5 Ways to Earn Money as a Graphic Designer or Illustrator in 2023
Hi, creatives! Are you looking for a way to work by your own rules? Do you want to squeeze in some extra entrepreneurship? Good news, we come to you with 5 ideas on how to make money as a graphic designer or illustrator.
1. Licensing Artwork
Art licensing basically means to “rent” your art to someone. Basically, a buyer (e.g a greeting card company) pays a designer/illustrator (you) for the rights to use your art on a product. When you license your designs or illustrations to a company, you’re giving them permission to use your art on products that they’ll manufacture and sell, and in return, they’ll compensate you for being able to use your art.
The compensation could either be a one-time flat-fee payment or royalties. If it’s royalties, you’ll receive a percentage of the price for each product sold. They are sent to you in regular payments, usually monthly or quarterly, for a specific period of time (the exact duration should be included in your licensing contract).
2. Create and Sell Templates
This is arguably one of the most profitable ways to get passive income for graphic designers. With this approach, all you have to do is make templates of any kind, which could be for ebooks, posters, invitations, or Pinterest graphics. Then, sell the templates online.
Many small business owners and bloggers who are always in a time crunch or who don’t have the skillset to create their own designs from scratch love purchasing these products because of how simple it is to customize them.
Once you have your own template shop set up and you put in the work, you could earn income without doing much else besides marketing your products.
3.Share Knowledge Through Workshops or Webinars
If you’ve studied graphic design or feel that you know enough about it, then sell access to online courses, workshops, training, or webinars where you introduce others to the topic who may not know a whole lot about it.
Even if you just discuss basics, you’d be helping out many people and making some money along the way. Learn about the best online platforms for selling courses here.
4.Design Fonts
Fonts are a great way to make passive income for graphic designers if you’re interested in typography. There are many ways to easily make fonts, even just with your own handwriting
According to Monotype, the US company whose core product is fonts, the interest in original typefaces is growing steadily. Their sales results prove it: last year, the company reported $235.8 million in revenue, which was an increase of 16% in comparison to the year before.
5.Create and Sell Printables
Passive income for graphic designers is easy to come by if you create and sell printables online through a platform like Etsy. You could make printables for teachers, students, travellers, or even decor like posters, canvases and wall stickers.
The great thing about printables is that they are a digital product, so all you have to do is automate your process to immediately send a PDF version of the printable once it’s purchased. You don’t even have to worry about shipping.