Stop asking me to do designs for free

Since I start working in this technology field, I’m interested in both design and web development. But I mainly did the development and I just do design as kinda hobby and used my design sense in some of the projects.

Well … may be I did it wrongly since from the start. I shouldn’t be doing and helping with these free works just because I didn’t do it professionally.

In these years, some friends asking me to do logos for their apps, some asked me to do printing designs (business card, flyer, identity cards, etc.), some asked me design advices and some asked me to fix design of their apps. Sometimes i took part in the role of fixing app and website design as a team member in hackathons. I even sometimes got to help with presentation design fix. I never get paid for any of that. Sometimes they treat me dinner or buy me a coffee cuz I help with them. I didn’t bother helping to improve designs and glad to see better designs. I sometimes even feel bad to see not so good design after i said “no” to help.

But these days, I’m starting to feel like people are taking me for granted. No one come to me if they want to make paid design jobs. May be I’m not good enough with that yet. It’s not just their fault. It’s also my fault that I don’t have enough confident to ask. The words I hated most is “do this for your portfolio or do it as to practise your design skill”. Come on .. Cut that crap. I can simply help and do it for free if they just ask without telling that. The other thing I don’t like is they asked me to do some designs and they never use it or the project planning never happened. Come on bro … I also got my own works to do.

Let me tell you that it’s not about money. It’s about how you appreciate and give recognitions to my work. So, if you really care about me and appreciate my design work, stop asking carelessly to do it for free just like that. I might consider if it is fall into “yes” in this chart. http://shouldiworkforfree.com/ 😂😂

These days i’m thinking about changing my career to UI/UX designer so i need to make it clear and starting to act professionally. I have my own projects to build my design portfolio.

I will still do some collaborative works, projects for fun. If i have interest in your project, i will still give free advices.