Many designers shy away from increasing their rates, fearing it will scare clients away and put them under pressure to deliver higher-quality work. Understandable concerns with the common fixed mindset. However, if you want to grow as a Designer, you must be comfortable with losing the wrong type of clients
Dear Young Designer, Yes, you can already call yourself a “Designer” Everybody in this world is a designer. What you want to be is an “Excellent Designer”. To become that; Explore! Do not worry about specialising. You will have time for that. Take whatever comes your path in design. Find
Happy Sunday mate, So, you want higher-value clients who pay higher $$$ dollars. I'm with you. We all do (in a way). However, if you keep the $$$ income as the primary goal in your conversations with clients, it will completely affect your attitude, vibe... You are going to unintentionally
The design world is filled with exciting opportunities. We see Designers on X who are creating Framer templates, experimenting with 3D, writing newsletters, starting design subscription agencies, selling icon packs and many more. I know it’s tempting to chase them all. I’ve given in to that temptation as
Write I've been writing for years, however, I gave the focus it deserved in 2023 as I felt the urge to express my ideas more in words than colours and shapes. I didn’t resist the urge and I have seen amazing benefits. Articulating my ideas, feelings, experiences,
Psychology
You are a designer, working on your full-time job or your freelance projects. You go online Open X app You see 1. John released his Framer template 2. Fatma launches her “How To Make $100k As A Designer” course 3. Gary starts his subscription model design service 4. Laila is
Psychology
We all have our aspirations and goals in life and career. For me, it goes from having an impact on my full-time work to helping designers via my blog, email newsletter, and other educational content. I need to work damn hard to achieve these goals! Making the most of every
Every week, you'll get 1 actionable tip to grow your value as a designer and earn more $$$. It takes only 4 minutes.
Visual Design often doesn't receive the respect it deserves among other disciplines such as UX, Development, and so on. I have faced situations like: Devs have already started the development based on UX. Just spend a few hours adding colours, please. We do not need visual design. Our
The tagline for my newsletter goes as below: Grow As Designer | Helping Designers Grow Their Value and Income. It's a bit unclear, right? What the heck is "Value" anyway? How can you grow it? Well, there are many meanings to it and ways to grow it
As designers, we can sometimes feel lost in our design career and it applies to all of us from Junior to Senior levels. We either have no idea where we are going or get lazy and lost in our comfort zone. If I've based the advice purely on
As designers, our days are filled with a variety of tasks and responsibilities. Here is a likely scenario; You wake up, go through your morning routine, and sit down at your desk to start working. First, you see a flood of emails in your inbox. You start replying to them
My recommendation: MUST READ More details and reviews on Amazon This book took its place in my annual re-reading list. Lots of common sense practices in this book. I especially liked how Naval emphasises the importance of being a perpetual learner and reader which I greatly value too. I also
More details and reviews on Amazon This book has a different, more human approach to management and leadership, unlike most books that are usually written by top-level CEOs. Julie's journey from IC role to Manager is more relatable, at least to me. 3 premises I got from the
My recommendation: 7/10 More details and reviews on Amazon Focusing on the good you can do for others than yourself was an interesting perspective to build habits. I found the practical tips about how to phrase some questions useful such as using "What..." instead of "Why.
My recommendation: 9/10 More details and reviews on Amazon You don't need the perfectly systemized plan to have a successfull business. Focus on giving the best service possible to the small number of people and improve/invent as you get feedback. Don't fear to be
Technical skills will get you so far in Design. You need to focus on soft skills such as Communication, Time Management if you want to grow and stand out.
Dear Designer, You have done an amazing job this year! Maybe you didn’t achieve everything you wanted. Go easy on yourself. Design is hard! You are expected to touch everything from stating business problems to communicating your solutions to developers, stakeholders. You work hard on making sense of data
More details and reviews on Amazon Interesting take on creative minds and struggles. It is almost like a religious book, the author talks about Muses, Angels, how God has created us for a specific purpose equipped with genes/soul to achieve that purpose and how we are destined to follow
Meticulously structured design courses are valuable. Study them, learn them, but if you ever get overwhelmed (and you will), bear in mind that the real work environments are not that strict, you will have room to break the rules you learned, explore and make your own rules.