We spoke to Josh, a Graphic Design graduate from Hallam, about life after SHU and his experience of freelance graphic design.
Can you walk us through your career journey since you graduated?
It’s been up and down (expect that).
After I graduated did a few internships and ended up working for Jaywing. That didn’t work out too well (expect it to happen, and it’s not the end of the world) and I was let go. But within a couple of months, I was contacted by a guy who had a branding and advertising agency in Bahrain and he offered me a job. At first, I thought it was a joke as that sort of thing doesn’t happen often, but I figured I’d give it a shot, and that sort of propelled my career a bit.
Bahrain is a small country with a smaller creative industry and so you can end up doing work for big clients rather quickly. I ended up doing a range of different work; branding, book design, retouching, copy writing, art directing, photoshoots- even some interior design.
I was in the Middle East for three and a half years, but I hated it and decided to come back to the UK. I worked at a marketing agency for three months, but when they lost a client so it was last in, first out.
So I made the jump to freelance. I got lucky with a couple of contacts and that lead to working with some good studios and big clients.
What inspired you to work as a freelancer and how did you begin working as one?
I always wanted to be freelance; it’s a range of work, different jobs and, honestly, more money, but also more hassle. I took the plunge out of necessity.
As mentioned previously, I was let go from a marketing agency I was at because they lost a client. After that, a friend sent me a tweet from a studio in Bradford looking for a digital designer two days a week, and while digital wasn’t my strong point, I was hungry for work and I took a chance on it. That lead to more work and being introduced to other clients and people who needed work.
A lot of it was luck. It’s best to think of it as planting seeds, not all of them will flower, but you have to be ready to take chances and try your best to create opportunities. Talk to people, tell them what you do. Ask if people need work. And develop a thick skin. People are busy, or they may already have established relationships with people they work with. You kind of just have to persevere (I hate that word) until something clicks.
As a freelancer, can you give us some tips on building relationships with clients? What does the process of working collaboratively with a brand usually look like?
Foot-in-the-door is the main thing. Reach out to people, send emails, ask if they’d be willing to look over your portfolio, even just ask to pick people’s brain over a coffee.
Working with clients is varied. Some clients are open to what can be done and what they need. Some are very strict with what they want and how they want it. It’s good to try and split your work into jobs that will pay the bills and jobs that will feed your soul, once you know which is which you can avoid looking for soul-fulfilling jobs where there isn’t the room to flex your design skills. I think it was the head of Coca-Cola’s design team that said ‘don’t try to be good, try to be effective.’ Not every company needs the flashy design. Sometimes they just have a bunch of boring assets that need creating, creating well, and on time. Listen to what's needed. Be nice to people. They remember. Half of the job is dealing with people and they won’t give you repeat work if you’re difficult to work with. You’re going to make mistakes. People care less than you might think, just own it, fix it, and try not to make as many next time.
If you go back in time to when you first graduated from Hallam, what advice would you give yourself?
Not so much advice I’d give myself but good advice I got. Keep going. Sounds crap- I know- but it’s a tough gig that involves a lot of rejections and pitfalls and its almost a waiting game until something clicks into place. Advice I’d give myself: you’re going to mess up at some point. It’s inevitable. Do it early. Learn from it. And keep going. The 1% rule is also good. Send one email a day. Do one thing a day. Upskill a little bit. It stacks up, and in 100 days you’re 100% better off.
And MAKE SURE YOU SET ASIDE MONEY FOR TAX.
