
The freelancer's guide to the web design process
Discover the best ways to work with your clients throughout the design process.

Now that you’re neck-deep in freelance design projects, you’ve probably realized it isn’t all roses. Problems arise and things rarely go as planned. But there are ways to prepare for these hiccups.
Let’s find out how.
Get the ball rolling
Once you have a good understanding of project deliverables, it's time to jump in to the design iteration phase!
I’ve worked on enough projects to know that the slower you are to start, the slower the entire project will go. So start fast.
Typically, I get started with a mood board (though you might try a style tile or element collage). How you create your mood board may vary, but for me it typically involves putting together a wide variety of images, colors, fonts, and designs to see which resonate most with the client.
Get the ball rolling with our free mood board and style tile template!
At this stage, I often assign clients homework: to review and comment on the mood boards I put together.
Why? Because in many cases, clients already know what they want — even if they don’t realize it, or are unwilling to tell you. It’s your job to draw out and help them communicate their vision.
Even when clients know what they want, there’s usually a language barrier and most clients don’t know how to express their ideas in ways that easily translate into a design system. Creating a mood board for them to review helps in this translation process and will get you to the next phase much faster.
Skip the mockups. Proceed directly to prototypes.
Years of freelancing has taught me that the best way to present design ideas to clients is to show them in context. This is where Webflow comes in very handy for me. It allows me to put together amazing sites exceptionally quickly.
Now, these rapid prototypes don’t need to represent the final iteration (in fact, they usually don’t). But taking what you learned from your client’s mood board review and applying it to something very much like the final deliverable — a website — allows you to skip a lot of pointless back-and-forth.
Why?
Because if you’re slow to translate idea to prototype, you risk clients changing their minds or becoming impatient.
Most clients don’t understand kerning or care much about color theory. So if you waste their time presenting these things as “options” early on, you’ll end up drastically slowing down the entire process.
As the designer, you'll find fiddling with the small stuff useful, but clients find more value in iterating on the final product instead of small tweaks that don’t make much sense out of context. So jump ahead to the good stuff.
For website projects, this is where I’ll build/design all of the pages (i.e., 90% of the site) and put my best foot forward in hopes that it’s a home run.
Iterate until it’s great
Now, you’re most likely not going to nail the design in your first prototype, and that’s alright. In fact, you should probably expect it.
But if you were careful with your mood boards and listened closely to your client, hopefully you weren’t too far off.
If you’re way off, repeat the mood board process and see where things went wrong.
If you’re close, let the iterate-until-it’s-great process commence!
Iteration is where I spend the bulk of my time on freelancing projects — and I love it. With Webflow, this process is a breeze. You can use a screen recorder (like Loom or CloudApp) to send a site demo and get feedback. I share my screen (over Slack, Zoom, or GoToMeeting) or walk them through the site in person and make changes right on the canvas, in real time.
“How do you feel about this font? Too big? Let’s see what it looks like a bit smaller.”
“This image looks a little too busy? Let’s swap in a few more to see if we can get it closer.”
With Webflow, you can make these changes incredibly quickly. I’ve even found myself finishing a website with clients over a few one-hour screen-sharing sessions.
Don’t be afraid to publish
Launching a client website usually takes longer than it needs to, often because you and/or your client fear something important has been missed — without having the slightest clue what that “important” thing is.
I typically encourage clients to launch the website before they think it’s ready. When the site’s live, things that seemed really important suddenly seem … less so.
Designer's fears about publishing
The real fear isn’t that your site’s imperfect. It’s that you’re afraid to share it with the world.
On the designer’s side, fears about publishing a site is usually fear that the work isn’t good enough. That it will be judged.
To be honest, I don’t think this fear of sharing your work ever completely disappears. It’s just part of being a creative: you expect great things of yourself, and it’s hard to feel like your work ever meets your high standards.
But even if your work doesn't meet the highest standards, there's no way you'll grow as a designer without sharing and gathering feedback on your work. So share and talk about your work until it does meet your standards. Then ... adjust your standards again.
Client's fears about publishing
For clients, there’s a similar fear at play: now that their website is ready, the work of pushing it out into the world becomes a reality.
I’ve seen many website and branding projects bog down into a prolonged procrastination, where the client (usually subconsciously) slows the project down in fear that once it’s over, the real work begins. They’re now entering the world in a new way — and that can be scary.
This is where a good design-side manner comes in handy. Reassure clients that the site is ready, that they're ready, and that ongoing changes are still possible — provided you’ve agreed to this in your contract.
The beauty of the web is that it’s never finished. Websites can be changed and iterated on even after the website goes live. This simple fact is often the only reassurance you and your client need to take the next step.
What’s next?
With the website live, you’re done, right? Right?!
Usually, no. You’re not out of the woods yet.
In some cases the real work has just begun. That’s why, in 4 ways freelance designers can create ongoing revenue, we dive into some of the most common ongoing maintenance and support tasks that come up after a project is launched.
Now that you’re neck-deep in freelance design projects, you’ve probably realized it isn’t all roses. Problems arise and things rarely go as planned. But there are ways to prepare for these hiccups.
Let’s find out how.
Get the ball rolling
Once you have a good understanding of project deliverables, it's time to jump in to the design iteration phase!
I’ve worked on enough projects to know that the slower you are to start, the slower the entire project will go. So start fast.
Typically, I get started with a mood board (though you might try a style tile or element collage). How you create your mood board may vary, but for me it typically involves putting together a wide variety of images, colors, fonts, and designs to see which resonate most with the client.
Get the ball rolling with our free mood board and style tile template!
At this stage, I often assign clients homework: to review and comment on the mood boards I put together.
Why? Because in many cases, clients already know what they want — even if they don’t realize it, or are unwilling to tell you. It’s your job to draw out and help them communicate their vision.
Even when clients know what they want, there’s usually a language barrier and most clients don’t know how to express their ideas in ways that easily translate into a design system. Creating a mood board for them to review helps in this translation process and will get you to the next phase much faster.
Skip the mockups. Proceed directly to prototypes.
Years of freelancing has taught me that the best way to present design ideas to clients is to show them in context. This is where Webflow comes in very handy for me. It allows me to put together amazing sites exceptionally quickly.
Now, these rapid prototypes don’t need to represent the final iteration (in fact, they usually don’t). But taking what you learned from your client’s mood board review and applying it to something very much like the final deliverable — a website — allows you to skip a lot of pointless back-and-forth.
Why?
Because if you’re slow to translate idea to prototype, you risk clients changing their minds or becoming impatient.
Most clients don’t understand kerning or care much about color theory. So if you waste their time presenting these things as “options” early on, you’ll end up drastically slowing down the entire process.
As the designer, you'll find fiddling with the small stuff useful, but clients find more value in iterating on the final product instead of small tweaks that don’t make much sense out of context. So jump ahead to the good stuff.
For website projects, this is where I’ll build/design all of the pages (i.e., 90% of the site) and put my best foot forward in hopes that it’s a home run.
Iterate until it’s great
Now, you’re most likely not going to nail the design in your first prototype, and that’s alright. In fact, you should probably expect it.
But if you were careful with your mood boards and listened closely to your client, hopefully you weren’t too far off.
If you’re way off, repeat the mood board process and see where things went wrong.
If you’re close, let the iterate-until-it’s-great process commence!
Iteration is where I spend the bulk of my time on freelancing projects — and I love it. With Webflow, this process is a breeze. You can use a screen recorder (like Loom or CloudApp) to send a site demo and get feedback. I share my screen (over Slack, Zoom, or GoToMeeting) or walk them through the site in person and make changes right on the canvas, in real time.
“How do you feel about this font? Too big? Let’s see what it looks like a bit smaller.”
“This image looks a little too busy? Let’s swap in a few more to see if we can get it closer.”
With Webflow, you can make these changes incredibly quickly. I’ve even found myself finishing a website with clients over a few one-hour screen-sharing sessions.
Don’t be afraid to publish
Launching a client website usually takes longer than it needs to, often because you and/or your client fear something important has been missed — without having the slightest clue what that “important” thing is.
I typically encourage clients to launch the website before they think it’s ready. When the site’s live, things that seemed really important suddenly seem … less so.
Designer's fears about publishing
The real fear isn’t that your site’s imperfect. It’s that you’re afraid to share it with the world.
On the designer’s side, fears about publishing a site is usually fear that the work isn’t good enough. That it will be judged.
To be honest, I don’t think this fear of sharing your work ever completely disappears. It’s just part of being a creative: you expect great things of yourself, and it’s hard to feel like your work ever meets your high standards.
But even if your work doesn't meet the highest standards, there's no way you'll grow as a designer without sharing and gathering feedback on your work. So share and talk about your work until it does meet your standards. Then ... adjust your standards again.
Client's fears about publishing
For clients, there’s a similar fear at play: now that their website is ready, the work of pushing it out into the world becomes a reality.
I’ve seen many website and branding projects bog down into a prolonged procrastination, where the client (usually subconsciously) slows the project down in fear that once it’s over, the real work begins. They’re now entering the world in a new way — and that can be scary.
This is where a good design-side manner comes in handy. Reassure clients that the site is ready, that they're ready, and that ongoing changes are still possible — provided you’ve agreed to this in your contract.
The beauty of the web is that it’s never finished. Websites can be changed and iterated on even after the website goes live. This simple fact is often the only reassurance you and your client need to take the next step.
What’s next?
With the website live, you’re done, right? Right?!
Usually, no. You’re not out of the woods yet.
In some cases the real work has just begun. That’s why, in 4 ways freelance designers can create ongoing revenue, we dive into some of the most common ongoing maintenance and support tasks that come up after a project is launched.
Free until you’re ready to launch
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