Passion, I wish graphic design was my choice.

[DanielMartin]

I've just been setting up a new desktop , since my laptop has died and I'm sat here at my work station with some large card drawing pads spanning the width of my work station and I can't help but fill my mind with ideas spanning graphic design.
The passion I have for it , the desire to change the world with my ideas and leave a legacy of good design ...

Sometimes I really wish I don't want to be an engineer at all , I love graphic design and I fear there will always remain a part of me that will regret not studying it at university and going to do freelance work... The money just isn't enough , heck the salary compared with a top engineer is around 3-4x more.

Sigh , +

[Dave L]

If your passion is backed with proper commitment and outstanding skills you can make decent money. I don't currently make anything like this but, by way of illustration, at my current daily rate I'd be on over £100k pa if I was working to capacity (that's without working weekends and bank holidays + with four weeks holiday). Achievable? Perhaps not but even at 50% utilisation it's a fair old whack.

[theposterprinter]

What's more important to you... Earning more money doing something you don't like, or earning less money and enjoying going into work every day?

[byronc]

Well I am in the same boat, was very creative when I was younger, but somehow got into programming which is very logical.

I the last year have been making the crossover to web design and website creation.

i am interested in knowing what the average freelancer makes in web design or web seo.

Am finding coding websites quite easy, but the design is quite difficult. My own site is quite crappy as I am doing this part time and never seem to get time to do my own site properly :) I think it has some good seo content.

i regularly buy design magazine etc and am still in the honeymoon stage when viewing what some people get up to with photoshop. The good spin off I guess is my arty daughter now has a spanking new graphics tablet which she spend ecery waking hour on now :)

[graphicbreeze]

Do what you love

Don't take something because it pays more

Don't take something because friends family says so or suggests.

I fell down both of those traps. Now I have
- a diploma in culinary arts
- a diploma in management
- a diploma in accounting
- a applied degree in finance
- my certified financial planner certificate
- Canadian securities course certificate

all of them are meaningless paperweights that wasted tens of thousands of dollars and years of my life. I would be miserable in any of those fields. I finally went to school to take something I want to do not something that pays better or makes my family happier.

In 3 months I graduate graphic design and this has been the best choice I took even though it will only pay a fraction of what i would have been making as an accountant or working in finance.

[ukin]

Do what you love

Don't take something because it pays more

Don't take something because friends family says so or suggests.

I fell down both of those traps. Now I have
- a diploma in culinary arts
- a diploma in management
- a diploma in accounting
- a applied degree in finance
- my certified financial planner certificate
- Canadian securities course certificate

all of them are meaningless paperweights that wasted tens of thousands of dollars and years of my life. I would be miserable in any of those fields. I finally went to school to take something I want to do not something that pays better or makes my family happier.

In 3 months I graduate graphic design and this has been the best choice I took even though it will only pay a fraction of what i would have been making as an accountant or working in finance.

Thank you for sharing that.

I got in to typesetting and artworking straight out of high school and often feel like I didn't get to choose it. University wasn't an option in my family, so I often fantasise about what my life would be like had I had a chance to study straight away.

In the end, I love design, artworking and even typesetting. The skills I've racked up over the eight years I've been working serve me well, and the smattering of study I've done (but never finished) in business and visual arts has just enhanced what I can already do.

It's refreshing to read a different perspective and approach but a similar conclusion. I'm really glad you've worked out what you want to do!

SO I agree; do what you do. There's nothing worse than hating every single working day of your life.
(Well, there's plenty of worse stuff, but in this context...)