You are an expert at what you do and professional Graphic Designers are experts at what they do. They are experienced in developing marketing materials that command your audience’s attention and clearly convey your message.

Professional Designers not only have the appropriate software and access to professional stock images, but also the illustration, typesetting and layout skills that are necessary to creating and producing effective, high quality marketing tools.

You wouldn’t hire a teenager who’s taking a wood shop class to build a house with a small crafts hammer and some tacks, right? Professional builders know the many nuances and have the proper tools that make a big difference in the overall effectiveness and quality of a building. The same is true for professional graphic designers (print or web).

Get noticed and be remembered.

Quality graphic design visually communicates your company’s messages to your audience. Your printed materials or web presence are usually where your audience gets its first impression of your organization. It’s not just about being pretty and using your favorite colors.

The average person is bombarded with visual grasps for his or her attention every day. Billboards, magazine ads, TV ads, website banners, pop-up ads, brochures and so on. A good graphic designer is well-versed in color theory, has access to thousands of quality images and fonts, and knows how to utilize those tools and the appropriate software to properly to convey your desired message, while ensuring readability for effectiveness. Good graphic design is when form and function merge.

It takes more than just having talent to become a master carpenter; it takes years to hone that talent, develop the skills and gain the knowledge to achieve such a status. The same is true of a good graphic designer.

Sift through the rubble.

Not sure what you want? A professional graphic designer is not only able to follow very specific direction, but they are also able to help you sift through your thoughts and ideas and develop them into a focused concept. From there, the designer can translate the information and materials into a distinctive, effective and attractive design to generate results.

Unbiased. Maximized Results.

While professional Graphic designers strive to become an extension of your company, unlike an employee, your designer remains an objective outside source and is able to take a step back to see the forest for the trees, so to speak. And through that, experienced designers are able to identify a company’s strengths and indivduality and visually communicate that to the intended audience.

There are hundreds of reason to hire a professional graphic designer for your logo, business cards, brochures, post cards, web site design/development/SEO (search engine optimization), etc. But for now, I will leave you with this. Stay tuned for more in the future.

Have an experience of your own to share?

I had a meeting with a prospective client yesterday. We’ll call him Jack. We scheduled the meeting after a relatively lengthy phone conversation in which he described his branding needs and goals, and I described my qualifications and professional background. He determined me to be up to the challenge, yet wanted to see and hear my ideas in person. I promptly explained that while I was more than happy to meet him in person to further discuss his project needs and show him my portfolio samples, I would not be offering creative ideas or branding concepts until we had service and payment agreement in place. He said he understood, so we scheduled the meeting.

Unfortunately, it was a short-lived meeting with undesirable results for both parties. Turns out he obtained an estimate from Valley Vision Design several months earlier, only he had someone else contact me for the information. We’ll call her Jill. Jill said she knew what she wanted for the logo, and asked for 3-5 hours of design services to take her idea and make it digital art. Simple as that. So, I provided her with my hourly rate and explained that logo design can be as quick as 3 hours, but as many as 20. There are many variables, including the client specifications and requests throughout the process. Therefore, clients are billed for actual time to achieve approval, whether less or more than the estimate. Jill expressed her appreciation for the information, said she understood and would get back to me.

Now, let’s go back to Jack. When he arrived to our meeting (ten minutes late), I provided him with an estimate that was based on the specifications he provided me in the phone conversation we had. Those specs included branding development to consist of concepts for a company name, logo design and coordinating collaterals. When he saw the estimate that I put in front of him, he stood up, looked me in the eye and huffed that if I couldn’t come up with his brand concepts in 5 hours or less, like I promised Jill, then I wasn’t worth squat as a designer. He went on to tell me how he was a graphic designer longer than I’ve been alive, so he could tell me a few things. An opinion he developed without even looking at my portfolio.

Now, I come from a strong customer service background and am quite familiar with the mentality that “the client is always right.” But, I am also familiar with the phrase, “there’s an exception to every rule.” And this is one of them. It’s one thing for a service provider to under-promise and over-deliver, but quite another for someone to request an estimate for a Ford Focus and expect a Cadillac CTS for the same price as the Focus.

Not once in the 45-minute phone conversation that led to our meeting did Jack mention the estimate I provided Jill. Had he, I would have explained that what she asked for was far less in-depth and less time consuming that what he requested. For goodness sakes, Jill at least had a company name! Jack would not have been so unpleasantly surprised to see my estimate for branding had he been up-front and honest with me. It’s understandable that in the months between talking with Jill and then Jack, that their needs might have changed, but then so should the estimate.

The moral of the story is to be honest with your designer when asking for an estimate, so that he or she can provide you with as accurate a proposal as possible. In over six years of being a freelance designer, I never had such an experience, but now that I have, I think it’s important to explain that Omitting information and requirements in order to get a lower estimate won’t save you any money. trying to pull the wool over our eyes isn’t going to outsmart us, it’s only going to make it more difficult to achieve a successful client-designer relationship. If your needs change, that is fine, but please let us know so we can can estimate accordingly. To allow for flexibility, most designers provide estimates—not quotes—for creative services. Reputable designers do not want to over charge—we want our clients to keep coming back because they know they can get quality services and products for a reasonable cost. But just like anyone else, we do have bills and student loans to satisfy, groceries to buy and gas tanks to fill up. Wasting our time by trying to fake us out doesn’t help lower our rates or your costs. Freelancers who don’t charge for consulting or estimates, do so because we want your business, not because we have all the time in the world to work for free. So, be honest with us, we’ll be honest with you, and your company identity and client-designer relations will be better for it.

Oh! And, if you’re wondering, just like I was, why Jack would need to hire a designer if he had so much experience as one himself. Well, through a little networking with other designers in the area, I learned that Jack was never a designer and that I’m not the only one who he tried to buffalo. He’s left several designers in his wake, telling each of them a different story about his background. On the bright side, we all got a chuckle, another teaching moment arose and now we can move on to the next project.

Sure, in this do-it-yourself day and age, it may seem logical that scrapping your marketing budget and creating your logo, website, brochures and other marketing material yourself—or hiring an amateur—can save you money. However, that mentality could cost you more than you planned to save! Not having a realistic marketing budget to pay for professional design and print services usually doesn’t save money, instead it costs profits.

Just having the computer and some software does not make someone a competent designer or a website developer—especially if that software is Word or Publisher and the individual isn’t professionally trained or experienced.

So much more goes into preparing press-ready files than meets the eye. And, although it’s important to have an attractive website, contrary to what most people think, good, effective web development is more about the back-end work (coding, scripts, etc.) and ongoing maintenance, than the visual aspects. In the long run, unless your print files are properly prepared or your Web site’s coding is clean, you’ll spend more time and more money having things “fixed,” than you would have if you had it done right—the first time.

While technical expertise is critical, there are also other important factors to consider. A professional designer will provide you with a level of service and attention that an amateur is not accustomed to providing. Freelance designers, especially, have an understanding of being an entrepreneur, are able to empathize and keep client interests in mind. Additionally, while designers at all levels of experience may exhibit impressive talent, a seasoned designer is more efficient in terms of time, which is beneficial when you’re being charged per hour.

Industry experience, talents, honed skills and productive designer-client communications are essential to developing a successful, cost-effective company identity, brand or campaign. Hire a professional to get the job done right—the first time.