I received this let­ter recently, and I thought I should share my response with all of you.

Hello Star,

I’ve been told time and time again that it can be hard start­ing out in design because it’s such a com­pet­i­tive indus­try. I’ve been try­ing for a few months now and I’m won­der­ing if I’m doing some­thing wrong? I’ve con­tacted plenty of peo­ple, art direc­tors etc and some of them have been really encour­ag­ing, but still, no proper work. I just won­dered if you have any tips or advice about how you estab­lished your­self. I’m real seri­ous about this and want to do it, but this first hur­dle is so hard! 

While I don’t pro­fess to know what will work for every­one, I’m happy to share what worked for me. Hope­fully this helps!

My senior year of col­lege, I decided that I wanted to live off my artis­tic tal­ent. At the time, I was work­ing at a cof­fee shop, where my artis­tic tal­ent was used only to let­ter the chalk signs that dis­played the latte spe­cials.
While I could make a mean cap­puc­cino, the last thing I wanted to do was spend the rest of my life sling­ing coffee.

I took a course called “Art, Life, and Money” which was geared towards help­ing us make art after grad­u­a­tion. I learned about resume writ­ing, artist state­ments, taxes, and grant writ­ing. More than that though, I learned that I had to be really proac­tive about art mak­ing, and pur­su­ing ways to make that lucrative. 

I started to free­lance, doing illus­tra­tion and web design in my spare time. I was still a full time stu­dent, and still work­ing my cof­fee shop job. I knew that if I was going to jump into full time free­lanc­ing after grad­u­a­tion, I needed to get myself set up ahead of time. Here are a few things I learned along the way:

Get a website.

It is 2008… if you run a busi­ness and you don’t have a web­site, you don’t exist. Even if you just have your con­tact info and a brief descrip­tion of what you do, it is incred­i­bly valu­able to be able to tell a prospec­tive client where to find you on the web.

Read my primer, Build­ing a home on the web, if you’d like more tips on how to do this!

Remem­ber to have your con­tact info, resume, and port­fo­lio in really acces­si­ble places! Many peo­ple will only give you 2 clicks worth of their time, so make sure that you can reach all the impor­tant info in 2 clicks or less. 

Many peo­ple have taken to join­ing pop­u­lar social net­work­ing sites, and using their net­work­ing pages like a web­site. While this is much bet­ter than hav­ing no web pres­ence at all, it’s kind of unpro­fes­sional. Any­body can make a myspace page and call them­selves a business. 

That said, there is noth­ing wrong with using social net­work­ing sites to extend the reach of your work. 

Join social net­work­ing sites

Social net­work­ing sites should be looked at as a free mar­ket­ing resource. The pres­ence of your busi­ness on these sites can only help you to con­nect with more peo­ple. Accept friend requests from every­one. Show your work on your page, and make your web­site URL promi­nent, so peo­ple will travel from your social net­work­ing page to your port­fo­lio. Design your page to look good and don’t post embar­rass­ing pho­tos of yourself!

Use com­mu­nity based sites like flickr or live­jour­nal to move far­ther out­side of your cir­cle and into other groups of artists and design­ers. Post illus­tra­tions and designs to group photo pools and themed dis­cus­sion com­mu­ni­ties. Also com­ment on other people’s work! I promise they’ll come back and com­ment on your stuff later. 

Make friends with craigslist.

You can get work off craigslist. It is a dif­fi­cult pur­suit, but one that will yield results even­tu­ally. Look for work locally, but also look for telecom­mut­ing work in EVERY CITY. You will run into some great jobs, and some awful ones, but after you’ve got a few clients under your belt, word will start to get around and peo­ple will start con­tact­ing you. 

Make friends!

Talk to peo­ple in your field. Make friends with them! If they like your work, they will rec­om­mend you to other peo­ple. I fre­quently get work from other designer friends who refer me when they are too busy to take another client. I also repay the favor when I’m too busy!
Also, con­sider that the peo­ple you already know might have use for your skills. Does your great aunt need a por­trait done of her dog? Does your accoun­tant need a new logo? Does your best friend need an awe­some lay­out for her blog?
Even if you do some of these sorts of jobs on the cheap, if they tell one more per­son who gives you work, it is totally worth it!
When you meet new peo­ple, make sure they walk away know­ing you’re a designer, and that you’re tak­ing clients.
Word of mouth is key.

Go to con­fer­ences and events

I’ve done really well with attend­ing events like comic con­ven­tions and zine fairs. You can meet tons of other peo­ple doing what you’re doing, and share advice and resources. 

Get busi­ness cards

& hand them out to every­one new you meet! For more info on this read my arti­cle on Busi­ness Cards.

Col­lab­o­rate

It’s easy to get noticed when you work with other peo­ple. Their friends and fans will now know who you are, and if they like you, they’ll tell people. 

Par­tic­i­pate in group shows and antholo­gies
If you see a call for work any­where, apply. If you don’t get in, no harm, no foul…but if you do, some­body impor­tant could see it and offer you work. At the very least, it’ll look good on your CV.

Keep learn­ing!

Always keep improv­ing your art. Take classes, study other artists, and just gen­er­ally make an effort to keep get­ting bet­ter. Make sure your web­site reflects your growth, so poten­tial clients can see it too! 

Don’t give up!

Make a list of the peo­ple you will call when you don’t feel like mak­ing art any­more. There will come a day when you will get fed up, and it’s really, really impor­tant to have a net­work to get you through. 

It’s a super dif­fi­cult road to travel. Work­ing free­lance is almost always feast or famine. You will be work­ing a 60 hour work week for your first year, and yes, you will be liv­ing pay­check to pay­check. A great deal of your suc­cess will come from being at the right place at the right time. Here’s to hop­ing you get there! Good luck!

For another per­spec­tive on this sub­ject, see Nubby Twiglet’s Life of a Graphic Designer in Train­ing.