If you are making a web design for your own website instead of hiring someone else, chances are you're using your skills to make some money and design for others as well. This is called freelance web designing, and you will realize that the job is pretty popular among freelancing circles.
The idea is pretty simple. A customer tells you want to see in the website--what emotion to convey, what message to send to visitors--then you craft a sample design to him/her. Of course this is still subject to the client's final approval.
Wrong. The job is not as easy as it sounds to be. Once in a while you will get a customer who is so out of his mind and controlling that he/she tends to make you a mere coder who writes down every single wish he makes--despite all the expectations you have clarified beforehand.
This web comic from TheOatmeal.com very much shows what I mean. From a professional-looking website, the sample website was dumbed down to something reminiscing of Web 1.0 glitter-heavy websites. Like how the web comic described it, the designer was treated as a mouse pointer in a very large client program that the client controls by speaking, emailing, and using an instant messenger. It's so crazy.
If you still want to pursue this line of work, then by all means, do so. With the right choice of clients, it can still be very rewarding.You still have the option to take in a job whenever you like it, and you pretty have much control on your own schedule. The pay is unstable and irregular, yes, but this can be compensated by diversifying your client base. This is the life of a freelance web designer and a freelancer in general.
Now if you are one of these clients who contract designers, please be more considerate. Let your designers use their creativity as long as they are in line with pre-agreed conditions and expectations. Be human with your proceedings.
