Individual Mentorship for Designers

Struggling with your design career? Let’s do something about that.

Design is not easy, and it’s definitely not a good career choice for everyone—but it shouldn’t be a source of frustration, either.

If you feel like you’re losing passion for your work, or you’re not making as much progress in your skills as you’d like to, you might start wondering whether this is the right career for you. (I’ve been there too.)

Improving your design career can take different shapes. You may want to:

• Improve your design skills and create a portfolio that will get you hired.
• Graduate from an “order taker” to a strategic thinker that takes charge of the design process.
• Take more responsibility at your job, and earn more respect from your boss and colleagues.
• Become more creative, prolific, and original in your work.
• Develop a distinct visual style.
• Hone your client process so that you never have to deal with clients from Hell, endless revisions, and unpaid invoices.

If you’d like to talk to someone who’s been living in the trenches of creative jobs and entrepreneurship for many years, I’d be happy to offer my support and advice.

Why mentorship?

Back in the old days, creatives became professionals through the process of apprenticeship. They worked in the atelier of a master artist or craftsman and learned through observation and supervised work.

Today, most people learn creative skills by attending a vocational school or university, or by relying on online content and books. Add in a few workshops, and you have a good chance of learning the ropes and becoming a design professional.

But once you graduate or complete a workshop, who do you go to when you have pressing questions?

We talk to experienced colleagues we trust. If you work at an agency, you might have a boss or a team leader with lots of experience, who is happy to show you things they don’t teach you in school. But freelancers or people who are still looking for work might not have anyone like that in their corner.

Good mentors who commit to a mentoring relationship with you:

• Always have your best interests in mind, and don’t compete with you for clients.
• Respect your confidentiality.
• Treat you like an independent adult that makes their own decisions.
• Offer clear and honest feedback.
• Point you towards resources that are best for you at your stage of career growth.
• Share their own personal stories of challenges and how they resolved them.

If you can find someone who will gladly mentor you for free, that’s obviously ideal… But if that’s not an option, you can hire one!

Why me?

I’ve been a professional designer since 2005. I’ve worked as an agency employee, agency contractor, and directly with clients. I’ve made a ton of mistakes and learned a lot from them. I wrote a book on brand strategy and regularly speak at international conferences and teach in-person workshops. At one point in my career I lost passion for design, and then found it again. Many years later, I’m still going strong.

I’ve taught over 60 people how to design their first logos and brochures, and realized that excellence in design can’t be achieved through a short class or a workshop.

The process of learning and improvement takes a long time, and lots of independent practice. I can’t be there for you every single day, but I can check in and offer tips on how to course-correct frequently enough to make an impact.

I’ve also been mentoring creative business owners in collaboration with several start-up incubators, and received great feedback from mentees and organizers.

My top areas of expertise are:

• Logo design
• Brand identity design
• Brand strategy
• Website design

You can take a look at my recent work in my design portfolio.

What I can do for you:

• Provide honest design critique.
• Suggest areas of focused improvement.
• Help troubleshoot interpersonal issues at work (whether you’re a freelancer or an employee).
• Answer any questions about working with clients.
• Offer feedback on your website, proposals, and other parts of your business process.
• Help you implement the Human Centered Brand strategy framework in your own business.

What I can’t or won’t do:

• Do your work for you.
• Find you a job or clients. (I may refer people in the future, but there’s no promise or obligation.)
• Hire you as my own intern.
• Give you only praise to boost your ego.
• Answer tech/software questions. (That’s what StackExchange is for.)

Not sure if I’m the right person to help you with your goals?

Our initial 30-minute video call is free, with no strings attached. If either of us realizes we’re not the right fit to work together, or that the timing is not quite right, there’s no obligation to continue.

How it works

One mentorship term lasts for 3 months. We can meet once per month, or every 2 weeks for 60 minutes via Google Meet. (I live in Europe, but I may be able to accommodate people from other time zones.)

If something urgent comes up between our sessions, you may send me an occasional email or a voice message, and I’ll respond in kind.

If you want to continue for another 3 months, we can arrange that based on my availability.

Apply for mentorship

Contact me through the inquiry form, and I’ll send you my availability calendar for our initial conversation.

If we decide to work together, I’ll send you an invoice, and we’ll arrange our meeting schedule moving forward.

I open new spots based on my work availability. If I’m too busy to start mentoring you immediately, you’ll have an option to join my waiting list.

Your application must contain a link to your up-to-date portfolio. If you don’t have a website, a Google Drive or a Dropbox folder is fine. (Do not send ZIP files, WeTransfer, or anything else I’d have to download.)