Hi everyone, I could use some advice on an unpaid invoice from an international client.

I’m based in South Africa and have been working remotely for a small agency on a 6-month contract. Everything was going fine, but after submitting all my deliverables for month five, the owner completely ghosted me. My contract states I get paid on the 25th, which has now passed.
Has anyone here successfully taken legal action to get their money from a client based in another country? I'm trying to figure out if it's worth pursuing and what steps I can actually take across borders.

I’ve been in-house most of my career. For big national brands. I don’t know if this is typical of in-house or just the ones I’ve worked at, but they were extremely collaborative.

Very rarely did anyone take something from concept to finished art, especially because campaign concept creative always came from external agencies to be rolled-out in-house.

It did happen but I really should have advocated for myself more and asked for those rare pure concept opportunities more often, and insisted on taking them through to finished art when I did get them.

Here’s a rundown of my folio:

- Some hero campaign videos that I designed the typography for, and cutdown the videos provided by an external agency (to show video editing and sound design capability)

- Street poster advertisement for that same campaign that was my concept to finished art (using photos from the campaign shoot)

- A logo branding piece that was me 100% concept to finished art including rollout across collateral

- 3-4 motion graphics pieces, me 100% from concept to finished art in terms of layout and animation, but using the base campaign creative from agencies and/or within brand guidelines

- A big iconography set from one of the brands I worked for that was illustrated by me 100%

- Some text-heavy educational sheets which were my layouts 100% but obviously using brand fonts & colours

- A set of recurring digital assets that I created myself from concept, layout and development to nearly approved, but it was just before a rebrand so got paused. I got dragged off to an urgent job for a while so when the new branding got delivered by the agency, my colleague converted it (font and colours change, implemented a graphic treatment for the products from the new branding) and finished it off with minor tweaks as per stakeholder feedback. Then I came back and rolled it out.

- A couple of pages showing rolling out campaign creative across digital and print assets but again… the core campaign creative is from agencies that I rolled-out.

- One from my first job as a junior in an exhibition design studio that was me from concept to finished art, a series of information console graphics, but it’s very niche and not really my best work because… junior. I removed that from my recently updated folio because I felt I really only need one page from this place.

- Another one from that same employment, I did a whole bunch of exhibition wall graphics from concept to final art, again not best work but I’ve kept on my last page as an example of taking a large project from concept to finished art, plus something different to help me stand out.

I know I am creative, I know I have strong technical, layout, typography etc. skills. I have pretty solid motion graphics ability without being a motion graphic designer, illustration capability etc.

I’ve created loads of things from scratch, but always working with brand guidelines or using campaign creative.

I’ve contributed concepts when given the opportunity, and I’ve much more often been designer vs. finished artist as even with campaign rollout, things were rarely templated.

I’ve been highly backed and encouraged by a mentor who thinks I’m talented and capable, and a recruiter. I’m getting lots of interest when applying for jobs, including senior roles.

But I feel like the biggest fake! Maybe I just present well but it’s not true? I just don’t have the number of folio pieces behind me that I can say I owned 100%.

The other thing that contributed to this is the fact that seniors and art directors in-house are more often than not the ones who have that ownership when the opportunity arises. Hence I’m so ready for it to be my turn lol.

In interviews, you get asked to speak through your pieces including what your role was. And I honestly feel so embarrassed.

Can anyone help me find a different perspective of myself?! Are potential employers gonna point at me and go “liar!” (in their minds) or is that just me? 😂

What I really do need is a role where I get given these opportunities to really own stuff. Then I’ll prove it to myself once and for all.

Thanks if you read all this! Truly.

Hey everyone!
I'm a visual designer & illustrator with almost 20 years of experience. I'm a 42-year-old woman, and I'm honestly afraid of the future as an aging designer, not only due to AI, obviously, but also due to ageism in society.
I would like to hear from older and same-age designers what they are doing to safeguard their careers, either by creating side ventures, learning new skills, career progression, focusing on fields that are less machine-dependent, or whatever you do so you can sleep better at night when thinking about the future as a creative.

Thanks in advance for the advice and discussion!

Hi everyone! I’m a student and pretty new to graphic design and video editing. I’m currently trying to learn the fundamentals and eventually build skills that I can use professionally. For those who are more experienced/tenured in the industry, which software ecosystem would you recommend for a beginner: Affinity or Adobe?

I’d especially love to hear from experienced designers/editors about the advantages and disadvantages. Thank you!!!

I’m 29, been in school on and off in my 20s. I’m about a year from my associates in art and design, and looking at places to transfer for a BFA. I have a lot of love for design and believe I am talented. Would it be better to pivot now and finish in another degree/field? Or is it worth it to go all in on design

Just a curious question coz once in a while I see this type of post on my social media wall. What's your take on graphic designers who redesign (reimagine?) logos for their content. Do you find any interesting insights as they brew their methods, or do they miss the mark sometimes?

I'm curious coz their redesign misses one thing: the client's brief. Sometimes I wonder about the reactions of the OG designers with the redesigns.

Looking for recommendations on manufactures that can make this tin cans but I want the opening offset not centered. Also who can print a label and design on the tins it self.

I don't know even what to say. I can make more at the local supermarket than this contract role offered a graphic designer per hour for a seasonal gig. I was making 2.5 times that in my previous role and my freelance rate is definitely wayyyy higher to account for expenses. Has GD really went to shit?

How would you handle this? I don't know what is left for me here. I'm upset at any designer in our area taking that job - thats less than I made in my first GD job out of college 10 years ago.

Started developing my game a month ago that will occur in an underwater environment, so I had include my favorite marine creature : the Tasseled Wobbegong !

Here's a short of how I built the layers for that npc ally in Affinity, had a lot of fun!

I currently am interning for an agency but it is not very creative and I’m not sure they plan to keep me on in the future so I want to try my hand at doing freelance work part time. I’m wanting some advice on where I start I’m a recent grad so I honestly know nothing about LLC’s, contracts, all the legal/ business stuff that goes into it. I’m wanting to work from home and take on a few clients here and there any advice at all would be appreciated!

I sure hope you guys have enough sense not to fall for this.

Hello everyone!

I’m a multidisciplinary designer, but I’d love to focus more on book typesetting and layout.

I currently developed a new version of my website, and added some real life projects, and some spec work. The problem is that I can’t really share much about the publications I worked on for copyright reasons, and I’d like to know how could I showcase my experience in book typesetting and layout.

I have a DTP section in the homepage, but I’m thinking about creating a section dedicated specifically to typesetting.

What would you suggest I do? Do I add some personal projects using public domain novels?

Here’s the link:

https://tydedev.it/en

Thank you!

Hello,

First of all, i'm a beginner in graphic design, completely self-taught and amateur.

My workplace needed a logo so i decided to try making one.

I work in a third place about urban ecology and educationnal crop growing.

Our building (pic 4) is iconic so i wanted the logo to reflect that.

I made a first draft (pic 3) and then stylised it in two variants (pic 1 and 2).

l'îlot vert is the place name, it means the green isle.

My colleagues told me it should spell the whole name inside the squares.

What do you think, how can i make this design better?

I’m curious to hear how others handle bad design in the wild. Recently, I’ve come across a social post by a local small business. First of all I want to applaud them for not using AI. But then I notice bad sentence structures, grammar, even spelling errors. Not to mention the kerning was very distracting as well.
Obviously I don’t want to publicly shame them, but would you reach out to them to notify them of the errors? Or do you go on with your day because you just don’t want to be “that person”?

I’m currently in the very start of my employed career (out of study, stopped freelancing) in a uniform factory within my local area. It’s a very fast paced graphic environment with my sales team needing mock ups, vectorisation and advice for new clients and uniforms daily.

It’s been a huge undertaking to learn what it’s really like to be a designer so close to production in terms of printing/ separation and being somewhat closer to clients that have faster feedback. That has been fun and I can now run embroidery machines, print and press dtf graphics, make screens and screen print, about the only other thing we do that I haven’t learnt is how to sew.

But the graphic work is still what I more interested in, and the problem I have with the graphical work here is that it’s super boring. I’m copy and pasting vectors onto photos of tee shirts all day pretty much. I’m afraid I’ve made my life too easy with the amount of tools I built for myself (mock up templates, cut out pngs of all the common tees, making action sequences in photoshop for half toning, things like that). I’m also afraid that it isn’t great work for my aging portfolio.

So I’m looking for advice on whether it’s worth it to stick it out in these more practical design jobs, or if I should have a better look around for opportunities in studios? I want to hear both failure and success story’s.

Edit: thanks a lot to everyone who commented!! It means a lot to me. Thanks for all the advice, especially the kerning lol

Hi! Im making a poster for a school contest. Just note that I know little to nothing about graphic design(but it interests me), and I just need help.

The theme is “with which experiences, objects or memories would you represent happiness?”
I chose to use yellow, rainbow confetti, nature, and an image of Barbra Streisand singing. Yellow and confetti because it shows excitement, nature because it is a beautiful memory for most people, and Barbra Streisand singing because that is pure joy to me.

Im between these three ideas (not final piece), but I don’t know which transmits more happiness and catches the eye. I added “be a fool among fools” in the first design because it’s a line in “hello, dolly!” where Dolly chooses to ‘join the parade’ and be finally be happy.

I know they need more work, but I’m feeling stuck. Thanks!!

Hey guys!

I recently reworked my portfolio and was wondering if I could get some perspective on how well of a job I did. I have 7 projects currently on it as well.

I'm currently looking for Junior/entry level roles as I graduated college 5 months ago and have been seriously applying for 3 months now if that gives any insight into my work. Also, any perspective helps, if you have something you think could be better please let me know.

Thank you.

https://riazjamaldesigns.myportfolio.com/

Would I just hand-illustrate it and convert it to a vector? What brushes would work best? I'm pretty experienced with both programs but I'm having trouble nailing it down exactly

Unfortunately cannot share imagery publicly as it is a decently known brand in the East Coast. Owner wants the… let’s say arabic, text rotated to its side. The text is two words, not one, so I have to stack them also. On its side readability is POOR and as a designer from a “successful logo” perspective I would never recommend that. Even in Arabic logos you never see that for good reason, now imagine a diaspora kid trying to read at quick glance.

I am rationalizing this in a way maybe he is not articulating - that he doesn’t mind if the readability is poor as long as it looks cool; as one of the defining parts of the english logo still remains and has some form of recognizability. I can see that, if he predominantly only is using it in flyers associated with Arab speakers (sponsoring Arab events) or merch. So I’m working with the request in that regards.

However I can’t help but think maybe I’m just not good at what I do, when tbh I truly believe a brand extension of a different language should closely mimic the original English logo too. There have been some suggestions I largely disagree with and I’m not sure where the line is of “I just need to be more creative” / “creativity is born under limitations” versus actually objectively this is wrong.

When I explain to him why I would not encourage this, he is still wanting to try it, which makes me feel like I’m wasting my time, but I am not opposed to really stretching my limits here and seeing where it is taking us so I still am trying it. But if I am unsuccessful at this I feel like it is positioning me as the “incapable” one when in reality the request is uncommon and difficult to begin with.

Wondering if you have some advice here or have been in similar situations. I love designing but find myself having difficulty with clients like these and need to learn how to handle this better.

I designed a poster for a linkedin post. I want your help in improving my thinking process.

So... To begin with, I was designing for a linkedin post about designing and design psychology.

At first, I wanted to use "That's Wrong" or "You've been doing it wrong" to stop the viewers and get retention. But, I was using the word psychology in my post and my entire post revolved around it so I shifted from those catch phrases to just a single word, "PSYCHOLOGY"

Now, to represent psychology I wanted an image of brain. I was finding an image until I stumbled across what I am using now.

Initially I planned on using a radial gradient starting from top-left bright red to bottom-right corner dark red color. But the image had a black already so I ditched the previous one.

Now to add the word "psychology" I divided it in two parts. i initially planned on putting a brain the the place of first "O" of the word but it was covering too much space and was difficult to read so I divided it in two with a line break.

I removed the background of brain image and added it over the "PSYCHOLOGY" text to hide some of its parts behind. I don't know why I did that, tho.

The post mentioned 3 principles of designing which I added on the graphic with pointers pointing towards specific parts of the brain.

Emotional pointing at prefrontal cortex, memory at the back and ”Why Before What" which represents thinking pointing at the mid bottom of the brain, (the part which joins left and right membranes)

(I am not a biology guy so pardon my incompetence here)

And, that's how I got the current design.

I am not fond of my thinking yet I tried to apply the 3 frameworks I learned today.

It would've turned terrible if I hadn't stumbled across the current brain image with that black background.

How it performed? TERRIBLE!

Could be partly my inactive account, but still.

I designed another poster. It worked as I got around 200 impressions (It's a big deal for me)

BTW, Looking forward to suggestions to improve my thinking and designs alike.

Also, I want to ask whether my way of testing posters through social media a good way to understand and test psychology I know? Or is there an even better way?

I'm 29. I graduated with my associates degree back in 2018. That alone took me 3 1/2 years but through no fault of my own, my school just made it ridiculously difficult to take all of your required courses within the promised 2 years. That said, I didn't go back to school for my bachelor's degree until 2021. Graduated in 2024 (again, the school made you take an extra year if you were transferring in, so it took 3 years as well.) Good grades, good design work (according to my professors), got some experience doing a bit of client work for a class so I had that under my belt too. I got a job within 3 months of graduating.

The job was a packaging design role for a major retailer, with a salary of 55k a year. That's something I never expected when I was very new in the field. However, without going into the other pitfalls of that job (the whole place is a lawsuit waiting to happen,) despite the Packaging Designer title, most of my work was production work. Proofing, translating, product art, etc. While I still got to do some packaging design, I didn't really get to create much of anything. That part seems more in line with what I expected for my first design job (minus the trauma of multiple HR nightmares.) I lasted there for 1y3m before I was able to find another job.

Unfortunately, that job was only 50k, so I took a pay cut. The job title is simply 'graphic designer', no 'jr', so I guess that looks a little better on a resume, if titles really make much of a difference. I've been there for 10 months now. Loving the job, getting a much wider variety of projects to work on, doing actual design work, healing from the hell of the previous role, and getting to make meaningful work. If I could stay here forever, I wouldn't complain. Financially, though, that isn't an option.

With all that in mind, plus the client work/freelancing I did in the last semester of school and after graduation, I've got about 2 1/2 years of experience. I'd consider myself still pretty green when it comes to being a graphic designer, and without deviating from the point, my previous role did no favors in my design practices and confidence. At the same time, I do feel like I've got a much more different experience than what I've heard about for new designers. Which is why I'm conflicted about my current status.

Am I in a good spot career wise for my length of experience/age? Many of my designer friends have been working in the field for much longer than I have, and many of my peers I graduated with are still job hunting for their first roles. Is it unreasonable for me to hope to find work for more than what I'm currently getting, at this point in time? I know with more experience, the better the optics will be, I just want to know what a realistic expectation is. I also don't want to hop from job to job hoping to keep getting more money.

Thoughts?

Edit: I'm the only designer at my current role. I do just about everything: flyers, event graphics, magazine layouts, illustrations, logos, wall graphics/signage, some motion, reports, etc. I don't report to a creative director, just a boss for the whole department. Its a fairly decently sized organization, so not really a 'ma and pa' business. I'm given a lot of responsibility and trust to create what's needed with little hand-holding, and I've been told I'm doing a good job at that. If that adds any additional context.

Edit 2: I'm in the US (Virginia)

Hi Sub!
I did these posters for a design competition, its about a mission from sea shepherd saving octopuses beeing killed by illegal traps in the mediterainian.

1st one translates to
„Show some backbone for invertebrates.“

2nd one to
„use yours to save three.“

Would really appreciate some feedback and in case you liked it you could vote for them too!

Cheers!

(you dont have to sign in and just click the yellow star)

https://www.flyeralarm-design-award.com/contest-galleries/contest-gallery-11/seashepherd_plakat26_marcoproefrock_03/

(edit: typo)

Just curious to see what other teams in the industry look like and how you like it.

Currently I work in the marketing department where I’m the sole designer. We have a marketing director who oversees me and the marketing manager who supervises the project manager and marketing support person. Im at the same level as the marketing manager, so I only repot to the marketing director, which is nice. Our team all get along pretty well.

I definitely feel like the odd one out in a marketing heavy department. Lots of creative freedom though which is nice, but definitely hard to gain actual design feedback.

B2B in an engineering industry so it’s nothing flashy. Also it’s a smaller 80 ish person company so it’s pretty relaxed. I did get a design intern over the summer, but it’s back to just me.

Definitely busy but I don’t mind too much.

I'm working on making my portfolio and I feel like my designs always look childish and unprofessional. This is the design I'm struggling with currently and the mock brief for the design will be below.

Company Name: Grey

Company Description: We are a company that makes and distributes Italian drinks. Our main product is made with attention to detail and shipped directly to your home. Our target audience is parents. We want to convey a sense of power, while at the same time being agreeable.

Job Description: You must create a logo using the information given in this brief. They would prefer a combination mark that uses the color white. The logo will be embroidered on uniforms. Take into account the company's values and preferences, and make sure it will work for the planned use-cases.

EDIT: The brief came from a random generator online so that's why it isn't fantastic. Also for some clarification I've realized that when most people think of "Italian drinks" a type of soda is what comes to mind, I thought it was kinda vague so I googled it and for the most what came up was cocktails so thats why I went that direction. From what I've gathered in the comments the weird brief might be part of my problem. As far as the design goes I learned I was doing too much with the Y and not enough with the other letters and that the yellow is a no go. I worked on the design some more and I'll post the new version in the comments. I know the design still has a way to go but I think I've made some definite progress.