A Day in the Life of a Peoria Designer
I’m often asked “What does a typical day look like for you as a freelance designer?”
There’s no quick way to answer this question as every day is truly different. It’s a mix of client work, maybe a meeting or two, personal projects, business maintenance, and jotting down new ideas. I usually spend my days working at a combination The Nest Coworking, local coffee shops, and home.
My life is a mashup of many different activities, including but not limited to:
Checking emails and keeping up with new project inquiries
Client work - from concept sketches to edits to file prep to communicating with clients and everything in between
Meetings with current clients, prospective clients
Presentations to local schools and organizations
Networking - you can often find me at Tuesdays Together meetings, Startup Mixers, and Lipstick & Lattes meetups
Personal projects - 100 Days of Peoria, Steph’s Stickers, Lettering Works for a Cause to name a few
Social media management (daily posts on Instagram can feel like a bit of a time suck, but are necessary to staying on the forefront of people’s minds and active in the community)
General business maintenance - website updates, blog posts, accounting, etc.
Recording new ideas and brainstorming ways to generate new business
Making art - for local shows (like the Prairie Center for the Arts Alumni Show and Emerging Artists Collective group shows)
Product design and inventory management at the local retailers (I sell different products at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, the Peoria Airport, Relics, Urban Artifacts, One World, Whiskey City Architectural Salvage, and Lost Art in Junction City.)
Shipping the occasional online order from my website or two Etsy shops.
Community events - art, neighborhood, etc.
I very much enjoy the daily variety that freelance life brings, but the most enjoyable part of being a designer for me is the projects I get to work on. Because of my consistent dedication to communicating what I enjoy doing and seeking out the right work, I’m often able to work on projects that fit really well with my skills and interests. I love getting creative with them and feel like I have my dream job every time a new client comes to me wanting my style.
While there may be no “typical day” as a designer, there is a lot that goes into building a freelance design business. If you’d like to chat about how a freelance designer fits into your business, contact me via the Lettering Works Contact Form.
