How to Hire a Designer Online: A Detailed Guide
Table of Contents
Visual content is an integral part of marketing communications. At one point in your business, you’ll need to hire a graphic designer. Maybe you’re already at that point and wondering, how do I go about it?
Whether you’re at that point in your business where you want to design a logo. You may already know at this point that a great graphic designer is important to your visual communication. While you may have a bright idea of how you want to communicate your brand identity alongside other design projects, the onus rests on your graphic designer to deliver a compelling design that leaves a lasting impression and stands you out in a sea of others.
You also know that great designs are crucial to building excellent relationships with your customers and associates. You’ve looked around but can’t seem to narrow down your search. So, you’re looking to minimize risk while searching online for the best hand for your graphic design projects.
We as business owners ourselves understand your dilemma. That’s why we’ve put together this article to guide you on how to find and hire graphic designers online.
Let’s start by weighing the options.
In-house designer vs. freelance designer
Before we dive into finding and hiring a designer online, let’s discuss the pros and cons of the types of designers you might want to hire.
In-house designer
An in-house designer can either work remotely or in an office space provided by your company. This means they’ll be 100% committed to you as long as their contract specifies. As a result, you’ll enjoy their availability, and they’ll know your brand’s style inside and out.
However, you’ll need to pay your in-house designer even when you don’t have any design needs. Also, most in-house designers will have the expertise and may be unable to handle all your design requests. In addition, your designer isn’t a robot, and they’ll have health needs at some point or just an inability to handle the workload. Check out the guide about graphic design.
Freelance designer
Freelance designers work with their tools from their own spaces. You send your project requirement and pay them based on the project. You can hire freelance graphic designers in relation to their specialization based on your design needs.
However, they would often need more briefing on your brand, your target audience, and your values. Also, they won’t be available for last-minute tasks or impromptu meetings.
Hiring only an in-house designer might not be the right fit for your company, especially if you have tons of design needs. You might consider having a list of freelance designers in addition to your in-house designer. With that, you’ll ensure that your in-house employee isn’t too overwhelmed.
However, whether you decide to hire in-house graphic designers or freelance designers, you need to understand that the duty of a designer is to create visual components and communication aesthetics of your brand asset (logo, package design, web interface, etc). Your graphic designers will not write blog posts, code, or develop marketing strategies. Although your graphic designer may possess multiple skillsets and expertise, their primary duty is to create designs.
Where to find graphic designers for hire
There are several websites to find top graphic designers, full-time or part-time in-house graphic design artists, web designers, illustrators, and lots more without a hassle. Let’s check out some popular websites you can look through.
Freelancing sites
Freelancing sites are your ideal place to find freelance graphic designers for hire. There are plenty of them where you can check out the best designers for hire. In addition, some of these websites allow you to hold contests for designers to win your project.
Let’s check out the benefit of some top sites.
- Upwork
Upwork is one of the most popular freelance marketplaces. With millions of users and jobs posted each year, Upwork allows you to receive proposals from different designers for your design project. Then, you can choose the best fit after careful consideration.
Upwork has designers from different experience levels. The platform has a project management tool that allows you to mitigate risk by paying only when the design is complete.
Freelancer is one of the most significant graphic designer freelance sites that boasts millions of users. The platform charges a flat fee for most projects. However, with the preferred Freelancer Program, you can access a group of more highly qualified candidates for a rate from the platform.
Need a range of designers, even for web design, product design, logos, branding, and illustration? Freelancer has them. One interesting twist is that both parties pay fees for starting a project, which helps distribute accountability and ensure interest and follow through.
People Per Hour is a freelance marketplace initially built for the European market. People Per Hour has lower rates and affordable graphic designers for hire. You can pay by the hour or pay a set rate per project.
If you aren’t sure how much time is required for a reasonably straightforward task, you can hire people one-off for “hourlies.” Use this platform because it has project management tools to help you with the project.
Toptal has transformed the freelance marketplace by creating a curated experience with customer satisfaction guarantees. Whether you are looking for a freelance graphic artist or to hire a graphic designer part-time or full-time, Toptal can help ensure that you are matched with a designer specific to your needs, interests, and timeline.
The platform’s model helps ensure they match customers with some of the best graphic designers AND that your match works for you and your team. In addition, Toptal’s screening and testing process identifies the best talent in design and customer experience. Toptal also offers web designers, software developers, and other experts to help with your graphic design project.
Fiverr comes to mind when searching for anything freelance. Millions of independent creatives across several industries are waiting to be hired for freelance work on Fiverr. So that should be one of your go-to freelance graphic designers pool. Interestingly, you can look through the profiles of different designers to learn about them through their ratings.
99designs crowdsources graphic design ideas to meet your request. When you post a job, hundreds of designers may submit their ideas on how to proceed. This system allows you to find the design you like before committing to work with a designer. You can also skip the contest and choose to work directly with a single designer. For that option, you can choose from a pool of more experienced designers.
Portfolio sites
Portfolio sites allow you to browse through designer’s portfolios. However, portfolio sites don’t offer the financial protection you will get from freelancing sites.
Dribble is a community created for designers. Initially, an invite-only site, this platform provides space for designers to show their work, meet, share ideas, and find a community.
More recently, it has become open to anyone who wants to join and has developed a jib board, operating in some ways as a freelance designer marketplace. You can explore portfolios and reach out directly to designers about work, post on the job board, or use Dribble’s Talent Partner solution.
Behance is a subsidiary company of Adobe, a household name in the design world. It is a portfolio website where millions of designers showcase their works. By joining, you can access the portfolio of over 15 million designers.
You can browse through different designs and artworks to find the designer of your choice. Behance allows efficient collaboration between parties, especially if you’re subscribed to the platform. The website can also provide custom recommendations based on your job posting.
Job websites
You can put up a job ad for a graphic design artist. Then, wait for different designers to submit their resumes and portfolio for consideration.
You’ll have to review several resumes and then handpick those you might invite for an interview. You can seek the help of a professional recruiter to make the process more seamless. Some of the best sites include:
- Glassdoor
- Indeed
- Pitch
- Monster
These sites allow you to publish job ads and recruit designers online from all over the world. If you don’t already know how to write a job ad, we’ll get to it later in this article.
Local freelancers
You can also seek out independent freelancers within your community. Ask friends, business associates, and colleagues to recommend or search Yelp or similar listing services.
All Time Design
This is the best platform to find your graphic design solutions. With a fixed rate of $499-$1699, you can complete as many tasks as possible within a month.
All Time design is a design agency with several professional designers with varying expertise from character design to logo design, book cover design, presentation design, motion graphic design, clothing art, user interface design, banner ads, social media ads, and many more.
Interestingly, your graphic design request with All Time Design comes with unlimited reviews, and your projects will get delivered to you within 24 hours when you subscribe to their premium plan ($1699/month).
For both freelance websites and job websites, you may need to learn how to build a compelling job post if you don’t already know how. Don’t go too far. We got you covered.
How to Compose A Compelling Job Ad for Graphic Design
The approach for building a job posing for a freelance designer will be different if you’re looking to hire a full-time employee. However, both will include similar elements, such as the scope of work, project/job description, background, and budget.
Creating A Project Brief
If you’re writing a brief to hire a freelance designer, consider the following tips:
- Write an overview of your brand/company.
- Highlight the problem and project size.
- Highlight your specifications.
- Identify your target audience (demographics, behavior, and lifestyle).
- Include supportive materials and examples.
- Set a budget and timeline.
- Specify follow-up procedure.
Creating A Job Ad
If your goal is to hire an in-house designer, after describing your company, culture, and values, consider the following:
- Specify the Job role
It is important to note that there are various categories of designers. This will help in selecting your preferred choice and attracting the right candidate. Here are a few listed below:
- Creative director – This individual wears many hats and has a wide range of skills. As such, they lead a team of designers, copywriters, marketing strategists, sales representatives, and social media managers, guiding the advertising and marketing efforts.
- Web designer – This person is responsible for designing website usability and visual appeals, such as images, color schemes, typography, information flow, logo(s), and layout.
- Brand identity designer – Also sometimes referred to as visual identity designer. This person creates a distinctive visual identity and user experience, brand identity designers oversee the entire range of experiences surrounding your business which might include logos, packaging, fonts, and so on.
- Art director – an art director is more involved in execution than the former. This individual is responsible for overseeing the creation of graphic designs or illustrations from beginning to end and everything in between.
- User interface (UI) designer – For virtually every market, UI designers are in charge of the visual experience the end user has when utilizing websites, mobile applications, and e-commerce storefronts.
- User experience (UX) designer – They are the designer of your product, creating the underlying framework’s usability and intuitiveness.
- Logo designer – Designers who design distinctive branding for businesses or products are known as logo designers. They might be employed by a design company, publishing business, ad agency, or as a freelance graphic artist.
- Product designer – Balances business goals, financial constraints, product specifications, and UI/UX designs as they develop innovative new software and digital products.
- Graphic designer – Using computer software or hand drawing, a graphic designer produces visual concepts from the logo to the image to the layout. Their creations can be found on sites, publications, packaging for goods, infographics, marketing brochures, books, manuals, billboards, and more.
- Illustrator – This person uses a mix of fine art and traditional graphic design to create original pieces of art such as character designs.
- Motion designer – Working closely with an illustrator, a motion designer’s job is to create artwork for the web, TV, or film using animation, visual effects, and other cinematic effects.
So, in your job ad, identify the role and outline the specific duties your potential employee will be performing.
- Background and Skills
You must specify the level of experience you’re searching for as well as additional skills that you covet in your potential employee.
You should also highlight what industry experience you desire in your design and whether a college certificate is important to your organization or not.
- Budget
How much are you willing to compensate your graphic designer weekly or monthly or annually? You can specify the exact amount or specify in range and decide after careful negotiations with the ideal candidate.
- Work Terms and Benefits
In addition to the expected pay, tell your prospective employees if you’re hiring on contract, part-time, or full-time. Let them decide if they’re ready to commit to you and if the pay measures the commitment they’re about to make. You should also specify the added benefits of being a part of your company – sick leave, and travel benefits among other allowances and freebies.
Key Consideration When You Hire Graphic Designers Online
Technical Skills
The graphic design industry is a vast one requiring different skillset that goes beyond being able to manipulate shapes, texts, and colors; creating a logo design or book cover design. Some of the things you want to consider when you are looking to hire a graphic designer are:
- Know-how regarding design software tools (Adobe creative suite, Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Photoshop)
- Extensive knowledge of design elements and principles
- Knowledge of introductory design psychology and typography
- Understanding of UI/UX, print design, ideation, and branding.
- Know-how regarding HTML and CSS
These are the most important technical skills to consider if you’re looking to hire an in-house or freelance graphic designer. The deeper technical understanding they have, the wider their creativity.
Industry Experience
An experienced graphic designer or agency must possess diverse experience with a range of clients from diverse industries. So, before assessing the quality of work in their portfolio, check out the variety of clients they’ve worked with. This would give you an idea of their work ethics. For example, designers who have worked in digital marketing or ad agencies, or design studios are usually more efficient with their time, while those who have worked as in-house designers in a nondesign sector, such as corporate communication, are usually more fit when you have budgetary concerns. So, looking for a graphic designer with a wide-ranging history can be the best.
However, you may also want to tailor your search to a particular industry. For example, if you’re into real estate and need to hire a graphic designer, it’s best to look for a designer with a prior understanding of your industry. This is because they already understand your target audience, industry jargon, and design tropes.
If you’re looking to hire freelance graphic designers, they may not have the experience above, but they have other ways to exert their expertise. Check if they have a blog, newsletter, active social media, or LinkedIn page. Do they offer helpful tips and advice? Do you find yourself learning from their ideas? Then, you have your graphic designer.
Portfolio
After checking their relevant experience, take a deeper look into the creativity in their design portfolio. You want to hire a graphic designer who knows the latest trends in the design world and has relevant samples to show. Look out for samples related to your business and how their expertise aligns with your goals. For example, if you’re looking for a graphic designer for brand identity, then you’re mainly seeing packaging design in their portfolio. They might not be the right fit. If your goal is web design, graphic designers with experience in logo design would not be able to handle your request.
If you’re speaking to your prospective designer while looking through their portfolio, tell them to walk you through the projects their most proud of. This will give insight into their thought process and their values. You’ll also get an idea if they’re fit for your stylistic goals.
Non-Technical Skills
Aside from the obvious technical skills, graphic designers must possess some critical non-technical skills (soft skills). Technical skills might help you get the job done, but non-technical skills will help you build a seamless relationship. Also, non-technical skills play a critical role in the quality of work that a graphic designer will churn out. Some of these skills are innate, while others can be learned.
- Problem-solving
Graphic designers are solution providers. You can consider graphic design as problem-solving. Once you give your brief to a designer, which is the problem, you expect them to bring their unique problem-solving skills to provide solutions.
The problem continues at different points of the design process. For example, when you provide feedback, you’d expect your graphic designer to revise to meet your expectations or exceed them.
- Creativity
Creativity is innate in all designers, whether they choose the field earlier or much later out of necessity.
However, while all designers are creative, some are more creative than others. You’ll notice this in their work process and their ability to develop new ideas and refine concepts. This might be a subjective criterion for you as you would have to determine what is a bright new idea depending on your goals.
- Strategy
Strategy is an essential part of every job. Moreover, designers need a strategy to be able to get from understanding a brief to executing an idea. This is something designers learn and redefine as they grow in the industry.
You’ll have to notice from your discussion with your potential graphic designer how they intend to tackle your brief. You might s well ask them outrightly to they’ll you how they intend to make the execution as efficient t as possible. You’ll know from their answers if you can trust them on long-term projects. Check out the top strategies to close the deals.
- Communication
Communication skill is a must-have for a graphic designer. Aside from the fact that graphic design is based on the visual communication of ideas and concepts, graphic designers cannot excel without top-quality communication skills. Right from being a newbie graphic artist to becoming a creative director, communication is an inevitable part of a graphic designer’s journey.
A designer must be able to communicate with a client. They must be able to ask straightforward questions in line with the creative brief.
- Collaboration
Design is a highly collaborative endeavor. Collaboration skill is not just about working together on a project;9 it’s having similar goals and working hand-in-hand to bring the goals to fruition. Make sure your designer understands your project requirements and also your end goals. Beforehand, check how they have worked with other clients. See what clients say about their professionalism and work ethic. This is particularly important when hiring a freelance designer.
Some creatives will tell you they enjoy working alone, but that doesn’t stop them from communicating, accepting feedback, asking questions when necessary, and informing the client about time constraints and changes in the agreement. Ensure your designer isn’t the type that ghosts midway into the project. Ask them what collaborative projects they’ve undergone before and their roles in the team. This will also give you a better understanding of their expertise.
Design Process
How do they approach a design project? There are no right or wrong ways only one that fits your needs and your company’s culture. When evaluating candidates, take notice of how they view your needs.
Are they thinking along a project-by-project path, or do they want to understand the bigger picture of how it all fits into your business goals? Ask them how long it takes for a project like this. Look out for overpromising. The designer who looks beyond individual projects is likely better suited to provide holistic advice that fits your bigger picture. Specific projects might be approached differently if a larger objective is met. Every designer has a process. what you’re looking for is a solid process
Client Testimonials and Google Reviews
The words of others play a critical role in promoting a business. The same thing applies to graphic designers. Check out for reviews and testimonials on your potential graphic designers’ page. Check out the variances in the reviews. Are they about personal experiences or generic comments? Do they offer insights into the non-technical qualities of the designer? You might want to consider some of the clients to ask them about their experience working with the designer. This would not only help you verify the genuineness of the comments but also help you get other information they might have missed from the written reviews.
Setting Expectations
When hiring a graphic designer online, it is essential to set expectations right from the beginning. Both parties should identify what is needed and what they can offer on the graphic design project. You should clearly highlight the submission timeline, revision status, and remuneration methods.
Make sure your designer will prioritize your work the same way as the other clients. This will help you manage expectations, especially regarding the timeline. Also, ensure that they understand your brand’s value and position.
Accessibility
Whether you’re hiring a local graphic designer or a remote designer, you need to put accessibility into consideration how accessible they are. For example, if they live in a different timezone, identify what time is convenient to get on a meeting. If they live within your locality, you may want to schedule a face-to-face meeting to discuss their personalities and needs. During this sort of meeting, you can discuss your product or services, audience, marketing goals, industry and competition, and much more about the graphic designer too.
You’ll have more stellar and seamless deliveries when you have open, honest, and constant communication with your graphic designer.
Billing Rates and Payment Methods
Before contacting any designer, ensure that you know the average cost of hiring a designer and the level of experience you’re looking for. Then, decide on a realistic budget. You must understand and appreciate the value of the services you’re looking to employ. Be sure not to undermine the efforts of a designer in executing your project when evaluating fees.
Designers who charge lower rates may work slower because of less experience or multiple demands at a time. That would mean less priority for your project or more time to direct them. Designers who charge higher rates often have more experience and fewer clients. That means you’ll be getting more efficiency and the best practices on your project.
Altogether when finding designers for higher, consider the value and quality they offer before the rates they demand. While cheaper rates might be appealing, they might cost you more of your time during briefing and revisions.
Keep an open mind
An experienced designer would most likely have a better perspective to add to your ideas. So, even after telling them your bright idea, be open to their professional input. This might differ from how you’ve put the idea, but they’ll do well to stay within your vision.
They’ve seen it all in the industry. Allow them to bring their creativity onboard for you. At least you’re hiring them to be creative, not robots.
Hire A Graphic Designer from All Time Design
All Time Design offers unlimited, outstanding design services at affordable prices. We will assign you dedicated, seasoned designers to collaborate with and receive eye-catching visuals for your brand.
How does unlimited graphic design work at All Time Design?
Unlimited graphic design services mean you get as many design concepts and revisions as you want for a fixed monthly fee. Unless you pay a little extra for more than one designer, the only restriction is that requests are fulfilled one at a time by designers.
Save time and energy as our design teams complete your graphic design requests while you sleep.
At All Time Design, there are no hidden charges and no contracts unlike when you hire graphic designers. Here, you pay one flat fee and get unlimited designs throughout the validity period of your plan.
We have several subscription plans to fit your budget, see more options on our pricing page.
Ready to design with us? Book a demo today.
