today I'm going to show you my day in a life of a graphic designer as you guys
have seen I have started my day with breakfast and some juice and I have been
doing it a bit of learning a bit of like business research if you'd like to call
it that and I have become completely hooked if you watch my weekly vlogs you
will see that I have been using a platform called Skillshare and they have
actually given me a link for you guys to the first 500 of you guys to sign up to
a free two month trial using the link in my description you'll get two
months free and you get to try out their services it's a community for fellow
creatives which i presume is why you're watching this video and there's over
25,000 different classes on various different subjects and you can narrow it
down and define which subjects you are interested in I didn't realize that they
had like marketing classes on there they have business related classes
entrepreneurship and those are obviously all really really helpful for me so with
the free two-month trial you get a premium membership and you get access to
all the classes and the different communities that Skillshare has so
whether you're just looking to expand your career or start something new it's
a perfect place and I'm finding it so good because it's motivating me on those
days where I'm like stuck and don't know what to do with my career yesterday I
did a video about kind of finding your voice as a brand and then today I have
just printed off this little worksheet I think it's really cool that you get like
actual worksheets to print off but I've already got full on two pages of notes
so yeah if you're interested in learning more or trying Skillshare out for
yourself I'll leave the link in the description but right now I am gonna
continue my educational journey for the day I didn't actually eat all my cereal
I overestimated how hungry I was I'm gonna
continue doing this and I think I'm actually gonna tidy my office up because
it is ruining my productive vibe at the minute there's just stuff everywhere
now is checking email time which it's the most boring part of my job I reckon
I use Google email Gmail and I really really like it I actually use a color
coding system to keep track of who I've replied to any emails I've kind of
declined or don't want to do I will use a red tag and anything I've completed
will be green and I have it all in categories so I can see as I scroll down
which ones are done which ones need to be done and how far I've got with my
emails and as you can see there are a few at the top that needs sorting out so
that's what I'm gonna do now
emails have been half replied to and I've just got an email from my manager
and obviously I make youtube videos as well that's what you're watching so I have
a sponsored video going up this evening and I've just got approval for it which
is so good which means I can post that as scheduled
tonight it's all ready to go and they've asked for a picture of me to share so I'm
sending a selfie now as you do and then probably gonna work on my website so I
have a website that's pretty much done and I have like the basic bones and
skeleton of it I just need to fill it up with various bits of content so I've
been working on some pieces of content for it which I will show you but
yeah I'm so happy this video has been approved
it is about midday now and I've actually got quite a bit done I've edited a little
bit of a video I've sent some stuff to my manager and now I'm actually gonna
get back onto the life of doing my graphic design stuff which is the stuff
I enjoy the most so I'm changing up where I'm sitting I'm gonna go and ruin this
lovely bed I'm gonna sit there and create some new little elements for my
new website my website has yet to launch is almost ready I've not given myself
like a date or anything yet because I don't want to put the pressure up myself
I'm a little bit scared but if you do want to sign up to be like notified when it
does go live because on there is gonna be freebies and downloads and tutorials
and basically anything you could need as a graphic designer so if you're looking
for something like that you can sign up and you'll get an email when the website
goes live and I won't spam you because spam emails are the bane of my life
this is the time of day actually when I'll put something on the telly because
I usually end up working in silence because I concentrate better when it's
silent but then when I sit on the office bed I will put like a documentary or
something on so I have like background viewing of some sort on but yeah these
are the template things I have been making I've used illustrator and
so far I've got let me just zoom out well I'm using illustrator with the
wrong hand a little sneak peek of other things I've
made there but I have four so far ones kind of half done but these are little
Instagram story templates so I'll zoom in on one so you can see what I mean so
you've probably seen them before you have a little template you screenshot it
and it says like my favorites and you answer the questions and then at the
bottom it has my Instagram handle and my website so it's kind of like a fun
interactive way of promoting myself I'm having quite a lot of fun working out
what to write on these I've got a few different example over on my Pinterest
and I'm kind of grabbing ideas from a bunch of different designs and then
shoving them on here I think I'm gonna make like ten that's five pretend I've
got two hands out I think I'm gonna make like ten of these and then put them
up for like download on my website and then also put them on my Instagram as
blanks so people can have them but that will all be released when my website is
released because I'm not releasing it yet as you guys know
I've done making those little templates and I'm gonna put them on my
website soon but I have just got an email about a logo design and I thought
I'd show you my method for gathering information and getting the right
information off my clients so I have this form here which I created on Google
Forms and I just put my branding in the background and made it kind of my colours
and on here I have various questions that I asked potential clients what
they're after so what is the name of your business
please tell me a bit about it what is the purpose of your logo where will it
be used this one's really important to decide whether you need it to be print
ready or digital ready or both so that's quite an interesting question to ask and
what is the deadline tell me everything you can about the people that will be
using it so basically what's their target audience who are your competitors
what do you like and then here yeah what do you like so here is a option for you
to add files of logos that you've seen that you like the look of so I can see
what kind of vibe you are looking at and then can I share your logo on my
youtube channel just so I'm checking just in case I do film the process and
then you can answer all them and submit them so basically that has really really
helped me kind of decipher the different things my client wants and I'll know
right from the get-go when it needs to be finished what kind of application
they're gonna be putting it on whether it's gonna be digital or print and just
a bunch of different questions and that can add and edit that template as much
as I need to so probably in the near future I'll be changing that but I found
that super super helpful and then anytime I've sent that out to anyone
I'll get a notification from Google when it's been filled in and I can read the
response download the images that they've attached to it and it's a good
way of me kind of working out what quote to give because I get asked quite a lot
what I charge and it differs every single time honestly it's like how
long's a piece of string because it depends on the project it depends on how
long it's gonna take the complexity of it and like a lot of things so yeah when
people ask how much graphic designers charge it is really difficult to answer
that question I still I'm not quite sure I usually go off people in similar
fields as me I'll go on their website see if they've got any rates and kind of
go off that or I'll judge it client by client so if that client has a bigger
budget I'll probably charge a little bit more spend a bit more time on it and if
they've got a lower budget I will accommodate my services to them so I
will tailor it to fit their budget but also not leave myself out of pocket if
that makes sense so yeah it's hard to describe what I charge because it's very
different and the kind of work I do is very different or hopefully a little
template like that will help you come up with a way and be a bit more clear about
what it is your client wants yeah today's being quite productive actually
I'm gonna put those templates up on my website I've been using Squarespace for
my website a little bit a lot previously I've used like WordPress and I used a
photography one Zenfolio I think I used actually yeah couple years ago and
Squarespace is by far the easiest one I've used so far so I'm gonna go onto
that now and check that everything's okay I'm gonna import those few files
that I've just made and I'm gonna make a little template cover thing for it and
I'll give you a bit of a sneak preview of my website I don't know how much to
show you actually but yeah so this is the behind-the-scenes of my website when
it loads my Internet's being slow and currently if you search my website this
is the page that comes up it's just kind of like a holding page because I don't
want you guys to see the full thing straight away and then down here
is the various different bits it does take a bit of work getting used to when
it's first kind of presented to you but now it is the most seamless website I've
ever had these are my different pages I've got a home page and about page
tutorials page creator toolkit and a shop the creator toolkit is the thing
that is the kind of top secret element and I'm very excited to reveal that that
is where my free templates will be going that is where
any freebies and downloads I will be putting in there and then
anything of a bit more value will be going in my shop
so yeah what page shall I show you I'll show you my tutorial page so
obviously this is the view that I see but you get the idea
so this is the kind of vibes procreate tutorials illustrator tutorials
Photoshop tutorials you can click through there's a drawing I did of my
pal Hannah I love that drawing um and yeah I've been working on creating all
these graphic and it's just been taken along Oh focus I believe in you camera
there we go and it's just been taking a long time to get the various different
elements done and getting it how I want it to be but yeah like I said at the
beginning of the video if you want to subscribe not subscribe if you want to
sign up to my website and be there when it launches just head over to
alicethorpe.co.uk put your email address in and it will
email you when it goes live which is gonna be in the near future as long as I
keep working hard and getting these bits done
it is getting pretty dark now what time is it half past six and I've just done a
few little sketches for some phone wallpaper ideas I am making I asked on
Instagram actually for your favorite girl power like inspirational quotes and
I'm gonna put them in two cute little phone wallpapers so I was just doing
some sketches and stuff to work out what kind of layouts i want and what ideas I
have so that was really nice I am losing motivation a little bit
which is annoying it is half 6 to be fair I have been in the office for like
a full office day I'm gonna carry on gonna power through and I'm watching a
youtube video and I think I'm gonna pick my laptop up again I'm gonna send the
drawings over to my laptop because I drew them on my iPad if you're wondering
by the way I have the iPad pro it's like the original version there's a new one
out now which does look amazing but don't want to break my bank account so
yeah I have the iPad pro in like the bigger size what the size that is and
the Apple pencil an amazing investment I bought it like when I was in my final
year at uni last year and I don't regret it after all I got it on Amazon I like a
refurbished rate it was like a secondhand one and it worked amazingly
so I'll leave the link to that in my description as I always do because I get
a lot of questions about that oh and the case and stuff I'll leave the link to
the case and this thing and I just added this thing on it so I don't lose my pen
it's just like an elasticated thing and then the case turns the screen on and
off when you open and close it the one thing I do really want to finish today
is putting those Instagram story templates on my website that's the one
thing I want to get done
I'm hiding the rest of them because I want to keep that a surprise but I've
got the templates up on my website so you can download them as soon as the
website goes live whoo it is now half past 8:00 in the evening
and I think I'm done I'm done for the day I can't promise I'm not gonna look
at my emails or like edit an Instagram photo but in terms of design stuff
I'm done I have completed what I wanted to complete plus some I actually have
just made two phone wallpapers from a pattern that I'd made like last week
these are the wallpapers so these will be on my website and yeah this one that's
just like sloths against a white background and then sloths who are sleepy
here that says it's never too early for a nap can totally relate really happy
with those and I've just uploaded them to my website as well I've made the
little image for it so I've got more done today than I hoped for which is
good I hope you've enjoyed this day in the life of a graphic designer video I
will say every single day is different I suppose that's the nature of working
freelance very very soon I'm gonna have to sort out my taxes because the end of
the tax year is coming which is so boring if you would like a video around
that and something more like financee background rather than the shiny fun
stuff you know let me know give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it let
me know if you watched it all the way to the end that all that always intrigues
me actually who watches it to the end you've got some major dedication comment
down below sloths if you got to the end or I love sloths
something to do with sloths just so I know that you saw the wallpapers but
yeah thanks for watching and I'll see you soon for another video