Unless your business is in graphic design, it’s certain that you’re going to need to hire a graphic designer to take your venture to the next level. Visual language has a major impact on consumers nowadays so it’s important to present your brand in the best possible way. The right graphic designer can help you with that.

How to Hire a Top Graphic Designer for Your Brand

So how do you hire a graphic designer? The task may seem daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before but there are ways to ace it. To help with that, here are some very important points that you should keep in mind.

Freelance vs In-house Graphic Designer

Before you look into hiring a graphic designer, you should decide first whether you want a freelancer or an in-house designer. These offer very different things so it’s crucial to make the right choice.

How do you choose? Take a close look at your needs. An in-house designer will fit those who need to churn out professionally designed collaterals frequently. Most brands that run their own social media accounts may find it more convenient to hire one. This way, they are guaranteed that they have an expert on board for their design requirements.

Those who do not need to put out content very frequently will already find the services of a freelancer sufficient to their needs. If you only need someone for a project or you just want a fresh set of eyes and aesthetic to refresh the feel of your brand, a seasoned freelance designer will be a great option.

In terms of costs, they can pretty much even out. An in-house designer, of course, will require a salary since they will be your employee. Freelancers, on the other hand, will only charge on a per-project basis but they can be costlier depending on the kind of service they’ll render as well as their skills and range of experience.

Both setups will have their limitations, too. For example, you can’t expect freelancers to be always available for meetings and other gatherings as they will have other clients that they’ll need to attend to. They will also have specialties so it’s important to look for the right people for the job you have. 

What Does Graphic Designer Do?

Aside from the available setups that you can explore, it’s also vital that you know exactly what graphic designers do. It’s actually very simple: they offer graphic support for your business and that’s pretty much it. They can produce designs, layouts, or illustrations for your brand. They can help you create marketing materials that are professional-looking and aesthetically pleasing.

There are a lot of things that they’re not, too. As mentioned above, they have limitations. Specialties are some of them as many graphic designers focus on honing specific crafts like logo design, illustration, branding, or typography among other things. You can’t simply expect an illustrator to create logo design or even a complete branding package for you if they did not specifically note or highlight such skills in their resume or portfolio.

You also cannot expect them to do art direction or web development. These may seem closely related to what they do but they’re not the same thing.

Get to know the field better before hiring someone so you’ll know their full capacity and you’ll be able to get the results you need. 

How To Find The Best Graphic Designer

Once you get those two things down to pat, you can start your search for a graphic designer to work with. There are lots of great places that you can look into, here are a few of the top examples:

1. Job Listing sites

If you’re after an in-house graphic designer, you can hire using conventional job sites. There are lots of talents who like the stability of being employed so you can be sure to find a lot of great candidates.

2. Freelance Sites

For freelancers, freelancing sites (Fiverr, 99designs, UpWork) will be the best places to look. You can opt to create your own search post to draw folks in or you can go through the available profiles of freelancers that are available for viewing on such sites. 

Some places have millions of talents from different parts of the world so you definitely won’t run out of options. It might be more of a challenge to browse or sort through all of them, however.

3. Portfolio Sites

You can also look for freelancers and agencies to work with through portfolio sites (Working Not Working, Dribbble). These places are easier to navigate than freelance sites but most talents here are more experienced so their services may be costlier.

4. Ask for Recommendations

Another way to hire good freelancers is by asking friends, relatives, and maybe even clients and suppliers for recommendations. Leverage your Facebook or LinkedIn network or your social media. This will most likely help you find someone local or with a good track record.

Evaluating Portfolios

Before even considering a graphic artist, it’s essential to take a look at their portfolio so you can assess whether their skills and style will suit your needs and match your brand. Their sample and previous works should appeal to you, otherwise, they will never satisfy you. Be very particular about their design aesthetic and their design experience.

Hiring a Graphic Designer

The process of hiring a graphic designer would be very similar to hiring an employee if you’re getting an in-house designer or setting up a contract with a supplier if you’re getting a freelancer. It’s crucial to communicate well what your needs are and what needs to be done. Price negotiations should also be expected.

Make sure to have a contract for the project or the hiring as well. This is essential to protect your business and the graphic artist. Go into detail about the scope of the project, the timeline, rights, confidentiality agreements, and the number of edits or revisions allowed. Proper communication between you and the graphic designer should make this step relatively pain-free.