A freelance textile designer is one who works independently and not for a textile designing company or any other industry. He/she sets up his/her designing desk at home or any other location and does not depend on an employer to provide work. Freelancers working in the field of textile designing look for work on their own and are self-employed. This freelancing job is flexible where the designer himself chooses which project to do and which to reject. Freelance textile designing isn’t a new concept and has been followed by many who refuse to work as a part of a firm or a company. These individuals mostly work from the comfort of their homes and have flexible work timings. They set rates for their services on their own and may find work through online freelancing sites or other mediums. Most freelance textile designers, like other textile designers may specialize in a certain field such as fabrics for clothes, interior textile designing or others. If you are interested in choosing this as your field of work, then you can follow the following given information:
Freelance Textile Designer Job Duties
In order to work successfully as a freelance textile designer, one needs to fulfill many job duties and responsibilities. These duties are vital to the job and most have to be performed on a day to day basis. The following is a list of the main duties of a freelance textile designer:
- One of the primary job duties of a freelance textile designer is to talk to or communicate with clients and other technical workers to discuss ideas, take inputs, explain your take on the project etc.
- To interpret accurately the client’s expectations, produce sketches, take feedback, produce samples and get them approved from client.
- Work out designing formulae for a group of samples.
- Using computer aided design or specialist software to develop a range of textile designs and patterns.
- Experimenting with different textile fabrics, designs, colors, ideas and materials.
- Being up to date about the latest designing trends, techniques, tools, colors, mediums and other news about textile designing.
- To complete projects within deadlines and develop constant communication with the clients.
- Buying fabrics, purchasing tools and collecting payment from clients after work is complete.
- Finding work by using online sites, method of promotion and advertising.
- Managing public relations, marketing, finances and maintenance of blog or website.
Skills:
To do well as a freelance textile designer, you will need not only knowledge or educational qualifications but also the right balance of skills. Textile designing is both a technical and skill based job and the following are some of the major skills needed to do this job:
- Strong creative skills and an artistic bent of mind are crucial skill requirements.
- Ability to work with various fabrics, colors, designing tools, mediums and computer aided software are also needed by freelance textile designer.
- Knowledge of latest designing trends and industry news.
- Strong interpersonal skills to be able to deal with clients and other supporting staff or workers.
- Good managerial skills to be able to handle all the duties of single handedly.
- Sound knowledge of a variety of materials and fabrics. Deep understanding of fiber, textile construction procedure and yarn preparation process.
- Good technical knowledge, commercial awareness, critical analysis skills.
- Data handling and research abilities are also needed by a person who is working as a freelance textile designer.
Being Successful As A Freelance Textile Designer:
A textile designer working as a freelancer needs to stand apart from the crowd of other designers to be able to taste success in the field. Skills and education alone cannot be enough to do well but there are several other things that need to be handled as well:
- As a freelance textile designer, you must keep in mind that only the physical look of the textile is not enough. Pay special attention to durability, use as well as comfort of the fabric.
- Keep yourself well updated with latest industry trends, customer requirements, latest colors in fashion, new techniques and technologies in textile designing to be truly successful.
- Subscribe to popular designing magazines for new ideas, latest news and to keep yourself in the loop of things.
- Maintain a strong profile on social network channels such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn etc. so as to keep your visibility up and job opportunities flowing.
- Try to hunt for jobs on Elance, O-Desk, PeoplePerHour or similar portals and build strong profiles to attract maximum clients.
- Use the method of sales letters and send across proposals with all your skills to potential employers.
Freelance Textile Designer Salary
The overall job outlook for freelance textile designing is fierce and hence quite bright. There is huge demand for originality and freshness in the fashion field and in that of furnishing textile designing. This is a highly competitive industry where more of the freelancers can expect to earn an average salary of $31190 to $79821. The median salary for this job is $50656. Entry level designers with low job rate may earn about $42379 but with experience and quickly building a client list, this figure can go up. If you are searching for jobs online, then you may need to mention your hourly rate or a per-project rate, depending on the client’s requirements.
Finding Work
There are many fields and industries where there is a need for freelance textile designers. Some of these fields include fashion designing, furnishings, packaging, carpet industry, upholstery, and others. Thus there is strong demand for freelance textile designers and thus it is not that difficult to find work. To find yourself, clients, you can send across your CV to companies looking for textile designers or leave your resume at online job finding websites. You can also use the method of freelancing websites such as PeoplePerHour, Elance or Craigslist to find clients who are looking for freelancers in the field of textile designing. These websites are a meeting place for clients as well as service providers and can help you bag jobs if you have a strong portfolio. For more information on Freelance Textile Designer please visit www.careerlancer.net
