PSA for new freelance designers! Please stop trying so hard to please your clients. The most important thing we can do is respect ourselves - because, if we command respect, we gain respect, from other designers, from clients, and it has a positive impact on our industry as a whole. It's hurting our industry, our mental health and trust between our fellow designers, and it trickles down to things like how much people think they should be paying us.
Ive been guilty of it, hell yes I have, and I have taken my part in perpetuating the issues, and now I’m beginning to work on al aspects of my craft, my attitude toward business, and my boundaries with my clients - so I can improve my work life balance, and march on with confidence.
We are worth SO MUCH MORE than we think.
This post I’ve decided to take a break from the camera, and it’s because I’ve been so busy with work - producing a video is hard yakka!
For context, I am a freelance graphic designer, and, since I’m new to the freelance design world, all of the trials and tribulations have become so painfully, and impossibly obvious, and I have come up against some testing times. I really wanted to share with you my comically unpleasant experiences coming through this time in my career, in hope that you’ll be able to relate, learn something, or teach me something new - I would love to hear your experiences, and gain some input from you guys.
Just so I can make it clear, this isn’t me having a go at my clients, I love them all, but I think it’s important that we come together as a community to create more transparency over the industry specific issues we face.
I just want to mention, also, a podcast that I’ve been listening to for a while now, called Never Not Creative - these guys address pressing issues like stress and burnout, value recognition, isolation and rejection, and also the positive things that are happening in the Australian design community.
If you have been following my blog, you will know that I’ve had my own struggles with mental health, and improving our industry’s mental health as a whole is something I hold close to my heart. If you guys can share these cards wherever you use social media, we can have a laugh, and open up discussion about our experiences and attitudes as young designers, and attack these issues head on.
Lastly, I just want to be completely honest with you - I’ve been very stressed of late, because I have had a lot of work to do, and I havent had a chance to get to my blog as soon as I would have liked. I will actually state that I have been in a state of burnout, and I, just like everybody else, am just figuring it all out.
How do you feel about the state of our industry, and the issues that we currently face?
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