[marcomassaro]

There is definitely a market for freelance designers. Just look at Dribbble - more than half of the users there are freelancers who take on clients locally or remotely.

I run a remote design studio and have been a UI/UX designer for over 8 years. I decided to go the self-employed (freelance) route because I wanted to work with a variety of clients and grow a company, rather than work at an agency or startup (something I was less passionate about doing).

To answer your questions:

1. It really depends on your interests and niche. Figure out if you want to focus on designing mobile or web products (or both) and for what industry. I chose to focus on internet startups - whether it be SaaS, social, b2b etc because there is usually a high demand for UI/UX talent in this niche. And internet startups value great design, unlike some other industries.

2. 5 years of experience is pretty vague. Focus more on building a portfolio of quality projects where you show your design and UX skills. This will take time of course if you are new, but if you have 5-10 projects most companies will find that you have experience. If you have 1 project then you don't look as experienced or have as much under your belt.

Hope that helps. Feel free to email me at [e-mail] if you want to ask some more questions or talk shop.