How to land freelance design jobs
From curating your portfolio to crafting an online presence and learning how to market yourself as a designer, this guide will show you step-by-step how to land your first freelance design job.
Monica Galvan
From curating your portfolio to crafting an online presence and learning how to market yourself as a designer, this guide will show you step-by-step how to land your first freelance design job.
You’re just starting on your journey to becoming a freelance designer. You have the design skills, you’ve been practicing, you know your craft. You just need help finding freelance jobs, where do you start?
In this article, we’ll dive into the best way to find freelance design work. But before you even search and inquire about freelance design opportunities, there are a few things you need to work on first. Follow these steps and you’ll land your first freelance job in no time.
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As a designer, you have the opportunity to take on various types of freelance design jobs. Logo design, branding, and web design are just some of the options. Decide whether you want to generalize or specialize. If you choose to generalize then you may decide to pursue multiple types of freelance design jobs. Or maybe you want to specialize and focus on web design or work for a specific industry like tech. Knowing the type of design jobs you want, will help you stay focused in the next few steps.
Every designer needs to have a portfolio website. It’s the best way to show potential clients what you offer as a freelance designer. Your portfolio site should include your best projects, an about page, a contact page, and links to social if it’s relevant and you’re sharing your work on those platforms.
It’s important to curate the projects you include in your portfolio. When you’re just starting out as a designer, it’s tempting to include every project you ever produced but that’s a huge mistake. Less is better. Try to limit yourself to 3–5 projects total. These should be projects you’re most proud of.
You will only be hired to do the work you show in your portfolio so only show work you want to continue doing in the future. If your portfolio doesn’t reflect the work you want to be hired for, then create your own projects or modify them so they are.
After you’ve gathered images, screenshots, and write a backstory for each portfolio project, it’s time to organize this content and create a killer website. You can choose to design and develop the website yourself with a tool like Webflow (we show you how in Weflow Masterclass) or you can use a website builder tool like Squarespace or Wix.
Since your goal is to land freelance design jobs, give yourself a time limit on how long you’ll spend creating the first version of your portfolio website. You can always update and redesign it later. Right now you need to get something up and running to start attracting clients and apply for freelance design jobs.
Creating a portfolio website is only half the battle. How will clients find you? How will they discover your work? You need to become your own marketer. Fortunately, we have tools at our disposal that can help us get our work out and generate potential leads. Here are some of the best platforms to share your work on.
Instagram is one of the top ways clients can find you. It’s a mini-portfolio gallery of your design work with the power to reach millions. The key is to keep your account curated and focused on design. If your current Instagram profile is focused on selfies, meals with friends, or past travels, then consider creating a new Instagram profile dedicated to only sharing your work.
Use a professional photo of yourself, write a concise bio that explains the work you want to be hired for, and don’t forget to include a link to your new portfolio site. Create your first 9 posts right away. You want to have enough posts so potential clients can get a taste of your design style and give them a reason to click on your link to reach out.
The key with Instagram is to keep posting fresh content so try to remain consistent. Not every post has to be a polished design. Take photos of wireframe sketches, crop into screenshots of your designs, tell a story. Use Instagram stories, Reels, and if you’re ambitious maybe even go live. Research the best hashtags to use for your niche. Avoid overpopulated ones and instead, focus on ones with a range of 50,000–300,000 posts that way you have a higher chance of ranking in the top 9 posts for that tag.
Behance is a platform to share and discover creative work. A lot of clients actually use this site to find designers. Take the same portfolio projects you have on your website and reformat them to suit Behance. Use the appropriate title and tags so people can easily find you. Your projects have the potential to be featured on Behance or show up higher in search results the more likes and comments you receive. It is a social platform so be sure to like and comment on other creator’s projects as well, which will potentially help bring more views to your profile.
Pinterest is a huge search platform. The best way to use it is to design pinworthy images you’ll use to create new pins with links back to your portfolio site. If you want to dive even deeper, create blog posts featuring progress work, case studies, or curate other design work, then design pins that point back to those webpages. Over time traffic will continue to build and help rank your website.
Dribble is a platform made specifically for designers. You can search, find inspiration, and connect with other designers. But it’s also a great place for potential clients to find you.
Originally, Dribbble allowed you to post 400x300px shots of your work. Now they’ve expanded and you can post up to 1600x1200 pixel images and even multi-shots if you upgrade to the Pro version which also gives you a little more exposure. Over time, these shots form a portfolio gallery on your profile page. You can choose to include a “Hire me” button on your page to show you’re open for freelance opportunities.
You might think LinkedIn is only for those who work for large corporate companies or looking for a new full-time position but you can actually use it to find clients. First, update your LinkedIn profile with accurate past work experience, upload a professional photo, write a short bio, include your portfolio link, and best contact email address. Once your profile is ready, you can apply for freelance design jobs in the job section or reach out to business owners directly.
In this video, Ran and Latasha share practical tips for how to find freelance clients on LinkedIn:
Especially in the beginning, you want to take any design job that comes your way. You need the experience. With every small job, you’ll get better as a designer and you’ll potentially have a new project to share in your portfolio.
Try reaching out to business owners on LinkedIn. Take a look at their website (if they have one) and identify opportunities for improvement. Try not to be too forceful with your outreach, not everyone needs design help at this time. If you contact the same person multiple times with no answer, take it as a hint and move on. Don’t spam a bunch of random people with generic message requests. Instead, take the time to target your leads. Write thoughtful messages that show you understand the work their business does and then offer specific ways you could help. The more details you give, the more likely you will receive a response.
Don’t forget about all the business owners you personally interact with on a daily basis. Whether it’s your dentist, a real estate agent, restaurant owner, there’s someone who needs the design skills you have to offer.
YouTubers, bloggers, and social media influencers often need design help. Whether it’s designing YouTube thumbnails, eBook layout, Instagram and Pinterest posts, or personal websites, there’s no end to the design services you can offer content creators.
It helps if you’re already a fan of their work. Reach out with a friendly email and offer to help for free (they may be hesitant to hire) or a low fee to start. The key is to get your foot in the door. Once you deliver high-quality design and help make their job easier, they’ll want to hire you for more on an ongoing basis.
Not all job postings are for full-time opportunities. In fact, many small and large businesses post freelance and contract positions.
Check out this video where Ran shares some of the best websites to find remote design jobs:
Fiverr is an online marketplace for freelance services. It’s geared toward the business owner looking for freelance services ranging from logo design, social media, Wordpress, web and mobile design, and so much more.
Originally, Fiverr only allowed you to charge $5 for a gig so that clients could take a chance with little financial risk. Over time the company expanded and now allows tier pricing with add ons. However, if you’re just starting out on the platform it’s expected you keep your rates low until you build up enough reviews where you can charge more. If you ask for a high rate and have zero reviews, you’re not likely to get any sales.
Step 1
After you register for an account, you can switch from a buying to a selling dashboard where you can create a new gig.
Step 2
After you fill in the gig title, category, and search tags you can choose either one basic pricing tier or choose 3 tiers which tend to increase your chance of someone purchasing your gig and the potential to make more income. For example, you may charge extra for a faster delivery timeline, additional revisions, original source files, and commercial use.
Pricing ranges from $5 to $995 for each tier. Note: Fiverr charges a 25% fee for each gig purchase. So if you post a gig for $100, you’ll only receive $75 when someone buys it.
Step 3
Write a brief description of your gig and add any FAQs to anticipate any questions clients may have and increase your chances of a sale.
Step 4
Add requirements. This is where you ask clients for information about their business, maybe request a logo and brand colors, anything you need to complete the gig.
Step 5
Build your gig gallery. Upload photos of past projects. For example, if this is for a landing page gig, upload examples of landing pages you’ve already designed. Note: Anytime someone purchases a gig from you, once you finish it will show up in your gallery.
Step 6
Save and publish. That’s it to creating your first gig on Fiverr!
While Fiverr is not the best place to earn the most as there is a limit and a steep 25% fee, it’s a good option for landing freelance design jobs in a quick and easy way. Once you work on a project with a client and they love the work you create for them, you can ask to work with them one-on-one off the platform. When you’re able to invoice the client directly, you get 100% of the profits and more control over how you price your work.
99design includes access to a variety of designers working in marketing, branding, advertising, illustration, merchandising, and more, this is one of the most popular freelance graphic design websites with a global reach.
Clients upload a brief for a specific project to 99design’s global freelancer network. But with such a wide net of freelancer, be prepared for some competition when it comes to winning clients.
Upwork is another popular and easy-to-use site suitable for freelancers at any level of their career. They focus on hiring “proven pros with confidence using the world’s largest, remote talent platform.” It’s not just for designers. Clients can find remote workers web and mobile software development, writing, sales and marketing, admin support, customer support, analytics, engineering, and more.
Upwork allows you to create a highly detailed freelancing profile and gives the ability to chat with clients before accepting work to ensure you’re pursuing the right freelance design job that’s relevant and valuable to you and your skillset.
From curating portfolio projects, creating a killer website, to the best ways to market yourself, now you have a better understanding of how to find and land your first freelance design jobs. But what if you want to go beyond?
In our course The 6 Figure Freelance Design business, we share the step-by-step business-building roadmap. Through weekly mentorship calls and done for you business templates and resources, you’ll have everything you need to build a profitable freelance design business.
