Hasta La Ideas

Remember around this time last year when we (and the rest of the world) were talking about John Morefield, the unemployed Seattle architect who had decided to put up a booth at his local farmers market and offer advice for five cents? We caught up with him again a month later, as his star had continued to rise, but then, like so many before him, he seemed to slip back into internet obscurity. But hark! Now he has popped up again in the NY Times as part of a story about out-of-work designer-types forced to turn in other directions in a job market where no one is hiring. There’s the now-famous Coolhaus ice cream truck ladies, a story of Etsy becoming a central source of income, and a designer who decided driving big rigs was the solution for him. As for Morefield, it looks as though he has maybe done the best of all:

As it turned out, he received so many commissions — to build a two-story addition, a deck, a master bedroom — that he realized he could make plenty of money working for himself.

Last year, he made more than $50,000 — the highest salary he ever made working for someone else — and he expects to do even better this year.

Great to hear he’s doing so well. But what’s become of his other crafty Seattle counterpart, Jeff Soule, who was wandering around wealthy neighborhoods wearing a sandwich board offering his architecture services?

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