Now that you’re equipped with the right knowledge that will help you distinguish between a fantastic designer and a ‘decorator’, you can make your own decision on which kind you need.
Here are a few pointers for finding the one:
Pick, Combine, and Supplement
It’s more than likely that you need more than a single type of designer. These can be a web designer, graphic designer, industrial designer, interface designer, UX designer, etc.
If your startup is an online business, start by hiring a skilled web designer with interest in UX. If you need a physical product designed, you will not be able to avoid hiring an industrial designer. But you’ll also need a graphic designer to create your visuals – so get a freelancer if you’re on a shoelace budget. In any case, don’t look for a unicorn designer.
Don’t Hire Off of Dribbble …
I’m not a big fan of Dribble. Maybe that’s because I never got that special invitation, but I simply don’t think that a designer can present the concept in just 400×300 pixels. I certainly wouldn’t want to base my decision to hire someone on a portfolio composed of small rectangle shots with description along the lines of ‘I was bored lol’.
… or Contest Sites.
Anything that doesn’t involve your designer working along with your company’s vision and values is bad for business. Contest sites like 99designs are actually an inexpensive way of getting tons of possibly nice-looking visuals, but unfortunately that only covers a part of our requirements.
Ask Around
The best way is still to simply ask friends, partners, and colleagues for a recommendation. Many awesome designers don’t do such a good work promoting themselves, so you’ll need to dig deeper to find them. When evaluating their future value for your company, refer to what has been written in this article.
