4 Steps to choose the freelance Graphic Designer

Your presence here indicates that you are looking to hire a graphic designer, or more specifically, looking to hire a freelance graphic designer. Also, since you are looking to hire a freelance graphic designer, it means you already know the importance and value that a graphic designer brings to your overall business; giving it a visual identity that relates to the target audience and hook them towards your brand identity design.

Now moving on, the fact that you need to actually research your way to hire a freelance designer means that it certainly isn’t the easiest of choice to make. In fact, it can be an outright challenging task to “isolate” the perfect “fit” that understands your business and help you improve your market presence and customer engagement with enchanting visual marketing techniques.

So, if you are looking for tips to hire the right freelance graphic designer, you have landed on the perfect spot because below we will be looking at everything you need to know and every channel you can search to find the best and cheap freelance graphic designer. So, continue to read-on and we will meet at the other end of the blog.

Why do you need a professional designer?

Now, there was a time when the only time you needed a graphic designer was when you were making your website or business logo; once in a quarter or even once in a year maybe. However, with the dramatic turn of events especially after the rise of social media that has completely altered the way businesses used to interact with their customers; today; it’s an absolute necessity to have access to a professional designer at all times.

Moving on, you can’t just rely on any graphic designer, but actually, require to make the right choice. More specifically, you need a designer that’s not just available and reliable to you but can actually relate to your business model and create engaging visual content to hook customers. Now, it doesn’t matter whether you go for a full-time in-house designer or a freelance designer; the absolutely necessary thing is to have a designer that can do the job for you when and where you need it.

How to hire a freelance graphic designer?

OK, coming to our main topic; hiring a cheap freelance graphic designer. Now, the fact that you are looking for a freelancer means that you want to reduce cost and go cheap and that’s not a bad idea. Many businesses are turning to freelancers to avoid unnecessary overhead costs.

Here are some of the tips that will help you choose the best freelance graphic designer for your business.

1. Know the project bottom lines

Honestly, this point isn’t restricted to any one profession, but it’s a universal rule for success and growth. So, when you are looking to hire a freelance graphic designer the first and foremost thing you should consider is to get a clear picture of goals and bottom lines you want to achieve from the person.

Again, just like any other profession, graphic design isn’t a homogenous art and each designer has its own strengths and limitations. For instance, while one designer has his strong points in branding, the other may be more skilled in corporate marketing or illustrations etc.

So, at the end of the day, the right choice will depend on your organizational bottom lines and until you are clear on them, you can’t convey the right message and remain vulnerable to hire the wrong person.

2. Get your design brief ready

This is again quite closely linked to the first point. Before you start looking to hire a freelance graphic designer, you need to take a step back and sit down with the entire marketing team and board members to chalk out their needs.

The person whom you are going to hire will need this brief (defining his role and responsibilities) to strategize the work and achieve the project objective. Thereby, before you make the move, make sure you know what you are looking for and what you expect from the freelance person to achieve for you.

What should be included in the design brief?

Hiring a freelance designer is a little different from hiring an in-house web designer because while an in-house professional will have the access and help from other team members whom he can lean to understand the project basics, a freelance designer will entirely rely on the design brief to understand the scope of the project.

Thereby, here’s a detailed list of components that your design brief towards a freelance graphic designer should include:

• Business Initials
• Project brief
• Brief for the project manager
• Project goals
• Target market (audience)
• Your input for the project (stock images, business logos, theme, fonts etc.)
• Competitors’ Brief
• Budget
• Deadline

Re-read the components and you’ll be able to see the clear picture that neatly defined the overall project and all the components that can be needed to accomplish it successfully.

3. Making an Attractive Job Post

Now that you have the project brief, you can now move on to search the right freelance graphic designer.

But wait, how exactly are you planning to search the right person?

I mean, surely you might be looking at freelance platforms to find the right guy like Up work or Freelancer etc. but with thousands of freelancers available on each platform, how are you going to ensure that the right person is shortlisted for the final selection.

Or are you planning to conduct hundreds of interviews?

Trick huh?

Well, the essence lies in the job post structure. Just like you need to put your time and energies in detailing a project brief, similarly, you need to put your time to create a well-structured job post that can help you flesh out the best designers.

Few key information that you need to incorporate in the job post include:

– Your Intro:

This will include your company name, business industry, a brief intro and background of the company. In short a precise sketch of your business model that can enable freelancers to relate to your business.

– What you are looking to get done:

This is your chance to detail everything that you want the freelancer to achieve for you. This means that mincing out words here is a bad idea. Spit out all you want to say and done like designing a business logo, designing product cars, magazine pages etc. (include most of the things you have decided in the project brief) because this will be the details looked at by freelancers before bidding to your job.

– Mention the Deadline

Most of the freelance projects revolve around the deadline (tight deadlines), thereby, you clearly mention when you want the projects to be completed. Another important aspect here is to consider the time zone. Since you are looking to hire a cheap freelance graphic designer, you might be tempted to go with one that lives across the ocean in another time zone. This can result in delays due to lack of communication. Thereby, ensure you and the freelancer are on the same page.

– Any Specific Requirements

Are you looking for specific file formats? Do you want the freelance designer to work on specific software? Are you looking for a designer with a particular experience? Chalk our every little requirement you can think of to narrow your search for the right freelance graphic designer. ( Check out these top freelancing sites )

4. Choosing the right Graphic Designer:

By now, you will have a well-assorted and relevant list of freelance graphic designers to shortlist for interviews. From here-on comes another plunge to choose the best among the shortlisted.

So, is there any secret formula to choose the best freelance designers?

Well, while there is no magic formula in here, you certainly can choose the best or “most aptly suited” designer from the list by undertaking a few important considerations. The first and foremost consideration here remains “the portfolio of freelance graphic designers”. Freelance platforms like Upwork offer a great reviewing feature where you can have access to all the past projects completed by the person using its platform as well as reviews from the past clients. This will give you a good indication of the expertise and punctuality of a designer. Furthermore, you can arrange an interview to assess the technical expertise of the candidate or even ask about the detailed portfolio, which he might have worked over somewhere else.

All Set to Hire the Right Freelance Graphic Designer?

So, with this, we come to the end of our quest to hire the best and most aptly suited freelance graphic designer that comes cheap at cost but an expert in deliverance.

Remember, freelancing has become an industry in itself with thousands of professionals opting it over traditional jobs. You can get the best professionals at the most nominal pricing, provided you are able to put your time and energies into the process and search at the right place.