Dear business owner, do you need to get some marketing materials designed or perhaps you are considering a re-brand and now you're on the hunt for a designer. If you need to hire a designer, what type of designer do you hire? This article looks at three options: Contractors and agencies, freelancer designers and design crowdsourcing, the new powerful alternative. What type of designer do I need? Let's find out!

It's a little discussed, but well known fact that graphic design projects require careful management of the design process and budget to ensure you get the design you want, delivered on time. If you choose the wrong designer, your entire project can be a flop. If you choose the right designer, your project can succeed beyond expectations. What are your options?

Outsourcing: The Traditional Design Approach

As a small business owner judicious with your time and money, you have a choice to spend time recruiting a design agency to produce your marketing materials, or search online for a graphic design freelancer to hire at a fixed fee or an hourly rate.

In both cases you or a team member, will have to decide if you want to work with the local design agency in your city or if location is not a concern then the entire world is your oyster. You'll need to think about the sorts of design skills and experience you need to help your business to grow.

Along the way you will need to spend time researching the industry to get recommendations about agencies, learn design-speak so you can get what you need from the agency, be *very* flexible with your design budget and commit additional time to attending strategy workshops. If you're creating an app or a website, you'll even need to hire tech specialists through top tech staffing agencies and have them coordinate designs with your chosen agency.

After you've invested time starting up with the agency you then need to wait for the design process to happen. At the end you'll receive a few options and select your design. To get a logo design from an agency might take up to 3 months. The London Olympics logo cost £400,000, took onme year to make and received a cold public receptio.

Which big brand logos should have been crowdsourced? Seven logos that should have been crowdsourced.

Freelancing: One Mind for the Job, Limited Possibilities

Related to outsourcing, is freelancing. You can hire a freelancer directly - this takes time as you need to contact each person individually. Who has time for that?! Or you can post a brief on a websites that connect freelancers to businesses with the claim that they can match you with your perfect freelancer match. When you're online, you'll need to describe your project requirements, budget and the type of freelancer you are looking for (location, skills etc).

After you post your project you'll receive 'bids' from freelancers who will offer you a rate and claim to match your requirements. You review the applicants and select the winner to work soley on your project. This approach can work for many types of tasks, particularly complex tasks like data analysis or translation.

Keep in mind the freelancer's hourly rate will quickly add up. You'll also get a limited choice of designs from one designer.

Ask yourself if hiring a single designer to work on your project will deliver the diversity and creativity of design ideas you expect. Will your designer - one from a million available - canvass all the creative possibilities or offer a limited view? Most likely the latter. Not to mention, the recruiting & interviewing process can take a lot of time and effort which you might not be able to invest. But what if there was a different way to source beautiful design that was faster, better and more creative? Read on.

Crowdsourcing Graphic Design: The Smart Approach

While choosing a non-traditional route may mean no "design awards' will be won for design, it will no doubt be better for business. You've probably considered your decision to be a choice between traditional design agencies or freelancers, but there's another (often better) option: crowdsourcing.

The term crowdsourcing was terms by Jeff Howe in an article for Wired Magazine published in 2006, where he described a process where enough people are willing to help or work on a project. A group of people with time available to work on a project can achieve a lot very quickly. In this case, a specialist 'crowd' of designers is an incredible resource for a time poor and cash-strapped business owner who needs promotional material created, a new website design or business branding.

Unlike traditional methods, design through crowdsourcing provides the customer with several unique advantages. If you want an efficient, effective, and cost-friendly design, crowdsourcing is your best option. Here's why:

Efficient

The TEAM cliche "together, everyone achieves more" is never more valid than when it comes to crowdsourced design. You describe what you want and a host of graphic designers interpret your instructions with drafts/concepts. By the time your deadline rolls around, you'll have many designs to look over. In fact, most design crowdsourcing projects receive at least 25 designs, based on budget and deadline.

With a traditional approach to graphic design, if you don't like the style, you need to wait for revisions. With crowdsourcing, if you don't like the style, you don't choose it. Simple.

You might like: Design Crowdsourcing, Can It and Has It Worked? These Big Brands Think So.

On Demand

In a complete role reversal, the talent hunts you down!

Crowdsourcing is an effective way of getting the most out of your budget and time. After you receive designs submissions, you choose the design that best suits your needs and the designer executes the project based on your revisions and feedback. This means, your logo will be a seemless response to your initial design brief, based on creativity from a huge number of designers. Crowdsourcing provides the best of both worlds – creativity and effective communication.

Cheaper

Freelance design, especially the kind that's been crowdsourced, is incredibly cost effective.

Design crowdsourcing is based on a contest model, which means you pay a standard fee for your project and you get many designs to choose from. Instead of paying a traditional design agency or an individual freelancer the hourly rate for your design and revisions, you get to see different concepts and choose your favorite from the bunch without costing a penny more.

More creative!

Tap into the creativity of the crowd. When you choose to take your project to the open market and leverage the collective intelligence of the "crowd", you're opening your company up to many opportunities. You don't have the hassel of paying invoices or hiring employees to produce the design. Just launch your project and expect a range of design ideas in days.

Although you may have a vision of what your ideal website or logo would look like, graphic designers can surprise you with their own interpretations. Often, these creative, art-minded freelance designers create mind-blowing graphics to match your brief. Other times, they inspire you to take your company in a new direction.

Low risk

If you're thinking of trying crowdsourcing, you might wonder what if I don't like the designs? From a client perspective, crowdsourcing is risk-free. (DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee option when you launch your project).

Don't forget you can start your project for as little as $130 for business card design and logo design for $250. This is a perfect option for small businesses on a budget!

Freelance designers from around the world compete eagerly for your business, and your company benefits from the competition (friendly competition ensures designers only submit their best work and a variety of ideas).

With crowdsourcing you get world class design on a dime, and that's something every business owner can get behind.

Pairing this approach with services like an executive assistant for hire can further streamline your processes, allowing you to focus on growing your business. When building your team, you might also need to hire tech specialists to complement your design work with technical implementation and development support. Additionally, utilizing EOR services (Employer of Record) can simplify hiring international talent by managing payroll, taxes, and compliance with local labor laws on your behalf. EOR immigration services also help navigate complex visa and work permit requirements, making it easier to onboard global employees without the administrative burden. This ensures your workforce remains compliant with immigration regulations while you expand across borders

Get inspired by the possiblities that crowdsourcing design offers and check out the results real clients have achieved using DesignCrowd on the DesignCrowd blog!

You might be interested in reading: Why Small Business Should Start Crowdsourcing Branding and Graphic Design.

Designers For Hire!

DesignCrowd's 400,000+ designers are a talented bunch. If you have a similar project in mind or need a graphic design to promote your company or organisation than look for other talented designers in DesignCrowd’s designer directory. If you're looking for freelance design jobs, find out more about the benefits of working on DesignCrowd.

Written by Jo Sabin on Thursday, December 11, 2014

Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.