If you take heed of these graphic design career tips, you should be able to increase your professional experience that will enhance your online design portfolio. This is an important step since having a great portfolio attracts more potential clients and helps you find more design jobs.

Start freelancing immediately after education

Recently, graduates have started working on their own right after university. In a competitive niche, going freelance can offer more immediate employment than waiting for the perfect full-time role, and with customers increasingly recognizing the benefits of a fresh and young perspective, there are a plethora of opportunities out there.

This career route isn’t easy, but if you’re enormously confident, you can make it work in your favor. Since there will be months with no work, you won’t have the luxury to be picky, but you will be able to make a living out of something you love doing.

You can begin this path by emailing businesses to see if they need a designer and being enormously active on platforms like Behance and DeviantArt. And you shouldn’t just create and share art, but also give feedback to others – and listen to the feedback you receive.

Useful tools

Every job in this world requires certain tools and graphic design is no different. You can use a drawing tablet for starters. Although not completely necessary, it can be of great help with fast thumbnail sketches and illustration work.

Of course, the most important tool you will need is a Mac computer. An iMac for when you’re working at home and sitting at a desk, and a MacBook Pro for working in coffee shops and co-working spaces. Nowadays, it’s one of the most reliable devices out there and finding Mac computer repair experts is not difficult.

Ultimately, you will need Adobe Creative Cloud Programs. These programs are absolutely required for any graphic design work and are the industry standard. We recommend starting with:

• Muse
• Adobe Illustrator
• InDesign
• Photoshop

Explore online freelance gigs

If you usually work in full-time positions but are currently between jobs, or just desire to take your graphic design career on a new path, you could plan to pursue some freelance gigs. These can help you gain more experience and even lead to more permanent positions if you prove yourself to customers.

There are design job sites that make it simple to view the available opportunities. Some of them include:

• Upwork
• 99designs
• Fiverr

On the other hand, you could try to have clients approach to you by promoting your graphic services on social media. Facebook and Instagram are your best bets for landing graphic design gigs, so concentrate your efforts there for starters. Another profitable way to draw clients to you is to ensure you have a stellar online portfolio (more on that later).

Develop and update your portfolio site

A portfolio website is a must for any beginner in graphic design. You can’t email potential clients a list of links to websites you’ve worked on. Your personal website should be the icing on the cake of your portfolio. Proving yourself as a graphic design professional will make clients take you seriously and secure high payments.

Your portfolio represents your credibility. If you don't make the effort, someone else will. Graphic design is a crowded industry, so don't expect you can cut corners and still have money at the end of the day. Once there is a portfolio website, link to it everywhere – even where it doesn't seem relevant:

• On your business card
• In your email signature
• On your social media profiles

To conclude – Do something, even if it ends up being a mistake. When you’re just starting out, it can be better to do something wrong than do nothing at all. In the process, you will learn and you just might find something that works. Just don’t make such a mistake that nobody will ever want to work with you again.