How to Prepare for a Recession: Protect Your Creative Career In Tough Times.
We will explore several action items to help you maintain your marketability as a creative by adding new skill sets and staying up to date.
Have you noticed less clients contacting you for work?
Have you noticed less new clients reaching out to you?
Have you noticed a slowdown on freelancing platforms like upwork or fiverr?
Have you noticed people putting off projects, delaying or canceling them?
I create a wide range of digital content, courses, videos, social media, books and articles so I feel like I am a temperature barometer of the content creation economy—and I have some bad news for you.
The bad news is the economy is getting ready to head into a lean time.
Why? And how can I navigate this tough time as creative? We will dive into the economy for a moment and then I will suggest some action items for you to explore.
Borrowing money in the last decade has been super cheap. 2-4 percent interest loans were easy to get, so it fueled a prosperous time where companies could borrow cheap and invest affordably into their business. This could be by buying more equipment, hiring a marketing team or spending more money on advertising.
What happens when it is no longer cheap to borrow money? With interest rates rising to 16 year highs, it is now more risky to take out more expensive loans. That means business will cut dramatically back on spending. Also the consumer will have higher interest rate payments on their loan debts, cars and houses making them spend less and cut back on unnecessary expenses. That means businesses will cut back on marketing and therefore design and creative talent.
I am starting to experience people “pulling back” their spending as I am a seller of digital content.
My course sales on Udemy took a 20% dip in 2023 and an additional 20% in 2024 as well as a host of other course instructors.
My book sales dropped by 40% even though I had one of the most successful Facebook posts about it (over a 70k reach!).
Skillshare (another teaching platform I am on) cut instructor pay last year.
I have polled many creative freelancers and they too are telling me they are seeing a drop in revenue from Fiverr and UpWork even though they are doing the same things as last month. A lot are only getting interest from scammers.
Sales on print on demand platforms like Society6 and RedBubble are dropping for designers who host products there. Society6 just required designers to sign up for a monthly fee to be able to change their pricing on their products hosted there. I decided not to pay the monthly fee so my average earnings per product sale plummeted 75%. Print on demand is not as profitable as it was just 2 or 3 years ago.
AI and improvement in design software is additionally taking away smaller jobs for freelancers as it becomes easier and easier to do more complex design tasks without hiring a professional.
The squeeze is happening everywhere.
What is happening here? How can everything across the board be struggling? It is the greater global economy struggling to keep up with rising interest rates and that signals tough times ahead for all of us.
Interest rates have been rising for a while, but it can take up to 2 years for it to finally trickle down to business and the consumer.
So, if lean times are coming, what can I do about it?
For those of you gainfully employed at a company you might be a little more safe, but job cuts could be in the future so you need to prepare your resume and portfolios.
Those who are freelancers will start to immediately feel the impact of the tough economy or already have been feeling it. In both cases here are some recommendations of action items you can work on in the following few months.
It is hard out there and I want to make sure you guys get the best deal on the design courses and my design theory book I offer.
For a few more days my design courses are heavily discounted up to 90% OFF! Check it out here. Check out my design theory pdf book here with a special 50% off for you guys!
1.) Revisit your portfolio.
Make it shine. Replace dating or aging projects with newer ones and even tackle a few new projects to spruce it up with updated projects. Continue to study great examples of fresh portfolios to gain inspiration for your refresh.
Make sure your portfolio contains projects that are specific to the jobs you are applying for (freelance or salaried work). It could mean you have different variations of your portfolio.
I happened to write a full extensive free article about how to build an amazing portfolio and what to look out for here on substack.
2.) Gain NEW knowledge
This is the perfect time to pick a trending new technical skill or software and add that to your toolkit.
Dedicating at least 1 hour a night to learning something new can do wonders. Compounded over a year, this 1 hour nightly learning hour can equate to 365 hours of learning time or 45 full-time working days a year, extending your skills and capabilities. The key is to choose the same hour each night to dedicate to learning a specific topic. 8-9pm seems to be the time where I personally learn best. This gives me an hour or two afterwards to wind down away from the screen.
This nightly routine in a few years can give you the ultimate advantage during tough economic times as you will be sought after for skillset combos that are hard to find.
Here are some emerging programs and software that are starting to trend in the creative field below.
Figma:
Figma is not just for UX/UI design anymore. That is how it started, but now it is being used as a main design tool for just about anything. This tool is trending big time and having this on your resume will be helpful in standing out. Adobe almost bought Figma last year but fortunately that deal was canceled. Figma still offers a free version so there is no excuse to ignore it.
Canva:
I know, I know. Those who are Adobe buffs are wondering why I am recommending a lower-end design tool. Canva has added a ton of updates recently making it more of a competitive tool for professionals. It still does not have the broad set of complex tools Adobe or Affinity has, but they have AI tools and other video editing tools that can be useful if you are providing design and marketing that need super quick turnarounds.
Also, you can offer the ability to translate your designs into Canva so that their marketing team can deliver consistent branding across multiple mediums using their branding toolkit.
Blender:
Not only is it a free tool but you can do 3d modeling AND 3d motion design. If you can add a little motion design skills to your resume it can also make yourself open to more complex branding/design projects. Imagine being able to add 3d motion elements to reels you are creating for clients? It just expands your potential reach.
3.) Always be reading a book.
There should always be a book on your nightstand. Learning with video is a fantastic way to learn but there is something about a book format that helps some people digest new information differently.
Check out my full list of my favorite design and branding books here. There is a decent mix of theory, branding, marketing and logo design. If you have a suggestion for a book to add to my list please let me know in the comments!
4.) Always be watching videos
DesignCuts.org
I know the founder of this company and he is ROCK solid and only allows the best content on his website. They recently started selling some really good design and creative courses here.
Domestika.org
Great place for very niche intermediate design Training. You can check out some of their classes here. I don’t offer classes on here but highly recommend some of the more niche topics that are hard to find elsewhere. Just note that some audio is in Spanish with English subtitles but they are adding more a more courses with English audio.
Watch Free content on YouTube. Some of my favorite channels below.
Take classes on Skillshare
It can be a little costly for some but if I were to pay for video content this would be the one website I would choose. Mostly because it has full 20+ hour courses on there. If you decide to do one hour of training each night you can watch an entire course in one month and get a lot of value that way.
The one frustrating thing about free YouTube videos is they are out of order and missing gaps in content as most creators need to create videos that work well for the YouTube search algorithm, which does not always work best for continuity.
I would not recommend Skillshare if you don’t plan on watching at least 8 hours of video each month.
You can get one month for free from me here. I know shameless plug but even if you do not watch any of my courses on there, there are countless other great design instructors! AKA: Daniel Walter Scott who has all of his courses on there. I know Dan and he is a solid teacher through and through. He has a Figma course which is fantastic by the way.
5.) Learn top trending skillsets.
I did some of the research work for you and tried to find some of the top trending skillsets employers and clients are looking for in the creative industry.
These also tend to be some of the highest paid in our industry but do require some months (maybe even a year or two) of training.
UX/UI Design (Training time, at least one year).
This is an essential skillset and a natural transition from other design areas to UX/UI design. Color theory, typography, layout, contrast, hierarchy are all massively important in UX/UI design and most of you creatives already have a head start on these concepts.
Learn Gestalt theory.
Gestalt theory is the study of how the human brain breaks down visual information and it is at the heart of every UX/UI design program and core principles. I have taught some basic introductory Gestalt theory in my courses but with UX/UI design you can take it many steps further by reading books and doing further study.
Learn UX/UI Basic Laws & Principles.
I found this amazing website, Laws of UX, that talks about some of the main theory principles that come into play with creating user interfaces and user experiences. You can do more in-depth research on each one of the laws, perhaps pick one per day to become proficient at identifying these laws being used in the wild.
Take a theory Course.
A lot of you are a step ahead on this one, but if not, I recommend taking several design theory courses but also reading some solid books on the matter as well which include intermediate to advanced topics.
Check out a FREE UX/UI online program.
The one I recommend is a free one offered by google here. It looks great to have google on your resume and this course has helped a lot of UX/UI aspiring desires find jobs. My brother took this certification course and is now a full-time UX/UI designer (he used to be graphic designer) and now is making well into the six figures.
Watch YouTube videos on UX/UI Design.
I found a list of some pretty fabulous UX/UI designers on Youtube here.
Join UX/UI social media groups.
The best way to learn UX/UI design is to join a community. Some of the larger online programs already contain a built-in student community, but for those not in a UX/UI design program here are some free active communities.
Don’t be afraid to learn about Artificial intelligence programs like Adobe Firefly and Chat GPT.
I wrote recently about some of the frustrating aspects of AI overtaking the creative world here but I do not want to totally discourage you from exploring AI’s capabilities. Being able to add these skillsets to resumes will help you in a tough economic time, especially when everyone is looking for these skills.
The symbol you see above on the left is a logo design symbol we created in one of my beginner level design courses. I was able to use Adobe firefly AI tool to create some really interesting variations of the symbol. Some were quite striking. I can see this being an asset in boosting your brand design portfolios with some additional imagery that can prove you are open to emerging software and capabilities.
Above is another basic vector shape I brought into Adobe Firefly V3 using their new structure reference photo ability and I was able to create a wide variety of image types. Learning how to write AI prompts can be a useful skill moving forward. I am working on new lessons that walk through this tool and put at least 50 hours into exploring it so far.
6.) Work for government clients.
I was only 4 years into my freelance graphic design career when the 2008 recession hit. While I noticed a huge decrease in available work for designers there was one area that kept on hiring and needing more work.
I had several government and government supported non-profit clients that continued to be regular clients while my for profit clients took a step back. Government spending tends to increase during a recession to help prop up the economy. Government and related companies that support and service the government is (contractors) tend to be the last to cut their spending during a time of recession.
Having at least one or two government or government supported non-profit clients might be a good idea to recession proof your client portfolio.
Take a look at your current client base. What industries are they in? Are they all in the same industry? Do you work full-time at a company that services just one industry?
If so, be aware that any financial turbulence that hits that industry could impact 100 percent of your income if you do not diversify. If you have a full-time job having side income in a totally different industry can be protective.
7.) Don’t lower your prices to keep up.
The pricing race to the bottom is a real phenomenon in tough economic times. Our quickest reaction when we lack clients or work is to continually lower our prices until we find a client.
The best you will get from doing this tactic is a terrible client that does not value you. Continue to hold true to your value and make sure you are pricing yourself right. Not sure how to properly price yourself? I lay it all out here.
It may not feel like we are in a recession and according to the data we are not there *yet but I do feel like the creative industry is facing more difficult times because of broader issues and reduced traditional marketing spending. I hope to continue to write about ways you can navigate a possible economic depression in the coming years. Let me know if there is a specific topic you want me to research and discuss by making a comment below!
I am offering my Design Courses and PDF Design Theory book at really affordable levels!
It is hard out there and want to make sure you guys get the best deal on the design courses and my design theory book I offer.
Check out my design theory pdf book here with a special 50% off for you guys! Also, for a few more days my design courses are heavily discounted up to 90% OFF! Check it out here.
Just hanging out in the comments! Happy to answer any questions about design or freelancing.
Thanks👍🏼