27 Getting Started Right
You might get lucky and find someone to take a chance on you,
but more likely you are going to have to put in the work. Especially
among freelancers, portfolios are an essential source for maintain-
ing a continuous stream of work, coming in second only to profes-
sional referrals.Where do you frequently find new clients and projects?So you need a portfolio, but you haven’t done much designing yet.
Some way or another, you’re going to need pieces to fill your port-
folio before you even get to your first interview. And we’re talking a
lot of pieces—one or two student projects won’t cut it. You’ll want
at least 5-6 solid web designs to demonstrate to employers and
clients that you’ve got the chops to get the work done.There’s a number of ways to generate this work: student work,
imaginary clients, and so on. Anything that gets you designing and
gets projects out there is useful, but frequently the results of these
filler projects are fairly obvious to employers—filler work looks like
filler work. Instead of focusing on venues that help you generate
portfolio pieces, let’s look at what is necessary for any piece to be
a successful showcase, not just filler. Do the pro bono work, the
design projects and so on, then make sure each of your pieces
meets these characteristics to get the job done.Professional referrals
or recommendations
Online portfolio
or profile
Social media contact
Job boards
Advertising (print,
media, etc.)
Forums or online
communities
Cold calling
Contests or
competitions
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
2.9%4.1%5.0%5.3%8.4%14.8%20.2%39.4%