After moving to Auckland in 2015, I really struggled to find a full time job in fashion design. I went to New Zealand feeling really confident that after working as a designer for Puma, I would easily find a job in Auckland!...I was so wrong. After months of trawling the internet and applying for any kind of 'fashion' based job, I thought it might be best to move back to London. Thats until I stumbled onto a website called Freelancer. Websites such as freelancer, upwork and people per hour are a great way for brands/ companies to find freelancers for website design, graphic design and like me ; fashion design. After taking on lots of small to medium sized projects, I started to gain momentum and realised that I could earn a living doing this full time!
One of my first long term projects was with an exciting cycle brand called Anti-natural. The brand idea was great, the style direction was cool and the Director seemed really enthusiastic about making it a success. As a freelancer, you have to make sure you understand the amount of work you are taking on and cover all the details at the start of a project. As it was one of my first projects, I did not do this and I ended up creating quite a large collection, but I was only charging a fraction of what I should have. I took on an apparel job and didn't realise how many graphics I was going to be designing. Its fine to undercharge slightly at the beginning, and to get good reviews but I was going private with this job and I should have set a more clear guide from the beginning. Never undersell yourself! If you have the experience and you know you are a good designer, don't undersell your talent. In hindsight, what I should have done is tell the client that the job is now a lot bigger than I originally thought and although I am happy to continue- there will now be a new cost going forward.
When you are talking about costs and quotes, make sue you find out how many garments your client is looking for, details about the garments, how many colours, do they need graphics...etc. You can then set up a fixed quote. You then need to talk about revisions, and how much time after you submit the work you can spend on updates. You also need to be clear with your client that design time is separate from technical spec time. This question comes up a lot, so at the beginning of your job make sure you outline the technical specs are a second job.
You can find the freelance jobs I started off in here:
