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Every week, we’ll explore a topic in design. This week, we’re talking about freelancing as a designer — how to find clients, work professionally, and navigate the practical side of doing design work independently.

Freelancing can sound intimidating at first, but ultimately, a lot of it comes down to trust, communication, and consistently doing good work. Here are a few golden tips that have helped me out!

A lot of people think freelancing is about constantly “networking,” but honestly, I would say the biggest thing is doing genuinely great work.

Always give each project 120% effort; this means making clients feel cared for and listened to! When you deliver polished work consistently, clients will find you reliable and easy to work with.

Then, good clients often lead to referrals, repeat work, and word-of-mouth opportunities. That’s how the cycle works!

Much of freelancing is also about communication!

Before you even open up that Figma file, ask questions early and clarify expectations. This could mean confirming the number of screens, seeing if the client already has existing assets to use, etc.

Then, when you have something to show to the client, it’s important to receive feedback without taking it personally. At the end of the day, the client is paying for a solution to their problem – not necessarily your favorite design decision

One of the hardest parts of freelancing is figuring out what to charge. Common approaches include:

If you’re not sure where to start, I’d recommend hourly pricing – it’s the most transparent and fair for both sides! Just make sure to log your hours (with short descriptions of the work you did during that period), and to discuss with the client if there should be a maximum number of hours.

The less exciting parts of freelancing are still important! If you’re working with someone you don’t know personally (and even so, I’d still recommend it), you should probably think about a contract. It helps both you and the client define scope, deadlines, and payment terms.

And then for taxes, those are usually not automatically deducted from your freelance earnings (compared to a more traditional full-time job). So make sure to look up the laws/regulations in your area to avoid paying penalties for overdue or missed taxes (speaking from past experience…).

One of my proudest projects was my work at Unilever. I worked on designing AI features to automate the metadata process for a global digital asset management tool. My features cut asset upload time from 30 minutes to 5 mins per asset. I was proud of my work localizing my features to 3+ countries and collaborating cross-functionally. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to learn more. (email: [email protected])

That’s all for this week, and for this spring semester! Have a great summer and see you all in the fall :)

Have any feedback or want to see something on the newsletter next week? Email us at [email protected] or reply directly to this email.

See you soon,

Clément @ CUxD