I think whether you work as a freelancer or hired employee both decisions, to work in your niche only (or at least almost) or to provide a broader range of services, are completely valid, also marketing wise.

I certainly agree that, once you specialize in a niche (let’s say wordpress design) you’ll get loads of referrals and customers, which want exactly what you do, wordpress design.

But many clients are also happy if they can put all their web/design-related needs in one hand, instead of many.
A client (especially smaller enterprises) doesn’t want to go to a logo designer to get his logo designed, then to another designer for his stationary, next stop web designer followed by a web developer, maybe add a illustrator and animator on the way, etc.

I agree that it is rather difficult for a single freelancer to provide all these services to a high standard, but it is not uncommon, nor a bad decision, to provide logo and web site design in combination with front-end development.

Specialization does not mean you have to limit yourself to doing only one thing. But, when you articulate your specialization, you let your potential clients know that if they are looking for that one thing, you’re the one to contact.

By the way, Scott Design specializes in creating online marketing communications for technology companies. Feel free to check us out and let me know if our portfolio supports our claim!

I found coming into the professional industry that my ability to work on a wide variety of platforms and projects made me a valuable asset at my place of employment. Perhaps I will find this as a disadvantage at a future place of employment, however, I don’t think that would be the type of place I would want to work for.

That being said, your point of an emphasis on marketing yourself towards specialization is a great one. I would argue that a designer like myself should cater that marketing to the company or client I am targeting, and not to one niche.

I believe my specialty is illustrating, however.

UX/UI Design – mastering conversions immediately jump to mind.

Cheers,
Jason

I can relate to the article but having worked in a large variety of sectors within the design industry I would have to disagree with most of the article. I believe that as a designer you should be able to apply your “trade” to anything and everything design related. If a client were to approach me to produce a website for them or their company I automatically ask if they have an established brand, corporate stationary and strategy in order to provide an added service but helping to improve or create one for them. As a designer I am also always looking at developing new styles, technologies, approaches and solutions. By allowing myself to absorb all other media means this experience only increases with every project. Before the days of super-niche design titles like, UX Designer, WordPress Designer, Pay per click specialist etc etc… there was the Multimedia designer. Multimedia means exactly that, multi media.

After working in traditional print and graphic design, eLearning, eCommerce, UI Design and web marketing I have been able to apply those skills learnt throughout all my projects to all future projects too. “Jack of all, master of some” I agree with.

Having said that it is always each to their own and I do enjoy producing multimedia solutions and if someone comes to me asking to design them an apron and hat I tend to say, “ok I will see what I can do”. Then I may have trawl the web for an Apron and Hat Designer title!

Great post though and look forward to more.

Altogether, an excellent article! The idea of Positioning is helpful and inspiring to me as I’m taking steps toward developing a freelancing business, and finding my own “best at” marketing niche!

i can understand and agree with you. being specialized in a particular field/media helps create a identity for ourselves. As i graduate with a multimedia diploma, i feel the frustration of knowing a little of everything but not ALL of something.

Anyway, i’ve decided to further on print and graphics. Glad to find your inspiring article. It has given me confidence and assurance in my decision.

Cheers!

I see where you are coming from, though. Your thoughts are much appreciated.

What I was trying to get at, and I think this will be clear as you review the article, is the importance of MARKETING yourself in a particular way as a designer.

My point was you need to stand out from the thousands upon thousands of designers who simply “do a little of everything”. If you want to do a little of everything, that’s fine- but find something that you do really well and sell that!

Also, you don’t necessarily have to stick to one technology to be a specialist. Lara, who left a comment above yours, for example, does all sorts of design work, (web, print, social media, etc) but for a particular kind of client. There are lots of ways to carve out your niche.

Thanks for the great discussion.

Anyway, thanks for the great read. Keep up the great work.

Additionally, specializing to a “niche” may limit your sources of inspiration as a designer. I find that working on a variety of projects keeps me fresh. I pull ideas from my web designs into motion pieces or print pieces and vice-versa.

Furthermore, as technology evolves, (web) designers are expected/required to know more about the factors influencing design. IE- when you are designing a new website interface, you’d better know how jQuery works. Designing for a CMS? Better understand what that CMS can do. Client wants a website in HTML5, how can you possibly know how to design for that without understanding how it works?

Don’t believe me? Check out job postings on CreativeHotlist or the FWA. One example, right now Tribal DDB is looking for an Interactive Designer. Required skills?

• Expert level Photoshop.
• Ability to animate on the timeline in Flash, and to write an animation briefing.
• Experience with After Effects would be useful.
• Experience with Illustrator, InDesign. 3D, video or audio experience a big plus.

That’s a pretty wide breadth of knowledge, and DDB isn’t the only team looking for it. There are many posts like this.

Bottom line is, it’s never good to put all of your eggs in one basket.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by prestondlee: New blog post: Specialization: a designer’s key to success in the future http://bit.ly/dezH8b...

However, from experience of running a small design studio, there is a degree to which you need to be multi-faceted. The clients we work for rely on us to maintain their brand standards across multiple forms of designed material, from brochures to annual reports to websites.

This can all be done to a consistent, high standard. It’s about having the right people for the task and building the relationships with our clients.

We call this ‘Brand Guardianship’ and it is our speciality.