Freelance graphic designers are among the largest groups of freelancers in the world. Due to their numbers, the competition is cut-throat and requires more than just skills to perform well. The task is, especially, tough for fresh freelancers who are usually not well-acquainted with the ways of this community.
In this article, you will come across a handful of really helpful tips that can guide you through the freelance community of graphic designers. These tips are directed towards fresh graphic designers in the community, and, therefore, it is desirable to give them enough attention.
With this note, let us take a look at 10 of such tips we just mentioned.
1. Make Your Presence Feel Online
You might have had experience as a full-time, in-house graphic designer, but the ways of freelancers are very different. When starting afresh as a freelancer, you will have to make yourself noticeable—and the Internet has many options to choose from for this purpose.
The first task is to expand your presence on various social media and freelance platforms. You must sign up on mainstream social networking websites such as Facebook and Instagram and advertise yourself creatively. Similarly, hop on various freelance-related websites such as worknhire.com, freelancer.com, and guru.com.
Apart from these, there are many websites that especially target graphic designers. Some of the examples include The Creative Group and AwesomeWeb.
2. A Creative Profile
Merely having an account on various websites is not enough unless you create a good profile. For a graphic designer, the manner in which a profile is crafted makes a lot of difference in the freelance community.
For example, in your profile description, you should be precise about yourself and your credentials. Talk about your professional self, your expertise in the use of various software such as Adobe Photoshop, highlight your work experiences and achievements, etc. Do not make big claims about yourself—a lot of new freelancers tend to write too highly of themselves and this is a grave blunder.
3. Show Your Skills Through Portfolio
Take your time in creating a portfolio. As a graphic designer, you can actually showcase your skills through your portfolio.
For example, you can upload a PPT of your projects, upload videos and pictures of your work, and demonstrate your skills in various software, and whatnot. Inculcate creativity in your portfolio, as this will create a good impression on the reader.
4. Keep Expanding Your Areas Of Expertise
You must not settle for one thing and forever stick to it if you want to ensure regularity in the flow of income. It is, therefore, advised that you keep sharpening your skills by enrolling in professional courses.
There are plenty of online courses one can avail. You can find a few of them over here and use the certificates so received to add glitters to your resume. Clients will be attracted to those designers who have a diverse resume and giveaways, and therefore, consider this suggestion very sincerely.
5. Don’t Expect Too Much In The Beginning
Go through the introduction of this article, and you will know why we are saying this. If you cannot make out what we mean to say, let us put it simply in the following paragraph.
You are new in the community. You will have to build up a good reputation and network in order to have access to good work opportunities. Always remember that you are competing with hundreds and thousands of other designers, most of them being highly qualified and experienced. So, the beginning could be not as fantastic as you might have thought.
6. Contract Is A Must
If you wish to know and protect your rights, you must get a contract.
There are plentiful benefits of having a contract: clarity as to the scope of work, rights on your creative work, remedies available in case of a breach of contract among many other things. In the absence of a contract, there is a likelihood that you would not get any remedy in case the client runs away with your work—something that usually happens.
7. Manage Time Efficiently
There is a lot of workload in the freelance graphic designing community. Therefore, it is important that you manage your time effectively to produce qualitative output.
While there are many things you can do to save time, one of the things you should do is to download good time management apps. In fact, there are many apps which specifically target freelancers by offering services such as invoice making, automatic reminders, group project-making, and others.
If you do not have any leads on good apps, you can find a few of them here.
8. Keep In Mind The Client’s Vision
As a freelance graphic designer, you are given the flexibility to design a project as you deem fit. However, this is not to be understood as blanket freedom offered to you. In fact, you must keep in mind the directions of the clients.
If you ever feel that the project could be designed better, you should first communicate your ideas to the client. Many times freelancers, particularly the new ones, do not consider the client’s opinion and incorporate changes as per their whims and fancy. Such an approach should be avoided.
9. Get A Website
If you want to firmly establish yourself as a graphic designer in this community, you will have to keep yourself ahead of everyone else. One way of doing this is by owning a website.
Marketing your skills is integral to attracting better work opportunities, and a website can really boost the whole marketing process. On a website, you can consolidate everything together facilitating ease in self-promotion. The viewers of the website will know exactly where to go to find what they are there to find.
One important tip: your website should not be dull in the presentation. You are a graphic designer and the very design of the website should reflect that.
10. Patience Will Drive Your Forward
With time and patience, you will be able to gradually find a place in the freelance community. All you need to do is invest your energy in mastering your skills and gaining as much experience as you can.
As a new entrant in this field, it might be a bit intimidating for you; but let the feeling not shake your morale. Just keep working hard and you will get there!
It is not easy to start freelancing, especially if it is graphic designing in which you seek to make a career. However, we are here to help everyone to sail through it, and for that, our articles are there to help. So, if there are any new freelance graphic designers out there reading this article, we would like to tell them that you can do it.
While we will not stop in our efforts toward disseminating relevant information on freelancing to our readers, we also need a bit from your side to encourage ourselves. It will really help us if you can share this article with the world and also contribute your opinions on it.
