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How The Studio became an essential place for creatives to network and learn in 2025

Creative Boom

Feeling alone and isolated as a freelancer? Many members describe it as a refuge from algorithm-driven self-promotion culture, reminiscent of the early internet when connections mattered more than engagement metrics. For freelancers especially, this community fills a crucial gap. Read on to find out how to get involved.

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Your Guide to Graphic Design Salaries in the USA

We And The Color

Or someone freelancing from their home office? We’re talking about two main paths: employed designers and freelance designers. Employed Designers: The Steady Paycheck These are the folks who work for companies, agencies, or organizations. Hourly Rates: Freelancers usually charge by the hour. Washington, D.C.:

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Graphic Designer Skills: What Design Students Need To Develop

Inkbot Design

What's more valuable: formal design education or self-taught skills? However, formal education gives you something self-taught designers often lack: systematic thinking and design theory foundations. A self-taught designer with 50 completed projects beats a graduate with 5 class assignments every single time.

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Chris Charlton on life as an in-house illustrator: singular focus, shifting styles, and staying true to the craft

Creative Boom

In a world that often celebrates freelance illustrators as personal brands, with their signatures neatly stamped across a portfolio, Chris stands for a quieter kind of creative power. That self-sufficiency is hard-won and the product of years of learning to think like a designer and draw like an illustrator, blending both mindsets.

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How to calculate your day rate as an Illustrator

Lisa Maltby

What does 150/day work out at as a yearly self-employed income? However, as we all know the self-employed dont get paid holiday so we need to deduct this time. less time may be spent on self promotion and more on communication once you have a reputation and more enquiries).

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From fine art to Photoshop: Sam Gilbey's illustrious career so far

Creative Boom

Come with us on a deep dive into the last twenty years of Sam Gilbey's freelance illustration practice. However, he adds: "I learnt an important lesson about freelancing in those days too, though when one of the magazines I'd been working regularly for went into liquidation without warning, and I was suddenly 5k short."

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How creatives are surviving the 2025 slowdown

Creative Boom

While a focus on growth dominates the political rhetoric, the reality for freelancers, small studios and creative professionals tells a starkly different story. And it's the self-employed and small creative businesses who feel the impact first and most acutely. Having a bit of runway means I don't have to panic.

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