Now that your business is taking off, it’s time to make things official with a logo. So you are now trying to find a graphic designer to create that perfect image that embodies the brand and values of your company.
Sadly to find a design it may not seem as simple as scrolling through an Instagram feed and double-tapping your favorites.
It can be a headache to filter through and find the perfect design for you. It’s a little bit like being at a perfume store: after smelling the first few scents, your nose is pretty much out of order.
Before you look at designer portfolios
—
Start off by collecting and writing down your thoughts on things you want or like. These notes will be very handy when you need to reset your overloaded senses and refocus on what you need to achieve.
Start with the logistical questions:
- What’s your goal?
- What is your budget
- What’s the desired timeline?
Next, the user and design questions:
- Who is your audience or client, and what are they like?
- What feelings do you want them to have when interacting with your brand?
In response, feel free to jot down a list of qualities, descriptions, and looks and feels.
Don’t forget to fine-tune this as you go.
How to evaluate a designer’s portfolio
—
Now that you have your notes, it’s time to start looking at designers.
When you evaluate the portfolio, you will want to consider both the “absolute” and “relative” elements. The absolute ones have to do with the skills, experience and professional level. The relative ones have to do with how well the designer’s style aligns with your brand.
A portfolio contains the visual work and the story around it which both are important.
- Color: warm or cool? Do they clash?
- Line: thin, elegant, bold or playful?
- Texture: flat, modern, three-dimensional or more elaborate?
- Shape: basic triangle or square (clean) or unique and more elaborate? If more than 1 shape, how do they interact?
- Space: does it have room to breathe or is it compact?
- Typography: classic or more exciting? Do different font families play well together?
Take a moment to observe and describe your thoughts using the words and categories above. You’re probably already recognizing a tight designer viewpoint and what this designer’s “space of comfort” looks like: they thrive in B&W and use color sparsely, their design is modern, sophisticated, uncluttered (minimalistic), giving the logos plenty of space to breathe, and favoring organic, innovative shapes. Note also the differences, the range: the designer seems comfortable with both flat and three-dimensional shapes, do they play with different lines from paper-thin to bold according to the topic, and they are well adept at typography that fits right with the visual logo.
As you consider different portfolios, it really boils down to two things: first, describe what you see, don’t feel like you have to hyper-analyze each portfolio and secondly, compare that with what you wrote down in the spectrum of desired design styles and feels.
Also, look for:
- Is it easy to navigate?
- Is it structured in a way that makes sense?
- Did the designer build the online portfolio page themselves or is it a template?
- Does the designer thoughtfully describe the problem and goal of the project?
- Can you sense that they empathize with the user and have a user-centric approach?
- Do they specifically speak to how client feedback was incorporated throughout the process?
- Is there a method to the madness? Is the process systematic and iterative?
- How much of it did the specific designer do?
Choosing your designer
—
Following these criteria, you should be able to narrow down to a shortlist of finalists. When you reach out to your favorite designers to schedule interviews, you may ask them to provide their resumes so you can get a better feel for their experience level and previous work.
During the interview, whether that’s in person, on the phone or through email always seek to understand at a high-level the creative process of the designer and to assess their interest and thoughts around your work proposal. Think of it as a first date: are you two compatible? Once it’s clear the feeling is mutual, time to seal the deal. In other words, talk about the logistics, such as expectations around timeframe, feedback, communication frequency, number of revisions, etc.
If you’re looking for a logo designer, chances are this is only the beginning of the design work for your business. Do this part thoughtfully, and you won’t simply get a snazzy logo, but you’ll also have established a relationship with a great designer who now understands your brand and can deliver beautiful and reliable results in the long term.
Hi my friend! I want to say that this article is amazing,
great written and include approximately all vital infos.
I would like to peer more posts like this .
Great! thank you for your comment.
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great.
I do not know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger if
you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
thanks!
That is sweet! thank you!
Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and
I find It really useful & it helped me out
a lot. I hope to give something back and help others like you helped
me.
Wonderful blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Thanks
Hi there, You have done an excellent job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally suggest to my friends.
I am confident they’ll be benefited from this web site.
Have you ever considered publishing an ebook or guest
authoring on other sites? I have a blog centered on the same subjects
you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would appreciate your work.
If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
I would be interested, I”ll reach out to you. Thank you!
Excellent article. I will be dealing with some of these issues as well..
Thanks for finally writing about >How to choose Best Graphic Designer Blu Dragonfly <Liked it!
It is in reality a great and useful piece of information. I am glad that you simply shared this helpful info with us.
Please stay us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
yes working on setting up the subscription link so that you can do that. Please come back again!
Hi there, I wish for to subscribe for this weblog to get latest updates, therefore where can i do it
please help out.
naturally like your web site but you have to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts.
A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to inform
the reality nevertheless I will certainly come again again.
I will double check spelling, thank you for pointing that out.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems
as though you relied on the video to make your point.
You definitely know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could
be giving us something informative to read?
What’s up, yup this post is really pleasant and I
have learned lot of things from it regarding blogging.
thanks.
thanks!
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching for
sbobet online
Great! thank you!
Wonderful blog! Do you have any recommendations for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little
lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There
are so many choices out there that I’m totally overwhelmed
.. Any suggestions? Thanks!
I will write about starting your own blog this week. Come back and read all about it, sign up for the news-letter too.
I will right away grasp your rss as I can not to find your email
subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have
any? Kindly let me realize so that I could subscribe.
Thanks.
WE now have a subscription for our news–please come back and sign up!
It’s an amazing paragraph for all the online users; they will get benefit from it I am sure.
Thank you!
Usually I don’t read post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to try and do so!
Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thanks,
quite great article.
Nice! Thank you!
Hello! I understand this is kind of off-topic but I needed to ask.
Does managing a well-established blog such as yours
take a massive amount work? I am completely new to operating a blog but I do write in my diary everyday.
I’d like to start a blog so I can easily share my own experience and
feelings online. Please let me know if you have any ideas or tips for new aspiring bloggers.
Thankyou!
HI there! No it doesn’t take too much time if you get enough material and prepare ahead of when you want to post. The other thing is that you just have to start writing and posting it for people to read. Thank you and let us know if you have further questions.
each time i used to read smaller posts which as well clear their motive,
and that is also happening with this post which
I am reading here.
Thank you! Come back and visit our news section soon.