Design Ideas and Approach

Oh gosh, it's difficult as it's chicken-and-egg - if someone is going to employ a designer they generally want to see work that they have actually done and delivered rather than ideas of work they might do. I do appreciate that begs the question of how you win that first job, which I guess is where you are.

So not quite answering the question, but I would really strongly recommend you find a way of showing some actual work you have delivered for someone. Often a good start is charities, community projects, small local museums and similar etc - you may not get paid but equally they will be willing to take a chance on someone cheap (free). You want to find 2-3 quite different design projects to each other so you don't risk getting "typecast". There's usually plenty of organisations around that need help, Look at what they currently have and offer "I think that could be better if it was designed to work like this, would you like me to have a go?".

You could try https://remap.org.uk/  I personally haven't had much luck with them, but I think it all depends how active they are in your local area, in principle it should be a brilliant way of gaining and showcasing design skills while helping people at the same time.

And equally you may find this type of work leads to you making contacts that lead to paid work anyway.

Oh gosh, it's difficult as it's chicken-and-egg - if someone is going to employ a designer they generally want to see work that they have actually done and delivered rather than ideas of work they might do. I do appreciate that begs the question of how you win that first job, which I guess is where you are.

So not quite answering the question, but I would really strongly recommend you find a way of showing some actual work you have delivered for someone. Often a good start is charities, community projects, small local museums and similar etc - you may not get paid but equally they will be willing to take a chance on someone cheap (free). You want to find 2-3 quite different design projects to each other so you don't risk getting "typecast". There's usually plenty of organisations around that need help, Look at what they currently have and offer "I think that could be better if it was designed to work like this, would you like me to have a go?".

You could try https://remap.org.uk/  I personally haven't had much luck with them, but I think it all depends how active they are in your local area, in principle it should be a brilliant way of gaining and showcasing design skills while helping people at the same time.

And equally you may find this type of work leads to you making contacts that lead to paid work anyway.