Kevin Airgid is an internationally recognized designer, author and speaker. He runs a small interactive studio that develops creative projects for clients such as: Amnesty, ESPN, Ford, MTV and Pepsi.
Advice for unemployed interactive designers
Over the past few weeks the stream of resumes filing my in-box has grown significantly. It is a sign of the times that many 9-5′ers have lost their jobs and are now trying their hand at freelance. For those among you who can not find work and have decided to do the freelance gig I have some advice for you. Since your probably so freaked out right now you probably don’t want to read alot here it is in small pieces…
1. Get your portfolio site together and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes I made. First off make sure your site is a fast download, and let the work sell you. Don’t make the “shell” or the interface of the site to hard to navigate. No point in winning design awards and loosing clients! (read this).
2. Download this free ebook I created a long time ago about going freelance. Some of the material is out of date but alot of it is still useful, and hey the book is free so what do you have to loose! lose!
3. Read “Think Like an Entrepreneur! Don’t be a corporate refugee.” by my friend Colin over at ChangingFast.com
3 Responses
Ha..ha.. I never said I could write, spell or even do gramhor! but hey I published boocs! =)
Hi,
There’s a serious glut of talent available in London, if you look closely you will find work it’s quite simple. BY nature designers seem to be good at socialising but shite at networking.
I recommend:
- Pick 10 agencies, speak to producers, traffic bods, creatives, be clever if you have to all it takes is a phone call or email to get the correct info, you will soon be on the books if any good.
- Get your linkedin up to date – spend time off facebook and work the linkedin site – connect to recruiters, be careful though, only connect to the best.
- Get a quick folio site up, I’ll only ask you for your details once, not again.
Hope that works for you as it did for I when freelancing.
And please learn the difference between loosing and losing. They are *not* the same!