7 Tips for Hiring a Graphic Designer That Understands Your Brand

Branding is one of the most crucial parts of your business. It’s your identity, which allows people to connect with your business as a whole. 

The crucial step of branding is to create a lasting impression on your audience. If they can associate you with good design, you can get the right audience.

This is why hiring a graphic designer is vital to your operation. Hire a graphic designer with a great style that fits your business and you should be good to go. 

But how do you find the right one?

In this guide, we give you 7 tips on how to hire a graphic designer. 

1. Look At Their Portfolios

Looking for the best? Start with their previous projects. 

If you are looking for an in-house designer, take a look at online portfolios. A graphic designer’s portfolio has many different types of treasure that show how capable they are. Looking at their products can give you a preview of what you need.

Scan their portfolio. Look at their creations that match your side. You want to hire a graphic designer that matches your brand vision for the company.

2. Find Someone With Diverse Work Experience

Always look at their professional experience. You’re not looking for a single, large chunk of experience in a single company, even though that works too. Your best bet is to find someone with a diverse work experience who has a good understanding in your industry.

If you can, find someone who worked in a design studio. Design studios work for different clientele, which means they are efficient with deadlines. They will also have the right flexibility you need for your needs.

You can read more about hiring professional services here.

3. Set Clear Goals and Expectations

Finding it difficult to pick from a crop of different applicants? You want to set clear goals and expectations for the projects you want to do. Use as much of the creative brief as possible to arm them with the right information about the branding that you want.

Make sure to inform them of the crucial information that they need to help your business. These include:

• Project time frame
• Company details
• Style and design type
• Project obstacles and potential problems

You want to reduce as many failure points for the designer if you are looking to hire the right one. This will allow their skills to shine better.

4. Take A Look At Industry Experience

Industry expertise is a crucial ability that you need to make sure of a good fit. When you hire a graphic designer, they need to have a good understanding of your field to show proper branding. Why?

Hiring a graphic designer needs to go beyond the usual threshold for the minimum style. They need to have industry expertise to show off your branding better than others. While they don’t need to be experts like you, you want them to have a strong understanding of your needs.

Good knowledge will also help them create ideal techniques and give you a superior concept.

5. Try To Catch Them Off Guard

The best way to learn their way of thinking is to ask questions that are not standard fare. Try to catch your potential designer off guard during the interview and see if they can answer quick enough.

People who are unable to cope with the change in your questioning may not be the right fit for you. You might want someone who can think fast and knows how to cope with pressure situations.

Check them out what they think about a specific design. Ask how they will make it better. You want to take a look at the creative process that they use to not only create but improve on projects.

6. Go Beyond Portfolio

As we said, the portfolio is one of the best ways to determine if you want to hire a graphic designer. It’s the prime evidence of their capabilities and their skills with manipulating their graphics. Even then, this is not the be-all when you try to learn of the skills of the designer you’re hiring.

If you hire graphic designer in-house, check with your potential designer the specifics of their work. Knowing the way they think, how fast they work, and how they create designs can be an important part of your branding.

Knowing how fast they work also contributes if they are able to work within your business. Depending on what you need, you may have different projects that need attention. Their creative thought process can help give you the edge that you need.

7. Give Out A Trial Project

Not sure if the applicant can live up to their promise or potential? Narrowed down a few good people but still uncertain who stands out the most? It’s best to give them a test run at this point.

Give them a trial project that they can finish in the shortest amount of time. This can be a specific element in a project they need to write new or an improvement to an existing job. You want something that can exude their talents and show it off.

If you want to add incentives to the job, you can make a small paid trial to give them more incentives.

What Should You Do When Hiring A Graphic Designer?

When hiring a graphic designer is a tedious task that needs a good understanding from your side. You want to use their portfolio and experience as a way to start understanding your potential designer. Move further and test their practical skills and creative thought process to get the best.

If you are looking for more tips on how to hire great talent, it’s best to take a look at our other guides. We have different guides that can teach you how to find the right people for you. You can also find different information that can help your business succeed.