10 Tips to Hire a Best Graphic Designer for Your Small Business

Looking for a graphic designer for your business? The task of searching a graphic designer is very intimidating because many of you don’t have knowledge about the graphic designing profession. However, to hire a web designer isn’t similar to hunt a unicorn. Entrepreneurs are in a hurry to find the graphic designer and hence, many times instead of hiring someone, they themselves design their logos, business cards, brochures, etc. This leads to great loss because they aren’t having the complete knowledge about this profession.

Small projects can sometimes bear the unprofessionalism in their work. But the big projects require professionalism as they need to deal with high authority clients. This might include a creative brochure design, the decal being installed on the side of the new company car or a professional website design which you will need to complete for the client.

So, for doing this in a creative and professional way, you will need to hire a graphic designer. This is because he can completely focus on the designing and creativity part allowing you to focus on your business growth. The question is that should a startup or small business waste money and time on hiring a graphic designer? I would say “yes” because though you just need to design a logo, it needs to be designed properly as it will represent your brand.

Also, when you handover the task of designing to a graphic designer, agency or crowd sourcing platform, you need to be sure that you get the value for your money.

Ten Tips to Find a Graphic Designer for Your Small Business

1. Check Out Your Competitors First

Prior to getting a graphic designer for creating a logo or brochure, take a look at your competitors. Check their creativity first and then plan your design accordingly. It isn’t that you are going to copy their work. But simply check the style of graphic designs followed by your competitors. This will help you to plan something unique for your design. Search for a graphic designer that will keenly understand your needs and offer you the desired results.

2. Start With A Clear Idea

It isn’t important for you to have a different objective for the graphic design too as that is why you need a graphic designer. But you need to have a clear idea about what the design should display.

Is that you want to grab the attention, bring sales through plain advertisement or via more fine design prompts? Or is that you desire to have more traffic on your website? Think on all these queries and find answers to them prior to seeking for a designer. Also, you should give a brief idea of design in writing to your graphic designers.

3. Explain Your Brand & Target Audience Clearly

Being the business owner, you have better understanding of your company’s work and what can differentiate it from others. The web designer won’t know this at first. So, you should explain what your business is about, your brand’s identity and also, your target audience. Before, finalizing your graphic designer make sure the candidate has completely understood your company’s brand and how it is connected to the consumers.

4. Do Some Research

Don’t miss to go through the through portfolios and previous work of the designers. This will help you to check their skills and work level done in the past. You will also get an idea about their overall design style.

Compare the styles of all the web designers and then check which can serve you in a better way. For instance, if you want your designer to create a brochure design, you will understand that whose design style will actually work for it.

You can also do a deep research by checking the reviews, testimonials or ratings where they have their presence. This will display the previous clients’ experience about their work and help you to select the best graphic designer.

 

5. Don’t Rely On Portfolios Alone

Don’t just check the portfolios and select your graphic designer. Question the candidates about the designs in their portfolio such as what had inspired them to create a particular design. This will help you to know the creativity level of the designers and the way their inspiration can be complemented, if you work together in future.

6. Watch For Flexible Designers

Don’t miss to check the flexibility feature while selecting a graphic designer. Check if your designer is versatile in designing as well as different design items.

You won’t just stop at logo for your small business but will also require designing website, business cards, brochures, signage design, and so on. So, a graphic designer should be skilled in all these techniques for creating a wide range of designs.

7. Insist On Multiple Concepts

Ensure that the designer is ready to offer you variety of design concepts prior to finalizing one. Discuss about the policy on multiple concepts with the prospective designers to get the surety of acquiring the best iteration of their work.

If you want to design a business card, your designer must be able to display you multiple new and unique design concepts from which you can select one.

8. See How Candidates Think On Their Feet

You can narrow down your graphic designer search by asking something unexpected in the interview. For example, you can ask the candidate to analyze a competitor’s particular design element and explain how it could have been done in a different way. You will clearly get an insight on the abilities of the candidate by the answer and also, the way he answers will help to understand the creativity within him. You just have to check how can a candidate handle the unknown and thinks with a broader perspective.

9. Crowdsource It

You can do crowdsourcing of your design projects for getting the best graphic designer. The great benefit of crowdsourcing is that you get the best design at a budget-friendly cost. Also, it allows you to connect with multiple designers who send their design entries to you. You just need to launch the graphic design contest for them. Several designers will respond to your contest by sending their design concepts. You can then pick a winning design and then hire your designer.

10. Talk About The Designer’s Inspirations

At last, take time to recognize what motivates each of the candidates which you interview. Sometimes, the inspiration that they draw from different brands, books, websites and artists will give you a better idea of their style. You will also get additional ideas or unique design ideas for your project with this conversation.

Wrapping Up

Hiring a web designer requires a deep research. Don’t just look for a specific skill set. You will need to judge the designer’s overall work style and creativity. Remember you won’t find these things in their resume but will surely find them from the conversation. Lastly, the more interesting conversation you have with your candidate during the interview, the easier it will be to select the best graphic designer for your small business.