Home / Freelancing / How I became a freelance web designer… and other unrelated stories

How I became a freelance web designer… and other unrelated stories

Written on 18 February 2011, published in Freelancing with an astounding 10 comments

Welcome to my brand new blog at HM Web Solutions! Over the coming months I’ll be adding articles, tutorials, resources, reviews of programs I use and value, and other titbits that I hope you may find of interest.

Firstly an introduction, who I am, where I am and what I do. Now I warn you that this is going to be a long opening article as it will explain a little about how I became a freelance web designer, what I use to complete my projects, how I found clients, even how I charge.

Everything out in the open, so that those of you who are thinking about taking the plunge can be a little more informed. I’ll split the article up into a few parts so that it’s easier to digest.

My names Nathan Powell and I’m originally from south Wales in the U.K. but I’ve been living in Madrid, Spain for more than ten years. I live with my partner, Nuria, our daughter, two cats and lots of noisy neighbours.

I’m a freelance web designer who started out in the design world as an editorial intern some 6 years ago. I made the move to being a freelance web designer two years back after failing to have a temporary contract renewed at an editorial house. This all coincided nicely with the arrival of the world wide “Credit Crunch” so things were tough all over. There was no work, I was fed up, and it was time for a change!

With the huge wealth of tutorial sites and design blogs that abound on the web I began to dig into web design. I loved the fact that when you clicked on something there was a response, something immediate. There are so many great sites out there that just give and give. Total strangers, willing to help you just because they can. I began the same way as most… designing sites for friends, my first personal portfolio design and generally playing around in Photoshop creating awful mockups. I had absolutely no formal training in graphic design, but it didn’t matter. Things moved on, and I am now my own boss and wouldn’t have it any other way.

For those of you who may be in a job that you hate, having no time for yourself or simply in need of a change, I am living proof that anything is possible.

When I arrived in Spain I was a barman by trade, I had no Spanish and nowhere to call home. 10 years on and I am as near to being bilingual as I could ever be. I have a home, a family and my own modest business. As I write this I’m sitting in my favourite coffee shop making the most of the freedom that comes from being a freelancer.

For those of you who are thinking of making the leap from employee to entrepreneur there are a few things that you should really think about first. Things that I didn’t take into account.

Why do I want this? – You WILL struggle at first, maybe for some time unless you are incredibly lucky, very talented, or both.

Do I have enough money to fall back on if I have a few rough months? – Chances are you will have some very bleak months ahead, financially speaking, so be prepared.

Do I have a partner who is willing to support all the stupid-ass mistakes that I am likely to make as a newbie freelancer? – Perhaps the most important consideration of all.

Am I willing to forgo the day to day social aspect of being in an office environment? – Working alone can cause cabin fever. Be warned!

Still interested? Then lets move on.

So…I would like to share a list of places that, over the years have helped me to develop my design skills from a PhotoWhat? to an independent, happier, self-employed web designer. The list is in no particular order. Don’t forget to sign up to their RSS feeds.

line25.com
Chris Spooner is the man. He holds back on nothing. His tutorials explain how he designs and codes all of his own projects. He has multiple sites so be sure to check out his work.

webdesign.tutsplus.com/
A fantastic site that is packed full of web development goodies, an all round help for the budding freelance web designer. It’s part of the Envato franchise so check out their partner sites for lots of great help and resources.

webdesignerdepot.com/
Another design blog aimed squarely at the modern web designer. Great articles.

css-tricks.com/
Chris Coyier is at the forefront of CSS advancement, continually pushing boundaries. Definitely check him out. Also take a look at his WordPress guide site. http://digwp.com/

sixrevisions.com/
Relative new kid on the block, but some cracking articles and always a good read.

smashingmagazine.com/
Smashing Magazine is THE design blog. You can find resources, tutorials, articles, freebies and just about anything you can imagine related to web design and development.

freelancefolder.com/
Freelance Folder is dedicated exclusively to the world of freelancing, whether you work in design, journalism or illustration its a great place to drop by. Fantastic articles and the place has a thriving community.

freelanceswitch.com/
Another great place for insights into the world of the freelancer.

www.noupe.com/
More of a general design blog but very well put together and on my RSS reader list.

So you’ve got the skills, what about the setup? You could argue, if you have the skills who cares? Being people who love their gadgets and all things shiny however, what we work with plays a vital part of who we are as freelance web designers.

The continual debate over Mac or P.C. is a moot one. You like what you like and you buy what you want. That said I LOVE Apple products. I know, I’m a sucker. I’ve had duff Apple products, I’ve even had to get an entire iMac replaced after multiple screen problems but I will never go back to using P.C.’s for this simple reason; the Mac OS is so good, so reliable. Any way now I’ve got that off my chest, its done. I will never again mention my love of all things Apple…promise.

So this is my own personal setup for work. My situation is not ideal as I have my office in the living room but until we can sell our flat, (any takers) I’m stuck.

Hardware:

21″ iMac Intel Core 2 Duo. 4 GB Memory with 300 GB hard drive.

External Lacie 500 GB hard drive. Usb driven, no external power supply needed. Used to back up data. I use Apple’s built in Time Machine to backup, but there are many systems out there.

17″ LG Flatron LCD as a second screen. Not the best, but nice to have all my secondary windows open while I work. e.g. Email, things (planner) etc.

External usb LG DVD burner. Handy for the days I can’t get hold of +R discs.

Wireless Apple keyboard.

Wireless Apple Magic Mouse. ( I have Leopard installed and sometimes the corresponding software disappears! ).

Bamboo Fun graphics tablet. Don’t need anything else as I don’t really do much illustration.

HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 Wireless. Nice home office printer and the wireless edition is very handy.

Canon Lide 110 colour scanner. Imperative for scanning contracts, receipts and odds and ends.

Vonage VOIP call box. This is a great service that allows me to have a British phone number and call British numbers for free, all for a flat fee of €7 a month. They do plans that cover most countries.

13″ MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo. 2 GB Memory with 150 GB hard drive. Very handy when out and about. Got to see a client? no problem. Working while enjoying the Spanish sun, even better!

iPad. I wasn’t at all interested in getting one of these but Nuria got me one for Christmas and I’m hooked. What can I say?.

iPhone 4. Again not something that I could have afforded to buy outright, but I told my phone company (Movistar) that I was jumping ship and they offered me the iPhone 4 and reduced call rates. What’s a guy to do? By the way, I absolutely love it.

I think that covers it for the hardware, as you can see, I do have a penchant for all things Apple. You can most certainly get away with a lot less though.  A desktop or laptop is quite adecuate. The rest is mere decoration, albeit nice to have.

Software:

Photoshop. A no brainer. I hear the arguments for Fireworks but I just never learned to use it.

Adobe Bridge. For me the best way to organise my project files and to have visual access to them.

Adobe Indesign. Can’t get away from my editorial days. I still have to lay out the odd business card or promotional piece and its great for proposals.

Coda by Panic. The all round programme for coding web sites. Built in FTP which is nice. Too many features to mention here.

Adobe Acrobat Pro. Another no brainer.

iTunes. Nuff said.

Things. The way I keep up with all my to-do items. Synchs up between iMac and iPhone.

Thunderbird from Mozilla. This is my main email client. I use Gmail for personal email. I tried synching both up, but Gmail gave me some real headaches.

Alfred. This is my latest edition, and other than CMD/Shift it’s probably my most used action on the mac. Definitely give it a go.

MAMP. Essential for developing locally. There are several P.C. versions. I think the most popular is XAMPP.

Transmit. Great ftp programme.

Parallels. Need to test out your sites on the Mac, then this is the application to run Windows. See also VMware Fusion.

WorkTimer. A very rudimentary, ugly time keeping programme that does the job just fine.

DNS Flusher. Clean out that DNS cache!

Firefox. Browser of choice, although lately it seems to be slowing everything down. Great for developing, make sure you install Firebug. I would switch to Google’s Chrome but I don’t like the privacy policies associated with Chrome extensions.

Twitter for Mac. Keep up on all those great designers that inspire me.

Textedit. I try to stay away from Word if I can as it’s so bloated and slow.

Dropbox. Best way to sync up those essential files between your computers. If you’re out with a client and you’ve forgotten a file, just login to Dropbox and grab that pesky file, (assuming you’ve “dropped” it there).

Paparazzi. A nice little programme that will take high quality snaps of sites. Just write in the address and hit enter. Great!.

I think that’s more than enough for an opening post. If you’ve made it this far, then well done, and thank you! If you have any thoughts or comments then don’t hesitate to get typing.

The second part to this will be with you very shortly.

Good luck all.

Nathan