What does a freelancer dedicated to graphic design do? Among many of its functions, communication is the most important. Human beings move around languages, different forms of it. One of them, for example, is clothing. What we wear speaks for us. And in this case, graphic design communicates to us through visuals; these could be illustrations, the choice of the perfect typography, the right editing of a photograph, and so on. But more specifically, its functions are the following:
- To know in depth the company, or client, for which it is designed.
- Identify the visual aspects to best represent the client.
- Produces all the creative around the conceptual development.
- Unify all of the above based on brand standards.
But to better express what a graphic designer does, and feels, in the freelancer life, we leave you a profile of our community in Crema. Alejandra Melo tells us:
"When I made the decision to become a graphic designer, and photographer, I never considered being independent or in this case 'freelance'. As we have been taught in this society, we always have to be someone's employee and follow the bosses' orders. To be honest, I always had problems with authority, I respect it a lot, however sometimes I ran into (creative) walls or different ways of thinking. Every time that happened to me, I thought that in creativity there should be no limits, much less rules.
Being a freelancer is always hearing the different romantic comments about being independent, being your own boss or savoring the freedom that comes with not having to answer to a company, but what they don't tell you is that you, freelancer, end up being a company. When you want to be a freelancer, you want to be a freelancer, or you are a freelancer. That brings you face to face with you day after day to have to take care of all those tasks that at the end of the day you will have to solve by yourself. There are an infinite number of tools that we can use to be freelance because even if we think we are few, there is a large freelance community that supports us, but sometimes because we are so 'lonely' we don't know we are there.
Being a freelancer is having to schedule at what time you need to prepare that important Pitch and have 10 minutes before sabotage for not believing in you. Scheduling everything will become part of your routine because of so many things to do.
Being a freelancer is to be nomadic in work spaces, from moving from your living room to having to go to a coffee shop, and it can be good, but sometimes it can be overwhelming to have to space yourself in many places and not find yourself.
Being a freelancer is about wanting to schedule vacations that, if you're lucky, you actually take, travel and venture out, because if you don't, you're back on your lap and want to get those pending things out of the way. I can give you a more extensive list of what it is to be a freelancer but I think being a freelancer for me is proving to myself day by day that I can be a designer, photographer, project manager, community manager, consultant, driver, accountant, assistant, secretary, stylist, creative director, CEO, PR... be someone that if the world closes to you, you'll find a door to open.
You can find Ale and her work on her Instagram account. And if you want to start living the freelance life with your payments secured, join Crema at crema.cm/en !
