5 Traits Every Strong Brand Designer Must Have

TL;DR: An exceptional brand designer will be responsive, creative, adaptable, strategic, and client-focused to ensure they connect every asset to your business goals.

Did you know that consistent brand design can increase revenue by up to 23%? Imagine revenue streams that are a hefty amount of money to design your brand.

And if only brand design was that easy to come by. An effective brand designer knows that a brand logo isn’t just a brand’s mark. It’s the face of the company. So if you’re looking for someone new to help you once your marketing strategy picks up pace or you just need to get rid of an inconsistent brand here are five skills that would make your next hire a game changer!

Are you struggling to find someone who can “get” the vision of your brand thus far? If so, don’t worry. Let’s explore the skills you’ll need to hire brand designers.

1. Why is Responsiveness Non-negotiable?

In marketing, time is of the essence. You wouldn’t want to keep someone hanging for a couple of days for email responses if you’ve got a campaign breathing down your neck.

An effective brand designer understands that being responsive isn’t just about promptly checking emails.It’s about maintaining the momentum of the process. When you send content back to the designer, they receive it. They understand the importance of timelines and deadlines as something that they will only seek to uphold all of their projects.

At Penji, we based our entire platform on this. Our design as a service model addresses the common waiting challenges we face when we hire brand designers , and we present you with a user-friendly platform built for notifications for you to stay abreast of your design projects in real time.

2. Do they have True Creative Vision?

Technical designers are a dime a dozen; but designers with vision, not so much.An effective designer doesn’t make your ideas come to life by checking all the boxes on your brief. Instead, they see your true needs. If you just said, “Make it blue and modern?” they understood that it means to make it representative of “trust” and “innovation.”

The outcome? Something more surprising than you can imagine. This level of creativity means taking vague concepts from people like you for “the ideas for the next generation technologies” and making something that speaks to their audience. This is what makes the designer a partner and not a mere pixel behind the project. When considering branding services, assess their portfolios for these types of ideas and concepts.

3. How Well do they Handle Adaptability?

Imagination wasn’t created to be confined but every now and then we have projects that are turbulent. Whether someone changed their mind or a need to adjust to feedback from consumer research, adaptability is a skill.

An adaptable designer uses constructive criticism well without taking it personally. It means they take feedback into how they’ll improve upon the next product they create. Adaptability has many faces. It’s also about being able to solve certain design problems based on a demographic, market or audience. Subscription-based design firms like Penji exist for numerous reasons.

A subscription-based model focuses on unlimited graphic design, but the number one reason is to provide for unlimited revisions based on the project needs. If the designer doesn’t get the first iteration right, our designers will make it their mission to adapt until you’re pleased with the outcome.

4. Are they strategic thinkers?

When assessing brand design services, you’d be surprised at how many designers lack this skill. Logos here, there and everywhere don’t cut it when someone creates designs for things like brochures and e-books.

When working with a designer in the past what types of questions have you asked?

• Who’s the competition?
• What is the vision?
• What emotion are we trying to create?
• Where will it be used?

Designing isn’t just pretty, this also involves exceptional business sense any corporate firm can use. Strategic thinking ensures the design “works.” Failing to strategize means wasting their time designing something that works well with one demographic but no one else.

Your designer must see brand design services as an investment into delivering a return on investment. A great designer builds logos with intention. A good understanding of creating brand designs isn’t just an asset; they can create true assets that guide people through customer journeys and funnel them as paying customers.

5. Is their focus on you, the client?

Last but not least an effective designer will be client-focused. This might seem like an obvious skill but you’d be surprised how many people overlook this. A client-centric graphic designer won’t treat you as just another business coming through the door seeking an asset.

They take time to learn your business instead of seeing you as just another task on their to-do list. Through trust-based relationships, you’ll have the confidence to share your dreams and ideas and where you want your business or project to go in the next couple years. At Penji, we understand this need:

Our designers take time to learn more about our clients and assign them the designers that are most likely capable of understanding your sector-based focus. A phenomenal designer is not just someone you pay to get a job done; they’ll go on a business journey with you.

Why do these traits matter for your brand?

So you’re probably wondering what these five key skills mean for your bottom line? Probably nothing since most people can build decent portfolios around their past work experience.

But sound portfolio decision-making means working with someone who lacks creativity or business sense – which could leave you lost strategically?

Now you can hire brand designers, one who creates assets that offer long-term value:

• Consistency: A good designer ensures every representation of your brand is consistent across all platforms your business has been using over time. Whether it be on social media or billboards, the same look and feel must permeate every advertising avenue.
• Time-saving: A good designer learns about your project over time. This saves you time on teaching them the minor things about how to complete certain tasks for you, which reduces back-and-forth conversations over basic things
• Impact: The designer knows how their designs will impact businesses, therefore they focus on creating assets that yield high return on investments.

These transformative skills help great designers succeed and grow your projects and businesses over time. It’s the opposite of poor freelancers who deliver mundane products.

How to evaluate a brand designer?

But wait! You might need these services because trust is hard to find in this space—and trust that a competent designer won’t cost you an arm and a leg. So instead of that search session here’s a simple method step by step for evaluating who could be your new design partner:

1. Evaluating Portfolio Versatility: Don’t only look at images showcasing pretty designs in this portfolio. Assess if they produced case studies? Ask for descriptions from former clients? Look for elocution in their approach when providing information about past clients? Great portfolios offer insight into clients’ background and challenges and how their work transformed their businesses.
2. Evaluating Reviews: Don’t look for pretty testimonials: Look for specific things people said in praise of designers or agencies such as attending, responsiveness, understanding of vision, capacity to manage numerous projects seamlessly without missing any deadlines.
3. Evaluating Communication: Are they competent communicators? Ask if they ask relevant questions when you first reach out to them? Evaluate if their knowledge shows them how to adapt their designs strategically over time? Assess the depth of their conversation when speaking to you about how they plan on adapting their designs over time?
4. Creativity Is Not Chaotic: Ask how they plan on implementing feedback and incorporate them into their next product redesign

Need a more in-depth matrix on how to evaluate an exceptional graphic designer? Explore our post here!

How can Penji help you?

Tired of the headache of vetting freelancers? Penji offers a design-as-a-service model built for agencies and marketing teams that need both quality and speed. We’ve already vetted a global team of top-tier designers, so you can forget the guesswork. For a simple, flat monthly fee, you get unlimited projects and revisions, access to vetted global talent, and a platform built for seamless collaboration. Stop juggling contractors and let our creatives handle the design while you focus on growing your business.

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