I started posting banners and flyers all over my facebook declaring my mission : Designer looking for paying jobs. At first nothing happened, and I started to question my career path, but slowly things began to happen. A network I was not aware I had came through, and I started getting clients. I worked all summer, making enough to get me through month to month. At first it was hard to decide how much money charge clients, but once I realized the business situation was good for both parties I asked for what I thought was fair. After all, these clients were making out big time by going through a freelancer, and I was getting opportunities that would normally be given to more experienced designers, especially ones with their degrees.
The biggest challenge I had while balancing the business with the design, was how do I communicate with these clients? The majority of these jobs were done through email, so I had a hard time voicing my concerns, and understanding what my customer wanted from me. There was a lot of back and forth, which I figured was pretty routine, but also on some level- awkwardness.
I earned more money doing design and logo work this summer then I did at my "real job" and therefore I feel so much better about the career path I chose to follow.
I have discovered recently that my illustration style is very cartoonish. I have only been working with Illustrator for a few years now, so I have developed an illustrative style that could possibly be confused with inexperience, maybe? I love color, but at times I feel as if my logos are lacking a professional look because of their simplicity. I am leaning to perhaps try and work on my approach to illustrations when I am designing logos for clients so my personal style is more clean and mature. But I suppose with time comes comfort, and perhaps my style will connect me with clients I'll love working with.
