On When to Go Freelance and Adding Dream Clients To Your Portfolio
A time to reflect on where you want to go as an art director in the next year
Hi everyone,
I hope you are having a lovely weekend. I’ve just had my parents over in Berlin after recovering from my trip to Los Angeles and packing for Paris on Tuesday! So excited, Paris is my favourite city and I definitely aspire to move there sometime soon. I recently posted my first more personal post called ‘On Piling Up Screenshots’ and what to do with the inspiration sitting on your phone, reflect on it and actually take action. This was very well received, so I decided to do this more often.
It’s less of an educational or inspirational piece like I usually write, but this is written in a more personal way from my own experience. Everyone has their own unique experiences and it heavily depends on where you are based, your personal situation and actions and your background. But this time I wanted to write on basically ‘how to decide’ to go freelance as an art director and getting dream clients in your portfolio.
The first part on deciding to go freelance is available for everyone, but the adding dream clients to your portfolio will be exclusive content for paid subscribers. You can sign up for a free trial or use a discount code below. 🦋
[This is a lengthy read with lots of insights, it might be cut off on email fyi]
How I Started to Consider It
The freelance life is not for everyone, but it is often very romanticised. I went freelance about a year ago and initially started out as a freelancer before landing my first official job title because I faked it till I made it (more on that later). The main reason I chose to leave my job as an art director and pursue a career as a freelancer was because I wanted to dip my toes into photography and define myself as a creative art director more. When you work 40 hours a week, and mine was stressful so I often worked more, I had zero time and energy left to fulfill my creative passions. I worked at a company that I truly enjoyed at first, but the company went through many changes that increasingly diverged from where I wanted my career to go. I transitioned from working on art direction projects for fashion and sports brands to pharmaceutical brands whose values were very different from mine, among other quite random industries. I worked on target groups I did not relate to, which can be fine, but it was also an industry I was not invested in or even interested in.
I knew that whatever I was doing, I would never add those projects to my portfolio. I pushed hard to make the projects as exciting as I could, but sometimes client opinions overpower your own vision. It felt like a waste of time; I wasn’t learning anything new, I was working beyond office hours in different time zones, and I was creating things I did not love or want to be associated with.
Where to Draw the Line
Deciding to go fully freelance is very daunting, especially as a 25-year-old with only a few years of experience. I had mostly worked in the same place and did not have a large network, except for people who left the company I worked at and started elsewhere or the handful of contacts from my school who found jobs and stayed in touch. The first few years of your career feel quite transformative because you build your portfolio, shifting it from student work to real-life published brand projects. It's during this time that you might realize you've done too many fast food projects, making it hard to break into fashion projects due to the high competition and a misaligned portfolio.
I started applying for full-time jobs a year ago and spoke to many companies. Most of them weren’t hiring, were looking for future roles but didn’t have any open positions, or would only sponsor more senior candidates. It was daunting, and the turning point came when I noticed that my portfolio hadn’t changed at all when I sent out my applications again. There were no new projects that I was proud of or that represented me as a creative. I felt sad, had lost touch with my creativity, and dreaded going to work. I decided that no matter what happens, next week I would give up my job and commit to freelancing.
So I did. I wanted to work for more fashion and sport brands and build a portfolio I loved.
So What Happened
Suddenly, I didn’t have a job and it was time to introduce myself to the world. I entered the freelance industry at arguably the worst time in the last decade. Companies were laying off employees en masse, agencies were struggling without work, and many people who got laid off couldn’t apply for full-time jobs because there were simply no openings. As a result, they also turned to freelancing. Recruiters would post freelance art director roles on LinkedIn, and within minutes, there would be 200 replies, but you never received a message back. Yet, it has been my most successful year so far. I’ve almost doubled my income, worked for dream brands, traveled to ideal destinations to shoot campaigns, gained a bigger voice as an art director, and enjoyed more free time than I had in my full-time job. I worked on numerous personal projects, moved countries and cities, and now live in my dream apartment.
It sounds like a dream. As I write these words, I realise this is exactly why freelancing is often romanticised. But there is so much more to it.
You Are Always On
In my first four to five months, I sent out daily introduction emails, attended countless Zoom calls and coffee meetings, and created mock-up projects for my portfolio. I basically stalked every company, found the creative directors, producers, and resource managers, and sent out literally hundreds of LinkedIn messages and emails. Ninety percent did not reply, but the ten percent that did give me hope. I scheduled calls, kept updating them with new work, and eventually landed the right briefs and built relationships.
The beginning is always the hardest. When you are not booked, downtime feels extremely daunting because you fear it might be forever. Then, with your next job, you regret not actually taking time off. I had to dip into my limited savings a lot, which stressed me out because I was running out and couldn't go back to my previous job. Balancing freelancing has been tough; fear took over more times than I imagined. But it took me almost a year to realize that even with the ones that did not reply, you are always planting seeds.
In the last ten months, I’ve worked for seven different agencies across more than ten brands. Some of these relationships were built while I was applying for full-time jobs. It made me realize that you will only be contacted when they need you, and if they like you, they will remember you. They will keep you on file, and you will know. If they don’t, reach out when you have refilled your portfolio with new projects and aligned your work better with them.
Make Yourself Known
Another important thing is that you mostly have to plant the first seed yourself, and everything after that will happen on its own. Don’t ever stalk people, push, or scream about your availability in public, because it will make you seem less attractive. Be personal, write people notes about your new projects and upcoming availability directly. This is how I landed my first job that kickstarted everything. I was still a student, applying for small side gigs through school, such as graphic design jobs or visual research assignments to earn some money. Then I got in contact with people on The Dots to do small design work and get paid a bit. Once I had a portfolio that included some school work, I would introduce myself via email as a junior art director, highlighting the fact that I was junior as a positive. Not many juniors freelance because it is unstable and difficult, but positioning yourself as junior and specialized in Gen Z or Gen Alpha, being chronically online, or having a unique skill set (e.g., a tech background or sustainability interest) can make you highly attractive to the right companies.
Once I landed my freelance job, it led to more opportunities and eventually a full-time position. This is exactly how it has been since I re-entered the freelance market—this time for real. When you deliver quality work, clients always count on you and come back with more projects. You only need two or three agencies that provide enough work to sustain you. If you have more agencies that love working with you, you can pick and choose the projects you want. And if you have even more, you can raise your prices.
Learn What You Need
Before going freelance, I would advise knowing what you need. You could try combining two types of jobs, such as a part-time position while building your freelance career, or having a bit of savings. My strategy was that I had neither of those, so I introduced myself quite early on before actually making the move. The rest was diving into the deep end, and I advise you not to do it unless you are prepared to take a significant risk and trust the process. I know I had some reputable brands like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, and Foot Locker in my portfolio and had talked to a lot of people beforehand. My boyfriend, who is also a creative, still worked full-time, so he had an income and could help me out when I was low on money.
There is a lot more to discuss, such as the big T word (taxes) but I am by no means an expert in this and don’t feel comfortable giving advice on it, especially since the rules vary so much between countries. I hope this newsletter has got you thinking about your next step. I have some personal topics to cover that I will save for a different post.
In the next section, we will talk about how to work with dream clients as a freelancer. In the last year, I’ve completed projects for Nike, Adidas, Estrid, Jimmy Choo, Electronic Arts, Coach, and more, and I will share exactly how I approached this. I made it ‘my thing’ to work with premium and high-fashion, sportswear, and cultural clients because I feel my knowledge aligns best with those areas.