Marketing, PR, Advertising and Content – the four pillars for your brand. But guess what’s common to all four? Graphic design! It’s a LOT more than what meets the eye. A good creative should not only be able to send the intended message across to the user, but also evoke the emotion or ethos that your brand stands for. And because we are less available for in-person communication in the post-pandemic world, online communication’s increasing importance has only made the demand for freelance graphic designers skyrocket in 2020.
Table Of Contents
- What Is Graphic Design?
- The Importance Of Graphic Design
- Who Is A Graphic Designer And What Do They Do?
- Types of Graphic Design
- How to Find A Graphic Designer
- Freelance Graphic Design Pricing Guide
- Qualities of A Graphic Designer To Look For
- Questions To Ask A Graphic Designer
- What Is A Design Brief?
What Is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is a creative blend of art and technology that uses photographs, logos, illustrations to digitally create visual content to communicate brand messages to the viewer. The visual content can be anything from a poster, flyer to a full-fledged website layout.
The Importance Of Graphic Design
Appealing and interactive graphics enhance the way people look at your business. It plays a crucial role in your marketing strategies. It informs the audience, grabs their interest, and persuades them to choose your product among so many other options in the market.
Who Is A Graphic Designer And What Do They Do?
Freelance graphic designers are creative professionals who create visual content through computer software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw, etc to visually communicate the message of a project by using images, symbols, illustrations and infographics. But wait, there’s more you need to know.
Types of Graphic Design
Graphic design isn’t all about making logos and posters. If you’re a business looking for design services, familiarizing yourself with the different types of graphic design services below will help you choose the right freelance graphic designer to complement your vision and task.
- Branding and visual identity design
- Marketing and advertising design
- User interface design
- Publication graphic design
- Packaging graphic design
- Motion graphic design
Branding And Visual Identity Design
Branding represents the personality of your business. It acts as the face of your business and showcases features, attributes and messaging through images, colours and shapes to your users.
Freelance graphic designers who specialize in branding and visual identity shape the personality of a brand by creating unique logos, typography and colour palettes.
Marketing And Advertising Design
Companies invest a huge chunk of their time and resources on advertising and marketing. Freelance graphic designers are the people who design the creatives used to execute those marketing campaigns. They work closely with the company’s stakeholders to create assets for the company’s marketing strategies for both digital and print.
Some examples of their marketing and advertising work would include:
- Designing advertisements
- Infographics
- Email marketing templates
- Social media ads, banners and graphics
- Magazine and newspaper ads
- Posters, banners and billboards
- Vehicle wraps
- Images for websites and blogs
User Interface (UI) Design
UI allows users to interact with your website or application. The secret to keeping your audience engaged is to provide them with attractive visuals and a seamless navigational experience. UI designers work closely with UX (User Experience) designers and UI developers.
Some important skills a user interface freelance graphic designer must have:
- Graphic design skills
- Good understanding of UI/UX
- Working knowledge of HTML, CSS & JavaScript
Publication Graphic Design
Publications are text/image-based content that communicates with the general public through mass distribution traditionally in the form of print such as newspapers and magazines and also digital publishing.
Freelance publication graphic designers work with editors and publishers to create layouts using photos, graphics and illustrations. A few examples of such publications are newsletters, catalogues, magazines and newspapers.
Packaging Graphic Design
Every product needs a good packaging design because it determines the product’s visibility in the market. It is an important element of branding which helps you attract consumers to your product.
A freelance packaging graphic designer creates concepts and develops mockups for a product. They require an understanding of industrial design and manufacturing.
Motion Graphic Design
Motion graphics is one of the newest subsets of graphic design. It deals with graphics that are in motion such as animation, typography, imagery, video etc.
Freelance motion graphic designers are fairly new and work with television and films and sometimes digital platforms. They create animated logos, trailers, promotional videos, videos games and GIFs.
How to Find A Graphic Designer
Now that you know who a graphic designer is and different types of graphic design, a few things to ponder upon while looking for a freelance graphic designer.
Know What You Want
It is essential to set your requirements straight. As discussed earlier there are various types of graphic design such as branding and visual identity design, UI/UX design, website design etc. So, it’s best to narrow down your search and help you choose the right freelancer for your needs.
Budgeting Is Key
Freelance graphic designer pricing varies based on their niche, style and experience. The cost also depends on the type of graphic design you require. So, having a budget beforehand will make your search easier and will help you find the perfect freelance graphic designer that fits the bill.
Portfolio Platforms
Portfolio websites such as Behance and Dribble host several graphic designers from different niches to showcase their projects.
You can find the best freelance graphic designers based on their work and simply DM or email them to have a one on one discussion.
Pick a Freelance Website
Freelancing is one of the fastest-growing markets in 2020. Hence, there’s no dearth of freelancing platforms on the internet providing freelance services.
Some popular freelance websites where you can hire freelance services:
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Freelance Graphic Design Pricing Guide
Graphic designers are creative individuals with the ability to visually represent concepts or ideas to the general public in various formats, which makes their services essential, albeit expensive at times.
Freelance Graphic Designer Salary
The exact figure depends on the skillset, experience and the kind of project the freelancer takes up. According to Glassdoor, the average freelance graphic designer salary in India can be anywhere between ₹ 1 lac to 9.7 lac per annum.
Freelance Graphic Designer Salary per hour
According to a survey by Payscale, the average hourly pay for freelance graphic designers in India is ₹290.
Beginners with 1-4 years of experience can earn up to ₹300 per hour and experienced freelance graphic designers with 5-9 years of experience can earn up to ₹500 per hour.
Freelance Graphic Designer Pricing At Kool Kanya Marketplace
| Services | Cost Per Project |
| Logo Designers | Rs 1,199-10,000 |
| Infographic Designers | Rs 750-1,500 |
| Architecture & Building Designers | Rs 2,499-10,000 |
| Interior Designers | Rs 2000-10,000 |
| Social Media Designers | Rs 299-4,500 |
| Business Cards & Stationery | Rs 499-4000 |
| Illustrations | Rs 750-5000 |
| UI/UX Designers | Rs 10,000 |
Qualities of A Graphic Designer To Look For
In today’s freelance market finding a graphic designer is easier than ever, but choosing a good freelance graphic designer amongst the crowd can get a little tricky.
Here are a few important qualities of a graphic designer that you should be on the lookout for:
- Creativity
- Typography
- Communication
- Design Softwares
- Time Management
Creativity
This goes without saying, creativity is one of the most important skills for a freelance graphic designer. They should be able to convert ideas and concepts into innovative creative designs.
Typography
Typography is a technique in graphic designing where the designer arranges written text in a readable fashion and also makes it look appealing to the eye. Freelance graphic designers should have a decent understanding of how to make and utilize fonts to produce attractive designs.
Communication
Graphic design is a visual form of effective communication, which makes it an important skill for any freelance graphic designer to have. However, communication between a client and a designer is important as well.
A good graphic designer should be able to maintain good communication with the client to fully understand their ideas and message and convey it in the best possible way to the audience visually.
Design Softwares
Graphic designing is an art form of the digital era so knowing how to use design software is a crucial skill for a graphic designer. There are several designing software used by graphic designers from different niches but a good graphic designer must know their way around a few essential softwares like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver.
Time Management
As a client, one of the qualities of a graphic designer that you should look for is time management. Freelance graphic designers are self-employed individuals which means they work with multiple clients simultaneously. The ability to multitask and strong time management skills make it a smooth sail for the freelancer as well as their client.
Questions To Ask A Graphic Designer
While working with a freelancer, effective flow of conversation plays a major role in attaining the desired results. It is a good idea to set up a brainstorming suggestion before they start with the project. Be open to hearing their ideas. Additionally, we’ve listed down a few questions to ask a graphic designer before making an offer.
Can You Take Us Through Your Portfolio?
A Portfolio is a documentation of previous work samples that will help you to determine if the particular freelance graphic designer is right for you and fits the bill for your graphic design requirements.
How Well Do You Work With Collaborators?
All good work comes from teamwork. The final product is the result of a collaborative effort between the copywriter, developer, marketing manager and the client. A good graphic designer should be a team player and be comfortable with feedback and collaborating with other team members in order to deliver the ideal output.
What Design Softwares Do You Use?
Everybody knows how to use Photoshop these days but that doesn’t make them a professional graphic designer. A freelance graphic designer needs to go beyond just Photoshop and be proficient in other major design softwares such as Sketch, Indesign, Affinity designer and UXpin etc. They should also possess other technical skills such as illustrations, animation and coding which come in handy every now and then.
What’s Your Creative Process?
In order to work with a freelance graphic designer, it’s really important to know about their creative process to determine if their method works for you and your team or not. Some freelancers are open to working collectively and include other people in their creative process but other freelancers may not.
So knowing about how they ideate and conceptualize new ideas or work on someone else’s design concept or how open they are with feedback, will help you make the right decision.
How Do You Make Sure The Work Is Done On Schedule?
Freelance graphic designers dabble with multiple projects simultaneously and often this can make them cross their deadlines. Knowing how they prioritize and handover final projects on schedule will help you pick out a good graphic designer.
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What Is A Design Brief?
A design brief is a document that contains all important instructions given to a freelance graphic designer explaining the scope, objectives and other deliverables required for a design project.
How to Write A Design Brief?
Here are a few things to incorporate in your design brief that will provide your freelance graphic designer with the best possible insights to execute the given project.
- Business overview
- Design objective
- Target audience
- Brand guidelines
- Previous challenges
- Competitive analysis
- Project timeline
- Project budget
- Expected deliverables
- Required response
That’s it – now you are all set to find yourself a freelance graphic designer.
If you found this guide useful, we’re here to make your search for a freelance graphic designer even easier.
Kool Kanya marketplace is a curated marketplace of handpicked and verified women freelancers providing quality services and fulfilling your business needs with guaranteed on-time delivery.
Here Are Some of Kool Kanya’s Popular Freelance Graphic Designers
Titiksha Rout is a professional graphic designer and illustrator with experience in branding and logo designing. In all her years of working as a graphic designer she has developed logos for various brands and her other projects include menu designs, social media posts, advertisements and poster designs. She offers design services such as logo design with branding and graphic illustrations.
Twinkle Das is a professional designer with 3 years of experience in the textile industry and is an alumnus of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), and is currently pursuing UI/UX designing at IIT Hyderabad. She offers design services such as logo design, Poster Design, and Wallpaper design.
Apoorva Hadkar is an experienced freelance graphic designer equipped with technical knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Corel draw. She offers graphic design services such as UI design, digital illustrations, social media banner, product package design, and logo design.
