Key Factors ManyPixels Uses to Evaluate the Work of a Graphic Designer

In the fast-paced business world, a graphic designer can be your best ally. But that’s only true for designers who deliver top-notch quality on a regular basis. At ManyPixels, we understand that you need the best and this is why we go to great lengths to evaluate the work of our designers.

In this day and age, there are numerous ways to get your hands on graphic design. Notice how we left out the word ‘good’ in front of it? Because this growing accessibility doesn’t automatically come with high-quality.

This article goes over the key factors we use at ManyPixels to vet our designer’s work and assure our clients of great graphic design.

First, let’s take a step back and answer the questions: what is a graphic designer, and what does a graphic designer do?

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What is a graphic designer?

A graphic designer is a creator of visual concepts by showcasing and arranging various elements to convey a message.

Being a graphic designer means wearing many different hats. Graphic designers possess a multitude of skills and focus heavily on problem-solving. It’s a fast-paced and demanding role, so a graphic design career isn’t for everyone.

Designers often work closely with clients, marketing specialists, copywriters, and other designers to ensure an effective and practical design.

A professional graphic designer is the solution to visualize your brand’s communication.

What does a graphic designer do?

From website visuals that grab attention, posters that inform, and infographics that showcase data. The list of graphic design services is long, and with technologies developing constantly, it grows by the minute.

Roughly, this is how a graphic designer goes about a new project:

• Meet with clients to clarify the scope of the project.
• Advise clients on the possibilities.
• Establish the message that the design should convey.
• Create or source images.
• Develop graphics such as illustrations, icons, or logos.
• Select colors and typography.
• Arrange design elements in a specific layout.
• Present the design and explain the process to the client.
• Incorporate feedback from the client into the design.
• Check for any design mistakes before submitting the final result.

Of course, this also depends on where a graphic designer works and in which field they specialize. A lot of graphic designs are joint efforts between various designers. One can specialize in typography and take on that part of the project, while someone else provides the branding elements.

Five steps to good graphic design

Finding a graphic designer that can help you create visuals for your brand isn’t the hard part. It’s ensuring the design that you end up with is actually of good quality.

With so many different ways to get your hands on graphic design, separating the wheat from the chaff is a big job. These five steps will set you off on the right foot:

1. Specify your design needs

In the divergent world of graphic design, you first need to determine which type of graphic design services your project requires. A graphic designer specializing in creating a user interface for an app will likely not be the best fit for your business card design. By being as specific as you can, you’ll ensure you hire the right person for the job.

2. Know your good design from your bad design

If you don’t have the slightest idea about good versus bad design, it will be challenging to ensure you end up with good graphic design. Brush up on your design skills to make sure you can spot quality and avoid design fails.

3. Evaluate a designer’s portfolio

A big part of making sure you reel in a creative designer is evaluating their portfolio. Make sure it consists of a good mix of recent projects that match the scope of your design needs.

4. Spot designer red flags

There are a few red flags you should steer clear of when it comes to a graphic designer - a lack of communication skills, for example, or spelling mistakes in their work.

5. Understand the importance of quality assurance

Quality assurance is the process of checking quality according to specific requirements. Does your graphic designer have one in place? If not, ask them to set up a quality assurance process or develop one yourself.

ManyPixels quality assurance process

Ever since ManyPixels first came into existence in 2018, we have helped businesses of any size and industry scale up their creative content production. We do this by delivering tailor-made, authentic, and high-quality graphic design.

If you’ve been toying with investing in top-notch visuals without the hassle, our subscription-based graphic design services might be just what you need.

We especially take pride in our high standards that repeatedly guarantee our clients high-quality design. This is a glimpse into our process to show you what we’re talking about:

1. Hiring process

We’ll keep refining the design until you’re happy!

Our service is communication-based, so we will always stay in the loop. If things don’t work out, even after multiple revisions, we will reassign the project to another one of our designers whose style may align with your taste better.

You don’t have to worry if, for any reason, we didn’t get it right the first try. We offer unlimited revisions and keep at it until you’re completely satisfied with the final result.

As you can see, we go over extensive precautions to make sure you end up with the high-quality design you need. But we also understand that graphic design is a process and that it’s subjective.

Our checklist consists of 3 main categories with subcategories which together comprise 100 points:

Based on your project requirements and plans, a detailed checklist is put in place. It’s not just up to our designers to tick off each box. We have a dedicated team of experienced quality control managers that is closely involved in each design.

After matching you with one of our skilled designers and making sure they understand your brief, our third factor in place is our quality control process.

We make sure we gather all the information necessary before any of our designers take on the project. This is so that we can make sure we pick the best possible match for your needs.

We make it as easy as possible for our clients to submit their design briefs through our custom-made platform. By asking various open-answer questions, we give you all the space you might need to describe your design request. Additionally, you can create a branding profile to share your branding guidelines with us.

The design brief is the second key factor that plays an essential role in evaluating a designer’s work. A good design brief is crucial to ensure you end up with the design you envisioned.

If we like what we see and there’s a match between the designer and ManyPixels, we welcome the designer aboard!

To accompany the results of the design challenges, we ask them to submit a short video explaining their thought process. We want to learn about their design process and the inspiration behind the results.

After a successful first interview, we give candidates a set of design challenges they have to complete within 24 to 48 hours. It’s a paid test that will include logo design, GIF design, website redesign, illustration, and e-book design.

We assess candidates on their design expertise, software proficiency, and general soft skills during an initial interview.

Since our designers are the ones expected to deliver the quality, we have raised the bar for our hiring process. We don’t just take any designer on board. First, we ensure they are up to the task of becoming a designer at ManyPixels. Our hiring process looks a little like this:

2. Design brief

3. Quality control

1. Customer requirements - This category consists of checkpoints to ensure the design complies with your brief and branding guidelines. Everything you submitted on our platform, from color schemes to logo applications, will be included.
2. Acceptance criteria - In this category, we make sure everything is clear, concise, and error-free. We also make sure there are no grammatical and punctuation errors, typography errors, or incorrect alignments.
3. Performance criteria - The final category checks whether the designer met the deadlines and respected your design wishes. Additionally, in this phase, we control the use and naming of the folder structure (raw files, preview files, etc.).

4. Unlimited revisions

Assure quality design, for once and for all

Getting graphic design services done is not difficult. You’re one simple Google search away from an abundance of graphics. It’s ensuring you’ll actually end up with high-quality design.

Poorly created design hurts your brand and marketing efforts. It can even cost you a lot of time and money, which is the last thing your business needs.

Instead of using your valuable time to search far and wide for good graphic design, a skilled team of designers at ManyPixels is only a few clicks away.

See our processes in action by booking a one-on-one live demo, or have a look at our affordable range of plans.