Design Matters

Episode 2

December 12, 2005

Intro Music...

Introduction

Welcome to Design Matters on the Cubicle Escape Pod. My name is Bert Mahoney. I design websites and printed materials that enable any organization to reach its audience. I'm principal and creative director of HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc., a company I started in July of 2005.

This second installment of Design Matters is titled, “how to hire a designer?”

On the last installment of Design Matters I spoke about “why pay money for design?” (Feedback, if any)

So now you know why to pay for design and understand its inherent value in the success of your business and are ready to move to the next step. How to hire a designer?

First you need to know what you and your business needs. Do you need a corporate identity? If you have one already you may need a web site, or you may be targeting a new market based on a new product and market research. Whatever your need, you need to find a designer, or design firm. Some design firms—like mine—are actually solo, or a pair of, designers that have a network of specialists that we bring in for each project. Designers are an educated lot. Their education and backgrounds are diverse and as such play into our areas of expertise and skill. Designers are eager to off their work and talk to you about your needs. So how do you find them?

You can find names of designers and design firms from several sources. One of the best sources is satisfied clients. If you have business contacts that have a great logo, attractive print materials or a well designed web site you should ask them for recommendations. Simply ask “who designed your logo?”or “Who designed your website.”

If you know a commercial printer you could ask them for a recommendation as printers work with many different designers. If your business contacts are limited due to you just starting out you could go to any bookstore or library, go to the art and design section and find award-winning entries in competitions that are sponsored by national and international design publications. Some publications include Communication Arts, Print's regional design annuals and How Magazine's design annual.

You could also open a web browser, open your favorite search engine and search for designers in your area. The results from this search will be localized if you include the city or town you live in, or if your town is small, nearby cities or notable towns will help generate results . For example if you search for 'designer charlotte north carolina' chances are you will get mulitple hits from local designers. Results from this search will yield designers, but what kind of designers? It could include interior, landscape and clothing designers

Unless you have an almost unlimited ceiling in terms of budget, you will most likely not be able to afford the sort of fees that come with national and global design firms the likes of a Pentagram. You shouldn't feel as though you won't be connecting with talented people. Quite the contrary. There are many designers out there, more than you imagine—you just need to look.

Now that you have a few ways of gathering names of designers and design firms you need to know how to evaluate them. Without knowing your exact needs it is tough to tell you what to look for however I can offer some general guidelines to help out.

After you've asked around and done some searching on the web you'll have a few names. First take a look at their websites. All designers worth a lick will have a website. See if their style is suited to what you are looking for.

Review their portfolios. Get a sense for the types of clients they work with. If you are in the consumer electronics business look for firms that have this type of work in their portfolio. However, you may come across work that you find interesting, different and eye-catching. Just because a portfolio doesn't have work representative of your industry doesn't mean you should discount the people behind it. If the work is good....

- Where to find designers

How to evaluate designers

Bert Mahoney

2005-12-12T20:53:55

Bert Mahoney