Tools and resources to become a freelance UI designer in 2022

In 2020 I was working a regular 9–5 job, I wasn’t too tired of it to be honest, but I always felt like I wanted to be more in control of my own time. Being able to work from everywhere, deciding which projects to work on, control my own time and earnings, were always goals that I had in the back of my mind.

This is a small guide (I like to keep my stories short) with tools and resources I used to finally become a freelancer.

Be financially ready

You can start freelancing while you are already working on a 9–5 job and slowly transition into freelancing full-time. However, if you (like myself) want to dedicate 100% of your time into building your freelancing career, it can be difficult to do that after a whole day of work.

If you quit your job to pursue your freelancing career, I strongly advise to be financially ready for that. A steady income can take quite a few weeks or months to arrive and you should be able to support yourself financially.

Know your tools and resources

As a freelance UI Designer you should be flexible enough to know and use a variety of tools in order to work with your clients. Each client has different needs and you might end up collaborating with a team that uses different tools and platforms, so it’s good to have at least a basic knowledge of all of them.

And here they are:

UI Design Platforms

, and are the most used UI Design platforms out there. they are fairly similar, however I do recommend Figma. Figma can be used on the web, it’s free for solo projects and easy to use as a team. There are also plenty of free plug-ins available to make your life a lot easier (you can check my top 5 Figma plug-ins for 2022 here).

Organizational and Financial Tools

It’s important you keep your project organized, especially when working with multiple clients. In terms of overall organization I do recommend

for planning, it’s free for personal use, very intuitive and you can literally do everything with it.

Another tool that I recommend is Harvest. This is great for time tracking your projects, view time-related data, create and export a timesheet to handle to your clients and even manage invoices.

Money-wise, I use

to keep an eye on my finances. Stripe has tons of integrations and it’s quite easy to use. It’s great for generating personalized and branded invoices as well as keeping track of your income sources. is another great tool that I use to schedule calls and meet-ups with my clients. You simply select time slots when you’re available (it also reads your calendar so it syncs automatically) and then your client can pick the right time to schedule a call. Super easy to use and connects with all my calendars.

Lastly, I use Loom to record videos of my project to explain or comment my designs. It makes it way easier than leaving tons of comments on Figma.

Networking

Networking is crucial for freelancers, that’s how you get your first clients, keep a great relationship with them and make sure they recommend you to other potential clients. It might seem harder to do when you are just starting and especially if working remotely. However it is full of meet-ups and events for new freelancers out there. Make sure to follow interesting profiles on Linkedin, Instagram and Twitter, and reach out to them!

Communities are also great. They often have a Slack or Discord channel and they are full of incredible people ready to help you. The absolute best community for Web Designers is Memorisely. They often set up events, meet-ups, weekly challenges and so on.

Polish your Portfolio

Get your portfolio ready. That doesn’t mean you should have tons of projects, 2 or 3 are perfectly fine to start. Make sure the quality of your work is good and that truly reflects your capabilities.

Also, don’t be scared to include your own personal work. Wether you created a project by yourself, a design challenge or a workshop. Anything that can showcase to potential clients your skills and talent.

Finding your first client

Finding your first client will feel incredible. There are a lot of platforms where you can search but my best two options are

and . They are exclusively for designers and they allow you to upload your projects and showcase your work. Dribbble in particular has a section dedicated to freelance work where you can easily land your first gig.

Also, make sure you don’t sound desperate even if that’s your first client. It’s important that you know how much your time and skills are valued and your client will know that too.

In conclusion

It might seem scary at the beginning but I really recommend becoming a Freelance Designer. Make sure you’re financially ready and don’t be afraid to reach out to people and communities. It seems like yesterday that I started freelancing and I would do it all over again.

It makes me smile thinking that I could help even just one person with this story, so if I did, feel free to reach out here and let me know!