Ben,

I'll give you my take on it from the other side if that's Ok. We, as a company, often work with freelancers for various elements of our business - definitely with programmers as I find this is an easier commondity to get across via email/instant messenger, but we work with freelance designers from around the world also. My feeling is it depends what market you are aiming for - if you are a designer who wishes to attract clients directly (ie the end client) then I think you can charge a little bit more for your skills. In this instance you will have to factor in both sales and project management which can take up a large amount of your time. If you are looking to work for other design companies (such as us) then you need to be reasonable with your costs - We are often approached by people who's costs are too high for us to be able to use, to mark up and pass to the client, but we are also approached by people who are, frankly, too cheap and I would be concerned about the quality of the work produced and how realiable they are. Whilst we all love design, we all have to make money and if all along the chain everyone is happy thats the best result.

In terms of actually finding work, there are various sites where you can place your portfolio or sites where you can look for projects that have been posted by potential clients. The other method is just to drop some portfolios to your local agencies as they sometimes may hit capacity (as we do) and require help. Most agencies are quite happy to receive contact from freelancers and, lets face it, any that aren't probably you wouldn't wish to work with anyway!

Not sure if the above helps, but they are my initial thoughts.

Feel free to dop a message if you have any further questions

Ade

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Thanks for your input everyone, it's helpful!