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This week I’m going to be part of a panel at A-Camp about careers, you guys! Specifically, I am a freelance graphic designer, I work for myself, and I want to talk about it.
It’s taken me awhile to get here. I’ve attempted to start my own company (this website) and I’ve attempted to work freelance once before. And I’ve definitely put the necessary work for years at other companies in order to get experience as a designer as well.
But the final straw came when, after working for 16 months in a tight-knit team at a small start-up, I was unexpectedly and viciously fired by my sociopathic boss. I say “viciously” because I was literally cursed at and degraded. Seriously, this happened. And that’s when I decided I was probably never going to work for someone else ever again.
Note: Though this is mostly graphic design-focused, I feel like the “freelance” concept can be applied across many trades! Our fast-changing and increasingly-connected world says so.
Want to stick it to the man and be your own boss? These are the resources and inspiration that I use often for designing/freelance purposes and maybe you might find useful!
THE ESSENTIALS
This book: How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
You need some programz! You definitely need (and need to know) Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Hands down. No excuses.
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Also: COFFEE. So much coffee. I feel like coffee, or forms of it, are in all of the Kits we’ve posted so far, amiright? If you haven’t tried Peet’s Coffee, I so very highly recommend it.
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As a graphic (or web, or interaction) designer, you should have a ton of fonts. TONS. It’s helpful to have a desktop application to be able to organize and browse through them. I use FontCase ($35):
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Hey, you also need a portfolio website! I use Behance.net for this, which connects to Prosite to allow you to use your Behance projects to make a portfolio website. I don’t know code or anything and was able to build this with it. Not to shabby yeah?
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I think equally as important as anything else mentioned here is: your desk space. You can’t work from home in your bed. You just can’t! You sleep in your bed. See how that works? After I was fired I took the pleasure of grabbing a thing or two from IKEA to dress up my desk area a bit. It helps, you know?
Now some more nitty-gritty designy stuff:
RESOURCES
+ Docracy: for legal documentation, like contracts and stuff which is definitely useful.
+ I like to download photoshop files from websites like these and see how they made certain elements and applied certain effects. It’s a great way to learn some tricks:
365psd // Premium Pixels // PixEden // psdtuts+
EDUCATION
+ My favorite: Start-Ups, This is How Design Works
+ Treehouse – the “best way to learn how to design and develop for the web and iOS” – with videos!
+ The Manual – “Three beautiful, illustrated hardbound books a year, each holding six articles and six personal lessons that use the maturing of the discipline of web design as a starting point for deeper explorations of our work and who we are as designers.”
INSPIRATION
The Best Designs, which really does a great job of showcasing exceptional (and inspirational) web design work almost daily (or at the least: weekly).
BLOGS
+ The 99 Percent – Has nothing to do with the Occupy movement, and also not specifically for designers but just for anyone that has an idea. It’s about making an idea happen. But also so much more than that.
+ Kern and Burn – a publication about design entrepreneurship.
+ ISO50 – one of my favorite designers and musicians and design blogs of all time. I love the stuff they talk about and feature.
ARTICLES
– How I Became My Own Mentor in a Freelance Economy (Good Magazine)
– How Freelance Became the New 9-to-5 (Good Magazine again)
THIS ETHOS
FIND JOBS/PROJECTS
Freelance Switch // Authentic Jobs // 37Signals
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Alex’s portfolio website
This post goes hand-in-hand with A-Camp’s Career Panel with Alex, Crystal, Meredydd, Taylor, Carolyn, and Jess.
Thanks Alex for the tips and great links! :)
Nice portfolio
Hey thanks :)
Stuff like this excites and terrifies me in equal measures.
I have a degree in design but I’ve never had a real job in design, which makes me freak out and bury my head in the sand, also in equal measures.
Also fonts are sexy.
I’m in industrial design, not graphic design, but I’m bookmarking this.
Also great for portfolios: ISSUU. See mine! http://www.issuu.com/kimberandersson. I make stuff.
Young Steve Jobs whoaaaaa.
Great contribution Alex – I think it’s fantastic Autostraddle is game enough to venture into this area and as we know, the LGBTQAI (correct me if I am wrong) has a sad record on this front.
I’m a freelancer, just beginning really. I found > aiga.org/content.cfm/standard-agreement – to be quite a good grounding point on the contract front as well. I also recommend comparing what’s out there, because the structure of your biz will inevitably change over time. Hell, I started with some simple Excel spreadsheets.
I don’t think many of us are guided on this point, we don’t know how to ‘value’ ourselves per se but if you are going full time with this then it’s really important. I don’t have any big league advice, except to say that I have found collaboration across mediums a very enlightening thing.
And of course “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
Awesome resources. This Graphic Design student thanks you! <3
On a related note, I just got a part-time cleaning job for a kindergarten and it's horrifying… Comic Sans… Comic Sans everywhere!
DEATH TO PAPYRUS FONT.
I also abhor Comic Sans, but I work with kindergarten through second grade kids and sometimes I find it’s the best font they can read and copy. Most fonts don’t actually look like the way we write letters, especially “a”, and it can confuse them when they’re just learning how to form letters.
Papyrus, however, should burn in hell.
Thanks for the links!
For funsies (or practice): http://type.method.ac/
Other “games” at http://method.ac/
What if my desk is in front of my bed?
love love love the steve jobs clip.
YAY. I’ve always wanted to read what you have to say about design, or design communities or well everything design related.
Thanks, Alex, this is great! A close friend of mine is in the process of strategizing her start-up and I think this will be an excellent addition to her current resources.
what’s the best way to learn indesign & illustrator on my own? online tutorials? sign up for a class?
thanks!
c.
I’d say online tutorials and A LOT of practice. Just dive in. Click things. Move things around. The more you use it, the faster you’ll get it.
But don’t forget to take breaks. Or else you’ll go blind like me..
There are cool tutorials on tutsplus.com. This is the illustrator one: http://vector.tutsplus.com/ and there’s a tutorial category called “Layout” which is very InDesign-specific: http://vector.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/layout/
Other than that, what A said — just keep using them! These programs are endless and you’ll only learn by actually USING them for everything, none-stop, and figuring out how to do stuff on your own, etc. Good luck!
Yes yes yes! I’m an architecture major that has grand dreams of a possible masters in graphic design, and I love all of these new and exciting resources.
Also, this: http://www.goodfuckingdesignadvice.com/.
How did I not know about this website?! Love itttt. Thanks for sharing!
This is awesome! I know web development (only code) and now I can use this to upgrade my design skills, thanks a lot!
thank you so so so much! this makes me feel better about my freelance dreams
So you designed that lovely A-Camp poster. Well now.
Thanks for this. My business is massage therapy, but graphic design is a passion of mine. In my downtime I daydream about the typography of my logo.
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This is a late-ish post but I’m finally pursuing my graphic design interests on the side through the genius that is Craigslist.. Question though: how much do I charge per hour/project/whatever when responding to ads? I’ve only ever done things for friends & family for free.
Also, side note, my absolute FAVORITE site for free fonts: http://www.losttype.com/. Use them responsibly; they’re gems.
I am very impressive with how you give the sites and your opinions. I am a graphic design, currently attending to a Purdue University. I just bookmark this site, you are wonderful. Thank you for sharing a lot of things.
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