26 Getting Started Right
clients understand that in some way they’re “paying” for your skills,
it puts you on an equal, professional level. You’re not an intern,
you’re not a student volunteer. No one is doing a favor; you’re both
here to get work done.
It also puts the pressure on you, as a designer, to produce worth-
while work. I made the mistake of doing a lot of work for free for
various organizations at my University. It wasn’t all bad—I learned
a lot and got experience designing for others—but none of those
pieces were a lasting contribution to my portfolio. Why?
To be honest, I had so much freedom that the designs were crap—
I was just a free “student” designer, after all. The “clients” were
getting the work for free and saw the work as a class project and
didn’t invest the time working with me as a professional—making
requirements, requesting revisions, taking it seriously. No matter
how well intentioned my designs were, they didn’t undergo the
rigors of a real, paying gig, multiple iterations, and stringent
approval processes, and the work suffered as a result.
Still, crappy designs can yield valuable experience. Use any and
every opportunity to practice your craft in school, learn the value
of your time, and hone your project and your client relations skills.
Just know, when you come out the other side with a degree and a
folder full of projects, which ones are worth a space in the portfolio
and which ones are not.
Start with a Portfolio
Getting your first start in any design-centered field can be a chal-
lenging prospect. It’s a catch-22 of design: clients won’t hire
you because your portfolio is empty, and your portfolio is empty
because clients won’t hire you. If you’re fresh into the web design
industry, chances are that you have not produced a lot of previous
professional website work—that’s why you need a job. It seems like
a mean prank on new web designers.
