How to Choose a Brand Designer Who Gets You
Let’s be honest, there’s no shortage of designers. We’re everywhere.
In fact, we’re crawling out of the cracks in your walls that you keep putting off patching.
We’re nesting in your drywall. We’re scurrying through your pipes and adjusting crooked frames on your walls when you’re asleep. We’re rearranging your bookshelf by color when you’re at work. We’re watering your plants while you’re out running errands. We’re silently judging your decor.
Just kidding. We’re at home working in our pajamas.
Sorry, what was I saying?
Oh, right.
There’s a lot of designers in the world. That’s good news for you, if you’re running a business and looking for branding. You’ve got options! Congratulations.
It’s not all rosy, though. More options doesn’t necessarily make decisions any easier. In fact, it makes them way more complicated. Ever heard of choice overload?
“Choice overload makes it harder for us to make decisions, and it can make us feel so overwhelmed that we just give up, putting off the choice until later. This can have serious consequences if it leads us to procrastinate on important decisions indefinitely.”
– Decision Lab, “Why do we have a harder time choosing when we have more options?”
More options can sometimes make decisions harder rather than easier. If there were only two designers to choose from, it probably wouldn’t take you long to decide who to call. But if you’ve got your choice of hundreds of thousands? Woof.
We’re especially vulnerable to choice overload when we’re in a space we don’t know a lot about. Most small business owners aren’t design experts. Even if you’ve got strong preferences when it comes to design, there’s a lot more to it than just style and taste. If you’ve felt overwhelmed at the idea of designer-shopping, I don’t blame you, and it’s perfectly normal.
Luckily for you, I’m on a mission to make branding less overwhelming and more fun for small business owners.
In light of that, I’ve got a little advice for how to find the right designer for your branding project:
FEEL SOMETHING.
When you come across a designer whose work is a good fit, you should feel something. Even if you’re not someone who’s particularly visually inclined, when you see work that resonates with you, that’s a good sign. Good design expresses feeling and gets a message across. When you find design that creates a visceral or emotional response in you, it’s a signal that how they communicate through design is aligned with your taste, which is a great starting point.
LOOK FOR A NICHE MATCH.
Many designers, myself included, work with specific niches. It’s not a hard and fast rule that you must hire someone who knows your industry, but it can make for a smoother process. Designers whose work is focused on particular market niches will have insights into those industries. For example, I work a lot with health and wellness professionals, which allows me to make specific and educated suggestions based on my experience, as well as the challenges business owners in this industry tend to face.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT FINDING THE BEST DESIGNER.
“Best” is always relative. Even the most prominent design agencies on the planet aren’t the right fit for every project. Great designers are the “best” at their particular combination (or “stack”) of skills, knowledge, and style. Focus on where their stack aligns with your tastes and business needs. For example, say you’re looking for branding and a highly custom website. You might come across someone whose brand design work is out of this world, but their portfolio doesn’t highlight web design. In this situation, their skill stack may not may not meet your needs without the web design component.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS.
You’re not a design expert, and no one expects you to be. That’s why you’re hiring someone. Branding your business is a learning opportunity for you. In my experience, people hesitate to ask questions because they’re worried they’ll feel silly or be taken advantage of, especially when it comes to cost. If that sounds familiar, think of it this way: the more questions you ask, the more empowered you are to make informed choices. Asking honest questions results in clarity, and clarity takes you a lot further than playing your hand close to your chest. Plus, it gives you a read on the person. If you’re chatting with a potential designer and they rush through or blow off your questions, that’s not a good sign. Look for someone who takes their time to understand your needs and is willing to answer questions.
PRIORITIZE VALUE, NOT LOWEST PRICE.
While your budget is an important factor in narrowing down your choices, putting too much emphasis on cost is a mistake I see a lot. The value of hiring a designer goes beyond design assets. Branding is an investment in long-term success and strategy, not just in the logo files you get at the end. If a low price is someone’s biggest selling point, that means they sacrifice in other areas. Cheap designers have to take on a lot of projects in order to make up for low prices, which means they won’t be able to invest much time and energy into an individual project. That’s bad news for you. Look for a designer who works with other businesses at your scale. This can be a good indicator of price and scope alignment. Ask them about their process and be open about your budget early on.
TRUST YOUR GUT AND LOOK FOR CHEMISTRY.
Design is a customer service oriented business that extends beyond the first project. You’ll need design support in the future, so it’s best to find someone who you actually get along with. Hiring someone who’s challenging for you to communicate with or whose personality clashes with yours makes it hard to exchanging ideas and feedback. If you find someone who’s highly skilled, but doesn’t seem enthusiastic about the project, they may not deliver the best results. But, if you find someone who’s easy to talk to and seems excited about your project, you’ll both be jazzed to keep working together and the process will flow a lot more smoothly. This goes both ways. If I don’t click with someone on a human level or feel enthusiasm about their project, I won’t take on that client. Why? Because if I’m not able to connect with them on both a personal and a creative level, the quality of my work is compromised, and I’d be doing them a disservice.
At the end of the day, branding for your business is a highly personal decision. Everyone is different, and every business has different needs.
Choosing a designer is as much instinctive as it is a business decision. Remember to trust your gut and to know your business goals when you start out.
If you’re ready to start the search, check out Behance and Dribbble. This is where I would go first if I were seeking a brand designer, or any type of visual design professional.