11 Side Gigs For Graphic Designers

Graphic designing takes art to a whole new level. While art is often popular with using paper, pen, and other physical materials, graphic designing only needs a computer or tablet, and they should be able to work their magic. While it might sound easier, the process can be challenging, especially since you don’t physically manipulate your medium. Moreover, there are plenty of opportunities and art designs that you could create with graphic design.

Apart from working as a graphic designer, there are plenty of side gig opportunities that you could try. This won’t only help you earn a few bucks on the side, but it can also help enhance your skill, along with allowing you to build your own business.

With that, find out more side gigs for graphic designers below:

1. Sell T-Shirts

One of the foolproof side gigs you could try is selling t-shirts, especially since most people wear them daily. However, since they’re so popular, the competition might be tight, forcing you to squeeze in some creative juices out of your brain so you can outshine your business competitors. Lucky for you, you can create your own design that’s artistic and within your rights.

There are plenty of t-shirt designs that you could create, from minimalist to art decor-themed. As you develop your craft, you could begin looking for a business to print your designs into a shirt. You can find more details online and see what kind of fabric they’re printing on and their customer reviews. Moreover, it’ll be helpful to order one piece first to see what it’ll look like and decide if it’s the quality you want.

Once you have the idea and have created designs, it's time to get the rest of the equipment such as printers, heat presses, and other materials. People venturing into this business are also getting production management software for print shops that helps them coordinate their workflow and manage all the orders. It also helps them keep track of production, inventory, customer data, marketing campaigns, and even accounting. For example, when a customer orders from you, production management software will help you keep track of the order until it is shipped. This solution makes sure that your production line runs smoothly and efficiently so make sure you're properly equipped.

2. Teach Graphic Design

Once you’ve mastered your graphic designing craft, it might be time to teach young aspirants to learn and enhance their skills with graphic design. It’ll be a great way to give back to the community after benefiting from the skills you’ve earned through the years.

To earn a few bucks and keep your teaching private and organized, you should set a schedule wherein you’re going to teach students about graphic designing. You can choose to rent an office space or teach them online. Along with this, it’d be helpful to create modules and reviews they could study for themselves that could help them learn better.

3. Freelancing

Apart from working for a corporate company during the day, you might want to maximize your earnings by doing graphic designing for other people through freelancing. This method allows you to offer your services to various clients for a fee. Depending on how you’d want to be paid, it’s ideal for getting your rates per artwork than per hour, especially since they’re paying you for your creativity rather than the length of your process.

When going freelancing, you should build a portfolio to show your potential clients. If you’re still starting, you should try different art styles until you find one that you can master and enjoy doing. The more examples you can show, the better. You can create an online portfolio so you can just send the link to your clients, and they should be able to scroll down to see your works.

4. Try Web Design

Apart from creating posters and other graphic designs, you could maximize your creativity through web designing. While it might sound intimidating and challenging, there’d be no coding involved. All you need to do is design the website's appearance, and you’re good to go. You can do this as freelance work or offer web design services for a fee.

When it comes to web designing, you don’t simply design a website but also offer them assets such as the graphics you used. So, when you create your own icons and other artwork, you should charge extra as an added part of your work.

5. Company Branding

While it might sound like a full-time job description, there are small and starting companies looking for people who can do company branding for them. While this might sound more appropriate for a marketeer, a graphic designer can do just fine, especially since you can create your own visuals without paying an additional fee.

When creating a brand, you may need to include the company logo, dedicated color scheme, packaging, advertisements, social media, and story templates. While they might sound a lot, they also mean that it can cost them a lot, enabling you to generate more income compared to other side gigs.

6. Planner Designer

Planners usually come with a plain design that involves a simple table and date on the upper side of the cell. While it might be the standard look for a planner, more and more people are looking for creative ones that can help them to be inspired as they dribble about what they’ll be doing for a month. With that, designing a cute yet functional planner would surely hit the market.

As you design a planner, you can choose to print them for your own distribution and brand, or you could create it for someone else. This will include finding a client looking for a graphic designer specializing in planners. You could charge the client per page and any specific artwork they wish for you to create.

7. Blogging

Sharing your knowledge to the world for free would always be a great way to give back from all of the success that graphic design has brought for you. One way you can do that is through blogging. This way, you’ll be creating posts about your graphic design adventures and possibly provide tips on how they could improve their craft and make the most out of their software.

While blogging is initially free, there are plenty of ways to earn from them. You can start by posting advertisements, writing sponsored content, affiliate marketing, and having some companies pay you to advertise their business and services. The more audience you could have on your blog, the more companies consider paying you to promote them. Make sure to ramp up your SEO so you can gather maximum audiences as much as possible.

8. Create Fonts

Day by day, more and more people are trying to explore new and creative fonts that they could use for their branding on their business. While there might be plenty of fonts available out there in the market, some styles are still waiting to be developed.

To earn a few bucks, you can create your own font using specific software that helps you design and implement any style you wish your font to have. While it might be a lengthy process, the results would absolutely be worth it. You can sell your fonts to various businesses that sell fonts as well.

9. Design Stickers

Stickers are getting more popular each day, especially if they come in a unique and cute design that they can stick into anywhere. With this in mind, now would be the best time to design stickers you can sell for yourself or offer them to other businesses that they could use as a freebie for their orders.

If you’re planning to design and sell your stickers, ensure that you use high-quality materials, ideally waterproof, so that they’ll last long on every surface possible. Some people tend to add stickers to their drinking bottles which can cause sweating, especially if filled with colder temperatures. Once consumers notice that your stickers are of excellent quality, more people would recommend your business and repurchase for themselves.

10. Digital Portrait Services

Some people are looking for graphic designers who can help turn their photos into digital art that they can print for their walls or simply for their phone’s wallpaper. If you have significant experience turning realistic images into digital art such as cartoonish, abstract, or outline, you should consider offering your services to the public.

When creating a digital portrait service, you might want to start to offer free samples for your friends and family so you can fill your portfolio with your designs. You can use social media to be your online portfolio so people can quickly scroll on your feed and see your work. You can charge per artwork, ideally by per person that you’re drawing.

11. Create Wall Art Designs

Today, more and more people are looking to spruce up their homes with minimalism and excellent interior design. To take that into an advantage, now would be the perfect time to design and create your own wall art design that you can choose to sell on your own social media or other online selling platforms.

Wall art design doesn’t have to be too complicated. You can vary from various designs and art styles, including minimalist, contemporary, and traditional. For an easier process, you can simply print them on photo paper and frame them with a simple design that’ll surely match every household. You could even use frameless glass to maximize minimalism.

The Verdict

The sky’s the limit when looking for side gigs, especially for graphic designers. Not only can you practice your skills outside of your day job, but you can also earn great money from it, especially since you could get paid by the output and not by the hour. Just ensure that you do something you love, and you’ll never treat it as additional work but a beneficial hobby.