How I landed my first 5 design clients—tips for getting started as a professional creative

We’ve all been there—it can be tough in the early days when you’re just starting out as a solo designer and wondering how to source those elusive initial clients.

Don’t worry—you may have to get started by accepting projects that are a bit less-than-ideal, but thanks to the unexpected power of the ‘ripple effect,’ you’ll find things getting easier and easier as time goes by.

These days, my design studio has plenty of regular clients, but let’s take a trip back in time to the days more than a decade ago when I was just getting started. These are the tips we’ll be covering to help you approach and win clients at the outset of your creative journey:

Taking the plunge into working for yourself can be equally exhilarating (freedom!) and daunting (where to start?!), and landing your early clients can feel like navigating choppy waters… on a stormy night… in a teeny peddle-boat. It’s rarely smooth sailing when you set out to be your own boss, but there are certainly ways you can make the outset of your journey a little easier. 

Read on to find out my top tips for landing your first client projects and how to keep the momentum going as you progress…

Despite all of the ideas you might have about exercising your creative freedom, the early months or even years of your solo career are unlikely to be highly creatively stimulating all of the time. Sure, you might be able to work on exciting projects, but not every design client you land will want a complete rebrand. 

The first design client I landed simply needed help with a small task that didn’t involve much creativity: typesetting the pages of a school textbook. Nonetheless, this task was a great place to start. It was simple and straightforward, and it allowed me to learn about a unique sector of publishing design and make some initial contacts within that industry. 

I didn’t apply for the project formally—I was simply lucky enough to be asked by a friend of a friend. Their regular designer had recently left the company and needed help in the transition. (The first rule of freelancing is to be nice to everyone; you never know who will need some design help in the future!) I was frankly delighted that anyone would consider me for the task and was happy to provide a helping hand when it was needed. So, even if you think a job is not your dream project or doesn’t flex your creative capabilities, extend a helping hand anyway.

You might think branding is for… brands, right? Personal branding, in which you create a brand identity for yourself and your design business, is a valuable way to ‘set out your stall’ for prospective clients. Creating a branded look for your business that you can be proud of not only sends out a message to clients about your professionalism but also helps you feel that you have ownership of your design career. It’s a calling card that you can use to show your design skills and how you could create a similarly professional brand for clients.

The pressure to find work can feel overwhelming in the early days, but setting aside time to build your personal brand is essential. This can consist of a logo, fonts, brand colors, and professional photo, and it should be applied to your website, social media channels, and other networking accounts, such as a LinkedIn profile or Behance page.

Try enlisting another designer’s help, even if you have branding and design skills, because that person can give you an outside perspective on the brand identity as it might appear to your clients. Once the core elements of your brand identity are in place, you can extend your brand’s reach by applying them to your workspace, marketing materials, and any other forms of handy ‘advertising’ you can create (think custom hoodies and signage!).

I’ve had mostly positive comments from clients about my brand (Blue Whippet Studio), and several of them decided to get in touch based on the branding. The colors, logo, and photography style I adopted helped clients to understand who I am and to remember the brand later. 

Inspired by the success of the Blue Whippet brand, I later developed ‘sister’ brands for projects, which were a sort of spin-off from my core design business. For example, I recently launched a wedding invite design business, Wedding Whippet, which borrows branding elements from Blue Whippet, helping to draw a connection between the two businesses for clients already exposed to the original brand.

One of my first clients simply wanted a small logo design for a social media page. The budget was small—really small—but this didn’t stop me from taking on the project. Her interior design business quickly took off, and the brand identity was used on her business’s website (Loft 208, if you’re interested) and marketing collateral.

Someone else then saw the imagery I’d created for this project and enquired about a larger brand identity project involving the complete branding for a tech recruitment agency’s website, social media, office signage, and marketing materials. 

Mixing small jobs with more significant projects is an excellent strategy when starting a new design studio. While small projects may not offer the best pay, they can provide something even better—the opportunity to make a great impression and make new connections. In the example of small-and-large-project mixing above, the second client thought I’d do an excellent job because they liked the style and color palette of the first smaller project. The smaller project acted as an advertisement of what I could do and a networking opportunity. 

Finding your very first clients can be challenging, and you may have to spend a lot of time sending out CVs, posting on freelance boards like Upwork, or attending networking events. Hopefully, by making these initial efforts, you’ll get inquiries, a project here and there, and maybe even a repeat client who commissions more work in the future.

Once you have your first two or three clients, you should start to see a ‘ripple effect’ developing, in which past clients recommend you to others in their network, who then seek you out based on word-of-mouth endorsements. This is where the personal branding we discussed earlier comes into its own, as some prospective clients (especially corporate ones) will actively choose a designer with a professionally branded website over one who doesn’t have a well-developed brand. 

You may also find that once the ripple effect takes hold, you don’t need to put as much effort into casting your net wide and shallow. Fun fact: I don’t have a big social media following, and I’m not particularly active on Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Why? Because most of my clients are sourced from word-of-mouth recommendations—they find me! Once you get started, you’ll find that good clients—the really good ones—will actively seek you out based on the hearsay of others.

An additional word of advice—when you find those good clients (the ones who commission regularly and pay promptly), hold onto them dearly. Stay in touch regularly and send them holiday cards. Nicely designed holiday cards. The good ones can be rare, so they’re worth maintaining and fostering.

The last word on how to get freelance design clients? Chill out, slow down, and take on fewer projects. 

Not the advice you were expecting? Me neither! When I started, my approach was to work as hard and long as possible, equating overtime and lost weekends with ‘success.’ Over the years, I’ve realized more than anything the value of having fewer, better clients rather than a large pool of contacts who are either not as reliable in commissioning projects or paying invoices promptly or which you simply struggle to properly maintain as a solo creative. 

In terms of how to get clients for a design agency, casting your net wide at the outset is not a bad idea, and networking is all part of hitting the ground running. However, once you’ve landed a few clients and hopefully are starting to see some positive impact from the ripple effect (above), it’s an excellent idea to put your time and energy into doing the best work you can for a smaller network of clients. 

They’ll thank you for it, too! Having fewer clients means you can dedicate more time to cultivating these relationships, getting to know your clients better, and producing better work. Some would say it’s risky to focus on building a smaller but stronger client base, but in my experience, it has worked better than casting my net too wide. 

I noticed that this gradual build-up of clients and projects over time often directly contrasted with the lean-in/GirlBoss mentality of similar creative agencies around me. Yes, these high-client agencies were doing exciting things, but this was usually at the expense of business stability over time. This led me to write about the idea of Slow Working in my book PASSIVE ACTIVE CREATIVE. Like the hygge-friendly Slow Living trend, Slow Working is about adopting a similar slow-and-steady mindset in the workplace, not just at home. It prioritizes your well-being over a stressful road to burnout, helping you build up a successful creative business over time. It’s the direct opposite of the fast startup culture that can burn brightly but falter quickly.

Why not give it a try? Comb through your growing client list and focus on the clients you feel have greater potential for long-term business relationships. Work towards maintaining and developing these connections over time. This approach has worked really well for me overall, especially as I only have so many hours in a day!

Landing your first design clients can be difficult, but with these tips in mind, you can make a confident start by reaching out and building your network of connections. 

One of the biggest challenges of keeping a design studio buoyant in the early days is winning clients and keeping them, too! When your creative business starts to scale up, try not to neglect the clients who were reliable and pleasant to work for when you were getting started. They might turn into long-standing clients who return to commission work from you repeatedly in the future. 

While new clients are exciting and shiny, it’s a good idea to set aside time to maintain existing business relationships by keeping in touch via personal emails or periodic newsletters. I have a rule that, however busy things get, I will always touch base with existing and former clients at least a few times a year, and this has often paid off in inquiries or project commissions.

Your creative journey is just beginning, with all of its excitement (and some inevitable disappointments) ahead of you! Keep your chin up, never burn your bridges, and treat every project—however small—as an opportunity to show off your creativity and professionalism. The only way is up. Good luck!

Looking for more graphic design inspiration and tips on forging a creative career? Don’t miss our 2025 graphic design trends report to keep ahead of the curve, and read up on these 8 expert tips to boost your career as a freelance graphic designer. While you’re here, why not drop by Envato to get unlimited downloads of essential design assets and templates to get you started on your creative projects?