Many projects on Behance belong to “Multiple Owners” and involve teamwork. I’m curious to know how they achieved that and why I’m not one of them.
I already have my own portfolio there, have really tried to improve my skills, crafted my portfolio and website, etc., but I feel like I’m a designer in the middle of nowhere.
It seems like they’re doing something different. Currently, I’m struggling to make an income. How can I join design teams or work as an outsourced designer? I don’t know how to connect with others
I’m not sure what you’re looking at on Behance. Can you point to something?
I’ve spent the majority of my career working on teams in agencies and studios of various sorts. Art directors, writers, designers, copy editors, photographers, illustrators, web designers, videographers, account executives, and others always work together as needed. Nothing is ever a solo effort.
When we create a “team” for a project, the members are always known entities who have proven track records and proof of delivery. There are no ‘newbies.’
When the studio system collapsed here in Boston, the skilled designers with leadership abilities formed collaborations amongst themselves to build the needed teams with the talent pool to convince clients to hire them for high end projects. When a team leader gets a Request for Qualifications for a large project, resumes and results matter. They are going to connect with the best people they know to land that work. You don’t find these designers on Behance.
If you don’t have the chops (years of metric-proven skill and experience and references), if you don’t have the network, if you don’t have the level of work to show that you would be an asset to any team, it is very difficult to be hired into one.
@PrintDriver brings up a good point. Even in my freelance and solo business work, that work has typically been a team effort. It’s rare (as in almost never) that I have taken on projects from individuals where it’s just me and the client (I try to avoid those jobs, but that’s another subject).
Instead, there has usually been a team involved, where I’ve been brought in to help or where I’ve brought in others to help. For example, when a company with a small marketing group is working on a project, they might contact me to help with design. Likewise, if they hire me to design their website, I might work with their communication team, and I might line up programmers or photographers to help fill in those parts of the job.
Over the years, you get to know talented and reliable people with various skills who can fill in as needed.
How did you connect with those groups and how did you introduce yourself to them? Imagine, you’ve got a decent folio & CV, you’d love to collaborate with couple of agencies or teams or whatever, and you’re available for remote job, what exactly would you do to collaborate with those teams?
B should also probably mention that he had a decade or two of in-agency work where he networked and became familiar with other dependable people like himself in the world, before he began freelancing.
How do teenagers get friends? They don’t just show up at school one day and announce they’re here. Nor do they hide in the library with their heads buried in books. Teenagers spend most of their time going about their daily business while creating relationships with other teens.
Cool song; I like that band, too. This class sucks — wanna exchange notes. Awesome hair! Where did you get it done? This is my friend, Bob. He’s cool. Mind if he comes along?
The teenage years are like the minor leagues for adulthood. You filter in those who fit and filter out those who don’t, but it happens more quickly. In adulthood, it takes time.
There is no secret entry door where magic happens if you know the password. It’s a long process that, for me, started during my university years. I still keep in contact with some of those people. After that, the degree gave me instant credibility in interviews with people who had taken a similar long, formal route and paid their dues. I got to work with people who knew what they were doing. Eventually, I became one of those people for certain kinds of work. For years, I was a creative director whose main job was assembling teams composed of those I knew I could depend upon.
You mentioned being a novice, so I’m assuming you’re one of those looking for the secret door that doesn’t exist and hoping to land on somebody’s go-to contact list for when they need your specialty. Some people skip the steps and make it work, but it’s a longshot path when you’re competing with those who didn’t try to take shortcuts. I wish I could tell you to do this and that to make everything fall together quickly, but from my experience, it doesn’t often work that way. Again, think back to being a teenager and the effort it took to get in with the right crowd, then multiply that by 50.
First off, the “Multiple Owners” tag simply tells that those are products of collaborations. Probably a group of individuals with different specialties in creativity ‘teamed up’ to deliver the entire works so tagged.
“It seems like they’re doing something different” . . … well, if the works gets applauded and praised, it is most likely they really did something different that’s worthy of the attention and commendations thereon.
“Currently, I’m struggling to make an income” . . . there you are. The ‘Multiple Owners’ are most likely not struggling to make an income since their ingenuity somewhat keeps them in the limelight where they land jobs often. And it is NOT being in a team that makes for their success.
Conclusion; being in a team or a part of it, isn’t the solution you should be looking for. If you ever become a part of one without considerable creative abilities to contribute to the team work, you may not be able to earn therefrom. Simply put, what you contribute to such works almost always determine what you earn from such group projects. You can’t be a good creative and be “struggling”. You just need to do more and more work on your creative abilities so you can stand out and get hired. Go to creative platforms and ‘study’ designs. Find out what makes ‘outstanding works’. Fact is the design market is heavily saturated with experienced designers and gaining experience requires time element. Summon the courage to spend that time improving your talents. You would be in bucks when you have capacity to provide qualitative and acceptable designs and services. No other approach that I know.
