Hey there!

Adrian here; When we look at taking a new course, learning a new skill, or reading a new book, we think to ourselves - "it has to be worth it." And if we can't justify the price, it's not worth the investment.

In my first few months as a (web)designer, I had this mindset. I invested very little in developing my skills, and because of that, my progress stagnated.

I remember thinking about starting my Instagram account and learning mobile design back in 2018, but I kept telling myself, don't do it. You have a "good" thing going on right now, you're making $3-5k/mo as a web designer, and you'll be fine.

If you switch to content creation or, God forbid, mobile design, you'll run out of fuel and burn out before you start seeing any results. Where would you even look for a mobile design client? Everyone needs a website, and you don't even know anyone who ever needed a mobile design.

After months of getting semi-satisfying results with zero real progress, I changed my approach and started playing around with mobile concepts. I was pretty clueless about where to look for inspiration, so I took it to Dribbble and started designing one to two mockups every other day. I didn't really know what I was doing.

Luckily, I have been running a few website design retainers for my clients, and one of them was following me closely on my social media. As clueless as he was in mobile design, he offered me a quick job - a mobile app design for a tennis startup. The stakeholders were tennis aficionados, but no one was really that technical.

I remember feeling that rush of adrenaline before accepting the deal. I was so eager to start my first mobile design job, but I didn't know how it would turn out. I first purchased a bunch of online courses and two design eBooks and watched dozens of Skillshare and Youtube videos. I didn't take any new website clients that month to have enough time to learn this new skill.

I was waiting for that one breakthrough moment, and here it was - I didn't want to blow it. If I can make it this first time, it will be so much easier to secure another mobile design gig in the future.

And with that specific goal in mind, I became much more open to making progress and improving my design skills. I would invest what I was able to to keep making steady progress and continue to level up my skills and my mindset.

And it slowly started to snowball.

You have to remember one thing, all it takes is one breakthrough client, project, or concept work to get the momentum going and start seeing new results. It's called a snowball for a reason.

Getting myself stuck on that goal to learn something new and improve my current skills started to bring me incredible results. In one year, I went from knowing nothing about mobile design to accepting 2-3 projects monthly and charging anywhere between $5-15k for design-only jobs.

Before that, I was designing and developing websites in the range of $2-6k, and thanks to mobile design, my effective hourly rate doubled. This meant that with my current mobile design rates, and my fully booked calendar, I could also increase my prices for all website design gigs, and now, I don't even start a job without a $4k deposit, no matter the size of the website I have to design.

I had to learn it all the hard way and spent close to 3 years of my life thinking it won't be worth it, but in reality, this one mobile design gig launched my career into a literal fast lane. If only I knew how valuable this skill could be for me, I'd start learning it much earlier.

If you can relate to the first part of my story, don't make the same mistake I did.

That's one of the reasons I wrote the Design Manual - to guide you by the hand and show you everything you need to know to start your career in mobile design.

I compiled years of knowledge and experience into this eBook, and I'm sure that getting it for such a low price will bring you massive potential ROI.

Will it do everything for you? No.

You still have to put in the work and practice design. That's why I've also included 100+ Fintech App screens and a practice file specifically designed to teach you the best iOS principles and give you the hands-on experience you need to design mobile applications. The experience I was missing when starting out.

You can get my new eBook, "The Design Manual" for 50% OFF for the next 16 hours. After that, the deal is gone, and the price goes back to $79.

The Design Manual (50% OFF)

Thanks, and I really hope it helps with your decision,

- Adrian

P.S. You don't have to take my word for it. Just in this first week, 700+ designers got their copy, and 60 have already rated it 5 stars! Here's what the design community has to say about the Design Manual:

Last chance to secure 50% OFF….

The Design Manual (Last chance)

Hope to see you on the other side of the cover!

0 comments

The sale's gone in a short while

Sale is extended till Sunday (11:59 PM PST)

(24 hours left) Design Manual sale

Design Manual sale ends in 48 hours

Is mobile design better than the web? 🤔

See all posts from uiadrian