My 2016 has been characterised by the focus on my freelance activity. During the first months I’ve been updating my personal brand. While from July, I started working properly as freelancer. At the same time, after more than a year stuck between university and full-time job, I took advantage of the new freedom to travel a bit around.

JANUARY:

The first thing to do was to restyle my personal brand, a task which I’d been postponing forever. Eventually, throughout Christmas time and the beginning of the new year I found some time and so by the end of the month I was able to launch my new logo and brand identity.

AM Logo
From the travelling point of view, this month I went to Estonia on the last weekend. You know…just to appreciate a bit the cold season over there.

snowy trees in Estonia

A rare apparition of the January sun, Tartu, Estonia

FEBRUARY:

Done with the brand, it’s time to work on the portfolio…but first I had have to close the biggest project of the previous year, the Hamster Wheel. So I passed all my February’s evenings editing the video and trying to record the voice over – although I eventually gave up with that and had my friend Jono doing it.
Furthermore, as soon as the Brexit referendum was declared I created an unsuccessful Facebook group against it. Nonetheless I dedicated a lot of time to it and reading political articles in general, I had to win discussions with Brexiteers.
No trip this month…sad

MARCH:

If in February I didn’t travel but worked a lot, in March I did kind of the opposite. I went for a weekend to Lisbon (after 5 years that I lived there), went to Turkey (Istanbul and Cappadocia) and then to Italy for Easter.

Miradouro de Santa Caterina “Adamastor”, Lisbon, Portugal

Hot air balloons in Cappadocia, Göreme, Turkey

APRIL:

Yes March was fun, but now it’s really time to work on my portfolio.
As per February I passed most of my evenings at home, creating mockups and explanations for two big digital projects such as The Nido Collection website and the Round Hill Capital one.
In the end of the month I went to visit my brother in Mid Wales, a nice rural area by Snowdonia mountains, very good for sheeps and rain.

Mockup of the Gallery pages for The Nido Collection website

Aberystwyth’s Promenade, Wales, UK

MAY:

My objective was to finish the portfolio before the end of May and I made it!
This time I worked mainly on branding projects such as The Nido Collection brand and some other which I did as freelance work.

Branded tote bags for The Nido Collection

By the end of the month I organised a house warming party weekend in Italy for the house that my parents recently bought in the seaside town of Termoli.

JUNE:

The portfolio is done, I’m basically ready to start freelancing, but first, let me go for a small trip. For the occasion I went to the North of North America, to the cities of Montreal, Seattle and…Winnipeg (yes Winnipeg…before you say anything, it was actually fun).

Mount Rainer National Park, Washington, USA

Back just for the Brexit vote, I passed the rest of the month basically in a state of total depression.

JULY:

Started freelancing two days per week for an Event Production company, not a very busy job, but considering that I found it without basically any research, just liking a status on a Facebook group I was pretty cool.
This month I went to Prague, to visit some old friends. It was a crazy drinking weekend, in a word it was “eventful”.

Prague view

View from Letná Park, Prague, Czech Republic

AUGUST:

I’m Italian after all, August means holidays. I went to my parent’s brand new summer house for a while a couple of weeks. Relaxing.
During this month I kept working freelance for the event production company and part-time for Nido.

Fishermen Trabucco, Termoli, Italy

SEPTEMBER:

In September I’ve been pretty busy with freelance works, nonetheless I found sometime for a weekend in Barcelona. A weekend away which I had booked right after Brexit – I wanted to see different location where I might potentially move after London.

View from Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain

OCTOBER:

In October I found two stable clients for websites which I kept till the end of the year. A bit more of front-end development work, exactly what I wanted.
Furthermore I managed to finish to restyle my website and set it live, that’s what you’re looking at!

In the meantime I went for a weekend to Cork, Ireland. I’d been invited to a beer fest where I had everything paid for (booze, food and five star hotel) – I couldn’t certainly turn that down.

View of the river Lee, Cork, Ireland

The weekend after I went back to Italy instead for my grandfather 90’s birthday.

NOVEMBER:

More works in. I was on the brink to hire someone else to help me with these projects, instead I just opted for a couple of intense weeks. I probably had an average of 4 hours sleep per night, but eventually everything was delivered on time.

Deploy Workshop e-commercewhich I restyled simplifying the design and some functions.

This month I went to visit my cousin in Bucharest, he was there only for 6 months, I had to go before he left.

Sărindar Fountain, Bucharest, Romania

DECEMBER:

I had said that the trip to Bucharest was going to be the last of the year (excluding going back home for Christmas obviously – no way I could skip that). However, again…breaking news from Nido: we bought 6 new residences in Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Southampton, all the team has to go there and visit them. After a week from the news I was on a 3 days business trip to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow – nice places, good night out!

Edinburgh Waverley Mall rooftop, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Now I’m writing from Italy, recalling all the events this year has been quite intense and positive after all. Despite some huge political disappointment such as Brexit and Donald Trump, but well, there isn’t much can do about that.