OK, since you are here it’s OK to believe that you are looking to get some insights to the freelance designer hiring process. Moreover, since you are already looking to hire freelance graphic designer, I believe you must know the benefits of outsourcing graphic design needs and the benefits an experienced freelance designer can deliver to your business.
Now, before we move on and share some steps to choose the right freelance graphic designer, just remember that it’s going to be a time-intensive journey. You would have to put your time and effort to be able to make the right choice to be able to identify the perfect resource who’s not only skilled in graphic designing or logo designing but is capable of understanding your business model and help you achieve business bottom lines with exquisite designs as a visual marketing technique.
And since choosing the best freelance graphic designer cheap isn’t the easiest of the task, we have come up with a maestro step-wise approach to help you in your quest to hire freelance web graphic designer.
So, without wasting any more time, let’s just directly jump over to our main theme and we will meet at the other end of the blog…
Do I need a professional designer?
Most definitely you do.
Yes, I know times when the only work for graphic designers was to design websites or business logo. However, those times have long gone by and the reality of today is that graphic designers have become quintessential for success of all online businesses. The massive penetration of social media has dramatically transformed the traditional role of graphic designers and today every business needs a professional designer (full-time or freelancer) to keep up with its online reputation management as well as interact with customers in ways which they love.
Now, with so much at stake, you definitely can’t settle for any graphic designer but need to make an intelligent choice. To be more precise, to be able to run a successful business, you need a professional designer who isn’t only well-versed with the tools and techniques of designing but also understand the unique needs of your business and able to create graphics that relate with your target audience. Now, it’s entirely up to you to decide if you want to go with a full time designer or choose to outsource designing needs to a freelancer. The only thing that matters here is that you need a professional designer to keep up with your business needs.
How to hire a freelance graphic designer
I believe you got an idea for the importance of graphic designer. So, now let’s revert to our main theme; how to hire a freelance graphic designer. And since you are looking for “freelance” designer that means you are looking to cut back the budget with a cheap alternative to full-time designer. This frankly is a great idea taken-up by many businesses nowadays.
So, let’s start our steps to help you choose the right freelance graphic designer:
- Have a clear understanding of your project objectives
Frankly, having a clear understanding of the objective isn’t just related to hiring a freelance graphic designer, rather it is valid for all business aspects; and even life. Thereby, when you are looking for a suitable designing candidate, you should first have a clear picture of the objectives you want to achieve from that person.
Remember, just like any other profession, not all web or graphic designers are equal (Even if they are technically equitable). In reality, designers have their specialties in specific fields; for instance, while one designer may be great in logo designing, the other may have mastered the art of creating enchanting illustrations.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to your specific needs and business objectives you want to achieve.
- Create a detailed design brief
Generating design brief is as important as having clear objectives (you may see it as the extension of the latter). Now, the reason you need to prepare a detailed design brief is to ensure that you are able to communicate your requirements and requirements to the designer clearly. The best way to have a design brief prepared is to call upon a meeting with the marketing team and list down their needs.
The design brief document will serve as a job description for the designer and would help him relate to his role better.
what’s included in the ideal design brief?
Well, when you are looking to hire a freelance designer, you should consider the fact that the person you’ll be hiring won’t be having the level of interaction with other team members as an in-house designer, thereby he will be heavily relied on the design brief to perform his job.
Here are some important components of the design brief you should provide to freelance graphic designer:
- A brief intro to business
- A detailed briefing for project requirements
- Brief for the project manager
- Brief about his roles and responsibilities
- Your input (things you will provide; this may include stock images, staff images, etc.)
- Target audience
- Budget
- Deadline
- Screening criteria
Last but not least, you should be able to follow a systematic screening process to be able to assess the best candidate and make the right choice.
A fatal mistake which many businesses make while hiring freelance staff is to lower the screening criteria as compared to hiring a full-time in-house employee.
Remember, your choice of freelance graphic designer will be as important as any of your in-house team member. Thereby, you should stick to the organizational screening process (even more thorough).
Perhaps, the first criteria should be to have a detailed look into the designers’ portfolio, followed by reviews from past clients and at the end of the hiring funnel should be recommendation or references. Following this strategy will certainly help you in choosing the best candidate with candid expertise.
Ready to hire a freelance graphic designer?
There you have it, a detailed systematic approach to hire the best and ideally suited designer for your business at affordable pricing.
Just remember, freelancing has become an enormous industry with hundreds of thousands of thoroughly professional and aptly skilled designers ready to serve your needs at nominal pricing. All you need to do it to follow the right approach and search in the right place.