well, some that get a great deal of press. But I have always worked under other people who do not give credit where credit is due. I am tired of making other people look good. My question to "you the people" is how do I make a name for myself ? I am sure there are many others like me that would like the advice as well.


Thanks for listening.

Tim Hastie

 

Publish,race or die

Send some of your work to the design editors of the various magazines; include your work on this site if possible.
Find someone to build one of your boats and race it if it's a sailboat or take a long cruise in it if it's either power or sail.
Try to get your work talked about (reveiwed by magazine technical editors,ect).Publicize anything you may have patented.
Try to negotiate a contract that gives you fair credit for what you've done or will do.
Show your work PERSONALLY,if possible to famous sailors if its a sailboat or to famous powerboat people if not.
Good Luck! Hang in there!

 

Thanks for the reply. Most of my work has been commercial up to about 6 months ago. I have done ribs, fireboat, high speed barges and gun boats etc. It has been an interesting change because now I am working on some trawlers for Keen Boats. Have you or anyone done commercial work as well as pleasure ? or is it uncommon to design in both areas ?

TIM

 

commercial work

None for me....Maybe you could submit articles to publications such as "Professional Mariner"....

 

Three quarters of the designers whose names I know got into the public eye with a race winning boat. Many were aboard the boat when it won a race in spectacular fashion. (Think Olin Stephens & Dorade.) It's much harder to get a reputation as a cruising boat designer, a la William Crealock or Lyle Hess.

Some have taken the Leif Bailey approach and started their own boat-building company.

As as been suggested above, some have taken the Dave Gerr approach and written a lot. I agree that this may be your best strategy. Given the kind of boats you have worked on, you may be able to earn a name in the industry, but I think the public is unlikely to be interested. A web site can't hurt. Articles that debunk an accepted notion with fresh thinking are always popular.

I think that identification with a specialty would be a help. It's easier to imagine getting to be 'the best rib man" or "the best gulf shrimper man" than to establish an overall excellence.

 

Thank you for the help. I do have another question for you guys. Where is the good money and potential in designing ? industrial...pleasure, raceing, metal, wood. I know it is a really open question but I have been working in a small town that has a very limited boat building base. One big company and a few small. Most of the small companies want a designer but can't afford one. And all the big ones have a good designer that has no hope of retiring any time soon. And not to many people want to talk money or numbers. Is there any area in your opion that would benifit from new and creative designs ?

 

Breaking in

Thats what you want to do"break in"- wonder why it's called that? Probably because it is a real ***** to do: you not only have to be great at what you do and creative but you have to be relentless in promoting yourself. EVERY area of marine design can use fresh thinking! But you have got to devise a method of showing that you have what it takes. You might have to find a way to go it alone by taking one of your great ideas and selling it to some friends and maybe bankers and then building it yourself. Or publish your own book of great ideas done in a unique fashion.
Doing what you want to do will test you to your limits but could be very,very rewarding!

 

Thanks for the reply. I will try to get some stuff that I am currently working in to a few mags. The good thing about where I work now is that I get to build what I draw. I will try to post some pics soon to get peoples opions.

 

"Breaking in" is a b!tch. Draw stuff you like, and then try it out on people you talk to. My first "solo" design was a 24'6" centreboard camper/sport boat. It started as a 21-foot open sport boat (Johnson 18-style), was sent to places like the Rockport ApprenticeShop (as it then was), who showed it some folks, and one came back and said "I like it, but can you do it with 3 extra feet and a cabin?" "Yup! Uh-HUH! Sure..." No problem - cut the fee to ensure the contract, design, get built (by the RAS, of course) and there's your first boat in the water. A happy owner, with friends, can be a powerful tool.
Alternatively, you could go to work for an established designer, then leave after a few years, with a good network of contacts and owners (no to mention experience!), and start chipping away. Poaching is generally frowned on, but sometimes the owner will ask for you specifically. Contacts are everything.

Steve

 

Does any one know any good design firms that like to take on new help. How do most of you do business ? face to face....over internet...through the company you work for. Currently I work for a company and I try to use it to get most of my ideas across. But mainly they just pimp me out to make a fast buck. For example I was awarded a design contract to modify a costumers desgin (GA) and do a lines plan, structural section weight survey , hydrostaics and all that cool stuff. I have built a good relation ship with the fellow and he wants me to build the boat for him....but the company I work for is giving the job to someone else.....and taking a cut off the top. It frustrates me because someone else is going to change my work and put their name on it because they don't want me as the project manager.

 

Dude, that si why you work for them, not the other way around

Correction - your company was awarded the contract, not you. You were hired to do what _they_ want. That's why they pay you.

Welcome to The Real World (tm). We all have stories of great designs that were "ruined" because "the boss" had other ideas. That's his privilege, he pays the freight. You wouldn't expect to walk into McDonald's for a burger and leave with something else because that's what they wanted to give you, would you? Well, of course not - you paid for it.
In just the same way, your boss is paying you to do what HE wants. Sometimes he'll let you do enough of your own thing that you can say "That was mine", and sometimes he'll even let you say so in public; but while he's paying, he calls the shots and is legally entitled to say it is his stuff, because he bought it.

Steve

 

Steve's right - And that's the way it should be too - for if you stuffed something up, it'll be his name, not yours that suffers. "The Boss" may accept the kudos, but it's also his name on the chopping block when things hit the fan.....

 

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I shouldn't be that frustrated when you look at how many of my ideas have been built...even though someone elses name is on them. Atleast I can show people some of the projects I have designed under.

Thanks for the input

Tim

 

That is the important thing. Get your work known, however it can, and build from there.

Let us know how things progress.

Steve

 

I read a quote from Olin Stephens that he did very little drawing board work after the 1930's. Think of all the S&S designs attributed to him after that! The "drawing board work" was done by others (many of whom became well known in the industry) but surely the overall influence of Stephens was very strong. You need to be honest with yourself about how much "your" designs were influenced by others who made critical design decisions, specifying the design before it reached your desk.

Money is in selling a product, not a service. Especially not a service like boat design that catches many people's imaginations.