How to Find Remote Graphic Design Jobs
These remote graphic design jobs will let you keep doing what you love while being able to work from your own home. What could be better?
- Graphic design work is ideal for remote jobs, offering flexibility and location independence.
- Remote work provides benefits like no commuting, flexible schedules, and improved work-life balance.
- Challenges of remote work include limited social interactions and the need for strong self-discipline.
- Numerous job boards and freelance platforms, such as Indeed, Dribbble, and Upwork, offer remote graphic design opportunities.
Nearly everything a freelance marketing professional will encounter on a daily basis has received input from a graphic designer — websites, emails, advertisements, logos, packaging, and so on.
Since most graphic design work can be done right from your computer, this opens up the possibility of finding remote graphic design jobs.
Just think, instead of driving into the office every day, you could instead work from the comfort of your own home or from anywhere else in the world.
Lucky for you, there’s an abundance of remote graphic design opportunities and lucrative side hustles scattered across the web.
In this article, we’re going to give you a few tips for getting started as a remote graphic designer.
We’ll also show you the best job boards where you can find endless remote graphic design opportunities.
Is Remote Work the Life for You?
Before going too far down this road, let’s first talk about the pros and cons of doing remote work.
While there are many upsides to a work-from-home job, there are definitely some downsides that you must consider.
The most obvious benefit of working from home is that you no longer have to drive into an office every single day, as you can work from your home office.
This means that you’ll save an incredible amount of time when you subtract driving and getting ready.
No more fighting Los Angeles traffic or New York City gridlock.
You also can set a flexible schedule and can establish a better work-life balance.
With greater autonomy, you can complete your work when it’s most convenient for you without someone always breathing down your neck.
On the other hand, having a remote job means that your social interactions, especially with your coworkers, may be limited.
Since you’ll be working remotely, collaboration may be more difficult and your day-to-day work may get a little lonely.
On top of that, remote work requires a tremendous amount of discipline.
When you work from home or from anywhere else in the world, there will be a plethora of distractions competing for your attention.
That's why I highly suggest getting an office space, or at the least, turning an extra room into a home office.
You must also be disciplined in the sense that you’re responsible for getting your work done.
You won’t be micro-managed, so your level of success is all up to you.
If you think you’re cut out for remote graphic design jobs, then let’s move on to some tips to get your job search started.
Tips for Getting Started With Remote Graphic Design Jobs
When looking for a graphic design job, it’s important to be prepared for your job search and understand the lay of the land.
Oftentimes clients will interview freelancers before they give them a gig.
The better you understand how things work and the more prepared you are for applications and interviews, the better off you’ll be in the long run.
The first step is understanding how much you want to work.
As you’ll see when you start your search, there are plenty of part-time, full-time, and freelance opportunities.
Decide how many hours you want to put in and the flexibility you desire.
The second aspect you need to think about is what type of graphic design work do you want to do and which type of work you have experience with.
Since the opportunities are plentiful, it might not be a bad idea to specialize in a certain area.
For example, some graphic designers focus on branding and logo design.
Others prefer to be a UI designer or a UX designer, both of which design what users see and experience when visiting a website or mobile app.
Lastly, in order to stand out, you should have a way to showcase your graphic design experience.
Most people will do this with an online design portfolio.
With free portfolio sites like Behance and Dribbble, you can showcase all of your work online for free.
If you’re limited on the amount of work you can showcase, it might not be a bad idea to create a graphic design portfolio.
Mock up some graphic design work, even if it’s for a hypothetical company.
Any samples that you can show from tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, or PowerPoint will go a long way.
You could also take on low-paying jobs at first to build up your portfolio.
Then, once you have your portfolio all set, it’s time to start hitting the job boards to find open graphic design jobs.
General Job Boards
The most wide-ranging opportunities are on general job boards.
These job boards span across all industries and job types, and feature both remote and in-person work.
Firstly, there is the Gigworker job board.
We collect some of the best remote jobs around the web, from the companies looking to hire remote and freelance designers.
With these sites, you’ll need to be specific about the fact that you want a remote job.
Some of these platforms will have an option for you to select remote jobs only, but with others, you’ll need to type in specific keywords, like remote, telecommute, or work-from-home.
When searching for your role, make sure to select graphic design filters if you can and search for a wide range of graphic design related keywords, like graphic design director, email design, art director, or remote online web design.
But what if you’d rather deal with job boards that specifically focus on graphic design?
You’re in luck — there are a few job boards that are made for designers.
Design Job Boards
Job boards made for freelancers are also another place you can find your next graphic design job.
These job boards are specifically made for designers and other creative professionals.
This is an excellent place to search as you have much of the work cut out for you.
You won’t need to worry about filtering through thousands of postings that have nothing to do with graphic design.
You will need to select remote jobs only as a filter since some of these job boards are also available to on-site employees.
You should also know that these job boards are not only for graphic designer jobs but also for creative professionals in many other areas.
Among the job titles, you’ll find web designers, product designers, illustrators, animators, motion graphics designers, and user interface designers.
There are also job boards that focus specifically on remote jobs that have a ton of open graphic design roles around the world.
Remote Job Boards
Remote-specific job boards are becoming increasingly popular as more people transition into working remotely full-time.
For graphic designers like yourself, this is another hot spot to find the most current opportunities across the United States and all around the world.
All of these remote job boards feature design-related positions as one of their main job categories.
From there, you’ll need to search the most recent job postings or type in specific keywords like graphic designer, social media marketing designer, or production graphic designer.
The remote job boards are some of the best ones out there, however, not all job boards are made the same.
Make sure you look through all of these to see how up-to-date the listings are.
It might not be a bad idea to sign up for graphic design job notifications that are sent directly to your inbox.
- FlexJobs
- Remote.co
- We Work Remotely
- JustRemote
- Jobspresso
- LetsWorkRemotely
- Remotive
- Working Nomads
- Atlas & Boots
If you don’t have any luck with any of the job boards listed above, you can always turn to bidding sites to find freelance work.
Some graphic designers actually prefer these types of job boards instead.
Freelance Bidding Sites
Freelance bidding sites are like job boards but for project-oriented work.
On bidding sites, you’ll find specific projects that you can submit quotes and proposals in order to secure design work.
When you apply for one of these projects, you’ll be submitting a proposal alongside other freelance designers.
The company will then evaluate all of the proposals and quotes from freelancers and decide on which graphic designer they want to go with.
While this seems like a great idea on paper, many people complain that these sites have an intense amount of competition that decreases the amount designers are paid.
On the other hand, if you can establish yourself as a premium freelance graphic designer with a thorough track record, you can demand a higher payment for your work.
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- People Per Hour
Bidding sites are great to find short-term contract positions.
They also enable you to get some entry-level experience early on if you're not that seasoned.
You should be able to lock in some form of work as long as you lower your price below the rest of your competition.
Start Designing From Home
If you're a graphic designer looking to transition into the remote working world, there are plenty of opportunities out there.
Once you have a clean portfolio to showcase all of your great work, hit the ground running with all of the job boards mentioned above.
When you land your first interview, you can take a few interview tips from here.
After that, enjoy your new role as a remote graphic designer.
Brett Helling is the founder and owner of Gigworker.com. Having worked in the gig economy for nearly a decade, he has mastered freelance, remote, and app-based work. You can learn more about his journey in his book, "Gigworker: Independent Work and the State of the Gig Economy", now available on Amazon.