From the Members: Tim Bridges

Welcome to our new series From The Members, where we’ll hear from Society1 Members about what they do, why they chose Society1, and what they love about coworking.

For the second edition, we spoke to Tim Bridges

Tell us about yourself. What do you do?

TB: My name is Tim. I work as Secret Industries, which is an elaborate way of hiding the fact that I’m a designer. So I do design work for clients, design for print, and identity and branding work. Then, because that can get quite heavy, for fun I make illustrative prints and tee-shirt runs and products all around the idea of the North Being Ace.

How do you use Society1?

TB: So my membership for S1 is one access day a month. I work from home most of the time – I really enjoy working from home. That’s part of the reason I went self-employed, but I do get stir-crazy, so I like the opportunity to come somewhere. The change of scenery helps me focus a lot, so I save really important work for when I come to Society1. So, quite a lot of design-heavy work. So I’ll do all my sketchbook work at home, and then whn I start doing the digital concepts and stuff I’ll come into Society1 and it’s mostly a day of coffee, headphones, and a lot of work.

What is the biggest benefit of working from Society1?

TB: There are two benefits of using Society1 for me. The first one is, from a practical point of view. If anyone follows me, you know I have a dog at home most of the time and that Is a big distraction. I’m what I call a professional procrastinator, so if there’s something that’s messy or calls to be made, or things to be tidied up, or dishes to do, I will do that before I do any work. So the first big benefit is the accountability. If I come into Society1, it helps me focus just as soon as I come through the door. The second benefit is being someone that works completely for themselves and on their own – I like the community aspect of Society1. Whatever tier of membership you have, you get access to their calendar. So any of the events – the freelancer meet-ups, the socials, or the breakfasts – you can come and meet-up with other people who do similar work to you (it might not be in the same industry, but it’s that freelance life, if you will. Cause sometimes people in your life – like your friends and stuff -don’t always understand. If they have an “employed job” they don’t understand the struggles and the gripes. So the community side of Society1 is really good.

What would you say to someone that was thinking about joining Society1?

TB: One of my ambitions for my business is, because I do design work, I’d love to have a studio at one point. Society1 is great because it’s the go-between, I think, of fully committing to a premises you have to pay for (quite a big outlay and all the bills). I really like, for Society1, the tiered aspect of it. So I only have one day a month but there’s a day a week, then there’s dedicated desk. When I was looking at similar places out there, at the time Society1 was the only place that offered that. And the flexibility of moving up and down the tiers is great. And then, Kally, Cat & Brendan are ace. They’re really interested in everyone – they take the time to talk to everyone. They have an idea what everyone does, which for the amount of people that use Society1, that sort of contact is really good. Especially if you work on your own a lot it’s really beneficial.