How I became a freelance graphic designer

It all started in January 2011. I was pondering with the idea of becoming a freelance graphic designer and decided to search Amazon for books that could potentially help me.

During my search, I remember thinking about when I previously gave up on freelance graphic design. But I soon came to realise that those thoughts existed a long time ago and that I had wasted too much time already.

I didn’t have to look for long to find David Airey’ book: LogoDesignLove and after reading the reviews, I purchased it. The book arrived a couple of days later and since then, it has helped me immensely and became the cornerstone of my graphic design resources.

“You will make mistakes. We all do. Learn from them, and move on.”

– DAVID AIREY  /  77 quotes

After finishing his book, I went onto learn everything I could from David’s three blog sites: David Airey / LogoDesignLove / ID. I was enlightened and inspired to say the least. I found myself learning about different aspects of the design world everyday and after a year of researching those sites, I still haven’t even scratched the surface.

I soon realised that the more I learnt, the more I wanted to tell my own story. I visited a number of other design sites and it was becoming increasingly more evident that many designers, including David had started their websites using WordPress.

I had always liked the idea of developing my own website, and so I ventured back to Amazon and purchased HTML, XHTML & CSS for Dummies and WordPress for Dummies.

Reading the books made me even more eger to start my blog, but to do that I needed to answer the inevitable question of: What was I going to call my blog and freelance company?

I had always had a fascination for what makes a person unique and how a person can be influenced by the people around him or by the things that came before. I began writing about those points and that’s how the menifesto for how DNA relates to design came about, which was originally going to be one of my first posts.

I came up with the name Davis Dna Designs soon after and went onto purchase my domain name and host. I thought long and hard about how I wanted my site to look. I knew David Airey had created a theme for WordPress, but I was very much on the fence when it came to using it. I didn’t want to copy his style.

But in reality, my WordPress development skills were limited and I needed to start somewhere. David had developed a theme to be used and that’s what I decided to do. Plus, I was proud of the fact that I went to the school of David Airey.

After downloading the theme, I spent time learning the in’s and out’s of the code, so I could add my own personal touch to it.

The next thing I needed to do was to create a logo design for Davis Dna Designs, and for that I went back to David’s book. I wanted to create a logo that emphasized uniqueness and having three D’s in the name made that task easier.

January 2012 came – and here I am.

Davisdnadesigns.com launched on the 1st of January 2012 and since this post went out a month later, my site has generated just over 500 views. That’s around 125 views per week.

Realistically, the figures are only subjective, but it makes me happy to know people are enjoying my posts. Thank you all for your support.

How did you become a graphic designer? Or start in your profession? I would love to hear your stories.

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