Freelance/ side work

Hi!

Apologies if this has been posted before, I haven’t been on this forum in a while and trying to reinvigorate my design skills. Which leads onto my question…

I’m wondering if there are websites/resources that are good to find freelance work or simple small creative projects to get involved with?

I’m a new designer with only +2 years under my belt. My current job is a full time in-house design position, of which I’m very grateful for however I realised I’m doing the same thing again and again. I’m really interested in trying to do some work around the day job to improve my skills and portfolio, while giving the confidence a boost!

I’m not looking for paid work especially as I’m just eager to get out there and start developing new skills again. Any advice/tips on this would be really appreciated.

Thank you.

Stay away from crowdsourcing sites.

Contact some local charities - they usually need work done and don’t have the capacity to hire as they are charity.

I do regular work for an animal charity - their annual report and some social media posts. I started this years ago in the same position as you.

They pay me a little, but I don’t charge them an awful lot at all. I tend to take the payment I get and donate it back to them anyway.

I have a few clients like charities that I design for to help them out, another one is for Mental Health.

It’s rewarding, it’s helping, and it helped me learn many moons ago.

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Exactly as Smurf2 says, charities, or local organisations. Generally speaking, it is a good thing to put 10-15% of your time into work like this sort of unpaid work anyway, if you can afford to. B

It’s a win-win because you are using your skills and knowledge to help people who couldn’t afford to employ a designer ordinarily and you are doing something worthwhile.

You doing it for free does not mean taking the bread out of another designer’s mouth, because if you pick the right organisation, without your help, it would likely get done in Word with clip-art.

It also gives you projects that aren’t profit driven, so you may get a little more creative freedom. If not, at least you’ll get that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with helping out.

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Thank you very much for this advice!

You’re welcome - best of luck.