No, you don’t need to be a professional graphic designer with a degree and an impressive portfolio in order to make money with graphic design.
Living proof right here, folks.
I made my first $20 with graphic design within a few weeks after discovering the most magical platform for creating pretty designs without much effort – Canva.
Since then, I have created and sold many logos, business cards, brochures, advertisement designs for social media, etc.
And the best part is, it really doesn’t require much effort at all. To make designs like the ones I just showed you, all you really need is Canva (well, except for the mind-blowing Builder Brothers roof design. But more on that later.)
Unlike Photoshop, where you need to spend hours and HOURS to understand how it works, Canva has made the design process easy-peasy – even for complete beginners!
Are you ready to make money with graphic design? Awesome. Let’s go.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Where to start?
What if I’m not very creative?
Make some designs!
How to make your first bucks with graphic design
How do I price my services?
More ways to make money with your designs
Alright, what’s the next step?
CONCLUSION
Where to start?
Okay, we already cleared up that the best way for beginners to start learning graphic design is with Canva.
So, first step for you is to create a Canva account.
Is Canva free?
Yeah, Canva is a free to use platform, which is one of the reasons why I recommend it for complete beginners. However, when you start using the platform, you’ll soon find that some of its features are only available for those who are subscribed to Canva Pro.
I would say it’s totally possible to make awesome designs only using the free version. But, if you want access to more templates, design elements, or the possibility to make the background transparent or adjust the quality of your designs when downloading them, you need Canva Pro.
Luckily, you can be sneaky about that, and use their 30-day free trial when you need more flexibility for your designs.
Once you’ve created your Canva account and thus completed your today’s to-do list, go get a nice cup of coffee to celebrate your achievement, and think about how great you are.
After doing so, you can go on to explore Canva; try clicking on ‘create a design’, and playing around with the design by adding texts, changing fonts, trying some templates, uploading a photo and adding it to the design, etc.
Just get familiar with what you can do in the design area.
You can also head to YouTube and watch some tutorial that shows you the basics of Canva, like this one.
What if I’m not very creative?
Chillax. As I said before, Canva has made it easy for even the least creative minds (like me. I’m only good at math.) to create cool-looking designs.
Whenever you’re struggling to come up with ideas, just search through the templates, and find something you like.
Make some designs!
It’s time to start designing!
Create a few logos, business cards, and Instagram/Pinterest/Facebook designs for some random made-up business.
This will benefit you in two ways: first, you’re getting designing experience, and second, you can use those designs as your portfolio that you’ll show your potential customers.
Make sure you don’t limp on the designs you want to use in your portfolio – create ’em like you were designing for a company paying you $500. Because if you have proof of former impressive designs, chances are you’ll land a client soon😎.
Also, if you need some inspiration designing, for example, a business card, just google something like “cool business card designs”.
How to make your first bucks with graphic design
Now that you’ve got the basics down and made some designs, it’s time to get clients!
So. Remember how I said you should design some logos, business cards, and social media posts?
We’re going to use the best of your creations now to lure businesses in, and offer them your services.
You’ve probably noticed businesses here and there that don’t really have a clue how to present themselves online; some have a brand logo that looks like it was made in the year 2002 by just typing the company’s name in a ‘unique’ font, some have terrible-looking advertisement designs posted on their social media accounts.
It’s our duty now to help those poor businesses.
“But where do I find clients??”
I’m glad you asked.
There are actually a number of ways to find people who are looking for graphic design services.
#1: Search for businesses (on Google, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) who seem to be lacking good graphic design and reach out to them, offering your services (include some of your designs!). Here are some signs that a business may need your services: a) a crappy logo/profile picture b) their posts consist of blurry photos (or just photos that don’t make a customer go “wow, I need this”) c) they haven’t posted in a while.
#2: Maybe someone you know needs your services? If you know a pal from your previous workplace just started a new business, reach out to them and ask if they need any help.
#3: Freelance. You can offer your services on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and 99designs. Keep in mind though that the competition on these sites can be fierce, so you need to know how to stand out from the others offering the same services as you.
Numero uno is what I recommend highest, as that’s what has worked out best for me and has helped me find the most clients.
How do I price my services?
To get an answer to that question, you have to do some market research.
Since I don’t know what corner of the world you live in [probably ;)], I can’t give you a recommendation on how to price your services.
So, just do a quick search to see how graphic design agencies in your area are pricing their services, and how much your client would be paying if they ordered on Fiverr instead. That should give you a general idea.
- If you’ve reached out to businesses offering your services, but you’re struggling to get clients, consider lowering the price.
- If you’ve already got a couple of orders, and the businesses seem happy to pay the price, try increasing your prices.
Also, a little something you can do to get the ball rolling in the beginning is to reach out to businesses and offer your services for free.
Yup, you heard me right. You’ll earn nada.
But, what you will gain from this is experience, an additional design to your portfolio, and the possibility that the business will recommend your service to others.
More ways to make money with your designs
Selling your services to businesses isn’t the only way you can make money with graphic design.
1. You can also sell Canva templates (designs for social media posts that the buyer can tweak) on Etsy, Creative Market, or even through your own website. Here’s a more thorough guide on how to sell Canva templates and make money.
2. Another way to make money with graphic design is to create a theme page on a social media account, and start using your Canva skills to make awesome posts. For example, you could run a Pinterest fashion account where you post outfit inspiration collages, and monetize it with affiliate links, promotions, etc.
Isn’t that just lovely?
So, get creative – think of ways you could implement your graphic design skills.
Alright, what’s the next step?
If you find that you’ve become best buddies with Canva (you know how to use it and your designs look good), and you want to add even more tools to your toolkit, then here’s what you can do next.
First: Learn more about the concepts of graphic design. You can watch a free course on YouTube on things like what colors work best together, what types of fonts to use, etc. Like this graphic design basics course, for example.
Second: Lere’s a skill that I absolutely love. Turning your sketches on paper to actual logos:
Makes me feel almost like a real graphic designer🥹.
I mean, do you see the genius in this? I managed to turn the first letters of the company’s name into a building. And they’re a construction company. To quote Jeremy Clarkson, “Sometimes my genius… It’s almost frightening.”
Anyhow, if you’re wondering how I converted this simple sketch into an image that I could upload to Canva and add the other texts and stuff, watch this tutorial. (I did it in Inkscape, which is also a free platform.
Third: If you’ve found you’re really passionate about graphic design (in which case, that’s awesome dude!), then go on to learn Photoshop and other stuff.
CONCLUSION
Alright, here it is, the amazing journey you can take to make money with graphic design.
Making money with Canva is definitely one of the most fun and creative side hustles I’ve tried, and I hope you find that to be the case for yourself as well.
If you have any tips for people who want to start making money with graphic design, be sure to leave them in the comments below👇👇
Cya in the next post!