How to Become a Freelance Graphic Designer

Video Transcript

"How to become a freelance graphic designer. There is a few things that you want to make sure you have in place before you decide to go out and be a freelance graphic designer. The first one is the proper training. If you haven't gone to design school or art school at the very minimum you want to make sure that you have up to date software training on the current industry standard softwares right now that would be Adobe's, Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, some companies are still using Quark but as a freelancer I would suggest just knowing the Adobe Creative Suite and then maybe some web design programs if that's an interest as well. The next thing you need to do is make sure that you have a substantial portfolio in order to get clients, show what you are capable of or just to get freelance work as an in-house freelancer for a larger company. So if you haven't gotten a portfolio together through your schoolwork you may want to do some volunteer jobs just in the interest of acquiring more portfolio work and having a bigger variety of types of projects that you have worked on because that's really helpful. Some experience is obviously helpful. If you don't have any professional experience working for an employer or working for another company in the graphic design field, maybe an internship would be a good idea even just for a few months to get an idea of the whole professional process, how projects get started from beginning to end, how to work with clients and things of that nature and as a freelancer you need to make sure that you have a pricing system together. You may charge by the hour, you may charge per project or you know it could be a combination of the two but there are certainly books and information out there that have standard pricing systems for different parts of graphic design services, logos, versus newsletters, websites, etc. Sometimes it is helpful to have some specialties in place, you know maybe you have certain areas of expertise and it's a good idea to highlight those areas or go after clients that are in that type of industry so that you can make sure to have some regular work under your belt while you expand into other industries and other areas of design. So if you can get those basic things together and you have the motivation and you have a comfortable and creative workspace, you are all set and you can start your career as a freelance graphic designer."