Anyone with freelance design experience will tell you how getting on the same page with clients or finding that third revision you made and mislabeled a month ago can sometimes take up much more of your time than actual design work.
Rather than learning this the hard way through personal experience, adopt these five tools to minimize distractions, stay organized, and work as efficiently as possible wherever you are.
Design Platforms
Signing up for a design platform is among the most impactful things you can do to boost your output. On the one hand, they seamlessly work with multiple formats (illustrations, vector, raster, etc.) and come with large libraries of templates and other assets you can use or adapt to fit your specific designs.
On the other, they’re service- and browser-based. This lets you work on complex projects from anywhere, even if your portable device lacks the hardware oomph traditional desktop tools would need to do the same.
Of course, such flexibility presupposes a stable and safe internet connection, which you might not always have access to when working remotely. Say you want to work from a little sidewalk café with a croissant view of the Eiffel Tower, then an eSIM for France helps you with that. You choose between different carriers and data plans. That way, you get to design on the go without having to worry about unsafe Wi-Fi or spotty service, wherever you are.
Project Management Tools
Keeping track of different deadlines and obligations on your own is a nightmare, especially if you’re juggling multiple demanding clients. Project and task management tools bring order to the chaos!
They help break complex design projects into concrete steps. This keeps up the momentum and ensures you always know which stage of the design process you’re currently at for different projects. They’re also good for sharing progress updates and notes related to specific steps, and getting your point across more clearly.
Communication Platforms
Few obstacles bog down design projects more than the lack of clear, transparent communication. The challenge is even greater for freelancers since they have fewer opportunities to hash things out face-to-face.
Communication platforms serve two key purposes. They catalogue all interactions, making it easier to reference past discussions or track iterations, which leads to fewer misunderstandings. Some also enable real-time audio and video communication, letting you brainstorm ideas and refine client expectations or collaborate with others on complex projects more effectively.
Connectivity Tools
All the tools we recommend either have an important online component or can’t be used at all without an internet connection. Not a problem when freelancing from home, but it can certainly become one for graphic designers who pursue the digital nomad lifestyle.
Several complementary tools are available to you. Mobile Wi-Fi hotspots function like portable routers, reducing reliance on potentially unsecure public Wi-Fi. However, they only work with one carrier at a time and need a SIM card. On the other hand, the best eSIM for Europe or any other continent would allow you to choose the most suitable regional plans without the hassle of physical SIMs. eSIMs are also more convenient for reducing gadget clutter since the chip that enables them is already part of your phone.
Cloud File Storage
Some graphic designers maintain productivity by working on parts of their projects on the go and then putting everything together once they get back to their desktop. This only works if you can maintain effortless access to design briefs, brushes, templates, and all other files needed for the project.
Various cloud file storage solutions are now indispensable for an optimum workflow. Other than making access easy, they also double as a robust backup solution. Finally, they’re the perfect medium for secure file sharing since the storage is encrypted, and you control what clients or teammates have access to through specific or timed links.
