What to watch out for when you’re hiring a designer

I pity the poor souls who, on the hunt for some advice on how to reach out to a designer for work, stumbled upon my article on the absolute and very real rules for briefing a graphic designer. For these readers, the word ‘designer’ now probably conjures up the image of a text message-averse goblin, sitting perched over its email inbox, ready to chastise you for making your brief too brief.

I’m not going to say that’s a completely unfair association. It’s just one of those universal truths: goblins exist and they walk among us. Every profession has its fair share of goblins - from designers to dog groomers. What’s important is being able to recognise when you have a good designer on your hands, and when you have a goblin. Of course, sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference! 

To that end, I’ve come up with a number of things to look out for when you’re hiring or working with designers. These should help you work out whether you’re dealing with an honest-to-goodness flesh-and-blood human being who you can trust with your brief… or a goblin. 

Green flags: what to expect when you’re working with a designer

If there’s an underlying theme in all the following positive traits, it’s confidence in communication. As with most professions, this tends to come with experience, but that’s not always the case. In fact, focussing too much on a designer’s experience might narrow your choices down, cost you more, and they still might not actually be the right fit for you at the end of the day.

Instead, you’ll want to look for designers who are generally honest and who actively put a lot of thought into your work. Incidentally, if you’re an up-and-coming designer who would like to ensure more regular work, I’m not saying the following list is a guaranteed cheat sheet for getting into the favourite section of someone’s phone contacts… but it certainly won’t hurt your chances.

A design job is often as much about exchanging information as it is about actually… designing something. Think about it: the designer is trying to bring to life something that up until this point has been locked inside your imagination, so understandably there will need to be a good few conversations about it. That’s why the best omen you can look for when working with a designer is their ability to respond quickly. Not immediately, mind — they’re still human beings. They might have other clients. I’d say within a couple of days is fair enough.

A craving for information

The only way a designer is getting a good night’s sleep without having every scrap of information required to understand your project is if they’re a somnambulist or a goblin. Again, they’re translating your imagination here — they’re going to need details. So, if they request a meeting to talk things out or if they take a lot of info via email, then you’re probably in safe hands.

A bespoke quote

Designers are like any tradesperson — they do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, they have specific skills to do a specific job, and they are sworn to secrecy by ancient tomes to ensure no one may publicly know their hourly rates. But, also like most dependable tradespeople, you can always just ask them for a bespoke quote. If the designer enquires about the nature of the project and the business you may or may not be hiring on behalf of, that’s also a good sign — it’s not exactly “bespoke” if they don’t.

A few sensible and non-sensible questions

The sign of a seasoned designer who isn’t likely to steer you wrong: they’re not afraid to be nosy. Even if you’ve already gone through the project brief, if you hear questions like “Who is your target audience?” or “Who are your major competitors?”, then that’s a good sign - it means the designer is looking to actively tailor their designs to your needs.

They might also ask questions you’d consider stupid. But remember: it takes a professional to confidently ask a client dumb things. Questions like “Are there any colours you hate?” or “Do you have an irrational fear of any specific fonts?” are not for the designer's amusement — they’re all for you and your potential happiness. Indulge the stupidity, for your own sake.

A bit of structure

All we really want from the people we work with is transparency — actually, I guess that’s all we want from people, full stop. Sorry, mind wandering. Anyway, this should definitely be true for the designer you work with. It’s a tremendous show of confidence on their part if they’re willing to give you a timeline or outline the process for you, because that usually means they know exactly how long the work will take.

They should invoice half of the work upfront — a sign that they treat their own time seriously. They should also send files to you in a neat and organised manner — a sign that they take your time seriously, too. All of these habits demonstrate structure, and structure gives us that bit of transparency we crave from, well, apparently, everyone.

Red flags: a few bad habits to watch out for when hiring a designer

We won’t dwell on the red flags for too long, mostly because these might not actually be deal breakers. Sometimes a designer might be busy and drop the ball a little bit — everyone’s human, and if you’ve got a couple of green flags from them already, then you still might be in good hands. That said, if you get zero green flags and a few red flags, consider looking elsewhere because you might be dealing with a goblin.

Examples of red flags you might see when hiring a designer

• They don’t charge upfront — again, if a designer takes their time seriously, they should be invoicing at least half of the work upfront. Unless you’ve worked with them before and know they’re trustworthy, this might demonstrate inexperience.

• They’re unresponsive — an immediate response is probably a little unreasonable, and there can always be circumstances that prevent a response over the course of a day, but if they’re ghosting you for more than a week, then maybe try someone else. 

• A lack of relevant work — if you’re looking for someone to design a poster and their portfolio mostly entails model work or corporate reports, they might not be the right fit for you. Feel free to talk it out; a lack of experience does not necessitate a lack of ability (it might just not be pride of place on their website). Though, as I point out in my tips for getting into the film industry article, if a designer wants to demonstrate their ability at something, there’s nothing stopping them from working on their own briefs to build a portfolio.

• A lack of interest — sometimes what you’re asking might not be all that big a deal for a designer. That can be a good thing! It’s nice for your project to be in safe hands. That said, if they’re not asking at least some basic questions and trying to get the gist of what you’re looking for, then maybe they just don’t care about the brief at all. That might still work for you - maybe you don’t care either! - but if you do, just be wary.

In summary: hire designers, not goblins

So, to summarise: we like working with human beings because they tend to care about the things we care about, and we don’t like working with goblins, because they’re thoughtless, unthinking creatures of the night. Pretty sure there’s zero room for misunderstanding there. Glad we ironed that out.

If you’re now wondering where best to actually find designers, they should be frequenting the same places as you, trying to figure out how to find work when the “graphic design jobs near me” search fails. And if you’re a designer and you’re now worried about how many red flags you’ve shown in the past, don’t panic. Just remember: there’s always time to reverse the goblinification!