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[DCurry]

I know what you mean, but I never, ever take it home with me unless I am getting paid to do so. I used to take every freelance design project that came my way, but I've just been feeling burned out on it lately, plus I have a 4 year old running around, so I don't always feel like working on stuff at home. Lots of times, the owners will give me the option of designing something at home and billing them, then they will bill the customer. This has 2 distinct advantages: 1 - I know I'll get paid; and 2 - I bill more than twice as much as what I would get paid for doing it at work. Like you, I sometimes find myself recycling general ideas from time to time. It's rare that I actually can get excited by a project anymore, so I just turn more stuff down and refer it to a friend.

The most annoying thing for me is when the client can't stop making little changes to a piece (even though I bill for it.) I recently designed a couple of relatively simple flyers for a client, and it should have been easy as pie because it was just taking an existing design I did for them before and changing the copy, but it dragged on for 5 weeks because the client didn't bother fully crafting her text and what she wanted on each flyer before involving me. There must have been 12-15 sets of changes - some little, some major. I actually wouldn't mind so much if they were done in big chunks, but the piecemeal crap drove me nuts.

I seem to get a little annoyed when the bossman wants a self-promo piece and just says, "Do whatever you want." I'd rather have a little bit of direction so I know what they are going for. Plus, to be honest, I was not hired as, nor am I paid to be, a designer. I think designers (especially Art Directors, which is essentially what I am on some projects) make better money than I do.