How to run an impactful passion project

Michelle Deborah (AKA Artsbyemde) is an Indonesian third-year student in Tokyo, Japan, deeply involved in the creative industry. She often shares design portfolio tips on her social media accounts to help upcoming designers gain valuable skills and experience. She’s also one of our Linearity Ambassadors.

Her career in design began in high school, where she developed skills in Adobe software and participated in various design projects. Inspired by her father's connection to the country, she moved to Japan to pursue further education and learn the Japanese language. She spent time in a language school before starting university.

She believes that participating in brief projects, or passion projects, offers a valuable opportunity to grow in your design career. By comparing your work to the designs that win, you can identify areas where you might need to improve and refine your skills. And, hey, you may even win some of these challenges.

How it started and how it’s going: Michelle’s passion projects

As a self-taught freelance graphic designer, Michelle began designing for numerous graphic design and poster projects at her high school. She was the head of the school magazine, which helped shape her layout skills. Michelle also worked on the yearbook committee, leading her to learn Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

As someone who initially had no experience in starting a business, she learned that freelancing offered the freedom to take on projects she was passionate about and choose the clients she wanted to work with.

“My branding process is somewhat unique compared to other designers,” Michelle says. “It begins with a brand proposal, which compiles the information from the brand questionnaire into a single PDF. This document includes a mood board, details about the brand, its mission and vision, a simple brand draft (a rough sketch), and the meaning behind the draft.”

This initial step is crucial as it helps Michelle align her perspective with the client's, ensuring clear communication and minimizing the risk of misinterpretation.

Finding passion project briefs

“One of my biggest sources of inspiration, as well as a tip for growing as a freelancer, is to create passion projects,” Michelle states.

One of the easiest ways to create a passion project is to rebrand a well-known brand. You can:

• Envision a completely new angle, for example, coke that’s made with healthy ingredients.
• Rewrite the brand story and tell it from your point of view.
• Create your ideal brand if you were the designer who first conceptualized it.
• Launch a new feature, product, or service for the brand.
• Recreate the brand in your own style.

With these simple prompts, you can let your imagination loose and have fun while creating your design portfolio. Not only will it help you hone your skills, it’ll also improve your critical and conceptual thinking.

Michelle also refers to “brief” accounts on Instagram. These accounts are dedicated to attracting the right audience and generating exposure for up-and-coming designers. Sometimes, these accounts collaborate with big brands, which is also a great way for companies to find their next designer.

One of Michelle’s projects, Kokoro (on @brand.brief), was reshared and gained a lot of exposure for her work. “I get more clients from these passion projects than just posting,” says Michelle.

Instagram brief accounts Michelle recommends:

• @modernbrief
• @briefclub
• @thebriefassociation
• @brand.brief

When you find brief accounts you enjoy, follow them and keep an eye out for new briefs. Some accounts also have a steady posting schedule, so you can set a reminder for yourself to check for briefs on certain days of the week or month.

Most often, all you need to do to participate in the challenge is use the relevant hashtag shared in the brief post. The account’s panel will check the hashtag for design challenge participants and announce the winner on their account.

Sometimes they also announce runner-ups, which means you can still get high exposure even if you don’t win the challenge!

How to set up a passion project (and complete it)

It can be overwhelming to actually start your passion project without a client breathing down your neck. Michelle has a clear framework or process to motivate her to start and complete her brief projects. She takes us through her steps:

1. Stick to the deadline

When starting a new passion project, treat it as seriously as if it’s your paying client. After all, you may attract real clients with your brief project, so you want it to be representative of your skills and work ethic.

2. Make sure you understand the brief

Michelle’s way of researching and understanding the brief is to find the keywords on Pinterest and create a moodboard for the project. This could take a good 3–5 days, depending on how much time you dedicate to your passion project per day.

Research is valuable and will help you jumpstart the project and generate ideas.

Image source: Pinterest

3. Brainstorm your project

With your mood board as a guide, start playing around with different design ideas. Erase the designs that don’t fit the brief, but don’t underestimate their value. Each unsuccessful design is another step to your final one.

4. Create your mockups

Use design software like Linearity Curve or Adobe Illustrator. Creating a passion project is also a good way to learn design software and gain the skills and hacks you need to work as a professional designer.

You can also move static designs over to Linearity Move to animate them. Move is Linearity’s animation software that’s packed with easy-to-use tools to empower marketers and designers to animate their designs.

It’s seamlessly integrated with Linearity Curve, and you can try it for free by signing up below.

Jumpstart your creative ideas with Linearity Curve and Linearity Move

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Animated projects will definitely catch people’s eyes on social media like Instagram, which tends to prefer video over static content.

Showcase your passion projects

We asked Michelle to share some of her tips for students and designers on showcasing their passion projects. She uses social media to share her design process and connect with others. She keeps her content fresh by recording her design process and sharing time-lapse videos.

Here’s what she recommends for sharing your work:

• Software platforms: Join design communities and other professional platforms where you can learn from other designers and showcase what you’re working on. For example, you can share your work with the Linearity Community to get feedback. Behance is another impactful community to join and share on.
• Social media: Instagram is my preferred social platform. Your posts might blow up (do really well)! Carousel posts are currently being boosted more than other formats and are doing well on the algorithm. I also share my work and tips on LinkedIn.

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From a young age, Michelle's interest in drawing and painting naturally led her to explore graphic design. Her early exposure to creative activities in high school laid the foundation for her design career.

Design serves as a stress relief for Michelle, motivating her to continue creating. She believes you need to find joy in the process and the ability to express yourself through design. She continues exploring various design styles, focusing on illustration and branding. These areas allow her to improve her skills and express creativity.

You can follow in Michelle’s footsteps and become a professional designer, even if you feel you still have much to learn. With foundational tactics like creating a design portfolio based on passion projects, you’re already on a design career path.

Jumpstart your passion project using Linearity’s powerful, easy-to-learn design and animation platform. You can get started for free below or check out our special pricing for students, professionals, and teams.

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