The Truth About Hiring a Graphic Designer
Whether you have been in business a short time, a long time, or haven’t even launched your business at all, there will come a point where you will consider hiring a graphic designer. While many bootstrapper entrepreneurs will try to do the work themselves at first, eventually the need to turn over the work to a professional will arise.
After all, we can’t do everything in our business if we ever hope to grow our business. With that in mind, in this post, we’re exploring the truth about hiring a graphic designer, and everything you should be aware of when you’re ready for that step. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s dive in!
Why You Should Outsource Your Branding and Marketing
To kick things off, let’s discuss why hiring a graphic designer is the best thing you can do for your business in lieu of trying to go it alone. The truth is the biggest brands with the best branding and marketing have a secret: they know when to call in reinforcements.
While some companies outsource their entire branding and marketing departments, others simply supplement the team they have. Both options will have a positive impact on your bottom line. When it comes down to it, outsourcing means your business gets more for less time and resources.
You Get More
The decision to outsource a project to a creative team like Diace Designs (rather than hire an additional team member) results in an entire team’s worth of ideas, experience, and feedback. As an article on Entrepreneur.com puts it, “What’s better than working with people who already know the best way to achieve results for your business?” Instead of gaining the skills of a single person, you gain the collective abilities of a group of seasoned professionals. This is especially critical when working on time-sensitive projects.
Let’s say, for example, that your website goes down just a few days before your new product launch. With the efforts of one person working to fix the issue, you could end up having to delay your launch for months. With the efforts of an experienced team, those months turn into weeks or days, significantly mitigating the loss to your revenue.
You Spend Less
In addition to getting more (value, experience, ideas…), you also spend less. This is often surprising to most people. But, consider this – The cost of hiring an additional employee is more than just the salary and the benefits. You also end up investing time and resources into training the individual.
Or suppose you are trying to go it alone, and do all of the graphics, branding, and marketing work yourself. Every minute that you are spending on that task is another minute lost in reaching out to new prospects. You are losing money with every job you try to do yourself.
Even worse, in the case of most entrepreneurs, doing graphic design work simply isn’t in their zone of genius. As a result, they have to spend countless hours learning how to do the work. Sometimes they get lucky and will end up with a decent result, but in our experience, more often than not, when attempting to DIY everything, the results lack that pizzazz your brand needs to wow potential customers.
In contrast, when you hire a team or an agency, you’re getting professionals who are already specialists. Rather than spending precious time teaching someone how to use your business’s preferred tools and applications, or trying to learn a new skill yourself, all you need to do is hand over a brand style guide and a project brief.
We understand that outsourcing isn’t always the right decision, but when you find yourself needing help for a handful of projects or for a short period of time, it is most certainly the best decision you can make for your business. And once you build rapport with a specific agency, you no longer need to go over things like brand standards and expectations. This translates to faster turnaround times, fewer revisions, and higher quality deliverables.
Diace Designs is known for its ability to provide specialized, timely assistance to corporate marketing teams with high-stakes projects. If you find yourself with a few too many projects and not enough team members, tag us in.
What to Look for in a Graphic Designer
You may still be hesitant about hiring a graphic designer. It’s understandable if this is something new to you. After all, making an investment in our businesses, especially in the beginning, can feel a little scary. Where do you even begin? To help answer this question, let’s take a look at what you should be looking for in a graphic designer so you know who to hire for your projects.
Does the designer you are considering have the experience you need?
Not all graphic designers are the same. Some specialize in logos. Other specialize in website design. What you need to know is if the person you are considering has the skills your project or projects will require.
Are their prices within your budget?
As we mentioned, there will be an investment when hiring a graphic designer. While pricing will vary widely depending on the scope of your project, you should find out as soon as possible if their proposed fees are within your budget? Most graphic designers will be willing to provide you with a proposal prior to beginning the work.
Note: A word of caution on hiring a graphic designer on a bargain website:
Without name shaming, we do have to point out that while there are some websites that feature extreme discounts on a number of graphic design jobs, you do get what you pay for. We’ve heard reports of plagiarized work, misspelled words, highly pixelated graphics, and more. We don’t want to see that happen to you! Do yourself a favor and work with a professional.
Can they get your job done within your timeline?
Great graphic designers are often in high demand. As a result, it’s not uncommon for them to have a waiting list of a couple of weeks or more before they can even start your project. Once they do begin, your project could take a few weeks or even a few months depending on its scope. While you will receive progress updates, it’s important to recognize you can’t get quality work done at a moment’s notice. Good design takes time.
Does it seem like you will get along?
One thing people don’t like to talk about when hiring a graphic designer, or any vendor for that matter, is that not all personalities work well together. When you’re looking for a graphics designer, it’s important to interview them before bringing them on board. You’ll be working together pretty closely for a while, so it’s important to determine ahead of time if you can get along with each other. There’s nothing wrong with saying it doesn’t feel like a good fit. When you and your graphics designer mesh well, your experience and your project results will be much better off.
Have you reviewed their portfolio?
If they don’t have a portfolio for you to examine, that’s a red flag. It’s a clear indicator that they are either new to the business or that they might not be as professional as you may have hoped. When hiring a graphics designer you need to be able to view a portfolio of their work so you can get an idea of whether or not they can meet your needs. For example, do the examples in their portfolio match what you’re looking for?
Is their work classified as “good design?” In fact, how do you even recognize good design?
If you think that you “just know” good design when you see it, then you’re probably a seasoned designer or creative professional with an intuitive sense of what makes creative work good. And while it’s true that design is subjective, there are ways to judge a design objectively. Good design follows the principles of hierarchy, balance, and movement.
Is There a Clear Hierarchy?
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of design elements in order of importance (think headings, subheadings, and body text). All good design has a clear visual hierarchy. When evaluating a design, look for variation in size, scale, and color to indicate varying degrees of importance. It should be immediately evident which parts of the design are more significant than others. If you can’t tell the heading from the body text, it’s not a good sign.
Is It Balanced?
Balance is the distribution of visual “weight” within the design. Just like visual hierarchy, it is achieved through the strategic use of size, scale, and color (among other attributes). Good design balances the weight of all the elements so that the viewer takes in the entire composition rather than fixating on one particular element. An imbalanced design will feel “off-kilter, inconsistent, and unsettling.” A balanced design, on the other hand, will feel harmonious and pleasing to the eye.
Is There Movement?
Movement is crucial to good design. It’s the critical component that leads your eye from the most essential element to the least essential. It requires both hierarchy and balance. In a good design, there is a clear path for your eyes to follow. This sense of movement turns a static image into a story told through visual elements. In most business settings, this movement naturally leads you to the call-to-action (“CTA”).
Good Design Is Not Necessarily Great Design
Whether or not a design contains all three of these qualities (hierarchy, balance, and movement) is a basic litmus test for determining whether or not the design is good. Great design, however, requires more than just these foundational principles. A design can be good without being great, but it can never be great without meeting the basic requirements of good design.
How to Part Ways with Your Graphic Designer
At some point, your project will be over, and your time with your graphic designer will come to an end. Parting ways with a vendor is never easy. Whether it is a planned exit or a contentious breakup, you want to make sure that the engagement wasn’t a waste. With that in mind, here are two tips that will set you up for success when you part ways with your graphic designer.
Before: Ask for the Assets You Need
Before you say goodbye for good, make sure to ask your graphic designer for a few standard assets to help you create marketing materials in the future. These assets include:
- Brand guidelines
- Logo files in vector format
- Icon files in vector format
- Templates for commonly used assets (flyers, newsletters, emails, etc.)
Vector files are image files that can be scaled very large or very small without appearing pixelated and distorted. If you work with another graphic designer in the future, these are the first files they will ask for. If you don’t have a design application that can open and edit vector files, then we suggest you invest in one. Otherwise, you risk creating marketing assets that look blurry and unprofessional.
Templates are one of the most useful assets you can ask for prior to ending the relationship with your graphic designer. They will allow you to continue creating new materials on your own that still have a professional, “designer look.” The templates you will need depend on the types of marketing materials you need to create most often. The template files will allow you to continue creating consistent branded assets ensuring your initial investment is still intact – consistency is KEY!
After: Use the Assets Your Designer Created
Remember that you hired a graphic designer for a reason. If the designer created a brand guide for you, make sure you follow it. Throwing caution to the wind and ignoring the sage advice you paid for will result in inconsistent branding. This is never a good look in your customers’ eyes. Inconsistent branding can happen even when you have the best intentions. Many business owners try to piece together promotional materials on their own rather than using professionally designed templates and following brand guidelines. We’re here to tell you: don’t do this. These ad hoc creations erode your brand and leave your customers confused.
Where to Go From Here
We know we’ve covered a lot in this post about hiring a graphics designer. While it may still seem overwhelming, we hope that we’ve at least given you some insights as to what you should be looking for, and why you should hire one. If you would like to consider Diace Designs for your project, we’d be honored to work with you. Click here to learn more about our services.
