Have you realized that your business needs to hire a graphic designer? Whether it’s for a new logo design, an updated website layout or a full-on branding package, hiring a graphic designer can be intimidating. Where should you start?
As a graphic designer myself, I highly recommend prioritizing a shared sense of style with whomever you choose to hire.
When looking for a designer to represent your business, consider their graphic design aesthetic. Just as if you were getting a tattoo and looking for a tattoo artist – you would search for someone who specializes in traditional, neo traditional or blackwork based on what kind of ink you wanted. This carries through into any type of artistic vein – photography, portraits, etc.
99designs supports this, stating, “If you have an edgy brand, you want to look for an edgy design aesthetic during your portfolio review; a designer who has a lot of whimsical or corporate samples isn’t going to be the right fit.”
A graphic designer’s skill set tends to match their style.
Graphic designers tend to have a stylistic approach to their work and specialize in certain areas of design. Decide how you would like to visually represent your company. If you want to see a majority of custom illustrations in your branding or advertising, you’ll want to hire a graphic designer who has strong illustration skills. Your designer should also be well-versed in digitizing and implementing those illustrations.
Shared style makes communication with your graphic designer more efficient.
Having a shared sense of style with your designer reduces how much back and forth communication is necessary in order to get to a final product. This can help tremendously with budget as well as the amount of time you need to spend on your end. This is a win-win for the graphic designer and client.
Do you need help finding your brand’s graphic design style?
An article from this graphic designer turned hiring manager lays out a few questions to get you started:
- What do you like?
- What do you hate?
- Why?
A few graphic design styles and techniques:
How to find inspiration and where graphic designers hang out online:
Designers are visual people and love to communicate that way. You can find most graphic designers on Behance, Dribble and Instagram.
- Behance is a social media platform owned by Adobe, the leading graphic design software producer, which aims, “To showcase and discover creative work.” It is used by designers to find design inspiration for various projects.
- Dribble is a self-promotion and networking platform for digital designers. Like Behance, graphic designers use Dribble as a way to get their creative juices flowing, to see what is already out there and establish current graphic design trends.
- Instagram is filled with graphic designers, agencies and their work. Browsing the endless designs can help you form your own sense of style. Try searching hashtags related to your project, like #graphicdesign or #logodesign.
Are you a business owner that has a question for an experienced graphic designer? Drop us a comment to score an answer in my next blog article!
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