5 things to know before hiring a graphic designer

Hiring a graphic designer to handle the visuals for your business can be rather daunting due to both the job at hand and the investment involved. You want a graphic designer who knows how to enhance a brand and convey its core message to a target audience.

Pretty visuals alone aren’t going to be enough as your brand must also be able to convey your core message to customers adequately. A good graphic designer will be able to create a design that can do that while also being eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing.

Here are five tips for hiring a graphic designer who will give you the results you’re looking for.

Clarify Your Graphic Design Goals

The graphic designer is most likely not a psychic, so you’ll have to write down what you need and want in the graphic design for your business down to the last detail. You’ll want the project to be done the way you want and will last you a long time, preferably through the whole lifespan of your business.

If the design is something the business will outgrow after a while, that’s more money you have to spend to get a new design or you’ll have to keep using the old and outdated one.

Being clear about what you want and what your business needs with your graphic designer not only gets good results, but also potentially save you money down the line and a lot of heartache.

Look for Work Experience

Most professional graphic designers have experience in working with different kinds of clients with diverse requirements. Such people tend to be used to working with multiple clients, so they’re flexible and get work done efficiently while also having a fair price.

Look for those who specifically have had experience in working with businesses in fleshing out their brands. You can look at online reviews to see more of their history with past projects.  That will tell you if they’re good at communicating, able to get work done on time, and can manage expenses in a project.

You certainly don’t want to hire a novice, but you also want to have a graphic designer on board with the work experience necessary to work on your project.

Know What to Look for in Their Portfolio

The design portfolio is the graphic designer’s best foot forward and are meant for getting a good first impression from their potential clients. You get to see the farthest extent of their capabilities and design sensibilities in their portfolio, so it’s a good way to know the graphic designers you’re looking to hire.

You’ll be able to see a graphic designer’s visual style and the common themes they tend to prefer and excel in through their portfolio. Both diversity and consistency are showcased in them, featuring both the flexibility in incorporating different styles and formats and the things they tend to stick to and incorporate in all of their work.

With that said, you don’t want to depend too much on what you see in their portfolio alone. You will want to talk to them about the designs in their portfolios and what inspired them to make those decisions.

Get an Interview Before Deciding to Hire

Interviewing a prospective graphic designer lets you know how they think and how they go about their creative process. You’ll be able to get a sense of whether they actually know what they’re talking about and if they’re able to communicate with you clearly and respectfully.

You can set it up either in person or through video chat. It’s important to at least be able to hear their voice. If you’re able to see their face, that’s better as you’ll be able to see how they carry themselves. It doesn’t have to be super formal, but you do want to see an air of professionalism.

Give a Trial Project First

It’s up to you on whether you’re going the extra mile and see what the graphic designers are capable of before bringing them fully on board your project. If you do decide to give them a trial project, make it something that’s both simple in execution and complex enough to know if they’re capable in everything you want from them.

If possible, make it a project that’s still helpful for your business so it’s not ultimately a waste of time. Just know that while it’s something you want to do to test the graphic designer under your exact parameters, it still does take some time to do.

Perhaps there won’t really be any need to test the graphic designer with a trial project if you’re that confident in the person. Just know that it’s still better to test rather than having to find another one after realizing that the individual is not up to snuff in the middle of the project.

If you’re looking to hire a graphic designer, we’re happy to help! Please contact us today and we will get back to you in less than 24 hours.