Your Guide to Hiring Freelance Graphic Designers

Over 90% of designers in the US have freelance careers. So, there’s no shortage of quality candidates. But how to find freelance graphic designers that are just right for your business? How much do freelance graphic designers charge? How to vet prospective candidates and assure the quality of freelance work? Find all the answers here.

Where to find freelance graphic designers?

How to get freelance graphic design that’s right for your business? Let’s start with the most obvious question: where can you find freelance graphic designers? Here’s a list of the best places for freelance graphic design.

1. Upwork‍

Possibly the most popular freelance marketplace, Upwork caters to graphic designers of all levels. The average hourly rate is about $25.

Upwork has a decent vetting system, and it has been around for a long time, so you’ll definitely be spoilt for choice. Since it’s one of the oldest freelancing platforms, note that some profiles may be less active than others.

2. Fiverr

Fiverr's greatest draw is the opportunity to hire designers for smaller, cheaper projects. Average freelance graphic design hourly rates are similar to Upwork, around $27.

It’s a great place to find affordable freelance designers for specific projects, such as social media posts, or web design, as rates are often lower than Upwork.

3. Freelancer‍

Another huge freelancing platform, where you can find a range of freelance designers, from beginners to vetted professionals.

One of its many perks is a refined search feature that allows you to search for talents in your geographical area, price range, and with specific skills.

4. Behance‍

This portfolio platform allows you to contact  freelance graphic designers directly or post a freelance graphic design job.

If you know a thing or two about graphic design, this platform is definitely the right place to start your search. However, you should also look up or ask for references as you won’t find them here.

5. Dribbble‍

Similar to Behance, Dribbble is a portfolio platform with “snapshots” of projects. It’s an ideal platform to search for logo designers or motion graphics designers, thanks to a number of helpful filters.

Many designers that are employed full-time use it to showcase their work, so don’t be disappointed if a designer you love isn’t available for hire.

6. Toptal‍

Toptal has a slightly more rigorous vetting process, so the hourly rates for freelance graphic design are a bit higher, around $50 per hour.

It’s a good place to find a reliable, more permanent collaborator, as many of the freelancers here have experience with big firms and corporations.

7. 99 Designs‍

Although you can hire a freelance designer from their community, 99 Designs is best known for its design contests.

This means you can post a project and get solutions from dozens of designers bidding for the gig. If you like something, you can purchase the design or get your money back if there’s nothing that suits you.

8. Design Hill‍

It’s one of the largest creative marketplaces, with different services, such as hiring freelancers, starting a design contest, buying an existing design gig, or purchasing ready-made designs.

It’s probably not the best place to start, in case you don’t know what you’re looking for. But if you want to explore and test out different options, Design Hill certainly allows you to do that.

9. Design Crowd‍

Like 99 Designs, this crowdsourcing platform allows you to get heaps of ideas and design solutions for a specific project. It’s risk-free, meaning you get your money back if you don’t like any of the designs.

Don’t forget that finding and hiring freelance graphic designers on these platforms will take a lot of time and effort (read more about it in the next section). 

For a much more efficient alternative, consider unlimited design services, like ManyPixels! You’ll get a whole design team at your disposal at one flat monthly rate.

No interviews, contracts, or portfolio browsing. Discover how you can get all your designs in just a couple of clicks!

How to hire a freelance graphic designer in 7 steps

If you’re wondering how to hire a freelance graphic designer, we’ve broken it down into seven simple steps.

1. Define your design needs

There are numerous types of graphic design, and a designer is often specialized in only a few.

Let’s have a look at some of the most common graphic design projects:

• Logo and brand identity design
• Advertisement design
• Social media graphics
• Website design
• Product design
• Print collateral (flyers, brochures, business cards, etc.)
• Graphic illustrations
• Infographics

This is by no means an exhaustive list since graphic design is vast and ever-evolving. Make sure you research and paint a clear picture of what you want designed.

2.  Set a budget

The cost of design is a big topic since pricing can range from $15 to $150 per hour. Once you specify what you need, the ballpark should be clearer. But, there are still multiple factors at play, such as the years of experience and location of your designer.

3.  Find freelancers

With your design needs and budget specified, it’s time to look for your perfect match. You can opt for one of the many freelance platforms to find a graphic designer online. However, these platforms also attract a lot of newbies (e.g. designers that can only use DIY tools like canva, and not professional software such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop).

A better option is finding someone through word-of-mouth. Ask around because it’s always a good idea to work with someone with a good reputation.

Additionally, Google searches can help you out. If a designer has a beautiful website that also pops up high in the search results, you have to give them credit. A simple search could also be “graphic designer near me + the specific type of graphic design” you need.  

4. Vet their work

Vetting your designer’s work is a crucial step in finding high-quality design and avoiding scams.

It's wise to brush up on your design knowledge. Knowing a thing or two about good design is a skill that will come in handy more than once.

The most important part of the vetting process is assessing their portfolio. Here are a few parameters that you need to consider in a design portfolio:

• Overall look and feel: Pay attention to colors, typography, shapes, and layout - you'll notice experienced designers often stick to a particular style. A consistent-looking portfolio is a sign of professionalism, as newbie designers often include every project they've ever done. 
• Simplicity: Creating a simple visual solution to a specific problem is the make of a genuinely skilled designer. If they can deliver maximum results with minimal elements, they can take on almost any design challenge. 
• Relevancy: A portfolio should be relevant to the type of design you need and adhere to relevant design trends.
• ‍Originality: Ask the designer to explain their design process and choices. A reverse image search on Google is also useful. Check the files for existing metadata: images taken from another place on the internet might also contain EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data encoded into them

5. Establish a management style

Many people forget that when you hire a freelancer, you need to manage them.

Think about the basics, like who in your company will be in charge of managing the freelancers. How much time should they spend on it? When and where should they check in with the freelancer?

Set up a template for the design briefings and ensure your brand guidelines are in order.

6. Hire a freelancer

Your graphic design freelancer will be a part of your business, even if you only hire them for a single project. Therefore, it’s wise to consider setting up a contract and possibly a non-disclosure agreement.

7. Evaluate

Setting up a quality assurance process for your freelance graphic designers is highly recommended. An example is a checklist with topics you can use to evaluate the design. Here are a few examples:

• Has the designer used your branding guidelines?
• Did the designer stick to the design brief?
• Are there any spelling errors in the design?

How much do freelance graphic designers charge?

One of the main reasons why many businesses outsource graphic design work is to cut costs. But how much do freelance graphic designers charge, and does working with one necessarily mean you get to save up?

It’s a bit of a difficult question to answer.

For starters, freelance graphic designers have vastly different per-hour pricing. According to Upwork, the average rate is $25. On the other hand, data from Designers Union suggests an average of $40 for junior, and $100 for more senior designers.

So, clients pay anywhere between $25 to $150 for a freelance designer’s hourly rate.

The location of the designer is another factor that impacts their hourly rate. Designers in Eastern Europe and some parts of Asia charge a fraction of what freelance graphic designers charge in Singapore, Western Europe, Canada and the US.

Moreover, the complexity and duration of the project also determine the final price you pay for freelance graphic design.

An alternative to freelance graphic designers

We hope this sheds some light on the question how to get freelance graphic design? As you can see, it’s definitely not the easiest task. Although there’s a vast choice of freelancers, you’ll have to do a lot of research and preparation to find the ideal collaborator.

For a much faster and even more affordable alternative, try ManyPixels subscription-based graphic design services.

For one flat monthly rate you can make unlimited design requests, with unlimited revision, so all your graphics are always 100% to your liking. 

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Our top-rated service has a team of 50+ designers with diverse backgrounds and styles. So whatever your industry or target audience is, we’ll find the right person for the job. We’ll create visually stunning designs, be it a landing page, a logo, motion graphics, illustrations, social media designs and more!

Get started today for as little as $549, or get in touch with us to learn more.