Hey, latest graduate right here and search for freelance jobs for now. Any recommendation and easy methods to get some jobs?
Design inspiration Tips and Tricks of the Geek World
Hey, latest graduate right here and search for freelance jobs for now. Any recommendation and easy methods to get some jobs?
I started by taking a few low/unpaid jobs to get my feet wet. Treated them as if they were paying me 100/hr and I think that really helped me get a good feel for how the process should or could go. These jobs were a combination from the internet, right here on reddit, or local friends and family. Once you are putting some good work out there, those friends and family may just help spread your business through word of mouth. One of the clients I took on as an unpaid job at the beginning became a frequent flier and ended up being where I made a good chunk of my design money. Otherwise, it’s all about marketing. Business cards, tell everyone you know, and makes posts online, socials etc. it’s a lot of work upfront but hopefully if your work is good, people will come back and/or do your marketing for you. A single freelancer doesn’t need a whole lot of work to make a comfortable living, just a few high paying gigs. Find those and hold tight. Good luck!
Along with the other great advice so far, I’d say to put your work out there. Share your work with a community you think will enjoy it. You’d be surprised at how many art directors and producers are subscribed to different IG’s and subreddits looking for new talent to enlist.
Get out and network.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/mjwdhp/common_questions_and_answers_for_new_graphic/](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/mjwdhp/common_questions_and_answers_for_new_graphic/)
**Where can I find freelance clients?**
Finding clients is a challenge for any freelancer, but moreso for those who are just starting out. Tapping into family, friends, classmates and co-workers by letting them know that you’re looking for design work is a good way to start. Often local organizations like religious organizations, schools, and non-profits that a designer is already connected to are a way get work experience and portfolio pieces as they typically have small (if any) budgets allocated for design and marketing.
One risk of working very cheap or free is that the client may place little value on the work and may not even use it in the end, especially if multiple cheap/free solutions are available to them. Cheap/free clients will rarely become clients who pay well – even if their budgets greatly increase in the future, these clients will often think of the designer as “the cheap designer” and will move on to designers or agencies they see as more prestigious once opportunity allows. The promise of more and highly paid work from a client after doing cheap/free work for them is common but also rarely comes to fruition.
If a designer is working with a discount or at no cost to an organization in order to get early real world work samples, it can be helpful to send an invoice for the full amount that would have been charged, calling out the discount as well as the $0 final invoice amount. This educates the client on the value of the work they’re receiving and can benefit both parties.
Once a designer has work they can promote on their website and social media, freelance work often builds organically. Satisfied clients will come back to the designer for future work and are likely to recommend their services to others.
Another way to find work as a freelancer is to contact agencies and offer to work with them when they may be beyond capacity with their own staff or skills. This often works better with small agencies local to the designer. It also helps if the designer has specific skills that are less common such as video shooting/editing, programming, hand lettering, or motion graphics capabilities, which a smaller agency’s staff are less likely to be able to do themselves.
One benefit that happens naturally over time is a designer’s friends and classmates will be hired into jobs or create companies that need design work, and they will look for people they know to fill those roles.
While many freelance designers sign up for sites like Fiverr, 99designs, Design Pickle, Penji, and other online marketplaces that connect clients to creatives, this is a very difficult and rarely sustainable method of working as pay is often extremely low. For contest sites like 99designs, payment is not guaranteed as dozens or more designers complete work in the hopes of being paid. Because of this system, designers often submit the same designs with slight customizations to multiple contests, causing low quality overall. Logos stolen from existing companies have also been seen on these marketplaces, which creates risk for the client.