The Un-Ordinary: An Anti-Gatekeeping Series on Freelancing (Featuring Sukaina Shakeel)

Meet Sukaina Shakeel.

Sukaina is a freelance graphic designer, Making customers fall in love with brand's through FIERY brand identity design.

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What's the craziest design request you've ever received?

The craziest design request I’ve ever received was when a client wanted me to fit their entire company history, mission statement, and product catalog into a single business card design. They were really adamant about squeezing everything in, but of course, the space was just too small for all of that. It took some convincing to explain the importance of prioritizing information and using design to create a clean, professional look rather than overloading it!

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What do you do when you get stuck creatively?

Netflix

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If you could design a new emoji, what would it be?

It would be a "coffee spill."

For all those chaotic moments when you're overwhelmed, tired, or everything is just falling apart, the coffee spill would perfectly capture the mood of a day going off the rails. It would be great for venting about work stress or when things just don’t go as planned!

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What are the most common forms of gatekeeping you've observed?
How do you think we as a community could change them?

People gatekeep the real timeline of the project & try to get work done ASAP which hinders the creative process. I try to avoid the issue by working only with the ones who are engrossed in the project and actually care about designing rather than thinking of it as something to get over with.

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What's your greatest pain point in managing your business?

To get consistent brand identity leads. I get a lot of inquiries but they are usually not to my taste. so yeah getting in touch with "my people" to work with is a painpoint.
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Find Sukaina on IG and LinkedIn

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"The Un-Ordinary: An Anti-Gatekeeping Series on Freelancing" by Roam.

Roam is the most intuitive business management platform for digital creatives, here to equip creatives with the practical tools and support to streamline their workflows and thrive in business.
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