One of the hardest things a starting off graphic designer is to find their first graphic design client. This is not an easy task and can take a long time to figure out. There are some tricks to get graphic design clients but when it comes to getting one’s first graphic design client there are a lot of things to keep in mind. You are going to learn a lot, you will need to lower your expectations, you are going to leave a lot of money on the table, and that is all okay. Keep reading if you want to learn more on how to get your first graphic design client.
How to Get your First Graphic Design Client: Methods
- Work with family and friends
- Work for free
- Social Media
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Live stream
How to Get your First Graphic Design Client: Work with Family and Friends
One of the main things starting of designers do not think about is that they already have a huge network group of potential clients. This is your family and friends. Now most people know someone close to them that has a business and honestly probably all of them are going to need some sort of design work done. This is a great place to find your first graphic design client. When working for family you are working for people who are willing to give you a helping hand when you are starting off sooner than someone who does not know you. This is a great way when starting off as a designer to get either your first portfolio piece or a few. Also this will help learning about how to communicate with a graphic design client, how to start to work with a client, and understand what it takes to get to the next of a project.
How to Get your First Graphic Design Client: Work for Free
One of the things a lot of designers will fight is working for free. Personally it is not a bid choice when you are starting off as a graphic designer and are needing to build a portfolio. This a great option when you want to get your first graphic design client. There will be some learning experience that comes with this. Like what makes a quality client/project, how long a project will take, what kind of projects you want to work on. When you are starting off as a graphic designer you have not settled into what your niche is as a designer so this is a great way to explore different disciplines.
How to Get your First Graphic Design Client: use Social Media
Social Media is the kind of go to answer for everyone who writes an article on how to get your first graphic design client. Yes there is a lot of pros to using social media and you should be using it period but it has become more crowded over the years. This is still a strong pillar to use but it might be harder than other methods. That being said there are some ways to get you first graphic design client on social media.
Let’s start by what social media platforms should you be using to find graphic design clients:
There are some basic guidelines to find design clients on these platforms. To start off with you should at least be posting once a day on all your social media platforms. Also using direct messages on these platforms to reach out to select businesses will allow you to reach out to so many businesses.
How to Get your First Graphic Design Client: Live Stream
This is a tip a other of people are not giving designers and it might be because they are not thinking about it, know about it, or know how to give advice on it. Live streaming as a graphic designer can be a huge way of finding your first graphic design client. If you do not know what life streaming is think about let’s plays that are not edited with a live audience. Every live streamer needs artwork they need logos, emotes, channel artwork, and more. This is a great environment for you to get your feet wet and to get your first graphic design client. There are more and more streamers joining twitch, mixer, and YouTube every day that are going to need artwork.
Also using these platforms to stream is a great way to get your first design client. Almost all the platforms have selected areas for creative people to stream. A lot of streamers will to into these areas to ask for help with their channels.
How to Get your First Graphic Design Client: Conclusion
It might be hard when starting off as a graphic designer to get your find your first graphic design client. There are plenty of tools for you to find your clients out there it is a matter of how much effort you put into the tools that will give you the best results.
