Breaking into the freelance design circuit...

flanagain

*If I'm posting this in the wrong section, I apologise in advance*

I've been freelancing as a UI/Web/Graphic designer since the middle of 2010. In 2012 I managed to get myself into a good design job at a company in Dublin. That company closed up in late 2013 and magically straight away I got offered some freelance work from a guy I had met in that job. When I was finished working with him he passed my name onto someone else who gave me work, then a company found me on Dribbble and gave me work, and then my partner's company needed a freelance designer so I took that up too and that saw me through until right now. In other words: I've had a string of good luck throughout the recession and never really had to actively look for work as a freelancer.

Now, however, that freelance design position with my partner's company has ended and I'm starting to realise that I'm out of the loop when it comes to finding contacts. Word of mouth kinda dries up when you turn several projects down while you're freelancing but basically working full time with one company.

Anyway, now I'm actively looking for the first time and I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the different channels. I'm in a bit of a weird living situation at the moment because my partner has a full time job and earns more money than me so it means we have to live close to his job -which is in the middle of nowhere- so while I'd take full-time work if it came along, nothing really does. So I have to mainly rely on remote (or casual) freelance work. I've tried the usual putting an ad up on Adverts, sprucing up my LinkedIn, freshening up the portfolio & Dribbble and looking on stop-gap design sites like UpWork and 99 Designs (they seem a bit scam-my) but I feel like I'm missing something.

I only started looking last week but I want to be proactive. If anyone had any suggestions or tips of where companies go to look for designers like me, I'd really really appreciate it.

Cheers!

Zipppy

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