Speckyboy RSS: You’ll Never Be a Design Specialist by Generalizing Your Skills

Your latest Speckyboy content is here!.

Speckyboy Design Magazine

Design News, Resources & Inspiration

You’ll Never Be a Design Specialist by Generalizing Your Skills


By Addison Duvall on Aug 12, 2020 06:29 am


I’m going to talk about something controversial today. Everyone strap in and brace yourselves. Freelance designers like to encourage newbies entering the industry to learn as many skillsp>

But generally speaking, these ‘generalists’ who try to design, code, write copy, take photographs, do SEO, and anything else they think their clients might need with an equal amount of success are inferior to design specialists in every way.

Today, we’re going to look at why that is, and what freelance designers can do instead to boost their desirability to potential clients.

Jack Of All Trades, Master Of One

You can’t do everything. And pretending that you can is just a waste of time. You have to be honest about your abilities and stick to what you’re really good at.

Multitasking usually only lowers your overall performance. Sure, you might get hired, but if it quickly becomes apparent that you have no idea what you’re doing, you’ll be found out and most likely out of work.

For example, It’s very hard to find someone who can do both visual design and coding extremely well, not to mention copywriting or photography, which are their own separate skills that people study individually for years before mastering. Usually one suffers and there is a noticeable disparity in quality.

Regardless of popular opinion, multitasking can actually be damaging to both your productivity and your career success. If you’re too busy with your hands in too many pots on the stove, you’ll never have time to focus in on the one thing that can propel you ahead of your competition.

I’m not saying that you need to do one thing and one thing only (that would be hypocritical of me, being both a designer and a writer). But remember that potential clients often have more peace of mind – not less – when they see that you have years of experience focusing in on a single area.

woman computer multitasking angry

If You’re Good Enough, You Won’t Need To Fake It

Many people are afraid that their niche isn’t going to be big enough to sustain their business. But that’s complete bunk (usually – I’ll get to the exception in a minute). Even products and services you might think are completely ridiculous and no one would ever be looking for have gone on to become million dollar businesses.

A certain type of beanbag chair, an album of nothing but songs about sailing, even specialty olives for making dirty martinis – all of these ideas have made their owners a lot of money and earned them a die hard fanbase of people who were looking for just what they were selling.

People will come seek you out for that one, particular, special thing that you’re the absolute best at. For the movie Coraline, the producers hired a woman to make tiny knit sweaters for the stop motion dolls used in filming… and that was all. Seriously, that was all she was hired to do. That’s all she does, period.

If that lady can make a tidy living knitting little sweaters, you can rest assured that your niche, whatever it is, can allow you to soar within the design world.

Coraline move knitted jumpers

Don’t Be Too Special

I’ll end with a caveat that may seem counter-intuitive to everything I’ve just said, even though it really isn’t. Be careful not to get “too” specialized – that is, catering to a niche that’s too specific and that will never yield you the kind of results you need to truly grow your freelancing business.

Specialists have a tendency to die off if their skills are no longer needed. Just like in the wild, if a sudden disease kills off the single food source of a specialist, well, those specialists won’t be around much longer.

So make sure you zero in on something universal and that will have evergreen appeal, rather than focusing on a particular technology or method of information exchange (e.g. copywriting for tech industry startups rather than copywriting for Facebook ads).

The post You’ll Never Be a Design Specialist by Generalizing Your Skills appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.



Read in browser »

Recent Articles:

Embracing Competency and Letting Go of Design Perfection
When Does Using Headless WordPress Make Sense?
Weekly News for Designers № 552
Advice for Beginners That Are Starting Out in Web Design
Client Website Feedback with Context? Yes, Please. Sponsored
Share
Tweet
+1
Share
Forward
Copyright © 2020 Speckyboy Design Magazine, All rights reserved.
You signed up for daily Speckyboy Design Magazine email alerts either via Feedburner or directly through our site.

Our mailing address is:
Speckyboy Design Magazine
27 Braeside Park
Inverness, Scotland IV2 7HL
United Kingdom

Add us to your address book


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Older messages

Speckyboy RSS: Weekly News for Designers № 551

Friday, July 31, 2020

Your latest Speckyboy content is here!. Speckyboy Design Magazine Design News, Resources & Inspiration Weekly News for Designers № 551 By Speckyboy on Jul 31, 2020 10:34 am Envato Elements Shoelace

Speckyboy RSS: How to Troubleshoot WordPress Website Email Issues

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Your latest Speckyboy content is here!. Speckyboy Design Magazine Design News, Resources & Inspiration How to Troubleshoot WordPress Website Email Issues By Eric Karkovack on Jul 28, 2020 07:06 am

Speckyboy RSS: Do All of the Projects in Your Portfolio Look the Same? That’s OK.

Monday, July 27, 2020

Your latest Speckyboy content is here!. Speckyboy Design Magazine Design News, Resources & Inspiration Do All of the Projects in Your Portfolio Look the Same? That's OK. By Eric Karkovack on

Speckyboy RSS: What Web Designers and Their Clients Need to Know About SEO

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Your latest Speckyboy content is here!. Speckyboy Design Magazine Design News, Resources & Inspiration What Web Designers and Their Clients Need to Know About SEO By Eric Karkovack on Jul 23, 2020

Speckyboy RSS: Weekly News for Designers № 549

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Your latest Speckyboy content is here!. Speckyboy Design Magazine Design News, Resources & Inspiration Weekly News for Designers № 549 By Speckyboy on Jul 17, 2020 06:03 pm Envato Elements 15 Free

You Might Also Like

Accessibility Weekly #428: Putting AI to the (Accessibility) Test

Monday, December 23, 2024

December 23, 2024 • Issue #428 View this issue online or browse the full issue archive. Hey accessibility friends! It's the time of year where news and information slows down as many people take

2024 magic moments

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Issue 225: The year from my personal lens ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Planning mode

Friday, December 20, 2024

Lessons from our first-ever annual planning sprint ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

We Co-Sign This AD100-Approved Trend

Thursday, December 19, 2024

View in your browser | Update your preferences ADPro Emboldening the Bath Marble, marble, everywhere, and every drop is chic. According to AD100 designer Jake Arnold, “material drenching”—that is,

177 / Keep calm by listening to these ambient sounds

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Product Disrupt Logo Product Disrupt Half-Monthly Dec 2024 • Part 1 View in browser Welcome to Issue 177 Lately, I've been driving a lot of inspiration from the things I see in real life. The range

The Year in Color: Hella Jongerius, Mocha Mousse, and More

Thursday, December 19, 2024

View in your browser | Update your preferences ADPro Color Our World Since the summer, AD PRO has kept its finger on the pulse of color predictions. Overall, the vibe right now is down to earth,

🐺Get Media Features in 2025

Thursday, December 19, 2024

A BIG Wolf Craft announcement!! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Small teams

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Issue 224: Why the mentality of lean and small always wins ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Accessibility Weekly #427: The Myth of Accessible Components

Thursday, December 19, 2024

December 16, 2024 • Issue #427 View this issue online or browse the full issue archive. Featured: The myth of 'accessible components and done' "Think you've solved all your

Here's what you missed...

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Get press for your business in 2025...here's how. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏