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If you want to fill out your portfolio then just create some designs/redesigns of your own. Pick a niche and redesign it, for example online banking. As admirab
by MrAlmostWrong 16y ago
If you want to fill out your portfolio then just create some designs/redesigns of your own. Pick a niche and redesign it, for example online banking. As admirable as it is to do free design work, it's only work if you are getting paid and you will find that many times people will just take advantage of an offer like this.
Let's not forget the headaches of having to tweak to the client's happiness. Who wants to continue working on a site when you aren't getting paid to do so?
If anything offer a 1-2 page deal for $XXX. Better to have 2 paying clients than 10 free ones that you can't keep up with. Get in the habit of charging now so you don't feel weird about it later.
- alexwyser 16y agoI could always make designs for 'hypothetical companies' but I felt that it'd be more worthwhile if some startup could benefit from my designs at the same time. Plus it gives me the experience of working with clients, as well as some exposure.
- byoung2 16y agoOne technique I had success with when I was freelancing is designing on spec. Find a genre of business and look for bad websites. Restaurants and hair salons are good for this because there are usually really good ones, and really bad ones. Redesign one of the sites, using the content from the site (menus, directions, about us, etc). Then contact the business, and offer to sell them the site. Send them examples of their competitors' sites (the good ones) as leverage. If they don't go for it, you can easily swap out the content with another business in the same genre. You can repeat this several times, and when you are done, you'll have a nice portfolio, and several paying customers.