How to Maintain Your Freelance Art Career During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Paul Munko • March 21, 2020

How to Maintain Your Freelance Art Career During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Contact Adobe support immediately
  • Take advantage of your time off from a regular job
  • Shift your focus
  • Work with industries that have staying power during these difficult times
  • Take on lower-paying jobs that you might regularly avoid
  • Keep your business costs low (it’s easy)
  • Reach Out to Previous Clients
     The coronavirus (COVID-19) has taken the world by storm, and certainly not in a way that is in our favor. Layoffs are a worldwide disaster, and a need to file for unemployment seems to be spreading just as quickly as the virus itself. If you are an artist or designer I want you to know that I am in the same boat as you. We are all now faced with a single option: work as much as we can, until we can’t.
     Here are 7 important things to keep in mind when trying to maintain your career as a freelance artist or designer during a global pandemic. It may not be what you want to hear, but it is what you NEED to hear. I hope this article makes it easier on all of my fellow creatives looking to keep their careers afloat in these very difficult times. Follow these instructions and keep your chin up! We will all persevere together.

1. Contact Adobe Support Immediately:

     If you are an artist or designer there is a pretty good chance you are subscribed to some, if not all, of the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. This includes products such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, and more. Adobe has carved a name for themselves in the world of graphic design and in most businesses their entire line of products is considered the industry standard.

     Luckily for you (and me), Adobe is well aware of the hardships we are all facing as a community.

      If you have lost a significant portion of your income or see it being a possibility in the near future I highly recommend reaching out to Adobe as soon as you possibly can. They are offering 90 day (3 month) credits to paying customers so that your Adobe subscription is one less thing to worry about in these incredibly difficult times.

     Here are 3 ways to contact Adobe to redeem your 3 months of Creative Cloud, for free.
     For me, the quickest method of contacting their support line was via Twitter DM. This is also the method of communication that will take the least amount of effort as you will not need to wait on hold or stay on Adobe’s page until a representative responds to you in the chat.

     Give it about an hour for a person to message you back on Twitter. By then you should be all set and ready to receive your 90 day credit. The whole process is quick and painless, so I really applaud Adobe for both their understanding and their efficiency in this time of serious struggle caused by COVID-19.

2. Take Advantage of Your Time Off:

     If you are more of a glass-half-full kind of person you can look at these temporary issues in a positive light, especially when it comes to your freelance work.

      Face it, you have A LOT of time off right now. Channel your energy into something productive that will help you in the future when this all blows over. You can spend time practicing your work, mastering your craft, or diving into that procrastination pile and finishing things up that you would have otherwise not had the time to complete.

     Luckily there are a lot of companies who, like Adobe, understand how difficult all of this is for us right now. There is a plethora of really incredible online courses being sold at a heavily discounted price to keep you productive and thinking while being stuck at home.

     Here is a great collection of courses by The Futur that are being sold for a fraction of their usual price

     And here is a list of college art and design courses that you can take for FREE.

     You can’t beat that!

     If further learning isn’t something you care to do right now, there is no time like the present to catch up on old projects, revisit old ideas, and evolve your art and design in a way that is meaningful to you and your future clients. This time spent inside is your time to grow, make the most of it!

3. Shift Your Focus:

     We as humans rely on a very important thing on a daily basis: the ability to adapt and evolve to our circumstances. I’ll be the first one to tell you that amidst a global pandemic, the market for people looking to buy a portrait of themselves as a dead, dripping zombie creature is pretty much non-existent. As a matter of fact, I would be willing to bet that that is the exact opposite of what most people are hoping to see, nevermind spending money on it.

     While you may not be making things that are as strange and out there as me and my own personal work, you may still be heavily invested into a niche that is relatively unfavorable at this point in time. That is okay, and it doesn’t mean that you have to settle for nothing just because of these specific circumstances.

     Like I said, the ability to adapt is a gift, use it as much as you can right now. Shift your focus to other things that are applicable to the current coronavirus pandemic. Make art pieces or infographics that are relevant to the public’s current concerns. Who knows, that piece of art may go viral! (No pun intended)

4. Work With Industries That Have Staying Power:

     In many parts of the world right now there are only a handful of businesses that are allowed to be open. This is to make the most out of our various policies regarding social distancing and infection control. The places that can be open are considered “essential businesses”. Basically, as long as this business is a vital part of human survival, they are allowed to stay open and continue to make money.
     Here is a list of a few business types that were likely deemed “essential” in your area:
  • Essential health care operations (Hospitals, walk in clinics, pharmacies, etc)
  • Essential infrastructure (Power companies, water and wastewater, telecommunications, etc.)
  • Essential manufacturing (Food products, farms, Sanitary products, etc.)
  • Essential retail (Grocery stores, gas stations, hardware stores, etc.)
  • Essential services (Trash and recycling, news networks, auto repair, etc.)
  • Financial Institutions (Banks, insurance, payroll, etc)
  • Homeless Help (Shelters, food banks, etc.)
  • Construction, military, police, fire departments, hospitals, etc.
   
 For a more complete list of businesses, click here.

     If you are having a hard time finding work, feel free to reach out to any of these businesses and see if there is anything you can do to help. While the rest of the world shuts down, these places still need to move forward with business as usual.

     Do they need a flier made for COVID-19? Do they want help advertising the fact that they are open through the pandemic? Who knows, but it never hurts to ask! You will be surprised how many of these businesses need an artist's help.

5. Take on the Lower Paying Gigs:

     Unfortunately, we all can’t be as picky as we usually are. When the world is running normally and 90% of the population isn’t locked in their homes, it is normal to turn down clients that don’t fit your usual scope of work. However, we are at a point in time where every dollar counts and every gig could be the deciding factor that determines your financial stability.

      Sure, that $50 dollar gig is severely undercutting your typical rates, but that payment could also be what puts food in your stomach for the next week or more.

     Keep in mind that just about everyone is having financial struggles right now. Nobody can afford to pay what they would normally, so try to be understanding of your potential clients' situations just as you would want them to be understanding of your own.

     We as people have to work together now more than ever, do what you can to keep both you and the people around you healthy and thriving as often as possible!

6. Keep Business Costs Low:

     As I said before, your first measure to conserve your money should be reaching out to Adobe to redeem your free 90 month creative cloud credit. This can save you up to nearly $200 dollars over the course of the next 3 months. However, there are other ways to keep costs low as well, especially if you are working from home.

     Reach out to your utility companies and see if they are doing anything to help people in difficult financial situations. There are already multiple banks and companies offering deferrals on payments, which basically means you can “pause” your payments for a specified amount of time while keeping your service on.

    Are you a homeowner as well? See if you are able to pause your mortgage payments. There have already been federal laws created to prevent homeowners and renters from being evicted, but if you can pause your payments so your debts don’t snowball in the meantime, do it! 

7. Reach Out to Previous Clients:

     Last but not least, reach out to your previous clients. See how they are doing, what measures they are taking to stay in business during the coronavirus pandemic, and maybe find out if there is anything you can do to help them stay afloat.

     Offer your services if they need them and give them away at a discounted price. Once again it is important to keep in mind that we are all struggling to make ends meet right now. Your generosity will be greatly appreciated and also guarantee that when things are back to normal you will retain these clients who saw the compassion in your work strategy during this terrible set of events.
I hope all of this information was at least a little bit useful for you. We are dealing with a lot right now, but together we can make a difference and push through all of this craziness and come out on top bigger and better than ever. As artists and designers we are extremely fortunate to have the ability to work from home indefinitely. Make the most of these circumstances!

 Stay optimistic, stay safe, and please #stayinside.

We can beat this!
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Paul Munko
Paul is an internationally published artist and designer who goes by the alias "Colorful Filth". He is known mostly for his vibrant and monstrous artwork that can be seen here  on instagram or on his official website colorfulfilth.com.

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