So far, I’ve logged about 15,000 freelance design hours and racked up more than 200 (mostly) happy clients across 25 countries…
And somehow through all of it managed to survive and build what I think amounts to a pretty decent freelance design career.. so far.
As of this writing, I’m 32 years old. I’ve never been employed. I started freelancing while in University eleven years ago and have had the great fortune (and oftentimes misfortune — that for another day) of never looking back. For some reason I’ve always been drawn to the idea of partnering with people instead of working for people. Freelancing allows me that choice. I’m drawn to the wild ambiguity and freedom that freelancing (can) offer.
There are three common threads across all my projects over the years that I think have really served me well and I want to share them with you. I call them the 3 principles of design mastery. If you’re a designer of digital things (web, UX, presentations, etc.) then I think you may find these relevant.
And you should know I don’t throw around the word “mastery” very lightly. But I believe these 3 principals merit that level of recognition. They are very, very hard to do well. I have and will spend my career trying to get better at making use of these — I’m convinced they are the key to powerful storytelling through design.