A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer

10% Creating Proposals
10% Bookkeeping
10% Networking Events
10% Client Meetings
10% Social Media Engagement
10% Administrative Tasks
15% Actually Designing
20% Browsing for fonts and photos
15% Researching client industries, their competition, design trends, tools, and more!

A day in the life of a graphic designer typically includes a lot less designing than you’d expect! There’s so much work that has to be done before it’s time to actually sit down and design.

I typically begin my day responding to emails and ingesting a fair amount of caffeine. Throughout the week I’ll have networking events and client meetings scheduled, so I organize my time around those out-of-office tasks.

The cycle of client work begins with networking, social media or referrals. When someone reaches out with a potential project, I create a proposal outlining the deliverables, process, price and timeline. Once they are ready to get started, I set up their payment plan and we have a meeting to go over any additional details or requests.

I begin every project with research - the business, their competitors, the product/service, how it relates to their audience, what they’re doing well, what they could improve on, and more! I’ve learned the best design results stem from doing the detailed research up front to make strategy-led decisions.

After I have a better understanding of their business and industry I move to the design and aesthetic phase. Here I will literally spend HOURS searching for the best photos and fonts that align with the brand. In some instances, I will even make a custom font to give an extra element of uniqueness.

And in between the proposals, bookkeeping, marketing and designing, there is always a long list of administrative duties like file organization, schedule management, responding to inquiries, etc.

I actually don’t mind the non-design tasks associated with my profession, it gives me a break from the left side of my brain which actually helps in the long run!