25 Profitable Side Hustles for Graphic Designers
As a graphic designer looking forward to earning more income or attaining financial stability, starting side hustles within your industry is the step to follow. Whether you are a skilled or beginner graphic designer, there are tons of side hustles you can start today.
With them, you won’t only be able to earn more, but you can always put your creativity to work and develop your expertise. However, just like every industry, identifying your interest, passion, and capabilities is key.
Beyond that, you would want to figure out the right marketing, branding, pricing options, etc., as you start. Incorpuk in this guide explores 25 profitable side hustles for graphic designers.
1. Create Template
Creation of templates is one common side hustle many graphic designers go for. This involves creating several visuals and designs that are relevant to businesses and making them available on popular platforms like Canva and Etsy.
These templates could range from resumes, planners, website templates, flyers, and many more. With these kinds of templates, individuals can easily complete their projects by making use of already existing designs. As such, you would be able to earn when people download your templates for use.
To make more money with this hustle, you would need to identify trends and what people need and be able to set an adequate price for your template. Creating an attractive and eye-catching template that suits business needs is another thing you would want to consider.
2. Freelancing
Just like every other digital skill out there, freelancing is a side hustle you could do as a graphic designer. Here, you would need to be highly skilled to render your services to individuals and business owners.
You could choose to focus on the aspect of design you would want to render as a service or combine two or more like logo design, product design, social media design and lots more.
This way, you would be able to select the type of gigs to apply for on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer and lots more. With Freelancing, you would be able to make a lot of money while also working from the comfort of your home.
3. Teach graphic design
As a graphic designer, you can also teach your skills online and earn more money. Since many individuals are looking forward to upgrading their skills from the comfort of their homes, you could offer online classes while you get paid for them.
You would, however, need to market yourself and the skill in order to attract customers who are willing to learn. Moreover, with platforms like Udemy, Teachable, etc, you can package online courses and sell them to people at a reasonable price. By also utilising social media paid ads campaigns, you would be able to gather individuals who are willing to learn the skill.
4. Social Media Design
While social media presence is important for every business today, there is a constant need for the use of attractive visuals to engage the audience. With that many businesses would rather prefer to hire a graphic designer to handle their company designs rather than do it themselves.
This is most times a result of the competency attached to hiring skilled and expert designers. As such, this is a side hustle you would want to try. You could focus on offering your service to new start-ups or already-established businesses in a particular niche. You would be required to create carousels, design fliers, etc.
5. Book Cover Design
Book cover is another aspect of graphic design you could focus on. In fact, there are many designers out there who only offer book cover design services while also making a lot of money.
With this kind of hustle, you would need to partner with book authors as they are your target audience. You should also understand how to create attractive and eye-catching book covers to get more customers here.
By utilising social media handles, you would be able to get more authors who would need your service. Also, with the Amazon publishing platform, you could meet more authors and publishers of books.
6. Editorial Design
With this side hustle, you would be coupled with creating appealing visuals and designs for magazines, newspapers, digital content and so on. To get gigs here, you would be required to partner with publishers in several niches. You will also be able to gain more experience in the publishing industry while also making more money.
7. Web icon and illustration
While many businesses today have an active and functional website, business owners are on the lookout for ways to make their website unique from the crowd. This way, they opt for custom illustrations and icons to showcase their business story.
And since more companies are expanding their online presence, the need for custom icons and illustrations will always be on the rise. As a graphic designer, you could focus on helping businesses create custom icons and illustrations that will suit their specific business needs.
8. Start a Design Blog
Blogging is another side hustle you can do with your graphic design skills. Here, you would be required to own a personal blog where you share graphic design tips and tricks. Beyond that, you would need some writing skills to be a blogger.
By monetising your blog and taking note of SEO practices, you will be able to make money from your blog. You would also need to be active and consistent to earn more.
Driving traffic to your blog is another thing to consider, and as such, you might want to consider using social media platforms to drive the audience to your platform.
If you also sell digital products like ebooks, wall art or merchandise, you can use your blog to attract more customers.
9. Create and sell comic books and novels
Comic drawing is another industry that has continued experiencing growth in these years. Whether you are interested in selling comic books or graphic novels, this is still an industry in which many people invest their money.
By partnering with publishers, you will be able to get your physical comic books to customers. Moreover, you can opt-in for the digital ones, and with that, you can make electronic copies for many individuals across the world. This way, you will be able to reach a wider audience, increase efficiency and make more money.
10. Design and Sell Printables
Printables like planners, journals, calendars, worksheets, etc., are items you can design and sell on Etsy. You don’t need to print out most of these products as you can sell the downloadable ones online. Apart from Etsy, platforms like Amazon also allow you to sell printable items to your customers.
While people can also order printed copies of these products on Amazon, they also have the chance to get downloadable ones. Either way, the platform will always help out with sales. Beyond that, you would also need to market this product in order to attract more buyers.
12. Website Designing
If you have some website design skills, you could make more money by combining it with your creativity in graphic design. While businesses today need eye-catching websites for their visibility and sales, many are also interested in investing in unique designs and graphics for their website.
This way, you could create specialised icons, fonts, illustrations, etc, to meet the demands of each business. Your services will not only be limited to designing the website itself, but you will have to come with all graphics that will be utilised for the website design.
13. Sell Stock graphics and photos
As a graphic designer, another straightforward side hustle you can do is to sell stock graphics and photos on platforms like iStockphoto, Shutterstock, etc. You would need to create libraries of attractive icons, photos and other graphics and make them available on those sites.
While you don’t need to source for clients or customers to get your product sold, your designs must be exceptionally attractive to get more customers. This way businesses would be able to buy your visual assets on those platforms while you get paid once a sale is made.
Beyond that, you would need to do some research to know the kind of design that is favoured by customers. Understanding how the platform also works is vital.
14. Logo design
Just like every new start-up needs a website, they also require a unique logo that sets their business apart from others. As a graphic designer, you can focus on creating logos for new businesses or even helping already established ones retouch or revamp their business logos. With your social media handles, you would be able to connect with new business owners. Moreover, with popular freelancing platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, Truelancer, and Fiverr, you would be able to land some gigs.
15. Design Consulting
As a highly skilled designer, you can venture into design consulting as a side hustle. With that, you would be helping businesses solve problems that are related to designs. You could provide advice regarding business branding, help them improve on the website; transform their logo and other visuals and many more.
To be a consultant, you must be highly skilled, result-oriented, understand how business works, and be able to help business owners achieve their goals.
16. Sell Printable Wall Art
Wall Art is a home and office item that has seen tremendous growth in sales in recent years. Home and office decoration is one thing many individuals and businesses will be willing to spend on. Whether you wish to sell physical or printable wall art, there is lots of money to be made.
In as much as people will always renovate and move to new home spaces, this is a product that will always sell. You could sell posters, wall stickers, canvasses, etc, in their digital forms online.
This way, you would be free from the hassle of having to secure a physical shop, printing, delivering to the customer's doorstep, and so on. Once you can come up with beautiful and unique designs, it will be much easier to attract high-paying customers.
17. Sell Stickers
Stickers are now quite popular among businesses and individuals. As a graphic designer, you can create unique stickers that suit the needs of a category of people. In Fact, when it comes to sticker creation, there are a lot of areas you can focus on. From kid's stickers to mums, businesses, and gadgets, there is a lot you could explore.
While this kind of business doesn’t require much investment or stress, you can make a lot of money if you do it well. Start by studying the market to know what’s in trend and more so do research on what people would like to buy if all your creations are entirely new.
Once you’re done with market research, do some testing using your target audience to validate your sticker idea. By utilising e-commerce platforms like Printify, RedBubble, Printful, etc, you will be able to reach more customers.
18. Create a YouTube Channel
Creating and monetising a YouTube channel is another side business you might want to consider as a graphic designer. Through the channel, you will be able to share several tips and tricks that are related to designing. To be able to earn as a Youtuber, then you have to gather a lot of active audience and learn how to monetise your space.
While you can also utilise the channel to advertise your graphic design service or product, you could also use it to promote affiliate products. In Fact, there are several ways to earn money through YouTube. However, understanding how they work is key.
19. Design and sell Colouring books
This is another type of printable that can be created for adults and kids. Colouring books gained momentum around 2015, and since then, there have been a lot of trending designs of coloured books made for young and adults.
If you wish to dive fully into the world of design and showcase your creativity, then this is a hustle you would want to try. While you don’t have to create physical books, you'd need to put your best into designing and creating digital copies that will be sold online. This way you can easily sell online while your customer prints them out at their convenience.
20. Sell Party Decorations
As a graphic designer that is fascinated with the aesthetic world, you could put your passion and creativity together to make more money. People are constantly celebrating birthdays, graduations and weddings and they don't even mind spending money on decorating halls and rooms for their events.
Many parents out there are willing to invest a few dollars in their kids' birthday decorations, and this is the same for new couples. With that, you could focus on the specific event and age group you want to design for and then create unique printable decorations that would be utilised for their events. This would be a great side hustle for you as a graphic designer if you’re ready to put your creativity to work and identify your specific audience.
21. Guest Posting
If you are into blogging, you can also make more money by guest posting. This way, you would be able to post your write-ups and articles on other people’s websites or blogs. With that, you would have agreed with your host on a price for each article that you posted.
Beyond that, you can also take freelance writing gigs that are related to graphic design. With the use of the popular freelancing platform, you will be able to get gigs that suit your interests.
22. Sell print-on-demand merchandise
If you wish to explore the world of e-commerce while also putting your graphic design skills to work, then you can sell print-on-demand merchandise. With this, you could create beautiful designs that would be printed on products like mugs, tote bags, T-shirts and so on.
With platforms like Redbubble, you don’t have to bother about delivering the product to customers as they handle that for you. To stand out from the crowd, you can also offer custom designs to suit each client’s needs. Moreover, you would need to put some marketing strategies in place to attract buyers.
23. Branding
With so many businesses bringing their products and services to the online world, branding is an aspect most enterprises wouldn’t want to joke with. While the service of a designer is required to simplify the branding process, many business owners don’t hire an in-house expert to do their work. As such they prefer to hire on a contract basis.
As a skilled graphic designer, you can offer branding services to businesses on a part-time basis. This way, you would be required to handle everything from their business logos, website visuals, social media design, designing business cards and lots more. You should, however, note that branding goes beyond designing to include creating visuals that speak about the business personality, goals, and objectives.
24. Offer Design Retouching Services
With your design skills, you could offer retouching services to customers. You would be required to help businesses redesign or make more improvements to their already existing graphics. This might include helping with their rebranding, restoring their outdated logos, and so on.
With this type of hustle, you have to be highly creative to bring out the best output from the already existing graphics you might be working on. Moreover, you would need to convince customers that you can render services that are better than the ones they once had.
25. Design Fonts
Font design is a hustle you can try if you are an expert typographer. With this kind of hustle, you would need to create your own fonts from scratch so you can earn.
You would, however, need to be highly skilled in the use of font design software to succeed in this kind of business. While this hustle requires much expertise, it is a highly rewarding one that you could turn into a full-time business in the long run.
26. Organise Design Workshops and Seminars
As an expert graphic designer, you can also focus on organising workshops and seminars that teach people about branding, design patterns and principles and lots more. With that, you would be able to charge some fees for attendance and make some money. While you could do this alone, you can also invite some other experts in the field to share their experiences.
6 Simple Steps to Start a Side Hustle as a Graphic Designer
Here are the simple steps to take to start a side hustle as a graphic designer.
1. Determine the service or product
First is to determine the service or product you want to venture into. Do you want to go into branding, social media design, freelancing, font and logo design or do you want to sell stickers, merchandise, comic books and novels and so on? While doing this, you should also consider the one that suits your interest, passion and level of experience.
2. Identify your target audience
Once you're able to determine the product or service you want to render, the next is to identify your target audience. This way, you would be able to know who you want to render your service to. Will your hustle serve business owners, parents, kids, etc? Identifying your target audience is vital as it helps you simplify your marketing strategies and helps showcase your offer to the right people.
3. Build your Portfolio
Building your portfolio is another step you need to figure out as early as possible. Before a customer would hire you for a service, they would most times want to see the jobs you’ve done before. With that, you need an organised portfolio that shows the range of projects you’ve done and illustrates your expertise.
You can consider some volunteering gigs to build your portfolio. You can also reach out to friends and families who might need your service. This way, you would be able to build your portfolio and even request for review in exchange for a free or discounted service.
4. Establish an online presence
Now is the time to build your social media presence. You should consider building a simple website where people can view your product or service and business contact details. At this stage, you would also want to create social media pages, including Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and so on.
With the social media handles, you would be able to reach a wider number of audiences who might be interested in your service. More so, depending on the service you are rendering, you should consider joining platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. If you sell products, consider signing up on Etsy, Shopify, Printful, RedBubble and so on, depending on the one that suits your offer.
5. Determine a suitable price
You should also research the market price of the services or products you are rendering. You would also want to consider factors such as the complexity of the project, your expertise level, the timeframe needed to complete the project and lots more when determining prices. Beyond that, you should determine the payment terms and mode of payment. All of these should be in your contract agreement and should be made available to the client also.
6. Market your service
Lastly, you should make intentional efforts to market your goods and services. You would want to start by joining online groups and forums that relate to your services. Consider going to events and seminars that could help you connect with potential customers. You can also maximise the power of social media-sponsored ads to market your product or service. Email marketing, affiliate marketing, etc. are other options you could consider.
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Conclusion
In this guide, we explained the 25 side hustles you can start as a graphic designer. You would, however, need to consider your passion, talent and level of experience in order to select the ones that best suit you. While you can manage more than one side hustle, you should consider building a strong portfolio and following the right marketing strategy to attract high-paying customers.