The Freelance Life, part of Gigabites, is a series of short interviews with top Rafiki freelancers in Africa. We recently caught up with Almari Carosini, a South African Product Designer with a wealth of experience in freelancing, to hear about her journey into freelancing, her favourite plugins or freelance tools, and any freelance trends she's noticing in 2024.
Why did you decide to become a freelancer?
Instinctively I always knew I wanted to own my creativity - what it looked like has been moulded through years of working in the creative problem-solving field and interacting with humans. To me, it was only a matter of gaining enough industry knowledge at different agencies and studios before my shift.
What’s been the hardest part of freelancing, or something you’ve found really difficult?
The hardest part was making the shift and trusting myself to make a success in an unknown space. As I became comfortable in the space the toughest lessons I learned were about implementing a business mindset.
What’s currently your favourite plugin or tool? Why?
My top pick is Notion. It transforms the tasks of documentation and planning into engaging design-oriented experiences. No longer do we have to endure dull, essay-style write-ups or juggle multiple programs. With Notion, I can seamlessly link, organise, and share information with people worldwide.
What’s a trend you’re seeing amongst other freelancers, or a prediction for the year?
There's a sense of self-awareness happening around the freelance/independent workforce. This awareness extends to confidently leveraging our skills and abilities through strategic project selection.
We believe the killer-teams of tomorrow will integrate in-house talent with fractional freelancers on a granular, skill-specific basis, empowering companies to move quickly, efficiently scaling resources up or down as and when required to drive growth. Our goal is to streamline the use of time, money, and human capital across the freelance economy.
Our flexible approach to working with teams by integrating fractional talent into in-house teams, or building from the ground up, saves time, money, and derisks operations substantially. Brand design, custom Webflow development, and growth marketing specialists.
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