Why hiring a cheap graphic designer hurts your brand

When you hire someone to do creative work for you and you want to pay them cheaply there is no benefits for you. Well it may be a financial benefit and that is short lived. Because you want to understand the value that Graphic designers can offer. I would immediately be suspect of someone who does not have a portfolio.

Since the day and age we live in now there are many people who pretend to be something they are not. Which is understandable because of the opportunities to make a quick buck. Sites such as 99designs, fiveer are just run of the mill websites with little respect of the client.

You honestly think that if you were to go to a doctors or lawyers office and had them all line up and told them you’re problem, then asked how much do they all charge you most likely will go with the most expensive one or the one who is near your spending limit.

See this is where society tends to fall short in regards to hiring designers whether its freelance or for a permanent position. This is repeated time and time again. The Graphic designer you hire for 25 and 50 dollar flyers or logos is something produced of poor quality. If you do not believe me just do a quick google search of cheap logos.

Honestly do you think the fortune 500 companies hire cheap designers. The answer would be no they hire people with experience and they understand the value of good design. Then you have your local restaurant or business whom they have one person who designs everything and it looks mediocre.

When you try to cut corners and not hire a designer and pay what they are worth your business will be looked at differently. For example if you have a menu with misspellings on it or pictures you’ve taken from google you should’ve or you need to have a designer.

One of the many risks you take when you hire a cheap graphic designer is getting a copy of a copy. You may want your logo to look like a certain type of logo. Well do you know if the font they have is widely available and do you have to get the rights to use it? Are the images you are using on your website royalty free? You see these are a few questions that you may have not taken into consideration.

Because honestly who would care? Well you should care for legal reasons. These two questions can do great harm to your business. I know there’s companies who take these matters very serious in regards to companies who want to not pay for items they are using.

So the next time you think paying for a cheap graphic designer is getting a great deal remember you get what you pay for and you could either have a unique custom design or you could just have a copy of a copy.

Why Businesses should avoid cheap design work

Ever since I first started freelancing I learned about sites such as Elance, 99designs and many others. I’ll admit I was tempted to participate in those sites. Then I learned many many things about such websites. If your just starting your business or already have one, you may think hmm I can get a logo and etc for less then what a talented local designer would charge.

But honestly that reflects in the quality of how your company is represented visually. Many of the big companies they did not skimp on getting a quality design.

For example

Next paid Paul Rand $100,000 for the Next Logo

Pepsi paid $1,000,000 for their logo from the Arnell group

You may not want to be on such a level as those companies, But that does not matter. Your branding reflects on how people perceive your company visually.  Do you remember how Walmart’s branding was and how the stores look compared to now?

Every phone has a camera and over 1 billion people have a Facebook account your company can go from nothing to something overnight. You have to ask yourself if such a thing was to happen to you want to be remembered for the logo design that you paid $50 dollars for and that looks exactly like what someone else has for their business?

Remember

 

Cheap is not always better