5 Reasons You Need a Graphic Designer

Should you hire a graphic designer to put together your brand guidelines, design your printed and digital assets, and offer on-going advice as your brand evolves? The answer is yes, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I?

Here’s why the secret to good design is more than a subscription to Canva:

1 — Save Time (and £££)

I don’t need to tell you that running a business is time-consuming-most worthwhile things are and design is no exception - but when nobody on your team has the expertise to be able to generate business cards, flyers and social media posts, despite their importance those things tend to drop down the list of priorities. Even when somebody gets around to it, you’ll be paying them to figure out how to use the software before they can even start the process of designing itself. Basically - if you’re unfamiliar with the theory and practice of design, it’s going to take you a long time to reach a final product and it won’t be a pleasant process to watch.

The joy of hiring a designer is that they know the rules already and we can provide you with three beautiful, carefully considered options in the time it’ll take you (your employee or your neighbour’s teenage son) to generate one mediocre design. 

So, if your reason for DIY design is saving money, you might want to reconsider - unless you approach a professional, you’re likely to end up wasting time and money on something you don’t really like and that god forbid is inconsistent with your brand identity.

2 — Something You Can Be Proud Of

A designer understands that when it comes to promoting your business, image is everything. If your assets don’t look good, your audience won’t expect good things from you. 

Beyond their creative toolkit, designers follow a logical process to reach a successful design for you. They’ll consider your brand values, they’ll come up with creative, intelligent concepts that align with your brand mission, and they’ll create multiple design routes to help you figure out the difference between what you think you want, and what you actually want. It’s increasingly difficult to stand out. If you don’t have impeccable design behind your brand, you might find yourself shouting into an abyss along with all the others who tried to cut corners.

3 — Future-Proof Your Brand

Right now your brand might be right at the beginning, and as a result your approach to design is likely to be hand-to-mouth - what assets do I need right now, and how quickly can we get those finished? 

This approach generates fast results, but doesn’t take into consideration the natural evolution of your business. What happens when you want to build a website, but your logo isn’t responsive and your brand font isn’t web-ready? A good designer knows what these terms mean and will put time and effort into making sure your brand assets leave your business plenty of room to grow and evolve.

When you hire a designer, you start a relationship that’ll come in very handy as you move forward. A designer doesn’t stop after your logo’s been approved; you’ll be able to reach out to them for help in the future too, and because they know your brand values already, you’ll be able to reach that final product nice and quickly. We also like to provide you and your team with easy to follow brand guidelines, user guides and training for your team on how to stick to the designs we create for you. Just don’t mess with the templates!

4 — Send The Right Message

Every aspect of your design should be communicating something to your demographic. Designers are excellent communicators, and they’ll be able to navigate the choices that need to be made with regards to layout, paper, colour, style, type and tone.

For example, if your brand is built on transparency, honesty and security then every element of your design needs to acknowledge that. Which paper stock says ‘you can relate to us’ best? Which colour makes your audience feel safe, excited or intrigued? Does a click-through button with sharp corners feel more authentic than one with rounded corners or does it work better for your brand to have a friendlier, softer corners? Will centrally-aligned text attract or alienate people visiting your site?

If you don’t have answers to those questions, don’t guess. Ask a designer.

5 — Get a Fresh Perspective

Okay, so maybe you do have an understanding of typography, colour theory or an idea of what looks good and what looks cheap. We have all grown up exposed to huge amounts of marketing so the majority of us have an idea of what good design looks like. 

But what happens when you design a logo, build a website, print out your flyers and people just shrug and ignore you? 

In that situation, it might be sensible to bring a designer in. They’ll be able to look at what you’ve got and see what works and what doesn’t. They’ll offer a fresh pair of eyes, spotting the mistakes that you haven’t - when you spend a lot of time with a design, it’s easy to miss things that are obvious to others, who bring a different viewpoint and one that has your brand values at heart.

A designer’s expertise allows them to accurately pinpoint the things that simply aren’t working and identify the best way to fix them.