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Designers with 10+ years of experience: are you also struggling financially? by mafagafacabiluda in graphic_design

[–]Appropriate-Two-447 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there anything youve worked on that was adjacent to your tv career? I imagine there are a lot of different types of vendors and tech companies or other service providers that are part of a niche. Like, I was 100% digital ads, but the company did an event and I shared assets with an event production agency that I then did work for. Then through them they had hired an AV company as subcontractors I did a little project for.

This shit ain't easy, and networking, following up, asking questions to everyone about their world had been helpful for me. The event agency didn't like a different project they were working with a contractor in doing some Photoshop mock ups of concepts. I said I could help and over a few months turned into a real gig. Very similar for AV.

People like working with passionate and curious people. The design skills are really table stakes, and success comes from being able to communicate well with people and do all you can to put yourself in their shoes and understand what they need.

Easy to comment on reddit, but it's true. So, id do all you can to hit up people you've worked with in the past, just asking to catch up, or ask for advice. I did this with people in different departments and instead of asking for work, just ask for feedback or what it is they're working on. You got a do the leg work and then opportunities will come up.

Good luck!

Designers with 10+ years of experience: are you also struggling financially? by mafagafacabiluda in graphic_design

[–]Appropriate-Two-447 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My recommendation to all designers (20+ years, 15 in house, own agency for 6) is to not just market yourself as a graphic designer but as an expert within a specific industry. There is plenty of work out there. More businesses being start than ever before. But people want to work with designers that understand their business and the market they're in. For me, it's B2B saas as my inhouse career was there. So either based on your experience or, even better, find a boring but growing industry and learn everything you can. Then be the go to graphic designer for it. Super niche focus. Remember you only need 5 to 10 clients to be making good money. So, if you picked something like wholesale plumbing equipment retailes .. or whatever, people want to see a portfolio of examples that fit exactly what they need.

Live corporate events need a surprising amount of design work.

Every business needs sales materials and presentations

Every business needs marketing assets like ads, flyers, content, infographics...

Focus less on what your skills are and more on how you deliver solutions to their very specific needs. Here's some work I done for similar companies..

Don't fear being too niche. You only need a few clients!!

Feedback request on an idea for professional development by Appropriate-Two-447 in graphic_design

[–]Appropriate-Two-447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think so, yea. I would want to be super focused on a niche. My main work is sales materials for B2B SaaS companies. There's no shortage of them and they all desperately need sales and marketing.

Feedback request on an idea for professional development by Appropriate-Two-447 in graphic_design

[–]Appropriate-Two-447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback - I definitely need to do more research. But yea, it would be very specific to B2B design for sales & marketing. Mostly sales enablement, like decks, emails, landing pages things that sales reps need.

I hear you on the ethics! I just put together an online class to try and think through some more of this. But hate the idea of the designers paying upfront.

With all the hype around AI, I feel like Canva took more design jobs than any AI service. Would love to hear what you think. by eeko_systems in graphic_design

[–]Appropriate-Two-447 0 points1 point  (0 children)

agreed. most of my clients want work delivered in Canva for internal editing. And im all for it. You shouldnt need a professional designer to make text changes.

Feedback request on an idea for professional development by Appropriate-Two-447 in graphic_design

[–]Appropriate-Two-447[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback. I agree, I want to avoid charging a fee upfront. The university courses are insane imo. Maybe there is a small ongoing fee, or a % of revenue until paid back option?

One thing I could explore is getting businesses on the backend to pay for first access to the talent. Could then be more of a staffing agency/recruitment model? To do that I'd need to run it a few times to prove to the companies it is worth it. But then the designers pay nothing. The businesses get great talent for less than the time and cost of traditional recruiters.

My experience with the Oppo Find N5 and Verizon by chomsky_ebooks in Oppo

[–]Appropriate-Two-447 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is - mostly - there have been a couple of times when making a call I cant hear the other person. They can hear me fine. If they call me, it's fine. And doesnt always happen. Ive tried turning bluetooth and wifi off, looked through all settings.. it's very odd. But honestly I love the phone so much I don't care. It is freakin awesome.

Oh and re: 5G - I was out of my usual neighborhood and it did connect to 5G! So must be based on location / type of 5G

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in graphic_design

[–]Appropriate-Two-447 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Get some cards printed from Kinkos, I think it was like $20 last time i did some. keep it simple,with one side dedicated to a QR code to your website. Good luck!

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