My experiences as a freelance designer

Published in

Prototypr

14 min readNov 4, 2016

In this first article I’d like to share with you my experiences as a freelance designer and how I use my tools in Social Media, Design Platforms and other ways that helped me in succeeding as a creative individual.

Let me start with introducing myself a little bit. My name is Jeroen, aged 30 and based in Groningen, the Netherlands. I’ve been working in this design industry for about 8 years. Started as a digital artist and over the years I been focusing myself on a more specific kind of design field; the beautiful world of logo design.

Been working as a fulltime freelance designer for almost 2 years now. My main expertise and primary focus is creating elegant logos with subtle reference to one or two concept elements. I also love to work with letters, creating modern monograms and solving design problems for small and large companies. Over the years i’ve worked with almost 100 different clients from all over the world and a dozen of my logos had been featured and published in design related books and online articles. Designing a logo really feels like doing magic to me. Combining the right concept elements and put it in one small mark really satisfies my needs in design. In this article I like to share my experiences I made as a freelance designer. Hope it may help or inspire other designers who are or planning to work freelance as well.

1. Portfolio: Get your work out there!

In this part of my article I would like to talk about the tools that I use to get my work seen. I think these are some of the basics for a designer and might be useful if you don’t be familiar with them.

Over the years I started using some of the best available ‘Portfolio Platforms’ around the web that helped me in spreading my works trough the internet. I picked a handful of sites that I think felt best to use. Here I talk trough each Portfolio Platform and tell you what it helped me in growing as a freelance designer and actually get real clients trough these sites.

1. Béhance (Portfolio Platform):

A free creative platform for all sort of designers. It is very easy to start your own portfolio and interact with other creatives in this community. I try to publish a project each month. It’s possible to publish large projects and the tools Béhance provides you with are pretty good. They recently teamed up with Adobe and have a lot of active users.

If you haven’t been using Béhance I strongly recommend you create an account today! It’s a great place to start a online portfolio, gather inspiration and interact with the designers who also are active here. Personally I believe Béhance is a portfolio page for the ‘longer road’, so you only post your best words. I do this not more than once a month tops.

What I also love about this platform is that your projects can get ‘featured’ in one of the many design related categories of the site. When it’s featured you’ll notice a lot more traffic on your project. For each ‘appreciation’ a visitor gives you on a project, this also will appear on their Social Network posts (when they’ve linked it). So this portfolio helps you in reaching the audience via different platforms as well. Fun little extra is that clients and scouts can send you a direct message via Béhance as well. Make sure to reply on those messages as well. Good for networking and finding new clients.

My secret ingredients for each projects that I posts are:

Short and clear introduction of the project
Start your first image as one of the best visuals to keep your visitors attention
Don’t only show finished products, also share the process shots like sketches, moodboard, styleboard, unused concepts and mockups
Show technical parts of the identity construction: I have a thing for grid-systems and love to show how my designs are somehow constructed
Show the color codes and possible references to elements that are included in a chosen concept
I often show how my designs are build in concept by a step-by-step guide
Try new and innovating ways to present each project
Join or organize a Behance meetup (they send you goods and help you in setting this up in your area)

Follow me on Béhance.

2. Dribbble (Portfolio Platform):

This platform I actually use the most on a daily base. Dribbble is a more exclusive platform because you have to get invited to start your own portfolio and interact with other designers. Because of this exclusivity the standards of designers who join this platform are much higher. Here are some tips in getting yourself invited:

Search for most ‘recent’ shots on tag words like “invite” or “dribbble invite”. Designers who have invites to give away will tell you how to ‘win’ them by follow a few steps
Use tags such as “dribbbleinvite” or “dribbble” and “invite” via Twitter

Different then Béhance is that on Dribbble you can only post single shots on your portfolio page (800x600px). They aim more on the ‘process shots’ kinda posts instead of full projects. Personally I really love this since I’ve been using this platform almost daily and really am motivated to post as many as possible designs here in a week. Although the posts aren’t always my top works, I see this platform as a creative journey and I just love to engage with the community here. I think Dribbble is a great place to learn and interact with other designers. I always ask for feedback since I’ll never stop learning in getting a better designer and especially logo design. It’s a great place to share ‘conceptual ideas’ with the community to ask for specific feedback as the community has a lot of lead designers active here.

For me Dribbble has changed my career and made it easier for clients to get in touch with me. Same as with Béhance there is a internal inbox where people can contact you (only when they have an account). Out of all tools I think especially Dribbble was the best platform that actually got me real clients and the exposure to really set name in this tough industry.

Here are some of my personal tips on how to use Dribbble:

Don’t post more then one shot each day (or it must be super good)
Don’t post many shots at the same time just to fill up your portfolio
Find out the best time to post your shots
Interact, comment and engage with the community
Use your buckets wisely (I often use them to create moodboards as well)
Be a ‘Pro’ Dribbbler (clients can contact you, upload attachments, create projects, statistics, sell your works, use the inbox and many other goods)
Analyse popular shots to get your work more interested for the audience
Like and comment on shots from others as well, don’t expect to only get fame by posting your own works
Join or organize a Dribbble meetup: great to also see your designer friends in ‘real life’ (they send you goods for setting up a proper meet up)

Follow me on Dribbble.

3. Logopond (Portfolio Platform)

Logopond is open for anyone who wants to start their online Logo portfolio. I post a couple of my (finished and conceptual) logos monthly there. It’s a nice place where specifically logo designers are active. I like this site because it’s all about logo design. A year ago I got featured at this site as “Designer of the month”. It gave my name a big boost and got me some clients as well.

A few tips on how to use Logopond:

Use the fixed 325 x 160 px wisely (check the featured shots to know what the standards of proportions need to be)
Float (like) other shots and interact with designers
Keep your portfolio up to date
Asking for feedback starts a discussion faster in my experience
Only post your best works

4. Instagram (Social Media)

Only one year ago I started using Instagram for my work as well. Been posting lots of stuff since then. Recently I noticed that my followers love to see my process behind each design. I try to stay as transparent as possible in my works as a freelance designer when it comes to creating a logo from start to finish. As I always like to engage with my designer friends and ask for their opinions about my works. But also because when I started in this design work, I really appreciated the educational processes other designers shared. I also learned a lot from those awesome designers as well. So it’s about returning the favour somehow and share my experiences and creative thoughts during my projects.

“I went from 500 to 35.000 followers in just 1 year.”

It’s really unreal to have seen this fast growth in my followers. I am really thankful that my works are liked this much and that I inspire others with my work as well. Here I’d like to share with you a few tips that helped me in growing my followers list in this short time:

Share “behind the scenes” (real) pictures: my most liked shots are the ones that are just pictures taken from my Mac while working on presentations for clients. I always aim to impress my clients but audience as well. Design don’t need to be boring. It’s all about creating new stuff that needs to inspire others as well!
Use related hashtags in your posts to make sure your post will be seen in the pages that you want them to be. Here are some of the standard hashtags I use in all my posts:

#logo #logoplace #lettering #type #showcase #logoinspiration #logoinspirations #monogram #monograms #branding #identity #logodesign #logodesigner #logoist #graphicdesignblg #abstract #creative #pirategraphic #typespire #typegang #typetopia #transparency #grid

Instagram stories: show more “behind the scenes” stuff and let your followers know who you are, not only the designer but who are you as a human.

Hugo (@hugo_thecorgi) is my number one fan here! You should check his Instagram, super cute!

He also helps me in getting out more on a daily base. Good for a individual such as me and who is a real workaholic! :)

Send messages / tag design relates pages on Instagram to get yourself featured. It might be a little self-shamed-promo, but it helped me in growing in followers super fast. I now have good contacts who moderate these pages. My first message to those pages was something like: “Hi there, really love your page! Such a good place for inspiration! Perhaps my works could be included as well? Check out some of my recent shots!”. This is just an example on how you can contact those pages via a DM. Send them one or two HQ of your works and they decide in using those or not. Why not try. It’s a good way to promote yourself and get your work seen on pages that have 100K+ followers.
One important tip is to always aim to keep your post HQ and learn what your followers like. I have my Instagram account connected to my Facebook account as well. So it’s now used as a business account. The benefits of this connection is that I now have access to my statistics. So I can better analyze timing for a new post, see where my followers are come from and the amount of views each specific post gets. Here I can get more into details in understanding what posts works best for my followers to be ‘liked’ and start an interesting discussion.

5. Facebook (Social Media)

Another Social Media platform that I always use for ‘promoting my works’ is Facebook. I created a ‘business account’ next to my current ‘private account’ to keep things separated. All the designs I made I first share on my Portfolio pages and automatically post these also on my Social Media pages. Just to make sure they all get spread trough the Internet and get more views. It’s a daily routine of my marketing that I do for my works. Within Facebook there are also specific design related groups where you can join and post your works as well. Mostly I post my works in groups as “Dribbble”, “Logopond” and “I LOVE LOGO”. Other then these are post directly on my ‘business page’.

Some tips to use your Facebook (business) page as a freelancer:

Promote your work but don’t spam!
Interact with your audience
Share your “behind the scenes” stuff as well, don’t only show finished works. I often share pictures of my processes in conceptual phases. I always loved seeing this from others when I first started. I think this can inspire others and get more appreciation/respect for the work that you deliver
Do not only post the same stuff, try new things from now and then

6. Twitter (Social Media)

Twitter is a real handy social platform where you can easily start small conversations. I use Twitter in almost every design that I post online. It’s a great ‘tool’ for me to make it easier to share my works and link the viewers directly to my portfolio pages. Same as with Facebook I use Twitter on a daily base to promote my works and make it easier and faster to get my works seen.

A couple tips on how to use Twitter as a freelance designer:

Share everything that you post online and use this social network to create traffic, appreciations and possible discussions
Use the right hashtags for each post
Support other designers that you admire and provide them with feedback if needed
Follow me on Twitter

7. Other tips

I think that as a freelancer it’s important to stay updated with todays choices of media and ways to promote your works via the internet. Don’t be afraid to put your works online for the world to see. It might be better then you think and may inspire others as well.

Moneybird (payment tool): I use this tool for creating new invoices and tenders to my clients. It’s a save and easy to use program that helps me in documenting all new client contacts. I’m sure there are a lot more of these programs out there, make sure to check them out if you haven’t been using this sort of programs yet. It gives you more time to do the things you love doing. Check out some optional services here.
Books (offline inspiration): Over the years I’ve been gathering lot’s of interesting design related books to include in my mini library. Some books that I think are worth a watch:
‘Logo, Font & Lettering Bible’, ‘Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team’, ‘Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities’, ‘Book of Ideas: A Journal of Creative Direction and Graphic Design’.
Book publications (get yourself included): My work has been included in many different design related books published all over the world. There are no real tips in getting picked by a book author or publisher, but after my first request from an publisher I kept the communication going. It opened doors for me to also be included in their next book publications. I can strongly recommend you to try and send some of your best works (link to portfolio) and suggest in which category they might fit perfectly. Just kindly inform these publishers about you and your work and that you would really love to be included one day. It’s not guaranteed, but at least gives you a bigger chance to get included once the publisher thinks you are a good fit for their book. Just look for the known publishers and it could just happen that your work gets included! Just my two cents to help you to win a seat. Check out some of my publications:

Left: Artpower Publishing (China) and Right: Counter-Print (UK).

Office (offline workspace): Be surrounded with things you love that gives you inspiration and help you in doing what you love the most: designing stuff! I have a small office in my home. Working on my 27" iMac 5K and recently added some very cool speakers from ‘Audioengine’, the A2+ powered desktop speakers! I have a simple but effective workspace that works for me just fine.
Other tactics in my work as a individual designer: As all freelance designers finding the right clients can be tough sometimes. My tactics are to be very active online where the scouts and companies look at the most. I do this mostly via my Dribbble and Instagram pages. When it comes to negotiating with potential clients, it’s always tough to agree on a ‘good price’. Not all clients are the same and not all have the same budget to spend on a project. I always let a client now what my starting prices are and explain what I deliver for this price. Because I kept track on all my spend hours of each project, I can now have a better expectation on how much time a specific project takes. If you’re having trouble in setting the right price for your projects I would suggest the following:

How much do you want to earn each month? (think of your bills, food, doing things not work-related and of course keep in mind that not the full 100% of your income is for you (taxes).
Calculate the average time each project takes in total. How much is this per hour?
Do you work with fixed prices or hourly/daily/week-rates? Personally I like to work with fixed prices because it keeps things more secured and gives you a clear expectation to reach each month to earn. Working with rate per hour can also work good. I sometimes offer this if I experienced working with a specific client before.
ALWAYS ask for a down payment! As an individual it’s really tough to keep your head up in this business. Especially when you’re doing this for a full-time job. I experienced that a down payment of 50% (upfront) works good and gives you more safety a client don’t bail out during a project that easily. At the very end of a project, when your work is approved; ask for a final payment of the other 50%. Once this payment is on you bank account, only then you send the needed source files to a client. This is a way both parties has a shared and equal risk on the project.
When you receive a briefing (via mail) it’s always good to make a client sure your understand what they will need in total. I always get back on a briefing to ask for confirmation if my understanding is correct. This helps you in be efficient and won’t be easily make mistakes in the beginning of a project.
Communicating. Reply on your clients and inquiries within 1–3 days tops. I’ve experienced times when my mailbox piled-up every single day and in-between projects I usually find it hard to reply on all sort of messages. They distract me from my projects mostly. I recently started setting alarms each morning to first start with replying my emails, administration (keep track of my hours) etc. After this is completed, I start on my projects.
Keep attention to the details! Every proposal you do, make it look top notch! You have your reputation to keep and you want your clients to tell about you to other potential clients as well. So do your best to amaze your clients and also audience by presenting lots of your works and give them some “behind the scenes” pictures.
Do something new every single day!

Thank you all for reading this trough! As my first post I’d like to know what you think of these points and tips? Make sure to hit the 💙 if you liked this! It might motivates me to continue writing more about my work as a freelance designer.