How Can Students Use Graphic Design to Make Money?
Although you might not be aware of it, graphic design is a skill and a profession constantly in high demand. This article will be helpful to you whether you're just starting or you've already started your path if you're a student and wondering how to make money as a graphic designer.
Many of us view our time as students as one of the best times of our lives. During this time, we not only want to establish the groundwork for a successful professional but also to make enough money to support an active social life while attending college and university.
How do graphic artists get paid? It may seem like a senseless question. However, if you're a student or a freelancer working as a graphic designer and have little money left after paying your rent and utilities, it's a question worth asking. You can also take online class assistance to increase your net income.
In this article, we will discuss different ways to earn money for those who are doing graphic design. Also, Scholarly Help provides the best opportunities for such students, and others enrolled in an online graphic designing degree program.
What is Graphic Design?
Firstly, we must know about graphic design before answering how to earn money as a graphic artist. Developing a visual layout and style for a publication, website, advertising campaign, or any other project is known as graphic design. It entails researching the intended audience, creating concepts and designs that appeal to them, and then putting those thoughts and designs into action.
However, to satisfy the unique needs of their clients, designers need to be exceptionally creative and have a solid grasp of typography, colour theory, image editing tools like Adobe Photoshop, psychographics profiling, web usability testing, etc.
Getting Your Toolkit Sorted: Software and Tools You'll Actually Need
Right, let's talk about the tools you'll need to get started. Look, you can't build a house without proper tools, can you? Same goes for graphic design.
The big player everyone bangs on about is Adobe Creative Suite. You've got Photoshop for photo editing and digital artwork, Illustrator for vector graphics and logos, and InDesign for layouts and publications. Now, here's the thing – Adobe's subscription can be a bit pricey at £49.94 per month for the full Creative Cloud. But students get a massive discount at £16.24 per month for the first year. That's proper savings.
If you're just starting out and don't want to commit to Adobe straight away, Canva's your mate. It's free for basic use and dead simple to learn. You can create social media posts, simple logos, and presentations without breaking the bank. The Pro version costs £10.99 per month and gives you access to more templates and features.
For those wanting to get into web and app design, Figma's become the go-to tool. It's free for personal use and brilliant for collaborative work. You can design websites, mobile apps, and user interfaces right in your browser. No massive downloads or installations needed.
Importance of Graphic Artists
Graphic design combines words, forms, form, and colour to convey a message. Graphic design organises information to help transmit a message in the most effective way possible. It just makes something seem nice.
When people ask, “Well, can it change the world? “Yes, it can change the world if you do a good job and helps a company succeed. That's the real point of this, to help others succeed. That's the essence of graphic design. We work with other people and businesses and try to make their lives a little bit easier by helping them sell a product or communicate an idea.
As they develop over time, graphic designers redefine their roles and create new terms to describe their work. Long names like “experience and brand strategy communicator” and “brand strategy communicator” are expected when the designer wants to be seen seriously as someone who does more than create beautiful things.
We communicate concepts using language, typography, images, colour, shape, and form. In contrast to the five-year-old and her house sketch, the professional designer uses all available media to communicate a vision, including the web, print, environment, social media, and products.
They work with the client to produce value while doing this in a public setting.
However, it would be easy to say that a graphic designer is someone who works with words, images, colour, and shape to create a message. At the same time, the work of a graphic designer goes beyond this. They bring clarity to confusion, communicate a clear vision, and do all of this with beauty and delight.
How Can Students Earn Money as Graphic Designers?
So, if you're wondering how to increase your income as a graphic designer, keep reading because we have some wise ideas for you. Following these steps will improve your financial situation and give you more time to devote to the work you love. There are several ways to earn money by doing graphic design. Sometimes, a freelancer can earn more than a regular job depending upon his graphic designing skills and expertise. Some of the ways are discussed below:
Make and Sell Templates
Selling graphic templates is one of the greatest and fastest ways for designers to earn money. Templates, including logo designs, brochure layouts, PowerPoint templates, and flier templates, are in high demand.
Millions of dollars have been made by designers doing this. Expertise is needed for this. These platforms do not accept every design. Only the best designs are accepted after each entry has been put through a review process.
When you're ready to start selling, platforms like Redbubble, Society6, and Printful are where the money's at. These sites handle all the printing and shipping for you – you just upload your designs and collect the royalties. Redbubble typically pays 10-20% royalties depending on the product, whilst Society6 offers around 10% for most items.
Thing is, these platforms have specific requirements you need to follow. For print work, you'll need 300 DPI resolution minimum and CMYK colour profiles instead of RGB. Your files need to be the right size too – a t-shirt design typically needs to be 4500×5400 pixels. Get this wrong and your designs will look rubbish when printed.
The competition's fierce on these platforms, so you need to think about keywords and trending topics. Check what's selling well, but don't just copy what everyone else is doing. Find your niche and own it.
Before attempting these techniques, you should enhance your talents and practice. For instance, you may create and print your unique stickers, labels, buttons, and other items using internet tools. They provide a free online design tool to let you choose the designs of these personalised products.
Do Freelancing
Let's start with the approach that is the most evident. Yes, working as a freelance graphic designer is the most pleasing way to earn money online or offline.
However, enrolling in an online school and following a few YouTube tutorials won't make you a qualified designer. It would be best if you put in much more effort to improve your abilities, practice, and establish your reputation. You can gradually increase your fees as you get better and better clients as a result of freelancing. Compared to shifting jobs or earning a raise in salary, which moves considerably more slowly, doing this will increase your income.
In graphic design, the trend of earning money online through freelancing is growing. Professional graphic artists now have an excellent option for making money online because of the industry's recent growth. It's simple to create a profile on a crowdsourcing website.
You are exposed to a large market as a result. To increase the sales percentage from your designs, you can participate in various design competitions organised by these platforms. There is no better option than using a crowdsourcing site if you wish to start modestly.
Let's get specific about where you can actually find work. Upwork's probably the biggest freelancing platform out there. They charge a sliding fee – 20% for your first £391 with a client, then 10% for earnings between £391 and £7,833, and 5% after that. It's steep at first, but the volume of work available makes up for it.
Fiverr works differently – you create “gigs” with fixed prices starting at £4. Fiverr takes 20% of everything you earn, but you set your own prices and packages. Many designers start here to build their reputation, then move clients off-platform once they've established trust.
99designs is more competition-based. You submit designs for contests, and if you win, you get paid. Contest prizes typically range from £235 to £1,175. The downside? You might spend hours on a design and not get paid if you don't win. But it's great for building your portfolio.
Dribbble isn't just for showcasing work anymore. Their job board features high-quality design positions, and many agencies scout for talent there. It's free to use, but the Pro account at £8.25 per month gives you better visibility.
Up your prices for freelancing work
The solution to the question of how to make money as a freelance graphic designer is straightforward: set your charges so that you can make enough money to live comfortably. And eventually, that will need an increase in your prices.
Convincing your current freelancing clients to pay the higher fee can be one of the biggest challenges when upping your charges. But if you convey your case concisely and firmly, most people will likely take action.
Additionally, warning them enables them to make plans because they undoubtedly face cash flow problems. This still holds even if your client is a large corporation like Apple because each department will have its budget to adhere to.
Discard your cheapest customers
Unfortunately, some clients may object to or refuse to pay you extra if you are a freelancer when raising your fees. Then it would help if you dared to turn around and leave.
Also, it would help if you were not scared to let go of clients who aren't paying you well to make a place for others who will. After all, it's usually simpler to charge a new customer more money than a customer who is accustomed to making smaller payments. You won't likely miss that low-paying client again once you've done that.
Everyone has a bill to pay. As a result, it's usually preferable to fire clients one at a time rather than all at once unless you have a generous private income. In this manner, you can maintain your income flow even when looking for new employment.
Find New Clients
Unfortunately, most independent graphic designers don't search for new clients when they are busy. It makes sense as to why. First, you ask yourself, “Why bother her when I already have plenty of work?” Second, saying “I can't start anything for six months” when a client offers you a job looks like a wrong first impression.
The first query has a straightforward solution.
“Because it's simpler to charge them more money than your current customers, it's worthwhile to attempt to recruit new customers.”
Additionally, new clients might present you with exciting new chances to expand your portfolio and develop your talents in ways that will make you more marketable as a freelancer overall. And if you're too preoccupied to accept new employment? Then it's advisable to entice prospects with more deceptive tactics rather than emailing them directly.
For instance, you should frequently upload new content on social media, including more professional networks like LinkedIn and Instagram. Mention your openness to new opportunities, but avoid giving specific dates. Suppose someone does contact you and try to commission you. In that case, you may either agree to work a few additional late evenings or weekends (if the customer truly excites you) or let them know when you'll be free again (because you haven't made any promises).
So, don't worry, even if it's six months from now; they'll probably only desire you more. And even if it doesn't, you haven't lost anything.
Building a network of contacts
But creating that network isn't always straightforward. You'll work from home, largely alone, for the majority of your career as a graphic design freelancer. And there are many positive aspects to that, particularly in sharpening your focus and boosting your productivity.
But at least you're not beginning from scratch. Even if it's only your former college classmates and tutors, you'll already have a network of contacts, even if you're starting your job. You'll accumulate more along the road.
Improve your graphic design skills
Offering more to your clients or employer is a simple method to increase your pay or freelance rate. This can entail offering a more comprehensive selection of services. For instance, do your clients or your organisation use other graphic artists' branding counsel or copywriting services? Maybe you're giving them 2D illustrations, but others step in regarding 3D or animation.
So, there is only one way to improve your game, and that is to broaden your skill set. You could also decide to refine your current set of skills further by increasing your knowledge, enhancing your fundamental design abilities, and developing a more impressive and secure portfolio, in either case, significantly upgrading your game skills for commitment and concentration, which is why formal study might be a fantastic method to do it.
Why You Need to Know a Bit About Marketing
Here's something most design courses won't teach you – knowing basic marketing makes you worth twice as much to clients. Seriously, it's a game-changer.
When you understand how social media algorithms work, you can create designs that actually perform. Instagram favours bright, high-contrast images with faces in them. LinkedIn responds better to professional, clean designs with plenty of white space. TikTok needs bold, attention-grabbing visuals that work on mobile screens.
Learning basic SEO helps too. If you're designing websites or creating content, knowing how to optimise images with proper alt text and file names makes you incredibly useful. Most designers can't do this, so you'll stand out from the crowd.
The thing is, clients don't just want pretty pictures anymore. They want results. If you can explain why your design choices will help their business grow, you can charge premium rates. A designer who understands conversion rates and user psychology is worth their weight in gold.
Recognise your true worth
Knowing your worth is the key to increasing your income as a graphic artist. This means that if you've been working for a while, developing your knowledge and skills, and generating better work, you should be paid more than when you started.
However, in reality, many independent graphic artists fail to increase their rates over time and maintain the same rates despite the rising cost of living around them. The same is true for designers who work for pay and are locked into a specific salary. Therefore, rather than making more money, they are making less.
So look closely at the businesses you work for and determine how much of a difference your efforts are making to their bottom line. Your confidence in asking for more money will increase due to the solutions you come up with.
Create Twitch emotes
These days, there is a huge need for graphics that relate to Twitch. As the gaming business grows larger than Hollywood, more gamers are beginning a streaming career on Twitch. They frequently hire graphic artists to create their Twitch emotes, banners, and covers. This is a great niche you can target to get some money soon.
Thus, join gaming communities and groups, learn how to create Twitch emotes, and start interacting with people to advertise your service.
Design Stickers and Emoticons
People prefer to communicate visually because more than 60 million emoticons are sent on Facebook Messenger daily, and stickers are used in half of all Instagram posts. Naturally, brands will use something that consumers adore.
Using emoticons in everyday conversation means that this trend will undoubtedly continue to expand. As a result, more and more companies will search for creative and unique stickers to utilise in their marketing.
Designing stickers and emoticons to assist businesses will express their personality and promoting their goods. This is where your creations can be helpful.
Printable Wall Arts
Printable wall art is a beautiful addition to the decor in today's households and offices. Posters with designs and inspirational quotes are among the wall art. Research indicates that the home decor market is expected to rise by 20%. One of the most nuanced article categories is downloadable wall art, such as posters.
Additionally, graphic artists may use expert tools to create printable wall art and work from home by selling them online.
Designing Animated Images or GIFs
Although animated graphics have been used for over 25 years, almost everyone uses GIFs in digital communication for everything from storytelling to expressing emotions.
More businesses are looking for unique GIFs to buy and utilise in their communications now that the trend is thoroughly entrenched. The average Animator salary in the USA is almost $69,896. Therefore, if generating moving graphics is your pastime, now is a fantastic time to start selling your creations and earning money from them.
Creating Content for Social Media
If you use Facebook or Instagram, you'll see that firms and companies frequently utilise their elegant designs when producing posts because they employ designers to produce distinctive, branded graphics for their social media outlets.
Smaller companies frequently generate their Instagram stories and posts using pre-made templates. These templates could be made and sold in online shops.
However, bigger businesses typically employ designers to provide original material for their platforms. So if you are a student or freelancer and want to earn money, contact such companies and inform them that you can create exciting content for their feeds.
Furthermore, if you are a blogger, you may also write about graphic design as a guest blogger or for hire. All you need to do is search for the various paid guest posting opportunities. The finest resources in this situation are search engines like Google.
To earn money, you can also start your blog or YouTube channel. You can sign up for affiliate programs and use your blog or YouTube channel to promote the designs and templates from the market. You will get paid every time someone purchases a template using your link. Most websites generate revenue in this manner.
Getting into Video and Motion Graphics
Video content is absolutely massive right now. TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts – everyone wants moving graphics, and there's proper money in it.
You don't need to become a full animator overnight. Start with simple motion graphics using After Effects. Things like animated logos, text reveals, and basic transitions are in high demand. Small businesses will pay £150-300 for a simple animated logo, and you can create one in a few hours once you know what you're doing.
For social media content, tools like Canva now include basic animation features. You can create animated Instagram stories and posts without learning complex software. But if you want to charge premium rates, After Effects is where it's at.
The beauty of video content is that it's harder to create than static designs, so there's less competition. A 15-second promotional video might take you half a day to create, but you can easily charge £200-500 for it. That's better hourly rates than most design work.
YouTube intro animations are another goldmine. Content creators are always looking for custom intros, and they'll pay £50-200 for something that takes you a couple of hours to make. The key is creating templates you can customise quickly for different clients.
Create designs for MacBook/iPhone
Here is yet another excellent method for graphic designers to get passive income. And how? By creating decals. Perhaps the most coveted gadgets nowadays among tech-savvy customers are iPhones and Mac Books. They are not at all a valued item for many individuals. They enjoy adding colourful stickers and decorations to personalise it.
Therefore, creating decals is the best course of action. Although it won't suddenly make you a millionaire, this is the most refined approach to earning some extra money. The domain will enable you to make thousands per month if you successfully establish yourself as a designer. Etsy is a fantastic starting point.
Make WordPress designs
Bloggers and businesspeople are increasingly looking for custom WordPress themes. Some designers even earn seven figures from selling their original WordPress themes alone. You can if they can!
Hence, create a central theme or use features to make it more eye-catching. To reduce the amount of side work and generate passive money, sign up for an account on a marketplace like Theme Forest. All you need is a flexible portfolio where you can show off your WordPress themes.
Publish an eBook
Do you have a solid visual sense? If so, words won't do much to entice you. But you are the best one to convey your ideas and opinions. One approach to trading your abilities and knowledge as a graphic designer is through writing eBooks. You don't have to pen an entire scripture for it. A well-written e-book that inspires action can be produced. You can write an eBook if you know how to start a blog.
Moreover, you may develop a clear manual on product branding or a step-by-step tutorial on graphic design for beginners. You would sell your eBooks no matter how you choose to market them.
Branding Building
Businesses are aware of how crucial branding is to their success. We know branding involves creating items and other materials that require graphic design expertise.
Hiring a full-time graphic designer is a bit more expensive for small or fledgling businesses. Designers might work part-time or as freelancers as brand builders.
Is Graphic Designing a Good Career for Students?
For those just starting their careers and students, graphic design is a fantastic field to pursue. This industry is expanding and offers an opportunity to go into various areas. For those with a creative mindset who enjoy technology and communication, graphic design is an excellent career choice. One can become a graphic designer in a variety of methods. Designers have several options for uncovering new and intriguing jobs because design occurs in every industry.
Seeing the results of one's work makes graphic design an extremely fulfilling profession. There are fewer designers employed in the publishing sector. The need for graphic artists is expected to rise as businesses that manufacture computer systems, and related services continue to grow their digital presence.
Additionally, graphic design enables the designer to provide value across numerous industries. There are numerous chances to get involved in different design disciplines. Due to their high degree of flexibility, graphic artists can easily switch to similar fields like web programming or UX/UI design.
Final Words
Online graphic design marketplaces offer viable choices for raising money in various methods. The best trending techniques to make money for students and freelancers have been mentioned. You can start making more money as a graphic designer using these techniques.
Be aware of your worth in terms of what the market is willing to pay generally and what you have to offer individually regarding the value you bring. Be self-assured, market yourself, expand your skill set, and look for additional responsibility. Create a strategy for increasing your salary from your employer or freelance clients, and then pursue it with vigour. Start a second business and learn new skills that will benefit your primary work.
In other words, if you concentrate on your financial objectives, you'll eventually reap the benefits you deserve.
Author Bio: Emma Steward is a blogger and an educationist. She is passionate about writing and exploring new fields that lead to learning. She has been writing for several years and contributing to the literature.
