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Rachael Page's AI-native solo workflow: an app, two websites and Spoonflower patterns
A designer and tutor shows how she uses Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Figma and Adobe tools to design, build and market her own products solo.
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Freelance & Business Tools and Workflows
Freelance & Business collects real examples of the work around the design: pricing and scope, contracts and revisions, finding and keeping clients, scheduling, time tracking, and the rights questions that come with AI-generated work. It is for freelancers, studio owners and designers who are taking on more of the business side, from landing a first client to rethinking how a studio earns after launch.
Each entry says what someone did, how it went and what is worth checking, links to the original source, and labels the kind of account, such as a firsthand report or a vendor-reported result. A person reviews every entry before it is published. Start with setting revision rounds and scope in a TV graphics contract or the US Copyright Office on when AI output can be protected. For working with real briefs and clients, see Stage 5 of the Learning Path.
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A web designer tests Claude, ChatGPT and Claude Design against her own client builds
Rebekah Read reports giving AI tools her real client brief; she found the output functional but short on brand personality.
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An editorial designer's client folder, naming and backup system
Hadley Hendrix shares her nested client folders, round-and-date file naming, and end-of-day backup routine.
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Brandsupply’s Still Touch: refining an AI-generated identity (a fictional demo brand)
A seller’s own example: designers refine a generated logo for a fictional wellness brand in three rounds, with a quoted €199 price and 72 hours.
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UK High Court largely rules for Stability AI in Getty Images case
In November 2025 the court rejected Getty’s secondary copyright claim; Getty has since been given permission to appeal.
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A 60-second product explainer animated from a client’s Figma storyboard
A freelance motion designer took GWI’s storyboard into Rive and delivered a looping 438 KB web animation in under two weeks.
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US Copyright Office: prompts alone aren't enough for AI output to be protected
The Office's January 2025 report says protection depends on human authorship, including selection, arrangement and modification.
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A Frame.io guide to building editable motion graphics templates (MOGRT)
A 2024 guide explains making After Effects templates with controls so editors can change approved elements without breaking the design.
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Adobe’s June 2024 statement on AI training and customer content
In a June 2024 post Adobe said it has never trained generative AI on customer content and would revise its terms.
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Cathy Penton on using visual boards to plan custom pieces and collaborations
A 2023 interview: a soft-furnishings maker uses Milanote boards to keep custom-order details and share pop-up plans with collaborators.
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StyleDrop: Google research on copying a visual style from a single reference image
A 2023 research demo shows text-to-image output matched to the style of one reference image, from watercolor to 3D renders.
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Renaming thousands of client PDFs each season with Hazel, Alfred and Automator
A 2022 tutorial from a tax preparer: text snippets name the file, Hazel spots it, and a script adds the client’s name.
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Rebecca Mills on geometric illustration with QuickShape and balancing agency briefs
A 2019 Procreate interview with an illustrator who uses quick vector-like shapes and mixes open briefs with agency work.
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Citrusbyte: sharing unfinished design files with clients through a live link
A 2018 Figma blog post says a 90-person studio shows clients raw work in progress, with a persistent link and in-file comments.
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Janice Sung on finding a painterly style and clients through Instagram
A 2018 Procreate interview with a first-year freelance illustrator who tried several styles before one stuck.
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A TV graphics package: rounds of logo exploration and scope set in the contract
A 2017 Frame.io article walks through a Nickelodeon pilot’s show open, lower thirds, maps and overlays, and the revision deal behind them.
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Cal.com: availability-based scheduling and calendar coordination
Cal.com presents itself as customizable scheduling software for bookings.
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Chello: living brand files and follow-the-sun delivery for clients
Figma says a Sydney and London agency gives each client a shared workspace and living brand files instead of PDFs.
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Edgar Allan: turning website optimization into a quarter of agency revenue
Webflow says the agency organizes work into brand-to-build projects, support retainers and optimization, which is about 25% of revenue.
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Figma's AI content training is on by default for Starter and Professional teams
Figma's help center says content training is on by default for Starter and Professional and off for Organization and Enterprise.
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Frame.io: Media review, comments, collaboration and asset delivery
Frame.io positions itself as media review, commenting and asset delivery for creative work.
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Fred & Farid: a year of experiments before launching an AI-first studio
Runway says the agency spent a year testing tools with 26 people before opening a 30-person AI studio in four cities.
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Heco: a designer and copywriter shipping client sites without a developer handoff
Webflow says a two-person studio merged prototyping and development, with the copywriter editing text in place.
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Moving Brands: showing clients work in progress in shared files
Figma says the brand studio moved progress reports and client presentations into live files, with feedback as comments.
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N4: building an agency around work after launch day
Webflow says this web agency earns over half its revenue from ongoing post-launch work such as testing and personalization.
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Notion: documents, databases and collaborative project workspaces
Notion presents itself as an AI workspace for documents, search and automation.
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Publishing a design and photography portfolio as a Notion page
Notion says a photographer and designer built his portfolio as a published page with a tagged photo gallery.
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Ramotion: designers build the marketing sites and clients edit them afterwards
Webflow says the branding agency’s designers build smaller sites themselves, showing clients live progress sooner.
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Raw Studio: client portals with live progress instead of weekly sync meetings
Notion says a Sydney design agency invites clients into project pages with a live board, replacing hours of status meetings.
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Sourcing Insights: a five-panel social carousel in a three-hour window
A designer reports producing a five-panel carousel for a fintech client in three hours, with AI exploration and manual refinement in Adobe tools.
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Toggl Track: time tracking and reporting
Toggl presents Track as time tracking and capacity planning software, with a free option.
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Toptal: a structured design workflow, with AI for exploration, for an insurance marketing team
Toptal says an anonymous insurer’s five-person marketing team cleared a backlog using a brief-to-delivery workflow and AI for early exploration.
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Zapier: connect applications and automate triggered workflows
Zapier presents itself as an automation platform connecting thousands of apps, now with AI agents.
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Zapier’s remote design team: weekly open critique, async notes and shared research
Zapier’s design director describes a weekly open critique, a request tracker and shared note-taking for user research.
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