You are aware that good design leads to business growth for your fledgling business.
Now, it’s your turn to explore this aspect of your business and take it to the next level.
But finding graphic designers isn’t as easy as it may seem.
What kind of graphic designer best suits your own digital marketing needs? What does it take to recruit a top freelance designer? Where are the best web designers located?
You’ve probably heard the freelance horror stories told by start-up founders in job marketplace reviews and job board forums.
You may even have personal experience of web design work left uncompleted and deadlines missed by weeks.
Of course, there is also the catastrophe that ensues because a freelance graphic designer doesn’t follow instructions and keeps giving excuses—leaving you frustrated and angry.
The world of design is vast.
Perfect freelance web designers may be elusive, but they’re not unicorns.
You’ll need a roadmap, time, and resources to succeed in your quest.
What a freelance graphic designer can do for you
Whether you are a start-up, an agency, or an SME, top graphic designers can have a profound impact on your brand.
According to a 2019 report, 92% of the leading global brands can draw a straight line between the efforts of a professional designer and their organization’s revenue.
Furthermore, almost 75% of the companies surveyed agree that their visual design efforts increased customer satisfaction, enhanced the usability of their products and services, and markedly improved their brand identity.
A well-thought-out graphic design project, from logo design to the user interface, visual elements, and branding, is an essential aspect of your business, no matter what products and services you create to delight your customers.
What kind of freelance designer best suits your needs?
There are dozens of different designers who specialize in hundreds of fields and niches. Some of the most sought-after designers should be able to provide work examples that show at least a few of the following:
- UI design
- UX design
- Product Design
- Landing pages
- Banner ads
- Mobile apps
- Illustration
- Print design
This list is far from exhaustive, so to narrow down the search, you need to clarify your business needs and design requirements. The top sites on the web are not just pretty to look at. They help solve problems for site visitors, save time, and use graphics to grab your target audience and make them pay attention.
Hiring graphic designers
you must look to hire graphic designers not only by their design skills or past freelance work but also by their philosophies, skillset, basic knowledge, and experience, as well as any qualifications they bring to the table.
Another important consideration is how your new freelance graphic designer will fit into your team and adapt to your existing style framework.
Practical communication skills are essential for a successful partnership between you and your freelance or visual designer, especially in remote or hybrid work settings. Provide feedback wherever possible to ensure the right fit.
The obvious places to look
You can find freelance graphic designers in various places. The following platforms are all solid choices that maximize your chance of getting the best talent.
- Traditional job boards
- Professional platforms like LinkedIn
- Virtual assistant staffing companies
- Freelance marketplaces
- Recruitment agencies
- Outsourcing agencies
These platforms often require you to format a job description according to specific settings, which can be time-consuming and frustrating.
The most talented freelance graphic designers may be hiding in plain sight, and you can find them with a dash of lateral thinking. Try to expand your search in the following ways:
- Design competitions
When you access Google, you realize that there are design competitions that ask for projects in a wide range of industries. Platforms like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe illustrator are regularly on the lookout for the next best graphic designers in your region.
Design competitions and awards typically run throughout the year. They are often touted as opportunities for designers to gain recognition “within the creative community and get their ideas noticed by potential clients and future employers.”
- Design contests
These work a little differently from the showcasing structure of competitions. Each contest is typically focused on a single client or employer. Design professionals must follow requirements unique to the client to create a custom design.
- Design tenders
These are used in procurement and are generally open to more prominent players like agencies and studios–not necessarily freelance designers. They differ from competition and contests because the “final aim of a design tender is to collect entries and proposals for procurement purposes.” Tenders allow you to observe a designer’s creative, project management, and strategy skills.
- Hackathons
Communication and collaboration are critical to the design process. Design hackathons are an excellent display of complex concepts leading to collaborative creative solutions for real-life problems. Win or lose, freelance graphic designers who are hackathons alums are better equipped to integrate a team structure than lone wolves.
- Design schools and institutes
Art schools and other design institutions are great places to find freelance graphic designers, as this is where they begin their professional creative journeys.
Many design educational institutions, like the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, hold student commencement and thesis exhibitions. Other schools and colleges also have annual exhibitions of graduating students’ past work.
In our post-Covid remote world, distance is no longer an issue, as institutions often provide you with virtual student exhibitions to showcase their best designers.
- Professional design organizations
The Design School of Arizona State University explains that professional design organizations provide “information to the general public about disciplinary practice and its role in improving the well-being of communities.”
They also provide guidance, continuing education, and structure to graphic designers who become members and adhere to their philosophies and practices.
One of the largest and oldest professional organizations for designers is the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) which has members from across the globe. With a bit of digging, you should also be able to find a local design organization near you.
- Competitors’ design teams
Oscar Wilde did not mince words when he described imitation as “the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”
Be that as it may, if you believe your competitors are doing something right when it comes to their design, why not look at an individual designer who helped them get there?
A top designer can share ideas and create your unique vision just as they do for other clients in your industry.
Like any other field, design offers its top freelance talent numerous opportunities to develop a niche.
- Design blogs and magazines
The more niche a design field is, the more likely its top talents have industry-specific blogs and specialized websites.
Freelance designers are often wordsmiths who delight in sharing their knowledge and expertise with aficionados, neophytes, and, frankly, anybody who’ll listen.
- Social media platforms
There may not be an app for that yet, but there are endless social media accounts for every graphic designer under the sun.
From individual freelance graphic designers showcasing their work on their personal Instagram accounts to very niche communities like ello, you’ll have hours and hours and hours of mind-blowing–and possibly mind-numbing–creative work to browse.
The search for your perfect freelance graphic designer may lead you down a rabbit hole, and even Alice needed advice and guidance on her adventures.
- Get some expert help
Finding your perfect freelance designer is the first step in a long and complex hiring process. If you find the ideal candidate, you must assess their portfolio and test their skills effectively.
Once the designer has jumped through all the hoops you have set, the time will come for you to negotiate salaries or rates.
Choose Quickly Hire
Quickly Hire negotiates rates and wages for you. Our team makes offers and provides backup plans if your first-choice designer declines—ensuring you remain compliant with international anti-money laundering legislation and tax regulations as well as those that apply in your country of operations.
Our team takes the headaches out of the start-up recruitment process by combining the Quickly Hire freelance marketplace and our decades of professional experience and industry knowledge.
Our goal at Quickly Hire is to find, assess, and match the perfect freelance graphic designer with new start-ups like yours for lasting successful partnerships.
Find, hire, and manage your global dream team with a click via the Quickly Hire freelance marketplace so you can grow your business today.
