Freelance web designer after 35?

Question

Freelance

Good Colleagues Day and not only
It so happened that I am writing such a post for the first time in my life
I am from a small town in Ukraine (40 thousand people), I started doing web design (freelance) back in 2007 (then I made my first photoshop + HTML site) and after it started. There were enough orders, until about 2014 I was not without work.
Then he got married, everything went well, children were born, then he worked as a freelance web designer, I wanted to go to a studio somewhere to try, but the town is small, there is not a single studio, especially since we don’t have such a service in demand, no one would order.
And then stagnation came (simple, or just the blues attacked).
Tell me what to do next for a web designer (I write exactly the web because then there was no separation into UI and UX, motion, illustrator, etc.)?
What to do if you are almost 35 years old? Where to go next? Or throw everything away and go to another craft, although web design is very close to my heart and I want to do it further (but I can no longer create competition for young guys in the market)
Moving to another city is not an option (house, wife, children and all , at this age, moving is not an option) and who will take the old man to the studio to work) (

Answer 1

You raised a good topic.
Design in 2010 was much more in demand for several reasons:
1. Markets for ready-made skins like Themeforest were not developed
2. There were no sane designers like Tilda
3. People had not had enough time to play enough in design, so they were happy to saw their fantasies
Now all three points does not work. Small businesses have realized that they can make money with any nonsense, the main thing is that the information is correctly submitted and the direct is properly configured. Medium business will not save on such things - it is easier for them to contact the studio. Well, big business has long started its own development teams.
I have long noticed that the design itself is no longer particularly relevant. No, of course, there are still a lot of customers on the market, but the competition has become many times more.
I can give you three pieces of advice on how to work further:
1. Looked at your work. Quite elaborate and strong, but there is nothing fresh in them. You can try to draw concepts - you can come up with fake projects, you can make unsolicited redesigns of existing projects. The main thing is that graphically they break the established patterns. That's what a lot of guys do. Such concepts, in principle, always work well. Dribble and Behans. Accordingly, if you do something interesting, you will get a lot of traffic and potential customers who will come to you for your style and ideas.
2. Try to find the remote command. In Skyeng, they often look for remote designers, for example. You can find a team in the states if everything is fine with English. In this case, you will simply throw off the troubles of finding customers and will work quietly for good money.
3. You can look for a job in Moscow/Kyiv. First move yourself, then move the family. In any case, it will be better than being unemployed in a small provincial town.
Again, you are correct. It's just that design is no longer needed.
Good luck.

Answer 2

Well, there will be no other answers on the toaster - "you are a whiner", "ko-ko-ko lack of seniors", etc.
Web design is needed as an addition to a certain website development stack.
Sites are dying and will continue to die.
Small and medium businesses go to SAAS, i.е. for more serious decisions. It is easier and simpler there than to maintain your own staff and pay fabulous money (especially in a poor post-sovka).
Business card sites and other rubbish - studios with macaque boys specialize in them, they have their own designers.
It is strange that you did not take care of the pillow by the age of 35. I mean, I'm just starting to think about it now.

Answer 3

The same crap
for 34 years, started in 2010. well
, what the heck The market has become very competitive, every second shkololo middle x#idl developer
Freelancing, you only spoil your nerves
crazy dumping
, I’ve decided to go offline, what the hell is necessary for these pennies up to 50 years shizu to catch current customers

Answer 4

I am 36. Wife and two children. Worked in Saratov. He made good money, but it was still not enough to pull the family. It so happened that at work they "kicked" for an open resume on hh. But they immediately responded to my resume from Moscow and offered me a relocation. The Skype interview went through. Now I work in Moscow. I will be moving my family soon. In your case, age and family are not a hindrance. Those who want are looking for opportunities, and those who do not want are looking for reasons.

Answer 5

In Israel, we have an xplace website in English too, mostly there are also Russian-speaking ones.
They are constantly looking for a freelance designer, prices from 2k dollars. I am not a designer, but they are looking for designers like hungry zombies for meat.
Link to the Israeli site
In general, you can simply register on this site and take any orders from anywhere in the world

Answer 6

My friend, just go to hell with the CIS market and do everything possible to enter the west. Here (in the CIS) there is no money and only slave labor. You have quite strong, average work - you can live with it.
ps If it's not a secret, then how much +- does your work cost?

Answer 7

The conclusion of this topic.
Apparently a sore subject for many, since so many subscribed and comment on it so much.
But for myself, I took some important and necessary advice.
Thanks to all the guys who were honest with me in the comments (and not really).
But for myself, I have already drawn conclusions, but I still listen to users.
I would like more constructive criticism or advice. Although everyone, almost everyone has already spoken

Answer 8

I think you are on to something. Or you're doing a really bad job.
PS Found a link to the portfolio. No, it's quite a normal level of work. Have you tried looking for remote?
Not in a freelance format, but on a permanent basis in the studio?

Answer 9

Yes, even after 70.

Answer 10

Here's how it turns out! I'm here 40 years soon, and here already at 35 panic. )) However, my situation is somewhat similar. Also at a crossroads in terms of "where to next" and "what to do." But I encourage myself, I try not to lose heart.
As for "they'll take the old man", then people 5 years younger than me, well, they don't seem old at all)) If we are talking about ageism, then yes, it is very likely that somewhere in the companies it is implicit, but present. However, experience comes with age, and this is much more appreciated.

Answer 11

Far away anywhere. No one to work.

Answer 12

although web design is very close to the soul and I want to do it further
If you want to do it - do it.

(but I can no longer create competition in the market for young guys)

And how did you define it? In my experience with freelancers, the market is full of "young guys" who do the work somehow, break their own deadlines, or even get lost somewhere without starting to fulfill the order they have taken. Finding a responsible designer even for above-market pay is a huge problem. With imagination (how to make an interface user-friendly) - freelancers also have a problem.

Answer 13

The IT market throws out only those who do not want to develop or are unsuitable for professional work. All this whining about the young is an excuse to yourself not to develop.

Answer 14

There is no need to follow so much senseless advice and strange prejudices, Yuriy. Surprisingly, none of them turned their attention to the portfolio of a designer who has been in this profession for over 10 years. And it was not even surprising that, it would seem, with such experience - he does not have the specific skills of the necessary programs, he does not work in a web studio and he has a decline in orders.
The terms UI / UX appeared in 2000. Close direction, not close - what's the difference if, despite the fact that you have been doing this for 10 years, you have unpromising work. In 2008, stagnation occurred, and since that time you have not been moving towards development in your activities. And the result was your current work, which, according to objective estimates, is not worth even a thousand. 
You don't need to move anywhere, because you, Yuri, will not be accepted by any normal web studio. The level is not something that falls short, it is fundamentally not the same. Learning English and going to Upwork is a penny business, there is nothing to take there. Revenues are equivalent to those on the Russian-language sites. And I doubt that anyone will be interested in your work. 
No matter what anyone says, the only correct option is to switch to another, not even related profession.
However, do you know why no one paid attention to your portfolio? Most of them have it the same)) In any case, good luck

Answer 15

Approximately the same problem arose a couple of years ago. I'm not a designer myself, but everything else is similar. Freelance, age, etc. I worked remotely with megaindex.com and continue to work with them. It’s not freelance anymore, but a permanent one, you can say. So you can find yourself at any age. The main thing is to be able to do something right and present yourself. Sea of ​​vacancies I will say this

Answer 16

Looked at the work, good skill. I see three ways.
1) Search for clients independently in the Russian Federation by region, where there are no pumped local studios.
2) Get a job in a remote studio (I often meet vacancies) and pump in a narrower modern direction in parallel.
3) Improve your English and look for clients in English-speaking countries.
PS: the easiest option is point 2. You can also change the direction of selling goods and use your skill in creating your own sites, well, as an option.

Answer 17

I'm 35. I started the same way, when the phone was connected to the Internet through the house, it squeaked terribly for a minute ...
Live forever, learn forever ... At the moment, I perfectly know the entire line of Adobe, php, java, pithon, c ++. Recently finished practicing vue, react. And I am moving towards b2b projects. In parallel, I write templates for many CMS. I am developing ready-made solutions for Bitrix... And there is so much more I want and I will teach and teach...
Do what you are drawn to. Move to the cities of the millionaires, so once I did ...

Answer 18

No clients? so you position yourself in the area where there is no competition. Specialize.
Be public. You will be more easily trusted with work if they see you and the results of your work.
Start a YouTube channel about design, tell us how you do this and that)

Answer 19

Check out the data science trend. I'm 46 and programming is starting to tire. But Data Science with Machine Learning looks more and more promising

Answer 20

but the town is small, there is not a single studio, especially since we do not have such a service in demand, no one would order it.

The overwhelming majority of studios work for other cities, for the capital, for foreign countries.
Thoughtful problem.
In our small town there are a lot of such studios - even eat them ass, a lot.
They just didn't search well.
For 40,000 - easily 2-3 studios should be.

Answer 21

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