I have no formal design background, but think we would make a good client in that I have a good sense of what we want. We don’t want anything that is over designed: simple and distinctive. I spend a lot of time thinking about good design and I know design is very important to success with foundations, grantors, and the charitable trusts to which we need to appeal, as well as the east African entrepreneurs we support.

please, if you are interested, reach out to me at wlamberson at googlemail dot com or let me know how to find you in subsequent comments.

There is a lot involved in Pro Bono work if you have the time and money but it has to be worth the effort – you don’t want to design for an organisation that doesn’t appreciate good design as it can have the reverse effect of what you originally set out to do.

Ended up being an amazing client, logo design, business cards, pres folders, flyers and a few other bits and pieces. It was a great start & very motivating! – and since then I have had referrals from that client. Word of mouth is the absolute best!

I do have some tangible work around me, but it hasn’t been needed for client deals. My online portfolio does the job, and given that most of my clients are overseas, I don’t often carry my MacBook around for presentations.

You a true inspiration and so are all the other writers. As I have said before I am only a novice and receiving your news letter David, is a pleasure. I learn so much but confidence is not my strong point when I come to designing. The web sites I have done all look and function really well and the people I have designed them for are really pleased. However, I think all my sites are pro bono! I never know what to ask for and usually get a couple of bottles of wine! It is my fault though as when my friends say ‘so how much?’ I start to talk about soemthing else.

One more question please, how do you present your portfolio? Is it always online, like yours David or do you have hard copies also? If you met say a client, do you take your laptop and stuff to show them?

Thank you David & Friends.

Best wishes
Graeme

Shame it didn’t work out for you, Ryan. Perhaps rather than saying “free” you can say “with a 100% discount on £_____.”

Louisa, that’s a great addition — telling your pro-bono client that projects with paying clients take precedence. I’m sure it’d help reduce stress levels when deadlines are looming.

Faaiza, I hope everything’s great with you in NZ. I’d love to visit one day. A close friend of mine here in Edinburgh lived there for a year. He had an amazing time.

I have just finished my design degree and I graduate next month. I have been quite lucky while studying as I landed some great jobs in the creative field.

Living in New Zealand the design community is very small and although I would like to work for a company as a designer for sometime the odds of that happening look quite slim. Instead I have been working on freelance projects here and there as well as offering free services too in an aim to add to my portfolio.

Some of my friends arent very keen on doing freelance projects as I found out today. They are aiming to create a collective of designers and seem to think clients will just flock to you.

I would like to Thank you very much for your post as it helped me decide what I really should be doing which is practicing! Everyones comments and opinons have been very helpful and Design schools really need to promote pro bono work.

Pro bono can work even when you have a client base. I producing this logo http://bit.ly/beginspacelogo for a local organisation. They were delighted and it has led to more work and good connections. Win win!

Congrats on the book btw David B)

I do however agree that this is a good approach to help build a portfolio and when I am not so jaded will offer my services for those in need.