Freelance design is something I’ve been interested in for a while now. I’ve dabbled with a little bit now and then but only through people I know, so it’s been a somewhat informal way of freelancing. I wanted to further explore what things I could do to expand my reach with my freelancing. I found this article which had some helpful points. One of the points I found interesting was having to reach out to potential clients yourself rather than having them come to you. This seemed like a strange thing to me as it’s essentially trying to self-commission work, but it is something that I’ll definitely consider when looking for freelance work in the future.
Tips for starting freelance graphic design
One thing I thought it would be important for me to consider when freelancing is how the client will feel about me. It’s natural that trust will need to be built between myself and clients to deliver good work, so considering how the clients will feel and what they will experience when working with freelancers is important to me. One of the interesting points from this article about this topic is the idea that the designer and the client won’t speak the same language and that something that may seem obvious to the designer may not be obvious to the client. I think it’s really important for me to develop a way of speaking about my work which doesn’t talk down but still makes sense and is understandable to non-designers. Another point I thought was important was that the client may be uncomfortable criticising work when you first work together, as they don’t know you well enough to be honest about the work. I think it’s a really important thing to make sure the clients are genuinely happy with the work and build a culture where criticism is welcome form the client. Overall this has been really useful to consider as I think it actually more important than just considering the designer’s side of things when it comes to free lance.
5 tips for working with freelance designers | Zapier
The topic of Intellectual Property was something I had heard of but hadn’t given much thought to. I was finding it something particularly hard to write about for my blog because it’s such a factual and clear-cut thing it’s hard for me to give opinions on it, however, I did find that NFTs are actually part of the IP discussion, and being a normal person who thought NFTs were idiotic, decided to research into them further to see if they actually do have value in the world of IP.
NFTs act as royalties to digital artists and designers, as they are part of a traceable chain which documents the ownership of the file. This essentially acts as a way to say who actually owns a digital image, which could be an interesting idea if brought more into the world of UX Design. While NFTs largely exist only in the art world for the moment, if introduced to UX they could have a big effect on how design patterns and conventions grow. I’m not saying it would be good, in fact, I think it would be bad, but is there potential for essentially the trademarking of certain design patterns through NFTs? It’s an interesting thing that could change aspects of the visual side of UX, but I definitely think it’s better without them.
Graphic Design Intellectual Property - Michelson IP
This has been a useful week as freelancing is something I’m interested in exploring further down the line. I think building up a good idea of the client designer relatioonship is a really importnat thing and something I’ll continue to do in the furture