How to Hire a Graphic Designer for Your Business

Posted by Wyatt on September 11th, 2019

No matter what kind of business you run, you will eventually be needing the help of an artist whether it is for your marketing, advertising, making a logo, or simply for your signage and posters. There is a demand for graphic designers these days because there is always a need for visually pleasing projects to catch the attention of consumers whether it be online or offline. If you have no experience on interacting with an artist much more hiring one, this article will help you sort things out.

In-house designer or freelance designer?

The first thing you should decide is whether you need the graphic designer to be part of your team or if you just need a few projects for them to do so you can just delegate the task to a freelance graphic design artist. Both has its own pros and cons. Get more interesting details about print shop check this site.

If you hire an in-house designer, this means the graphic artist will work for your brand only which is good if you manage to hire someone with exceptional talent. Having them as part of your team means they will always be available when you need them and they will be familiar with the ins and outs of your branding and marketing style so the graphics and visuals that you produce will always have a consistency. Of course, the cons is that you do not have work for them every day but as part of the team, you will still have to pay them monthly. But one way to turn this con into a pro is if you are active online by posting content. You can assign them to do graphics for your content and social media posts which will surely keep them busy.

If you go with a freelance graphic artist, the pros is that you only pay them on a project to project basis. It’s just like outsourcing your Printing Service – most printing shops have their own graphic artists to work with you. If your project needs a certain specialization, you have a lot of options to choose from and simply hire someone who can fulfill your need compared to having an in-house graphic artist whose specializations may be limited. The cons would be if you have another project, your preferred freelance artist may not be available because they are working on something else – this also means they will not be always available in case of last-minute projects or emergencies. Your freelance artist will also have to be brief about your branding goals because they will not be that familiar with your brand.

You can also do both. If the work load is high and too overwhelming for your in-house designer, you can temporarily hire a freelance artist to coordinate with your in-house artist. This way, your in-house artist will not be too stressed and can still produce a consistent quality in your graphic needs. This often happens because there is no one-size-fits-all graphic designer in the industry. Graphic design has a wide range of varieties and specialties. Just because one is great at sketching and illustration means that they will be great at designing a website. Keep this in mind when you hire your artist.

Set your expectations and know what you want

As mentioned earlier, graphic design is a broad field. Make sure you know what you want before you start interviewing and hiring people. Think of the projects that will be assigned and what your expectations will be. A graphic designer knows what they can or cannot do. They will tell you if they are good at taking photos and Photo Printing or if they are good at sketching and animation. For instance, an artist that specializes in web design develops the graphic support and visuals for your web pages such as the look, feel, and layout of your website. However, they cannot do the coding for you. You will need a web developer for that.

So manage your expectations. Another example is that some businesses think of graphic designers as creative directors. While some can handle both responsibilities, you have to recognize that a creative director is actually a step up higher than a graphic designer so do not be surprised if they ask for a higher fee. A creative director is responsible for shaping your brand identity or gives direction in the creative strategy – a graphic artist can offer professional input but they usually follow what the creative director envisions. As you can see, there are some thin lines between some specializations so you have to be clear beforehand on what you need for your business.