Starting a career in graphic design?
As one of the most in-demand online design jobs, you will find plenty of opportunities in this field.
Graphic designers help their clients’ businesses stand out in today’s digitally connected marketplace by producing engaging visuals for their websites, branding, and marketing campaigns.
Aside from this, the industry is constantly evolving due to advances in technology and the ever-changing business landscape.
However, where there’s opportunity, there are also challenges.
To succeed in graphic design, you must know more about these obstacles, and how to deal with them.
Fortunately, here are some of the most common challenges graphic design beginners face – and ways to overcome them.
Experiencing Creative Blocks
One of the most common graphic design challenges is handling creative blocks.
Being a full-time graphic designer involves producing new and high-quality visuals every day.
However, there will be days when you’ll come up with nothing, no matter how hard you try.
Generating new ideas daily can also lead to creative burnout, especially when you’re constantly under pressure at your work from home job.
How Do You Overcome This?
One way to overcome a creative block is to take a break.
For some, taking a walk and getting some fresh air helps them get their creative juices flowing again. Some, on the other hand, watch or read completely unrelated to find fresh inspiration.
Additionally, try breaking down large and complicated tasks into smaller, more manageable ones so you won’t feel overwhelmed.
Finally, there are many places you can look at for inspiration like creative blogs, art portfolio platforms, and artists’ social media pages.
Managing Client Expectations
Sometimes, your creative vision doesn’t mesh with your client’s.
They might make unreasonable demands, nonsensical comments, or struggle to clearly articulate their thoughts on the design. Alternatively, they might keep asking for revisions despite your meeting all their previous specifications.
Aside from these, some clients may request changes or features beyond the project’s original scope, causing delays and increasing costs.
How Do You Overcome This?
Establishing proper communication with your clients is vital to helping you understand and meet their expectations.
Schedule regular meetings and progress updates with your client so you’re both on the same page about a project.
If you’re working with a client who struggles with articulating their ideas, try to work on your active listening.
Active listening helps you pick up on your client’s indirect cues and ask better follow-up questions so you’re better equipped to figure out what they really want, design-wise.
Meeting Tight Deadlines
Another of the most common challenges graphic design beginners face is meeting tight deadlines.
Many graphic designers, especially freelance ones, have more than one client. This means meeting several, sometimes simultaneous, deadlines, each with its own requirements.
Even if you’re only working for one client, managing your deadlines can still be challenging if your client has you working on several assignments.
How Do You Overcome This?
Today, you can use many project management tools like Trello, ClickUp, and Monday.com to keep track of your tasks and deadlines.
Aside from these, you can also better manage your workload by prioritizing urgent tasks and finishing them as soon as possible. If a task seems too complex to finish in one go, try breaking it down into smaller, more manageable ones.
Finally, set stronger boundaries between your work and your personal life so your boss will think twice before chatting you up outside work hours.
Keeping Up With the Rapid Advances in Technology
Many sophisticated software available today pushes the boundaries of what graphic designers can do. These apps and tools enable novice designers to produce high-quality visuals and allow real-time global collaboration with their teams and clients.
Then there’s the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in graphic design. While these tools significantly boost your productivity, there are also concerns that the increasing use of AI may replace human graphic designers in the future.
How Do You Overcome This?
As the saying goes: “Change is the only constant thing in the world.”
Instead of resting on your laurels, you must adopt a growth mindset to help you keep up with all these advances in graphic design.
This could mean following design blogs or even attending online courses/seminars to remain updated with recent design trends.
Also, remember that you don’t have to learn ALL of the newest graphic design tools and software at once. Instead, focus on mastering the ones most relevant to your niche.
When it comes to AI, remember that they’re meant to help, not replace us.
While it can generate images quickly, these often look generic and contain subtle errors no human artist would make. Thus, even the most advanced graphic design AI still needs people behind it to generate visuals.
Self-Promotion
No matter how skilled you are in graphic design, clients won’t find you unless you market yourself well.
This means making a portfolio that stands out from the competition, establishing an online presence in networking apps like LinkedIn, and attending relevant networking events.
However, if you’re uncomfortable with self-promotion, this can be daunting. Additionally, tracking down industry peers can be difficult if you don’t have the right connections.
How Do You Overcome This?
Start with sharing your work with your friends and family and the graphic design communities you’re part of.
Once you’ve built enough confidence, you can start attending online events to meet industry peers and potential clients or mentors.
When building your brand, remember to identify and highlight what sets you apart from other designers. Be consistent with your visual and verbal brand across all your platforms and build relationships with your audience by engaging with their comments.
Ready to Get Creative?
Despite being one of the most in-demand online design jobs today, graphic design beginners face many challenges when starting their careers.
Fortunately, by following the tips above, you’ll have an easier time overcoming these.
Still looking for job openings offering an online work from home setup? Remote Staff is here to help.
Our jobs list contains plenty of openings for graphic designers, as well as other positions like online transcription jobs.
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up here. Good luck!
