Designers: In-house or Freelance?

The pros and cons from my perspective

Okay, full disclosure: this article is going to challenge some industry assumptions and maybe even be a little controversial.

I’m going to talk about why you shouldn’t always jump at the chance to be an in-house designer, or hire one for that matter, and why a freelance designer can be the better choice.

But first let me give you some context. I just spent the past year working as an in-house designer (which I realize isn’t super long) and for most of my career I’ve worked as a freelancer.

This gives me some experience from both sides of the trenches and my opinions are based on these experiences.

So why am I sitting down to write this?

After my recent stint as an in-house designer I made the decision to leave and start my own small independent creative agency A-SPACE (I even have an intern!).

After only a month of being independent I feel like I have accomplished more than I did in the previous year I worked as an in-house designer. This was a major realization and I feel like I need to talk about it.

I want to share the pros (and cons, because of course there are cons) of freelancing from my perspective.

Why freelance?

Getting to work with new clients and to explore so many different industries and ideas is one of my favorite parts of freelancing.

At the end of the day you get to look back and see all the different projects you’ve got to put your stamp on. One day you might get to create a new identity for a car and the next help design a logo for a restaurant.

But the biggest pro? You don’t have to fit your creativity into a 9–5. You work when you feel inspired, whether that’s 2am or 4pm. You also get to beat procrastination.

As a freelancer, you can switch between your many (hopefully!) projects when you need a change of pace and get bored with one. This is a necessity. Being creative, at least for me requires changing things up. As an in-house designer you often don’t have this option.

Working as an in-house designer, a box gets drawn around you. The company’s culture can become too ingrained in you. This box is made of countless hours of meetings and bad coffee and people saying no. The box although invisible, becomes a great way to block fresh and exciting ideas. It becomes stronger over time and harder to break through.

And like it or not, that’s what designers are here for, we’re here to break boundaries and come up with new concepts. One of the wonderful things about being a designer is that you are on a 24-hour inspiration-hunt.

Personally I missed this the most working in-house. My drive to push for new, exciting and unexpected ideas slowly left as the months went by and that box got stronger.

Why hire a freelancer? As I see it, a freelancer sees their client in the same way an in-house designer sees the company when they first start. They are excited and they don’t feel any hesitation about challenging norms and expectations. They have no stake in office politics.

Also, freelancers will feel obligated to work those entire 8 hours they are billing you for. An in-house designer could spend 8 hours getting 5 hours of actual work done. Another thing I found is that companies can spend valuable time coming up with work for their in-house designers. There isn’t always a new website to design, a rebranding initiative, or a new color to discover.

The thing is, being an independent designer isn’t for everyone. Doing in-house can be a great career-building experience for some people. It’s about your approach, you have to look at it as an opportunity not a job.

If you never try you’ll never know.

In my experience I do much better as a freelancer than working in-house, but that’s just how I’m built. As a kid I was always trying new activities and sports. I tried about a million, including archery, football, table tennis, disc golf, tennis and squash. The only things I stuck with were skateboarding and fishing.

For me, it was all about new experiences and challenges, and still is. This makes running my own agency sort of a dream come true. But there are cons to it as well — freelancing requires you to have many balls in the air which personally makes me anxious, but is something I work on and I’ve come to the realization that this anxiety can’t keep me from doing what I love.

As an in-house designer you have one boss, where as a freelancer every client is your boss. It’s stressful, there’s anxiety and doubt and worrying — all the fun stuff. At this point in my career though I’ve came to the realization that these things aren’t worth listening to.

I still worry of course, but try not to give it too much energy because if the Philippines’ Olympic diving team has taught me anything it’s not to give a damn about worrying and just jump in.

Thank you for reading! 
Andreas M Hansen