How to get loose designer. Tips from personal experience
One of the biggest problems for every beginner (and not only) designer is how to get a normal job and make a lot of money. I don’t want to deal with packaged freelance orders, and large projects require a portfolio that is not there yet. Employers, too, as if by agreement, are looking for guys with experience, and those who are ready to take a beginner offer to work for food.
I will try to tell you how to solve these problems, based on my own experience and the experience of some friends. If it is interesting to you, welcome under kat.
For a start I will introduce myself. My name is Anton, I have been doing web design and interface design since 2005. He worked in one mega-cool, in my opinion, Moscow company, then returned to his city, where I work in a mega-cool local studio. I am engaged in several of my projects, in my free time I perform freelance orders. Married Satisfied :)
Most of my friends, and myself, got a first job as an early student, without experience, working for pennies. And that's fine. In any city on any freelance site you can find a lot of undemanding (for the time being) employers who are ready to give a job to a beginner.
')
The most important thing at this stage of a career is not to turn up your nose and not be sick of star fever. It is important to clearly understand that you, as a designer, so far no one. Consequently, you need to gain experience by all means. Money now is a decimal thing. If you hit a customer who requires you to draw a huge portal for 10 bucks, be grateful to him. He gave you a huge gift by entrusting a project on which you can learn a lot.
So, in the first stage, take up any work in any area of design. Ask to draw a website for free - draw, ask to make a billboard for the ruble - do it, you need to roll out an advertising strip until tomorrow morning - make up. In any case, you will have a poor-quality, unprofessional result, but you will begin to have at least a little idea of what the web, outdoor advertising and printing are.
After you gain initial experience, you need to make a qualitative leap and start making money on it. Personally, I gained this initial experience for 3 years. Some friends were limited to a year and a half.
It is important to understand that all the results of the work during the first stage can be safely thrown out, since this is non-professional work that will attract only those ruble clients with whom you have worked before. And for a quality jump you need to work as an actor.
Retreat a little. The work of any specialist can be represented as a graph:
The smooth pink curve is the growth of experience, and the blue steps is the growth of salary. By arranging for a new job, a specialist sells himself and presents his experience in a more favorable light, thereby knocking out a higher salary. Then the specialist begins to work, the experience grows, but the salary does not. An equality point passes where experience and salary are comparable and the next threshold is approaching - the moment when the specialist again presents his experience from the profitable side, asking for a raise (perhaps from another employer).
It is important to understand two things:
- it is not necessary to make very large jumps of steps (3rd step on the chart). Since the employer, by hiring you, recognizes too big a bluff and either fires you or lowers the RFP.
- do not do too much tread (4th step). Since if you are sitting on one salary for a long time, the growth of experience stops and degradation begins.
So, you have worked a year on small cheap projects and now it's time to make the first hyperspace jump. The entire portfolio went into the garbage, only 2-3 good projects remained. But this is not enough to present yourself as a class specialist. There are two ways to solve this problem: fill a portfolio with fake or participate in contests.
Some acquaintances went the first way - they invented the customer and drew “him” several cool layouts in which they invested all the knowledge and all their experience. They did the work they liked (working with a real client doesn’t always work out well: they’ll get the idea screwed up, they’ll ask for green and red, etc.).
I went the second way - participation in competitions. You can always find one or two interesting contests, by participating in which you can give everything to the fullest, solve the problem as you see fit, and get a result that satisfies you completely. In addition, competitive work in a portfolio, with a link to a competition site, is more significant for an employer than work for an anonymous customer.
After you have collected your portfolio, you can go and sell yourself by building the first step of the graph.
It is necessary to soberly assess our strength, not to overestimate, but also not to underestimate the value of yourself as a specialist. After you have received the first job that satisfies you, you need to move on immediately.
Working on your new job you need to try to grow as high as possible. You are provided with projects and you get paid - this is an excellent platform from which you can jump very well.
For myself, I determined that for successful progress in the chosen direction, two things are needed - “rough” and “subtle” experience.
Subtle experience is a job that is done efficiently and brought to automatism. A rough experience - this is the search for non-standard solutions, which later must be introduced into the "thin". For example, the subtle experience of a cook is a quick shredder of onions (have you seen the speed of a cook doing this?); and coarse are experiments on combining tastes, searching for new dishes, etc. At work, usually, not until rough experience - the customer ordered a cutlet, so there is nothing to invent a sweet-salty sauce, march for the plate. But rough experience is necessary for growth.
The same in design. If you want to grow, you need to earn a rough experience by all available means. For example, to participate all in the same competitions - no one will forbid you to come up with and implement a new non-standard solution, which can then be honed and entered into a subtle experience. It is also useful to look for orders outside of work. Many employers are against “leftists”, but it is worth explaining to your supervisor what this is being done for. Another option, perhaps the best in all respects, is participation in non-commercial projects. First, a manager cannot forbid you to engage in your own non-profit projects. Secondly, you have the opportunity to apply non-standard solutions without fear that the customer will not accept them. Thirdly, unlike the competition, your project will see the light, therefore it will be more weight for the next employer.
You work, you have your own projects or entries, you have defined yourself as a professional and understand what direction you are developing. It means it's time for a shoemaker to sew boots and make a professional portfolio. Not what it was before - the dump of everything for the quantity, but the present.
For example, you are a printer and you like the British school of typography. You can’t draw, but you have excellent fonts. So your site should shout that its owner is a first-class type designer. Or you are a meticulous technical designer. Make yourself a cool portfolio. And if you are an information designer, make an information portfolio and in no case read the articles “100 Best Portfolio Sites”. Your site should say exactly what you are doing.
Start a blog, write there on professional topics. Get a tweeter, write there the details of daily work. Participate in near-design events in your city. Become the best designer of the city (if you are not from Moscow, of course :) Do something unique.
For example, Ilya Birman made a typographical layout (which I warmly recommend). And Nikita Ivanov drew a free set of flags from all countries of the world.
Collect on your site a collection of car numbers or gift cards from all countries. Anything. You have to become interesting not only as a specialist, but also as a person.
Yes, you are getting decent now and your time is very valuable, but constantly look for well-known companies with which you could work, albeit on not very favorable terms.
Remember that guy who made the application "Bayan" for Aipad? So, this application showed Stevie at one of his presentations, after which the guy boldly multiplied his prices by 10. If you get an order from Google to draw a single unhappy button, this will lead you hundreds of new customers with budgets several times higher than usually. If you work at least a year in the Studio or in the Red Sneakers, many employers will tear you away with your hands, put you behind a brand new Aymak and pour coffee and cookies.
After all this, you can build as many career steps as you like, working with companies you are interested in and earning pleasant money.
Good luck in self-promotion :)
I will try to tell you how to solve these problems, based on my own experience and the experience of some friends. If it is interesting to you, welcome under kat.
For a start I will introduce myself. My name is Anton, I have been doing web design and interface design since 2005. He worked in one mega-cool, in my opinion, Moscow company, then returned to his city, where I work in a mega-cool local studio. I am engaged in several of my projects, in my free time I perform freelance orders. Married Satisfied :)
Stage 1. We get the first orders
Most of my friends, and myself, got a first job as an early student, without experience, working for pennies. And that's fine. In any city on any freelance site you can find a lot of undemanding (for the time being) employers who are ready to give a job to a beginner.
')
The most important thing at this stage of a career is not to turn up your nose and not be sick of star fever. It is important to clearly understand that you, as a designer, so far no one. Consequently, you need to gain experience by all means. Money now is a decimal thing. If you hit a customer who requires you to draw a huge portal for 10 bucks, be grateful to him. He gave you a huge gift by entrusting a project on which you can learn a lot.
So, in the first stage, take up any work in any area of design. Ask to draw a website for free - draw, ask to make a billboard for the ruble - do it, you need to roll out an advertising strip until tomorrow morning - make up. In any case, you will have a poor-quality, unprofessional result, but you will begin to have at least a little idea of what the web, outdoor advertising and printing are.
Stage 2 Start making money
After you gain initial experience, you need to make a qualitative leap and start making money on it. Personally, I gained this initial experience for 3 years. Some friends were limited to a year and a half.
It is important to understand that all the results of the work during the first stage can be safely thrown out, since this is non-professional work that will attract only those ruble clients with whom you have worked before. And for a quality jump you need to work as an actor.
Retreat a little. The work of any specialist can be represented as a graph:
The smooth pink curve is the growth of experience, and the blue steps is the growth of salary. By arranging for a new job, a specialist sells himself and presents his experience in a more favorable light, thereby knocking out a higher salary. Then the specialist begins to work, the experience grows, but the salary does not. An equality point passes where experience and salary are comparable and the next threshold is approaching - the moment when the specialist again presents his experience from the profitable side, asking for a raise (perhaps from another employer).
It is important to understand two things:
- it is not necessary to make very large jumps of steps (3rd step on the chart). Since the employer, by hiring you, recognizes too big a bluff and either fires you or lowers the RFP.
- do not do too much tread (4th step). Since if you are sitting on one salary for a long time, the growth of experience stops and degradation begins.
So, you have worked a year on small cheap projects and now it's time to make the first hyperspace jump. The entire portfolio went into the garbage, only 2-3 good projects remained. But this is not enough to present yourself as a class specialist. There are two ways to solve this problem: fill a portfolio with fake or participate in contests.
Some acquaintances went the first way - they invented the customer and drew “him” several cool layouts in which they invested all the knowledge and all their experience. They did the work they liked (working with a real client doesn’t always work out well: they’ll get the idea screwed up, they’ll ask for green and red, etc.).
I went the second way - participation in competitions. You can always find one or two interesting contests, by participating in which you can give everything to the fullest, solve the problem as you see fit, and get a result that satisfies you completely. In addition, competitive work in a portfolio, with a link to a competition site, is more significant for an employer than work for an anonymous customer.
After you have collected your portfolio, you can go and sell yourself by building the first step of the graph.
It is necessary to soberly assess our strength, not to overestimate, but also not to underestimate the value of yourself as a specialist. After you have received the first job that satisfies you, you need to move on immediately.
Stage 3 Growing up to professionals
Working on your new job you need to try to grow as high as possible. You are provided with projects and you get paid - this is an excellent platform from which you can jump very well.
Experience
For myself, I determined that for successful progress in the chosen direction, two things are needed - “rough” and “subtle” experience.
Subtle experience is a job that is done efficiently and brought to automatism. A rough experience - this is the search for non-standard solutions, which later must be introduced into the "thin". For example, the subtle experience of a cook is a quick shredder of onions (have you seen the speed of a cook doing this?); and coarse are experiments on combining tastes, searching for new dishes, etc. At work, usually, not until rough experience - the customer ordered a cutlet, so there is nothing to invent a sweet-salty sauce, march for the plate. But rough experience is necessary for growth.
The same in design. If you want to grow, you need to earn a rough experience by all available means. For example, to participate all in the same competitions - no one will forbid you to come up with and implement a new non-standard solution, which can then be honed and entered into a subtle experience. It is also useful to look for orders outside of work. Many employers are against “leftists”, but it is worth explaining to your supervisor what this is being done for. Another option, perhaps the best in all respects, is participation in non-commercial projects. First, a manager cannot forbid you to engage in your own non-profit projects. Secondly, you have the opportunity to apply non-standard solutions without fear that the customer will not accept them. Thirdly, unlike the competition, your project will see the light, therefore it will be more weight for the next employer.
Portfolio
You work, you have your own projects or entries, you have defined yourself as a professional and understand what direction you are developing. It means it's time for a shoemaker to sew boots and make a professional portfolio. Not what it was before - the dump of everything for the quantity, but the present.
For example, you are a printer and you like the British school of typography. You can’t draw, but you have excellent fonts. So your site should shout that its owner is a first-class type designer. Or you are a meticulous technical designer. Make yourself a cool portfolio. And if you are an information designer, make an information portfolio and in no case read the articles “100 Best Portfolio Sites”. Your site should say exactly what you are doing.
Active social activities
Start a blog, write there on professional topics. Get a tweeter, write there the details of daily work. Participate in near-design events in your city. Become the best designer of the city (if you are not from Moscow, of course :) Do something unique.
For example, Ilya Birman made a typographical layout (which I warmly recommend). And Nikita Ivanov drew a free set of flags from all countries of the world.
Collect on your site a collection of car numbers or gift cards from all countries. Anything. You have to become interesting not only as a specialist, but also as a person.
"Disadvantaged" work on well-known employers
Yes, you are getting decent now and your time is very valuable, but constantly look for well-known companies with which you could work, albeit on not very favorable terms.
Remember that guy who made the application "Bayan" for Aipad? So, this application showed Stevie at one of his presentations, after which the guy boldly multiplied his prices by 10. If you get an order from Google to draw a single unhappy button, this will lead you hundreds of new customers with budgets several times higher than usually. If you work at least a year in the Studio or in the Red Sneakers, many employers will tear you away with your hands, put you behind a brand new Aymak and pour coffee and cookies.
After all this, you can build as many career steps as you like, working with companies you are interested in and earning pleasant money.
Good luck in self-promotion :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/108855/
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