Now more than ever graphic designers, students and others are working from home. The day has come, and with COVID-19 Corona around the world you’ve already probably had to work or study from home for whatever reason. You’ve got your work stuff and made a far from ideal workspace so now what? The problem is, you’ve got a family, children, housemates, or that cute dog that does not comprehend that working from home means you need to focus and get work or study done.

Your study or work-from-home plan should think about all the possibilities for getting work done as efficiently as possible. That means making sure you’re taking breaks, setting and enforcing boundaries, and demonstrating how productive you are working from home. Whether your job allows for flexible working or you’re self-isolating because of coronavirus, now more than ever, UK employees are working from home.

The truth is — in the era of digitisation, globalization and the rise of multimedia it’s hard, almost impossible to imagine contemporary life without a skilled workforce of graphic designers, UX/UI designers and other creatives behind it. Many that fall into this category will work from home. As a graphic student, you may be studying from home while perhaps juggling a full/part-time and source inspiration to becoming a polished graphic designer.

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To work as a graphic designer as obvious as it sounds and assuming you have all the necessary skills, you will need a computer (desktop or laptop) and the necessary software like Adobe Photoshop Illustrator and InDesign. Sounds obvious but working from home means that you will also need an internet connection so you can communicate with a cloud and other people and exchange files with your client or agency online.

As a student of graphic design, it is useful to have access to a printer to create hard copies of work produced. Once you have all these items then you’re all set to have a home graphic design studio.

Here are some of the essential tools you need to keep you on your feet as a graphic designer or student of graphic design from home.

Tool 1: Your phone and email

Communication is absolutely vital in any working relationship. During times of remote learning or working it is sometimes expected to be in regular contact with your colleagues, tutor or client. In this way communicating—and over-communicating—comes to be crucial. When you work from home, or you are doing homework and get stuck keep your tutor or supervisor in the loop. This doesn’t mean sending them an email every ten minutes, updating them on your status, but just means you may need to be more conscious about documenting your workflow.

For example, consider sharing your documents and spreadsheets in a shared drive, so your supervisor can see what you’re working on and how much progress you’ve made. Project management software can help you update where you are on each project, too.

For starters, stay in contact with your online school or company through conventional methods. This might be email, virtual classrooms, or your company’s official communication channels for updates.

And in the event of a pandemic like COVID-19 Corona or if your entire company (or a whole country) is working from home, bear in mind that the service of email/phone/online platform you use may become oversubscribed and ultimately fail to connect. Be strategic and think of your secondary plan or an emergency plan.

Tool 2: Be technically equipped

It is generally good practice to make it a habit to continually have your laptop charger, phone charger and work or study essentials with you all the time. That’s likely to extend to a laptop and Hotspot for internet connection.

If you do not particularly fancy the idea of bringing equipment and carrying this on a daily basis it may be worth considering buying duplicate. Why not? Some people have duplicate wardrobes, duplicates homes and shirts-the same can extend for study and work equipment.

Also, consider alternate ways to access your work like saving work to the cloud in order to retrieve it from your home-based office or computer.

Tool 3: Adapt your workspace

Graphic designers often strive for comfortable and inspiring environments and the best home office has important photos, a desk and tables. Some quiet will help maintain a focused and productive atmosphere not to mention any calls or meetings with tutors or clients.

Make the space inspiring. If you are a freelance graphic designer your work will probably be very client-specific and involve lots of designs and sketches. As a freelance graphic designer, you typically could work on several exciting projects. The physical space around you allows may just help you to stretch your creative capacities. When you work in an empty uninspiring living room corner, you’ll perhaps see that you could be confining your own creative expression to a duller one. What’s more, your creativity will be limited by the vision of the tutor or boss that you are creating the work for when you want to strive to set your own mark. As a creative person, you want inspirational graphic design work that lets you to fully express your talents.

However, for some, space and luxury inspiring surroundings is at a premium as others must make do with what space they have. Kitchen counters, coffee tables, even a chest of drawer’s top may have to do. You may have to get imaginative with your “office” area, but with some preparation, you should be just fine. When you’re done studying or working for the day, leave the Imaginate office space, and leave your computer behind . Do not check email on your phone after hours, or if you do, do not respond until the morning unless it’s urgent.

Tool 4: Organising ahead

Everyone ideally would like to be as organised as possible, but it is often time that prohibits this from happening. That said- it’s a good idea to be prepared. Set a number of hours you need to work or study a day and stay organised by splitting the hours morning/night with afternoon ‘off’ or time-shift, although still have set hours otherwise you will end up overdoing it. It is very easy to procrastinate and generally getting distracted so keep organised ahead. You never know when something might happen, and keeping in mind the tools, tips and advice above may help you as a student or professional graphic designer when working from home.

Tool 5: Source work easily online

Perhaps the greatest argument working from home as a freelance graphic designer or student of graphic design is your uncapped earning potential. Regardless if you’re a promising graphic designer or if you’re looking or more freelance graphic design jobs to expand your repertoire as a creative, you can find tons of work that revolves around your skillset. That suggests that you can earn as much as you want from an unlimited number of clients. When you work as a freelance graphic designer from home, you can also accept as many or as few design briefs as your calendar permits.

If you are a creative that loves to create visual concepts that effectively communicate ideas, inspire and inform people, and captivate the hearts of consumers and want to make extra cash doing so check out these sites.

Here are some great links to find work:

Fiverr
Freelancer
Solid Gigs
Up Work
Remotely Awesome Jobs

When you work as a freelance graphic designer from home, you can accept as many projects as your calendar allows.

We hope you found this information useful and you may find more information to any questions you may have on our FAQ page.

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