In the highly competitive world of graphic design, how can a newbie even get in on the action? You’re sitting there with the latest versions of Illustrator and Photoshop and maybe you even bought a sketch pad. The only things missing are a project and a buyer. So how do you get better as a designer if no one will hire you? The answer is in crowdsourcing, my friend. There are hundreds of projects that you as a novice designer could be working on and possibly getting paid for RIGHT NOW! Read on for more information:

• crowdSpring - This is my personal favorite, because of the variety of projects to work on. You can spend 8 hours a day just working on the new logo projects that continually pop up…but if t-shirt design or web design tickle your fancy, there are lots of those to work on as well. (I would highly recommend subscribing to crowdSpring’s RSS feed to stay updated on new projects, as there website is usually pretty slow)

• 99designs - Definitely the better looking of the two, 99designs seems to attract more professional level designers…so the competition is usually pretty tough. On the other hand, 99designs also seems to attract more projects so there are lots of clients to choose from. 99designs recently took over Sitepoint’s crowdsourcing so there is no shortage of activity there.

On both of these sites, a buyer will list a project with his/her instructions and requirements along with any supporting artwork that you might need. On every project I’ve ever been involved in, the buyer has to prepay before they can post a project so you don’t have to worry about getting paid. It’s 100% free for designers so HAPPY HUNTING!

If you know of any similar sites that I’ve missed, please let me know.