You are going to launch a new web or mobile app. The idea is solid, and preliminary research and development have shown tremendous promise.
Now you need to hire a dedicated team of graphic designers to develop UI/UX design.
The task of graphic designers is to make your app look stunning. If your app has immense functionality but a drab look or a confusing layout, it will not fare well.
Visually appealing and pleasing design with a layout that is easy to navigate is the key to wresting market share from your rivals.
Before you hire a graphic designer from India, you need to know about their previous work and experience.
We present in this article the right approach to hiring a dedicated team of graphic designers.
Few Words About Graphic Designers and Dedicated Team Models
Before you hire a graphic designer team, you have to know more about their role. It goes far beyond creating visual concepts and achieving an artistic effect.
Tasks of an expert graphic designer:
- Creation of brilliantly designed print and digital content to fit the project.
- Help in generating marketing material.
- Design images for logos, websites, and apps.
- Have an excellent idea of typography and be able to suggest fonts for the required projects.
- To make a website or app engaging through the application of color and white space.
- Make suggestions about the layout. Some enterprises engage UI/UX designers separately. But the roles overlap.
A few words must also be mentioned about the dedicated team.
- A dedicated team is made up of expert graphic designers. They work contractually and are not your employees.
- Since you play a flat rate, there is no need for payroll tax records, benefits, 401k, etc.
- Usually, such a team is hired from a workforce agency or hiring platform.
- It is helpful because you have access and pay only for the duration of the contract.
- The team works exclusively for you. The answer to your managers. For the duration of the project, they have access to your business (e.g., Slack, project management software such as Asana, internal report-generating dashboards, etc.). That access is removed when the contract terminates.
- In brief, you get the advantage of full-time employees without the disadvantages one associates with them when hiring a dedicated team of graphic designers.
It’s a win-win situation.
Guide to Hiring Graphic Designers
Graphic designers deliver art through technology. Though they may hand draw concepts, the end product is the result of quite complex software. They also require soft skills to cooperate and collaborate with the enterprise hiring them.
Technical Skills
Design Ability
A website or app is not made from hastily put-together design elements such as a CTA button and an About Us page.
There are design principles involved that lead the eye to move to the intended place. The graphic designer you hire or the team should have a solid idea of the principles.
Such as, readers of a webpage read in an F-shaped pattern. First, they read till the right margin, and then their gaze travels less and less to the right margin.
Important design principles include balance, contrast, proportion, hierarchy, and many more.
Quiz the graphic designer about their concept. Ask them how they would apply solid design principles to your project. Of course, in an interview, they might not produce a finished concept, but at least they should be able to offer some input.
Idea Generation
It might sound obvious, but a creative person must create. A stock broker would never run out of ideas to invest your $100,000 kitty no matter where you encounter him—airport lounge or golf course.
It is the same with graphic design.
They have to offer you a few preliminary ideas in the space of a week. If you have sent them material about your project, they should have some slides and wireframes ready for you to figure out their quality of work.
Color Schemes
Color affects us in various ways.
The electric blue color of a Red Bull can, or the vivacious red of a Coke can fill the buyer with vigor.
They can be spotted from a mile away.
Verdant green is a sign of rebirth and renewal. Yellow makes us feel alive since it represents sunlight.
Colors affect our emotions. Can you imagine a marriage with a gray theme or a funeral with a pink orchid motif?
A graphic designer must understand how to use the color palette to his benefit. A lot of color theory and a fair bit of A/B testing is necessary.
Software
The usual heavyweights are Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
There are new web-based tools, such as Figma and Canva.
Expert graphic designers know them fully. There is no exception to knowing every functionality.
Have them share the screen and show their ability with the Magic Wand tool, lasso selection, color changer, and plain old image airbrush.
Ask them to offer color schemes for an app and create a logo that is in harmony with the color.
Any aspiring dedicated member of a graphics design team must be able to prove their worth at the time of the interview through a display of their skills.
Past Work
Otherwise known as a portfolio.
What have they achieved in the past? Take a look at sites they have helped develop. How contemporary do they look?
Is there anything unique, or does it look unimpressive?
Evaluate the portfolio carefully. Call up previous clients and find out if they are happy with the team.
It is important to know how much of the work was intuitive and how much had to be offered by the owner and management.
Such calls also reveal if they are able to manage a project and deliver on time. Ask if they have the right temperament to blend with your permanent staff or are prone to working alone.
Soft Skills
Knowledge of color theory and Adobe Illustrator takes care of the technical aspect.
But there is a lot more to collaboration than knowledge.
Time Management
When hiring a dedicated team of graphic designers, you have no way to test if they are able to manage time well unless you actually put them to work.
But at the time of hiring them, make it clear that they are expected to abide by every deadline, or they will be replaced.
Productivity is the key for any entrepreneur to survive and thrive.
It is impossible to evaluate this aspect without actually employing them. But they have to be self-starters.
Work Management
Jira, Trello, LiquidPlanner—there is possibly a couple of dozen software out there to help with project management.
One can’t expect a remote team to know about all of them. But they should have some experience with the more well-known ones.
It’s not a deal breaker, but those starting from scratch would take at least a week to adapt to a new system.
Communication
When you are working with a team, you need to be assured that the team leader has adequate communication skills.
If they live on another continent, real-time conferences might happen at midnight.
Due to time mismatch, they need to fix problems confidently and communicate effectively.
Putting in place proper documentation and translating plans to action are must-have skills.
Place Them on Probation…
Do not commit outright since there are a lot of unknown factors.
Clarify that a week-long probation is needed before you commit.
It is not a straightforward task to hire a graphic designer from India, but the considerable cost saving offsets the negatives.
Be frank and forthright, set rules, and make your expectations clear. You should have a great dedicated team of graphic designers working for you in no time.