A day in the life
Emilia Kalyvides is a London-based graphic designer at Design by Emilia, specialising in branding, print and digital media.
How would you describe your work?
When I was full-time, I couldn’t imagine myself being in this position because I always wanted a lot of structure. But once I started doing it, I saw a totally different way of life that completely fitted with my personality. I’m naturally introverted so I’m quite happy to be working at home on my own. Freelancing gives you flexibility to choose what kind of projects you work on and the kind of clients you work with.
It’s also so different being able to decide for yourself how much money you’re going to make. It’s a very different way of thinking when you have to manage your finances in that way; you’re not just getting a monthly salary that’s always the same no matter how much work you’ve done.
What advice would you give to someone thinking about going freelance?
Something I’ve learned is that nothing is a waste of time or a mistake. If you go freelance and then decide it’s not for you, you will always have learned so much from that period of time.
What would a usual day look like for you?
I always plan my work out for the day (I love a bullet journal). I don’t have a lot of meetings, which I really enjoy because I can just get on with the work. Normally, I will save some time at the end of the day to work on a branding project; I try not to work too late, but that doesn’t always happen.
I work with a business coach, so I speak to her regularly. I’m always working on my own so it’s quite nice to have someone else to ask questions and bounce ideas off.
How do you switch off?
I’ve removed a lot of the communication apps on my phone, and I try not to check emails late in the day. I’ve also started setting boundaries with clients. I don’t email them after working hours; it’s taken me a really long time to get those boundaries in place.
When you’re trying to build up your client base, it’s really easy to say yes to everything, commit to too much and be very flexible around other people. But I’ve realised that you need to have a break and manage your own time.
A lot of the people I work with are in the craft or cultural industries, and that is linked to my work in a way. Everything is informing you when you work for yourself.
What are the skills that have been most useful to you in your career to date?
When freelancing, I think you have to be quite confident in what you’re presenting to people, and that builds up over time. Continually trying to improve your skills is really important, especially because design is changing all the time. I do quite a lot of courses and programmes just to try and keep up to date. Going out to exhibitions and galleries and seeing what other people are doing is really important, too, not just looking on the internet for inspiration.