Thanks for coming back to me. I did offer my services to a local charity and a rambling club. I designed them a couple of logos. I guess I could do that again or approach companies directly by offering a discount on design. I did find when offering my skills free that people took advantage and I spent more time than I would usually on a paid job going back and forth with emails. I like the blog idea I’ll give this a go and I also like the idea of sample briefs. I’ve signed up to creativepool, but haven’t heard much from them. I guess I’ve been conscious my portfolio needs more work and my CV needs a revamp. What worries me is I apply for design jobs and here anything, is this usual in design? I guess there are so many candidates out there and they can ‘cherry pick’. I actually thought returning to study even part-time, would help me regain some confidence in my work and get some critique. I wonder if anyone knows any part-time either correspondence or college courses which won’t break the bank!

I’m in a similar position to Loma. I’ve worked in publishing most of my life and made the mistake of not going down the college route in my early career to get graphic design qualifications, but ended up in journalism as I’d written a book on my passion and studied distance learning sub-editing and production. However, I’ve always hankered for getting back into design and I managed to get a job in production back in 2003 for a trade organisation publishing magazines. Although I did some graphic design work here I was basically a layout art worker. I’d always dabbled in design for friends and wherever I worked, using letraset, cow gum prior to the computer graphic revolution and while working as an art worker I signed up through a website for a course at learncomputergraphics.com This didn’t offer qualifications, but it helped feel a few gaps in my experience and I highly recommend this. The question is do I have enough experience to find a role or be offered a position in this way? I worked as a Mac Designer for a motors port company a year or so ago on a freelance basis producing press ads, vehicle graphics, clothing design and other work. Unfortunately, the company relocated and I haven’t had any regular design work since. I’m 50 now and worried time is running out is anyone going to seriously employ me without a degree? Should I look to study part-time or is it going to be tougher for me as an ‘older’ designer to ‘break in’ to the market? I can’t afford to go back to college and study full-time as I have commitments. I do have a website, and I’m working on my portfolio which I know isn’t strong enough at present. I would appreciate any advice you can give or at least steer me in the right direction. I’m doing ‘bits and pieces’ when I can for people.

If I were you I would definitely get a blog with an online portfolio set up or at least set up an online portfolio somewhere you can then at least point potential employers to your work very easily. As to the CV I would mix it up a bit and like you say maybe send something more creative to creative companies. If there is a company you specifically want to work for you could try and find out more about them and target you CV very heavily to them.

I’ve done bits and pieces of freelance all my life and plan to do some practice briefs to build up a portfolio. My basic plan would be a simple resume for corporate, ‘posh’ clients and a more creative one for more individual creative companies and I’m aiming at entry level in terms of what i’ll apply for. Any advice or thoughts?

If you don’t want to try the video approach – why don’t you set up a blog showing your work and then you can send your PDF (or just a general email about yourself offering to send them a CV PDF) to an employer with a link to examples of your work. Its pretty easy to set up a WordPress blog if you check Gideon’s becomeablogger.com there are loads of FREE videos to show you how to do it. If you don’t want to pay for hosting WordPress also do sites they host for you WordPress.com. Other options for creating online portfolios are http://www.coroflot.com and deviantart.com

Hope this helps

Tara