How To Find & Hire Designers For Digital Signage
Your business digital signage is all set up, but one integral element is still missing- your digital content. Content, after all, is the most important part of a digital sign.
Although you might be tempted to handle the content design and creation by yourself, it is a better idea to hire a professional graphics designer to do the job.
Hiring a graphics designer is one thing but hiring a skilled one is another. Without knowing what to look for, it is easy to make the mistake of hiring an inexperienced designer.
To save you the disaster that comes with working with an unskilled graphics designer, we have provided all you need to know on finding and hiring a designer to handle your digital signage graphic designer needs.
Freelance Or In-house?
A graphic designer’s skills are necessary when optimizing digital signage technology in your business. Seasoned designers especially can make your content needs come to life, thereby helping you use digital signage to improve the average customer experience.
If you are a small or medium business, hiring a graphics designer will seem like another expense to fit into your business budget. It might even seem unnecessary, especially if you consider using the free design tools available today to design content yourself.
However, it is important to note that a graphic designer will do a better job at helping you design content for your digital signage than you will ever probably do by yourself.
There are many graphic designers today, but they all fall under two major categories- freelance graphic designers or in-house graphic designers. The type of graphic designer you need depends on your budget and needs. Both freelance and in-house designers provide expert graphic design jobs, but they do so on different terms.
Freelance Graphic Designers
Freelance graphic designers are great for small to medium businesses. These are the designers that function as individual contracted experts that work for themselves.
Freelance graphic designers do not have the attachment that traditionally employed graphic designers have to an establishment. They are not permanent employees, instead, they are available on a job-to-job basis, only working for you when you need them to.
Freelance graphic designers are a great solution to cut costs on digital signage content design. Since they do not require all the perks a traditional employee will want from you, you can save money as you enjoy professional graphic design skills for your business.
When you work with a freelance graphic designer, you only pay for one-time projects. Depending on the designer’s skills, experience, and the project you want to get done, the cost of working with a freelance graphic designer is fairly low compared to that of working with an in-house designer.
Some advantages of working with freelancers are they are flexible and only hired when you have digital signage design needs, and they are paid on a project-to-project basis.
However, some disadvantages come with working with freelancers. Since you will probably change your freelance graphic designer often, you enjoy no commitment whatsoever. This means you will always have to brief your new freelance graphic designer about your business and ensure they understand your business concept before beginning every project.
Because there is little to no commitment, freelance graphic designers can be unreliable. You might have to deal with missed deadlines, a result that doesn’t align with your design needs, and a graphic designer that isn’t always available to attend the necessary meetings.
In-house Designers
Unlike freelance designers, in-house designers are a more permanent part of our business operations. They are a regular part of your business and are an employee like any other staff member in your establishment.
Working with an in-house designer means always having someone on call to handle all your digital signage design needs. In-house employees are affiliated with your business and are well-versed in noting your design needs and providing the necessary solution to these needs.
In-house designers understand your business image, culture, and values. They work only for your business, are reliable as they devote their time and attention to you, and always know what you need.
While all this is great, in-house designers are more expensive to work with. Because they are placed on a retainer, you will need to pay them, whether you have needs or not. They always have a set work capacity, so if you need more designs, you will likely have no other designer to handle your needs (unless you plan to hire more than one in-house designer).
How To Find Graphic Designers
Today's professional market is saturated with many graphic designers of all types. Graphic design is not a one-size-fits-all approach, so in your search to find professional graphic designers to work with you- in-house or freelance- you will come across different types of graphic designers with different skill sets and weaknesses.
However, to choose the right graphic designer to hire for your business, you first need to know where to look and how to find them. There are many graphic designers out there today, and there are ways to sort out the best designers. Some of these ways include:
1. Source On Professional Websites
Using websites to source graphic designers is one of the easiest ways to find a graphic designer to work with. Today, there are more than just a handful of professional websites where you can connect with graphic designers and filter the best skills for your digital signage needs.
These websites are an excellent option if you are looking to work with freelance graphic designers. You might be lucky to find a graphic designer willing to work with your business permanently. However, this will take more time than it will to find a skilled freelance designer.
With these professional websites, you can search for graphic designers within your immediate location. You can find designers to work with by bidding for those interested in working with your budget or go with a more professional interview process to find a designer with the best skills for your pending digital signage project.
There are different sites to use for your search, some of which notable ones are LinkedIn and Upwork. Each site has its rules, and to stay safe in your search, you should adhere to them.
2. Posting Ads
Why not get the graphic designers to come to you? Posting a vacancy or professional advert in newspapers, employment journals, and online are easy ways to find a graphic designer to work with. Many designers often check for vacancy updates for new projects and businesses to work with.
Posting the details of the specific skill set you need will help you get applications from graphic designers willing to work with you. Since you can also display things like your budget, the designers will already know what to expect.
This makes the filtering process easier and faster, helping you choose the best designer more quickly. Depending on the medium of job advertisement, you might need to pay a small fee for the advert services.
3. Advertise On Your Business Page
Advertising your vacancy on your business page is a professional method that helps interested graphic designers learn about your brand.
When you display your graphic design needs and requirements on your business page, you make the filtering process easier as now, you will only deal with informed potential candidates. Before interested graphic designers apply for the position or project you offer, they can look around your website and familiarize themselves with your brand.
This will help them fully understand your needs or pain points and what solutions they can provide to ease your problems. During the interview process, you can also ask smart questions concerning your brand. This will help you know which graphic designer took their time to go through your website to understand how they can help your brand.
4. Use Your Contacts
If you don’t know where to find a professional graphic designer, chances are someone you know will. Asking for help with finding a graphic designer will make it easier and quicker to find a skilled designer to work with.
Ask for help from trusted associates like your family, friends, employees, or anyone else. You can brief the people you ask for help on the particular skill set you are looking for and the budget you are working with if necessary.
How To Hire A Graphic Designer
A graphic designer will be in charge of all the design aspects of your digital signage. Whatever content you choose to display will be created by them. This is why you must be careful when choosing a graphic designer to work with, as their design skills can make or break your business.
Before you choose to hire a graphic designer, you should first know what you need from them. As previously stated, there are different types of graphic designers with different skills. It only makes sense to set your expectation of what your graphic designer should be able to do for your business through digital signage.
A graphic designer will not create your website or do any coding business. To choose and hire the right type of graphics designer, you should set realistic expectations.
What do you need your graphic designer to do? Do you need them to create captivating animation content? Are you interested in designing interactive digital signage content?
Do you need someone to create content from scratch or provide the professional input and skills necessary to bring your ideas to life on your digital sign? Can the designer you choose to hire create content for digital signage?
Next, you need to identify what your budget is. How much are you willing to set aside for the project?
As much as you need it fixed, you will always have to leave your budget in a range. The prices of working with a professional graphic designer vary with factors like the designer’s expertise, the quality of their work, and the services you need them to provide. For a fair price to you and the designer, you can bargain the charges and settle on a fair amount.
Lastly, you need to figure out how long the project will take. Most graphic designers can start work immediately, while some will need more time. Some tips to help you hire the best graphic designer for your digital signage project include:
1. Clearly discuss your goals and expectations with your candidates.
Letting the graphic designers you interview know what you want and how you expect them to deliver will not only help you hire the right person for the job but also ensure they deliver high-quality results you will love. Communicate your preferred time frame, needs, and budget and ensure the graphic designer you hire is on the same page as you are.
2. Go for creativity by asking your candidates smart questions that will force them to improvise.
Although you want a designer that can provide results as described to them, you also need a designer that can think fast on their feet and come up with creative solutions to obstacles. This will help you ensure you get unique content for your digital signage.
3. What do you do when you are unsure if you want to purchase a car or not?
You take the car for a test drive. Treat your potential graphic designer(s) similarly by giving them a trial project to test their abilities. It doesn’t have to be a complicated design that will take days to complete. Simply offer them a job that will take a few hours to complete to evaluate their skills and ensure they can provide the services you need.
4. The more experienced a graphic designer is in handling digital signage projects similar to yours, the more likely they are to produce the results you need.
Hiring a graphic designer with experience working on digital signage projects in an industry similar to yours will increase your likelihood of getting what you bargained for. You can ask to see project designs similar to what you need or ask for their portfolio so you can see how their previous projects turned out.
5. Don’t be tempted to hire a graphic designer without asking for an interview.
No matter how impressive their portfolio might seem, it is important to request a physical interview or a short video call. This will help you get a feel of their personality first-hand. Although a designer’s skill is important, their personality is just as vital as you need to know you can get along with them when you start working on projects together.
6. Familiarize yourself with your graphic designer’s design process.
Even if you don’t understand how graphic design works, you should note what the design process entails. An excellent process should involve research, sketching, computer-aided design, client approval, and delivery.
7. Ask other necessary questions like what they expect when working with you.
Ensure you cover all aspects to avoid unpleasant surprises in the future.
Hiring A Great Graphic Designer
No trick or formula guarantees an easy and fast way to hire an experienced, personable, and affordable graphic designer. To find the right graphic designer with the skills to bring your digital signage needs to life, you need to look in the right places and keep an eye out for the right qualities.
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