How to find graphic design work / projects?

February 24, 2015 4:29 PM

My friend has a background in visual art (mainly years of oils, watercolors, some crafts) and has recently started exploring graphic design. So far she's done some projects for friends and family (website design, logos, packaging, card designing, etc). She'd love to do more of this kind of work on a freelance basis, but isn't sure how to find it. Should she advertise on Fiverr, or Elance, or...? How does this work and how do you get started as a freelance graphic designer? Any tips or recommendations would be really appreciated!
posted by aielen to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Best answer: You may have some success actually going door-to-door to local businesses. Very often, the more "simple" thins are overlooked in graphic design. My partner had some terrific clients when he was full-fledged freelance for menus, flyers, business cards, and newspaper advertisements for locally-owned businesses.
posted by xingcat at 4:52 PM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I would look at Behance and Dribbble. Also, I would set up a personal portfolio that is clean and nice. Squarespace has some really nice templates and is reasonably priced. Finally, I would go to designer meetups and just interview a lot of designers on how they do it. A lot of it is just word of mouth and once you get some projects underway, they tell other clients.
posted by pando11 at 9:24 PM on February 24, 2015