What you Need to Know About Hiring a Graphic Designer or a Branding Agency

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What you Need to Know About Hiring a Graphic Designer, Freelance Graphic Designer or a Branding Agency

Make sure you choose a designer or agency that asks you the questions similar to the ones you have explored in our branding steps. When you start with a clear brief for the graphic designer, you will avoid endless revisions, wasted time and frustration. It may take you extra time in the beginning when all you want is a logo design, but getting clear early will save you money and time in the long run. Good designers appreciate working with clients who think strategically about their brand because it allows them provide you their best possible work for you.

As a startup choosing a designer to work with is an important decision to make. If you want to develop a brand capable of becoming famous, I’d highly recommend choosing a designer that can grow with you. It’s likely that you will not invest in having a brand guidelines document developed in the early days. In a previous article, we talked about the childhood telephone game and how we want to avoid any and all confusion with your brand signals. In my experience, if you work with several designers along the way chances are each one of them will revise your brand even just slightly. These refinements may look minimal to you because you are looking at your brand everyday but for the customer who is bombarded with messages and imagery everyday it may start to create confusion. Protect your brand’s consistency with your life!

There are three ways you may consider hiring a graphic designer: a freelance designer, an agency or if you can afford it you might want to hire a designer for your team. Generally the most affordable option is a freelance designer. If you want an agency to take you through a strategic process such as the one we have explored in this book usually starts at about $30,000 USD. If you choose to work with a freelance graphic designer you’ll spend much less.

HOW TO HIRE THE RIGHT GRAPHIC DESIGNER FOR YOUR STARTUP

Essentially, you need to match your business with the right designer. If you’re developing a technology business it’s very different than the skills you will need if you are starting up let’s say a restaurant.

Here are some questions to ask graphic designers:

  • What industries do they have the most experience working in? Here you are looking for industries the same or similar to your business.
  • What core skills do they have as a designer? For example: are they a web designer, packaging designer, print designer or environmental designer. If they say they do it all ask them what they are most passionate about working on. You will want to choose a designer that has the core skills you require.
  • Ask to see their portfolio. Choose a few samples of their work that you like the most and ask probing questions about their ideas behind the designs. Then ask them how this idea fit with the clients strategy. You are looking for a designer that focuses their create solutions that works first and foremost for their clients. You don’t want a designer that simply creates something that looks beautiful when you are creating a brand.
  • What information do they require from you? Most designers worth hiring will need information from you similar to the content we’ve explored in this book.
  • If you require items to be printed or packaged. Ask them about their production experience.

Our branding packages include of a logo, business card, home page design, font, colour and image palate and an item that the designer chooses starting at $995 and upwards depending on the level of designer and design items you require. Plus we match you up with a graphic designer based on your budget, core skills, industry experience and even the personality characteristics you desire. You will get matched with up to 5 designers from our vetted community from all over the world including London, New York, LA, Perth, Vancouver, Toronto and more. These designers will then share their creative ideas with you for your brand brief. It’s kind of like dating your designer first.

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