Modern business does not stand still, requiring constant development and promotion; otherwise, you can be left behind by numerous competitors. In the struggle for superiority, sales booklets, creative posters, and stylish business cards are indispensable. This is where the question arises, how to find a good designer who would take into account the specifics of the business, and the interests of the target audience, manage to highlight competitive advantages, and take into account many other nuances?
Why is all this so important? Everything is very simple: only in this way will it be possible to always be in the sight of potential customers and regularly remind business partners of you. That is why a really high-quality graphic representation of goods or services plays one of the main roles in shaping the company’s image. It gives an understanding of the style of the company, and its individuality forms the first impression and motivates cooperation. This applies to the logo, the company’s portfolio, and printed materials – any graphic materials that are used in activities.
In-house designer or outside specialist?
The person who is responsible for the development and implementation of design projects is a graphic designer. Large corporations that produce exclusively visual content hire full-time specialists. They are fully engaged in the development of graphics. But, when it comes to a one-time service or periodic work, it is simply irrational to keep a designer on staff. It is more expedient to cooperate with freelancers.
In addition to the financial benefits, another very significant plus of working with a freelance designer is obvious: from my own experience, I can say that I am always interested in the high-quality execution of tasks!
A self-employed person will not shy away from work, nor will he try to do less without giving 100%. The designer receives money for completed projects, not a rate, and the customer has the opportunity to look at the contractor without hiring him for a monthly salary. Agree, it is much more profitable, and the result in fact will be an order of magnitude better. It remains only to decide – where to look for a designer.
Where to find a designer
Thanks to the active development of the Internet, many platforms have been created – freelance exchanges, where you can find a good designer. They allow you to search, select and communicate with potential customers and contractors. The site acts as a guarantor of the quality of the order, the completeness of payment, and the arbitrator if a dispute arises. Candidates offer their services; choose orders that suit them in terms of cost and volume. Customers filter contractors according to their own criteria, which depend on the complexity of the design, and the budget of the project.
A project from an experienced professional designer is much more valuable, but the experience is no guarantee of quality. That is why it is necessary to study previous works in order to understand whether his style is suitable for the order. The advantage of Internet sites is the choice between ready-made website design options or the creation of another graphic product offered by artists.
Active Designer
Another option where to find a web designer is to contact recruitment agencies. There you will be offered candidates from the already collected database. This, of course, is convenient, but it has its own pitfalls. It is necessary to take into account the specifics of the profession: talented creative people rarely leave resumes in recruitment agencies. A good specialist always has a job, and new clients apply already on the recommendations of others, so the chance to find “their” designer in this way is small.
Another way to find specialists is through personal connections. This method is more subjective, narrows the circle of potential performers, and discards deliberately unscrupulous designers. I am sure that the cooperation between the client and the contractor must be based on complete honesty, and trust, only in this way will it become fruitful. Just communicating with strangers, there is always a risk of deception, so it is recommended to work only with trusted performers. But I want to help, that’s why I created my own website, where they have already found a competent designer. Thanks to twenty-five years of experience, and the ability to listen to clients and hear their wishes, I develop design projects of any complexity: printing materials, and website design in a suitable style just in time.
What to look for when choosing a contractor
Understanding how to choose a contractor is mandatory for each customer since the result directly depends on the correctness of the selection criteria. It is recommended to approach the issue in a comprehensive manner, to evaluate several basic parameters at once that characterize the author’s activity. So the main points are:
- Portfolio.
- Interview.
- Work experience.
- Personal qualities.
What to look for when viewing a portfolio
A portfolio without words will tell about a person, his personal qualities, and even his responsibility. So, taking care of the customer’s comfortable viewing of samples of completed projects says a lot about attention to detail:
- Using standard mockups is not always advantageous, as it does not allow you to see individual design elements.
- It is worth paying attention to the description of each sample, so that the purpose of their creation, the compliance of the execution with the tasks set, becomes clear.
Personally, I am guided by the fact that in order to correctly evaluate the provided samples, the client needs to understand what was required from the author of the work. And, of course, the careful attention to detail, the harmony of the composition, the color scheme, the correspondence of stylistic nuances, and the reflection of the main idea of the concept matter.
Only with the skillful combination of all these tools, the design layout will be not just a beautiful picture, but a working advertising material that will attract potential customers and increase profits.
Interview
If the portfolio meets the requirements and expectations, you can schedule a personal meeting with the candidate. This makes sense only under the condition of long-term cooperation. Seeing a person live is no less important than appreciating his work.
Proper interviewing is a difficult task, to learn this art; you can attend a master class of a recruitment agency. There are several techniques: a simple sincere conversation with questions and answers without hidden subtext. More advanced interviewers are familiar with the techniques of shock, and cross-interviews when the candidate is deliberately embarrassed by watching his reaction. In this case, the goal is to remove false masks, to show the true essence of a person.
It is also worth talking about the ambitions, and goals of the candidate:
- Inflated self-esteem will negatively affect the collaboration process since even constructive criticism of the design will be perceived aggressively.
- It is also difficult to establish contact with an overly closed person.
It is necessary to rely on personal perception: if there is a feeling of closeness of spirit, ideas, and ideals, then, most likely, joint work will be comfortable. Moreover, personal qualities often become more important than other professional skills. Working for many years as a designer, I realized that the key to success is a lively mind, open to new ideas, and ready for joint activities.
Work experience
Education and experience are standard set of requirements for any job search resource. When it comes to creative professions like web design, these numbers can play against the owner. It happens that many years of experience leave an imprint, and blur the look. Such a professional move along well-established routes does not look for new solutions and uses irrelevant design techniques. But for myself, I realized that such an approach is a road to nowhere.
Today, we need self-development, which is why I always continue to learn and look for new marketing techniques. And improve those that have already proven their effectiveness and therefore achieve good results. And openness and sociability help to find an approach to each client. Taking into account all the wishes and specifics of the business.
The presence of special education completed courses always has a positive effect on professionalism. Undoubtedly, they broaden one’s horizons, streamline ideas, allow one to understand the essence of design art, and structure one’s projects. But I want to say that these parameters are not mandatory. The innate sense of style, beauty, and taste make the design more original. And more attractive than the students of numerous master classes.
A list of specific requirements for the candidate’s skills will also help determine where to look for the right designer. In addition to experience, knowledge, non-standard thinking, impudence, or, conversely, the absence of emotions is the need of the day. The so-called trans professional skills are not directly related to the activity, but make it more organized and efficient. These include:
- Desire to work in a team;
- The ability to find a common language with different people;
- Time management skills;
- Are any other skills that will make the activity more productive?
Personal qualities
Wherever the employer decides to look for a designer, the psychological portrait, and personal qualities of candidates are at the forefront. In addition to an objective assessment of their work and ambitions, professionalism, and basic design skills, applicants we expect to:
- The ability to become part of a team or be independently responsible for the result of their work – depending on the task;
- Competent speech, the presence of their own point of view;
- Readiness for creative projects or routine work, the quality of which will always be high.
To open up a person during a conversation, we recommend asking direct questions without tricks. Then he will feel comfortable, and relaxed, and will sincerely answer questions. Pay attention to characteristic phrases, manner of speech, and speed of answering questions. When a person has nothing to hide, he does not evade the answer.
The desire for self-education and introspection characterizes the personality from the best side. This speaks of his high intellectual level, focus on results, and openness to new and unconventional views.
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More important tips for choosing a designer
For those who are looking for a good designer, I want to give some universal tips:
- To make a high-quality selection of personnel, to correctly evaluate, and take special courses. There they will teach how to properly build a conversation, understand non-verbal signs, and characterize a person according to a limited number of signs.
- Choose designers who are close in spirit. Education and work experience should not be decisive. Much more important is a lively mind, the desire to create, and the coincidence of views.
- When conducting an interview, be friendly and sincere. It is not necessary to stress a designer to see his true qualities. It is enough to think over the issues that are really important to complete the task.
- Publications about the search for an order executor in social networks work great. Personal contacts are effective in searching for candidates and collecting recommendations.
- Explaining your failures to candidates will allow them to make further adjustments or refine the design.
Finding a logo designer with the right person, and professional qualities is a responsible task, especially when you have to work on a large-scale project with a big budget. Correcting mistakes is always more expensive and more difficult, so you need to choose a professional.
If you want to cooperate with a specialist with unlimited creative potential and extensive experience in creating designs for various concepts in the US, then you have come to the right place. I will take into account all your wishes, and modern marketing trends, and create unique content that will help promote the brand and increase loyalty. I always find a compromise with customers, I am ready for a dialogue, and I objectively perceive design comments, so there are no problems when agreeing on the results.
Bruce Murphy
Bruce Murphy is a freelance designer and illustrator. He Specializes in UI/UX, concepts, branding, identity, and 2D/3D animations. He works with companies, agencies, and startups around the world.
