After reading David Airey’s article Are freelance designers really suckers? I have been thinking a lot about how I should brand my own design services. I have been postponing the inevitable rebranding of myself for ages as designing for yourself is always so difficult.
When became self employed about three years ago I created a simple logo and basic online website/portfolio and the majority of my work was working inhouse for design agencies so the term freelance designer was quite appropriate. Now however the majority of my work is done from my home office, with a mix of work working direct for companies and design agencies. David’s article questions how people perceive freelancers, are freelancers seen as inferior to say someone who brands themselves as a design consultant or design company. Personally I think freelance means different things to different people/companies.
The positive points of advertising yourself as a freelancer:
- You can pick up work from clients that prefer to work directly with a designer rather than a sales person/account handler.
- You can pick up work from clients that do not have the budgets to pay an agency. A freelancer has lower overheads than an agency and so can afford to charge less.
- You can pick up work from design agencies without them feeling so threatened that you may take their clients.
The negative points of advertising yourself as a freelancer:
- Perceived as cheap (in a negative way) which doesn’t give credit to the experience you have as a designer.
- You may not be considered by medium/large companies for design work.
- You are seen as the hands on person (the jack of all trades) – that you should be doing the work and are not expected to subcontract work to appropriate services when required.
I think sometimes what some clients may not realise is that if they take their work to a design agency, their project could be done by someone straight out of college (no disrespect to graduates), but they will still be paying the same fee as if the creative director or senior designer had done the work. When the client looked at the company’s portfolio there may have been none of the young designer’s work in it. With a freelancer, it is generally more transparent, they know how much experience you have, they have seen YOUR work.
I have always worried about rebranding myself as a company. I know this works for some people as it makes their company seem bigger than it really is and can attract larger companies, however I am always one to be upfront and I know I would be able to pull this off working on my own. There will always come a crunch time too when the client wants to visit your office and meet your team.
I do like David’s idea of calling himself a graphic designer and design consultant it has the feel of having some experience and authority to it. Having worked in the design industry for 15 years perhaps this is the way to go, my only concern is that the word consultant could alienate some clients by sounding extremely expensive (more than an agency?).
I am still slightly undecided, perhaps there is an argument for branding yourself differently depending who you are targeting your design work at? I would love to hear your opinions on the subject?
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12 Comments
Hm.. you make some good points here. I dunno, I brand myself as “studios” But that’s only coz i love branding stuff, and lack of actual branding work, due to lack of a degree, means i just re-brand myself
I am thinking of just making multiple websites, and each one would be of a certain class. I will leave ace5 studios, as a father company sort of. And then have my portfolio as an illustrator, and then maybe add another website which is more formal as a design consultancy.
Then again what do i know, I’ve only been trying to make money out of this for three weeks =P
HI Tara
Yes, I think it’s quite difficult. I have this debate with myself too. I use “studio” on my site but it’s really only me. I haven’t gotten to the stage yet where I answer the phone with a different accent and say “Ms Farley is in a meeting, she’ll call you back” but I have been tempted when I’m too pooped to deal with a client.
On the upside, I think clients probably like the fact that they are dealing directly with the person doing the work rather than a secretary or account manager.
Do you do much work through agencies?
Aleksei, you raise some good points – it really is a difficult one
Hi Jennifer, I don’t do as much work for agencies as I used to as a lot want you to work inhouse which I don’t like much. I find if I work in house I can’t relax and hence can’t design particularly well – plus you can’t work inhouse in your pyjammas can you (just joking honest
) I would like to work more for companies directly as then you can get a brief directly from the client and you know what questions you need to ask.
Hey Tara,
Interesting post as usual. I had read David’s article and have been thinking about re branding myself. And just like you, i’m not sure as to what would work for me. Although i must admit that 2 days ago, i did change my title on Linkedin from “Freelancer” to “Independent Graphic Designer”.
Like you mentioned, there are pro’s and con’s of using the title “Freelancer”. I guess it would all depend on what kind of clientèle one targets. For someone who’s looking for projects that can be completed in a short time (the pay check’s would not be that big)and get his payments on time… the title of Freelancer might work.
For someone who has the patience to work on a project that may get dragged for months and payments get delayed (here the pay checks are big).. the title of “Design consultant” might work for these guys.
I don’t know how things work abroad, but in India, most mid-size and big companies are highly unprofessional. Getting payments from big companies has always been a problem. So i personally stay away from Big companies.
Cheers!
Sanjeev
Hey Tara,
I read David’s article too, which prompted me to really think about what to call myself. I’ve always considered myself a freelancer, considering I’m not attached to any one agency or design firm. Plus, it’s just a really cool spy codename– “Freelancer! We need you for this 11th hour assignment immediately!”
This is what I have observed, which may be different from your experiences. Among people in our industry, a freelancer is respected as someone who can make money out of being independent. But as David’s article pointed out, clients can see freelancers as suckers who couldn’t hold their own in a mega-firm. My background is in art direction, so I had a little trouble calling myself a graphic designer at first. The upside to the title “graphic designer” is that everyone has heard about that job and clients are more comfortable entrusting their design work to you.
However, because I don’t just design graphics, and I can bring my advertising background to the table, I now call myself a communication designer and design consultant. In terms of experience, I have always held myself to the same standards as the more seasoned professionals I respect. My clients can see what I can do, and they can decide whether or not to hire me based on what they see. Clients who focus solely on years experience are probably not the type of clients I want to deal with, anyway.
Now, I just wish I read yours and David’s articles before I got another set of business cards printed with “freelancer” on them… sigh. :p
HI Sanjeev, thanks for you comment. In England its just as difficult to get paid. Some companies are brilliant and pay by return, but some take forever.
HI J.G Callao, thanks for you comment – communication designer sounds very professional
. Its crazy really how much potential difference a name could make when essentially its exactly the same service isn’t it.
Well, I call myself a Freelance Web and Graphic Designer – and I’m perfectly happy with any stigma attached to it!
Perhaps it’s a question of what your goals are? I’m comfortable working for small clients doing small projects – so the name works well for me. If I was planning on hitting bigger companies and corporations then I’d probably label (and present) myself differently.
Great article once again, well done Tara for bringing this subject up.
I haven’t had a lot of success with ‘Freelancer’ so I have always branded myself as a small independent graphic design STUDIO. That way I can concentrate on my target market of small independent businesses and foster good, long term client relationships.
I do have a number of websites now focusing in on different search terms eg “Freelance designer’, Design Studio, Website Designer and mapping specialist.
On my business card I have given myself the pretentious title of ‘Creative Director’
Your articles are always so thought-provoking, Tara!
I went freelance on my own accord, and it’s almost a year now. It’s been a pretty successful ‘experiment’ thus far, so I am glad I made this change.
My card says ‘a creative consultancy’, sounds a bit stuffy. But, once it’s printed – too late, right?
I will call myself ‘branding & packaging designer’, since that’s really what I do, although I also advise on product/packaging development for food/gourmet companies (since I have a background in PD as well.)
If I were to provide product/packaging development consulting services, should I create another ‘identity’ for it? It’s related, but most people don’t put design and development together.
Tara, I am sure that all those negative freelancer perceptions are certainly different from people to people, but I do agree that the process of making our own brand is absolutely difficult, although it is also important at the same time.
J.C. Carvill
I have always branded myself as a company and always refer to ‘us’ and ‘we’ on the website.
I do this so as to not alienate those who might feel that a freelancer might struggle to fully service their needs, and because I do sometimes hire people to help me with my work, and so I feel that ‘us’ and ‘we’isn’t completely inaccurate.
I wouldn’t want a slightly larger firm to think in first initial impressions of hitting my website (which is how I gain all of my clients) that I can’t handle them, when I know that I can, so I do indeed want to appear a bit bigger on the website than I really am.
As soon as customers contact me however I make no attempt to pretend to be a ‘team’ and if asked I would certainly only ever respond that I work alone.
So the issue of them wanting to visit my offices would never arise because all my customers know that I work alone, and they know that I work from home also. They also know within a short space of time that I work at home with my children there!
The reason I do it, is so that initially I don’t put them off, and then by the time they realise I work alone they don’t care anyway because they have received great service and ‘know’ that I can provide what they need.
This is a big problems for all us “freelancers” on how to present our self. I think that we should start calling our business the way we would like to be in the future. If you want to be a larger corporation, use we and us when referring to your business. If you would like to keep things small a manageable use me, I or me and my vendors.
I wouldn’t use freelancer because of the bad connotations the word has.
I call myself “Independent Web Designer” that says that I provide services to companies or invidious and it does not have a price tag on peoples mind.