I have nothing to do with my time…

A lot of times a designer have to do the work before actually getting the job. Bidding or pitching in can be fun, but nothing could match the feeling of winning the bid. Too bad, every designer has to endure rejection. But who says those unused designs will be buried deep in the hard drive? You can always add it to your portfolio! Who knows, your rejected design could be what other prospective clients are looking for.

Here are some of mine:

SAMPLE E-NEWSLETTERS

 

SAMPLE PRINTED MEDICAL NEWSLETTER TEMPLATE

newslettertemplate1.pdf

SAMPLE BROCHURE FOR CHURCH

Mock Cover and Inside for Bartechco

Surviving in a Jungle of Creative Chaos

If you’re a struggling freelance graphic designer searching for useful tips on how to up your business, then you should better stop reading this. There are already millions of blogs by real talented designers with far more experience than I do so just google away! But if you’re one of those who are ranting about the hardship of freelancing, then stay and we’ll shout ‘em out together.

Sane people would likely ask, “If it was so darn hard to to keep a steady flow of projects (and income), then why not go back to the corporate world?” Though it makes sense, unfortunately, I’m one of the common breeds of artist who would rather be broke and have all the creative freedom in the world than be a slave to a company who gets the credit (not to mention most of the moolah from the clients as well.)

Now I’m not saying that I don’t work for money. It’s just that I measure my creative success in how much money I could make from my own accounts, not in how much project wins an award (which usually involves as much as 50 people in a team). Again, don’t get me wrong. I don’t sacrifice quality for faster turn-around just so I could accept more projects.

I’ve only been a full-time freelance designer for a little more than a year and I admit that I still have a long way to go to establish myself. It’s true that during drought, there really is almost nothing. And when it rains, it really pours.

The good thing about being a newbie in a pool of talented freelancers is that I can be as wild as I can in my “fictional” portfolio. Remember those days back in school when you just do nothing but outrageous designs, never have to please a client? I already had my share of being a client’s dog and now I’m cultivating my creative soil to bring out what I really am capable of. But the other side of coin is I get not a single cent for all the time spent working on them.

I just don’t try to forget that no patience and hard work reap no reward.