The original post: /r/web_design by /u/ImaDoughnut on 2024-11-14 16:54:12.
Really interested to know how anyone here got started. I’m also curious about current freelance rates for website design and development. Right now, I’m working in-house for a startup as the lead designer, but things are starting to look shaky with delayed payments and other classic startup red flags.
I have a background in graphic design, but I’ve been designing and building websites for a while now. Although admittedly I can't code, it's on my personal list of to do's, I’m experienced with Webflow. I can illustrate, create all sort of branding assets and visualisations. I can also animate. I’ve worked on everything from motion design videos to interactive animations with Lottie and recently started implementing Rive for even more advanced interactive elements. Is this a niche I can lean towards to as a selling point of mine, is it even high in demand? I'm still conceptualising so I don't have a website just yet.
Every day, the idea of going freelance and start doing some client work just seems more and more exciting. But I really need some insight - how are you guys charging for this type of work? If you’re doing design and development, do you split fees between Figma designs, Webflow dev, and additional animations/graphics? How much are you charging for each part? Or, if you bundle them together, what does that look like? Does anyone have a similar sort of skillset between web design and animating, and how do you handle that?
I really appreciate anyone taking the time to answer. I'm also aware that getting clients will be a challenge in itself, but hopefully that'll be a problem for the future.
edit: I forgot to mention, I am based in UK, London. As for experience, I've been working for a bit over a year so I know I'm fairly inexperienced in comparison to 99% of you. Although, for the past year until very recently, I've been the sole (and lead) designer for my company for all design purposes - rebranding & art direction, web redesign, the occasional social media post etc. I feel like I've managed to really mature and learn a lot because of how I was just pushed into the deep end. I've also just recently got a junior designer for me to manage and help with my workload which feels very much insane for me.