Nowadays graphic design is a really very popular and demanded field in our Web addict society. Every day brainy designers open new fantastic and wonderful horizons before our curious eyes. Not only striking creations of artists entice us to learn some basic design skills and make our own contribution to this quickly developing sphere, but also the realization of what this type of job can give us and what new opportunities it can open for desiring knowledge people. As almost every kind of business needs services of a designer, you can have a good earning through designing and get many other benefits, such as a freelance work, an opportunity to work anywhere you want and of course a pleasant surroundings of creative people.
All these are about good sides of the design career, but not everyone achieves such heights and becomes a famous demanded designer. It’s time to find out why some of us get all laurels and others remain unnoticed. So, what are the main reasons why you are not a demanded designer and why your artworks are not popular.
Lack of Creativity
If we can give the definition of graphic design in one word, it’ll by far be “creativity”. It’s just the word but what a deep sense it has! Through the design art and the way of its realization you can express your ideas, dreams and even your soul. You can earn money on your passion, but only if the way of its expression is unique and stands out from other artworks. Do not copy famous and popular designs, try to find yourself and show your own talent. You can follow some useful advices by successful artists and use their methods, but all these have to be only for the search of your individual style.
It’s difficult when you are a newbie, but it’s really possible. Just enjoy the work and even if you make mistakes, learn from them and smile, cause if you have a smile on your face while working your creations will reflect your happy and shining mood then. And who knows, maybe someone else will see a new approach to the design industry in your mistake and your unexpected output becomes a famous masterpiece :) Don’t be afraid of experiments, always try new tools and methods. Learn from genius, but don’t copy them. Keep your mind open for everything new and the most important: remember, that there are no limits for creativity.
Procrastination
All talented people are strange and deviant. Huge number of crazy thoughts always fly in their heads and don’t let them sleep at night. Artists keep weird ideas in their mind and during several days mull them over. In other words, the mind of a genius is absent from the everyday word. We do not want to say that it’s the endless process, some day creators make their ideas alive, but when does usually this happy day come? Nobody knows, even the author of future creations. The problem of procrastination is very wide spread now, cause everyone of us put off something. We could work on nothing at all, just looking for inspiration. We could work on something less important than our errands or verse versa, we could work on something more important.
Anyway, if we procrastinate our task, we break the terms and do not deliver the artwork in time. When such an annoying situation happens, usually an employer is not satisfied with your work. He can even pay you for it, but a displeasing feeling of belated implementation holds him back to advice your services for his colleagues’ and clients’ projects. So, don’t waste your priceless time, make your work good and make it before deadline. Assemble the base of your permanent and pleased clients and soon you’ll have a queue of those who desire your creations. :)
Find your niche
Maybe, you are not successful cause you haven’t found your right niche. If you are a web designer, don’t advertise yourself as a person who can edit photos and videos or as a master of illustrations. Represent yourself only as an experienced artist who styles objects for the Internet. Let you sphere of activity be not wide, but clear, effective and stand out against the others. It’s better to focus on one field, improve your skills and gain more knowledge in it, than disperse your attention on several areas.
Choose one niche and improve it. The more unique and exclusive services you offer the more chances you have to get more clients and orders. Don’t pick a super hard niche, choose the one you are really best in.
Most of us will say that we have to be a jack of all trades. Yes, I completely agree that we need to know much in different fields, but the gold rule of every professional is to sort out in their own niche. So, focus on what you love to do and do it perfectly!
Design Portfolio
How can you draw an attention of your potential online clients? Of course by showing them what you do and how you do that. Online portfolio is not only the best way to showcase your artworks, but it’s also a nice method to remove the geographical restraints. Skillful design portfolio gives you more cases to show your talent, design creativity and enlarge the community of your fans. Just imagine the situation, someone saw your picture in a remarkable showcase or in your interview and wants to look through the whole collection of your creations, but can not find the link to your personal website.
What happens next? The answer is “nothing”, he will close the page and start looking for another designer. This fellow could be your client, but you loose him, through your fault and because of your irresponsibility. Be attentive, don’t neglect an opportunity and create the portfolio with your stunning works and art-products, so your fans can not only admire your amazing creations, but also share them via the Web. :)
It would be also nice to add testimonials in video or image format. So your potential and future clients see the opinions of your previous customers right in your portfolio and don’t contact them personally. Your clients can leave their satisfied (I hope so :) ) comments about your work, about things they like most collaborating with you, they can also recommend you as a real design expert :)And of course this praise would be +1 to your reputation :)
One more common mistake is the absence of your email address in your portfolio.Don’t forget to add it in order somebody wants to cooperate with you. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social networks are also appreciated. So, take a time to review and select your remarkable and original projects and put them all in your own well thought personal website. Your time and efforts are worth it, cause you’ll be rewarded many times over throughout your career.
Not broad design experience
Choosing a designer, clients always pay attention to the examples of your works for other customers which prove that you’ve created sites similar to the one they require. That is such kind of evidence that you have all necessary skills and knowledge to carry out the job to the highest possible level.
The grade of presentation your projects in the portfolio has to be eye-catching and your portfolio has to appear professionally and impeccably. Personal website should show your ability to work on various types of projects, so the visitors see that you are flexible and can work in a variety of design fields.
Show your experience with a full range of abilities. Let your artworks demonstrate that you are able to collaborate with a variety of techniques, including sketching, rendering, 3d modeling, model making and much more that stand out you from your colleagues :)
Point at your ability to work with the limited supervision. Indicate that you can generate interesting thoughts, offer various design solutions and project ideas. Be sure, all employers appreciate a designer’s initiative and desire to create a really worthwhile work.
Absence of Facebook and Twitter accounts
Nowadays Facebook page has become an integral part of a social media campaign. It’s an interactive and engaging method to draw an attention and interest of future fans, customers or simply potential partners. You can create your personal account to build relationship with your followers or create a remarkable Fan page to build your design community.
Well- thought Facebook Fan page offers various types of functionality and different kinds of useful features for that. Your fans can take part in conversations and polls, comment your pictures and communicate with other connoisseurs of your works. All these allow them to understand that they are a part of your design community and an important part of your life. By answering to fans offers and remarks, you’ll show them that the opinion of your followers makes sense to you :) If people see that you need them, they’ll support you. And how you can get their support if you don’t have a Facebook page, where all this exchange of ideas happens :)
Your business will surely grow up, if you not only let Facebook users become familiar with your job, but also if you build relationships with them. Remember, your presence on social networks is not only blabbing about yourself and how cool and indispensable you are! It’s about making friends, partners, co workers and useful connections.So, if you can do that, do it perfect, cause in our Internet addict society Facebook account is the must.
Here is one more important thing, It’s better to have both Facebook page and your personal portfolio, cause it’s a great combination which meets the needs of all kinds of Internet users and clients.This mix will generate more viewers, more fans and consequently more orders :) One more way to declare your existence on the Web is to create a Twitter account.
Your Twitter profile is a part of a huge machine that will promote your services and help to spread the word about you. It doesn’t mean that you have to be a chatterer and add new announcements every minute. Just let people know when you have some news or updates on your website and say what you have to say when it’s appropriate and relevant. When you start your work with Twitter and understand its simple theme, you’ll figure out when is the best time to speak about yourself and when it’s better time to listen.
One more great thing of this social networking service is that working online you are on the Web all day long, and any time you need you can ask some advice and tips or discuss latest design trends and approaches with design community. It’s always helpful to have short snippets of conversation with the experienced and successful people. If you show your interest to their artworks or methods of their realization, artists will explain how they achieve the desired results more gladly, cause in a such simple way they see that you respect them and appreciate their efforts. In a such easy way you’ll make new useful connections with experts, and who knows, maybe, they recommend you to some important clients or famous brands some day.
Twitter also assists your followers to connect and keep up with you, so don’t forget to add your email information and the link to your website to your twitter account. 
Tip: If you don’t have time for both networks, you can automatically post your Twitter messages to Facebook. Just open your profile settings and choose “Post your tweets to Facebook” and since that moment all your news, updates, tweets and retweets will appear on your Facebook wall.
Facebook and Twitter accounts can drive much traffic to your site, so do not hesitate and if you still don’t have these social pages, create them :)
Emily Williams
Writes inspirational articles about design and up to date web technologies. She works at templates.motocms.com which is a premium flash templates provider. You can follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/DesignMotoBlog or join on Facebook.
