Uncertainty? Self-doubt? Mastery? Industry? Doubts? Oh boy

Possibly this might not be the best place to ask this, but I think it can bring a lot of insightful things to peoples whom art starting out (like me) to those whom are planning to join the industry.


So a little story of where I am coming from :

I come from a small island called Curacao. We do not have like an active Design culture or Jobs here in Curacao. I already knew that since High School (finished in 2016 July) and studied for IT. But I always kept learning on and off about Visual Design and browsing on sites like Dribbble/Behance/Awwwards to see what cool stuff peoples are making.

I decided to start with a serious focus on practicing design since November 2016, because I am interested in two pursuits which is Art (currently landscape digital painting) and Visual Design. So then I found Webflow, it peeked my interest more because I did indeed learn, basic stuff such as HTML & CSS from in high school due of another classmate introducing me to it, but as I continue learning those I started reaching roadblocks like having to learn jquery to do any kind cool interaction, or simply just feeling the web is too limited and the same style everywhere (I should have just been more experimental)

As the year goes by, CSS 3 got introduced which started making animation stuff more awesome and doable. But of course I disliked writing codes, so I really love the change Webflow is bringing in the Industry.

So here I am, continuing with my current focus which is :
- Learning Webflow (Mini Experiments + Eventually create sites with it)
- Daily UI (dailyui.co)
- Time to time do artsy stuff throughout the week
- Time off on guitar (for relaxing)

And I come from a place where things like Pay Pal or any kind of Global Payment is non-existent when it comes to receive online payment , unless the other potential client agrees to do Bank Wire (which is expensive). But as I continue practicing, I feel like the road is becoming dimmer, especially when you are from a place where either Design or Art is non-existent.


So with all this whole backstory of another person, what would you do if you are facing uncertainty? Self doubts etc.

The fear of not knowing for what you’re learning is even going to help you or not. The fear of getting work or a job as a Visual Designer or in this case is Front-End Designer?

Again I am not sure if this may be the right place to ask, but seeing we have a lot of professional peoples in here, I thought I would share this mind boggling thing of what I go through few times a month.

2 Likes

hi @BrianHermelijn I unlisted this because maybe this would make for a great stream. maybe be next on our community spotlight?

would love to hear your story and maybe the recording could help others in your same situation.

2 Likes

Would love to do a stream, but currently my microphone for my laptop doesn’t work, and I think the capability of my phone is close to non-existent for streaming on google hangout or youtube. (Thought I was able to use the microphone today, but it turns out the USB Audio Adapter I purchased doesn’t work with the microphone I purchased, since my laptop doesn’t have a Microphone Jack) :expressionless:

@PixelGeek

If i were you i would continue with the visual design path.

If you love visual design then go and do it. you will regret it later on if you don’t do it right now.

people don’t see the potential of design services in your area? Great! You don’t know how good that is? :grinning:

Be an entrepreneur. introduce them to visual design and sell them the service.

tell them exactly why and how it will benefit their business. talk about UX and how a website will allow for their brand to globalize.

it’s not that hard… you just have to want it… go around to EVERY business and sell your service… make a real example of your work (for example a template. not small UI pieces) so they can see how the whole picture works.

then every single night from early morning to evening try to talk to businesses, get into meetings, put advertisements on posters of your work and hang them up wherever possible.

If the situation is truly how you say it is, then capitalize and become the best designer or design brand on your island… you have no competition.


hope this helps and inspires you.

its very easy to do this… just don’t overthink it and rather go do. too many people think too much but in the end don’t do anything. what you need right now is good marketing. watch videos, try different techniques to sell your service.

you can be the best designer, but if no one knows about you you will fail… so go out and tell everyone about your service… don’t be shy.

try everything. and don’t say it doesn’t work until you have tried it.

:wink:

@VladimirVitaliyevich

I feel one thing that needs to keep in mind is also the culture, but I should clarify one thing. There are a couple of we
b design studios here such as :

http://www.spin.cw/ (The biggest, but requires you to have a degree, but they are a small team)

http://www.snelleweb.nl/ (Where I did internship at, was my sister friend) but they’re more like template kind of shop, and not like a real studio, I was going to work there, but eventually I decided not too.

Due that I was just getting a lot of stress during the internship period alone, to the point where I wasn’t even looking forward to do any kind of design anymore. So now the main focus is to just learn, and see which local sites are like outdated and do a redesign or show them the possibilities of what can be done for their site.

https://www.media599.com/

My experience with the internship was that a lot of the local clients doesn’t like to pay for anything, let alone with the limitation of Pay Pal, so even with the added benefit of them globalizing their website, they still turn back.

So you could say our culture likes thing to be fairly cheap, companies such as snelleweb, and the ones that actually invest are those companies that are already globally established (which is what Snelleweb/Media599 targets), while snelleweb, a recent companies targets more of small startups with cheap prices/templates etc.

As you said, will just have to start somewhere, with things like full interface design like what I did last year, to show what I can do :
https://invis.io/PJ5HYB7UM

There was also a project that I started with another Dev. “Quutr”, but that didn’t last that long, he eventually became too busy. That was like a website that gather quotes, and show one quote everyday.

I wouldn’t be too picky in the beginning of the type of work you do. Right now it’s very important to just get your name out.

remember, its a process, you can’t have everything that you are hoping for right away… you have to grow to that level.

So right now I would go to the small agency that does templates. yes, i know, its not what you enjoy but you have to start somewhere. you need real world experience. create templates and build up a portfolio, it might not be the most well known brands and the best design but it is better than nothing.

After you spent some time and have a real world portfolio with real clients then move up to a freelancer or whatever you want to call it. When you are selling your services to a business dont sell them the mediocre shit of scaling globally like most agencies do and i gave an example of. Rather tell them why they need a site and why they must go to you and not others. You know your area, sell what makes them buy.

here you can play on a lot of factors, show them how you think when you do a site design, explain to them why UX is important and find UX flaws in the competitors sites and explain why and how to avoid these. Bring value to people and then ask them if they would like your service.

For example, give them some USEFUL tips on how to improve their business card or flyer. then ask them if they would like a website from you. Be sure to give them value and then ask for a return on value, but if they say no move to the next… don’t waste your time.

Do this and bit by bit scale and grow. It’s not what you want i know but we never get anything we want right away.

6 months ago i wanted to have my own agency and work for big brands… that didn’t happen and instead i was just freelancing and hustling my ass off…

look at me 6 months later today and I have Fuza Visual Design Agency that i recently opened and i’m working constantly for it to grow even bigger.


My point is by doing all these Design Challenges its great to grow as a designer but not as a designer who needs to get clients… you need to get clients… and the problem we located is marketing… your small and nobody knows about you.

great, then get them to know more about you… i’m being serious… go to the office of that company across the street and on the other side of the island and anywhere there is an office located and tell them about UX and how it is so important for the user and then tell them how you could bring them value because you know UX… yeah, they might not pay you much but right now you need the name, not the money… once you get your name out there, the money will come…

and dont reply until you have tried it.… that’s right! Don’t reply to me until you have gone to at least one business today and marketed to them… i dont care if they say no… as long as you told them about what you offer is what i care for… then reply to me and tell me the reason they said no…

Hi @BrianHermelijn,

You’ve gotten some excellent advice above and I agree with all of it.

If it helps to motivate you, I want to add that you’re already taking the right steps :slight_smile:

I saw in your first post you have a focused list of tasks. That’s huge! You’ve already identified steps you can take to learn more about the creative web design craft while also honoring your need for random artsy things and relaxation.

Success comes from habit and habit is much more reliable than talent. Keep doing things every day to put yourself out there while you build your skills and soon you’ll find yourself in a position to take advantage of the right opportunity when it comes.

As for the businesses in your area, there are many benefits to having a professionally done website for local businesses. It’s not always about globalization, but you do have to show them the value and talk to them to get to know how they make money. Always remember that a website is a tool, a tool for increasing business. Demonstrate how better design and improved UI can help their bottom line.

Hope all of this helps!
Maia

1 Like

Even though Vlad mentioned not to respond, I feel its better for me to still share the thoughts that came to mind, and the reminder of everything that has been said. Like the original goal of why I am on this path.

Recorded from phone.

@PixelGeek @VladimirVitaliyevich @maiasingletary

Thank you.

3 Likes

Just watched your video. :wink:

Yup, I can tell marketing is not your thing (it’s not mine either) but I still suggest doing it when your first starting out. It might not be as direct as my approach. But I would suggest doing what you talked about which is designing first and then showing the pros and cons to the business. So I think as long you don’t invest too much time into it since you always have the possibility that they will say no but rather you do quick but still completed designs.

The UI challenges are good if you’re going to put it on YouTube and Instagram it will be even better because it will be marketing, you give clients an example of what you do and how you do it so they would know your process and it will be more peeling to them. The trust factor will increase.

100% agree with you that you need to find your talent.

I recommend you try out interaction design since you seem to like interactions a lot.

2 Likes

I think you should focus all your energy on what YOU WANT to do. Don’t think about making money too much. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become. If you do what you love doing, people will notice, money will come. Have faith.

This topic was automatically closed after 60 days. New replies are no longer allowed.