Kentucky is the 34th most populous state in the US currently with an estimated growth rate of 0.47%. Over the years, the state has demonstrated a gradual urban growth even though half of the population live in the rural areas.
If you’re among the growing small businesses, then you’d likely be considering how to expand your enterprise online and otherwise. The first step is of course finding the right skills, in particular a graphic designer, who can help you transition to the online space and establish your brand.
By finding the right graphic designer who can capture your company’s voice, standing out becomes easy. But that means you have to do the research to find the right one for you. It takes a bit of work but if you follow these rules you’ll be working with your designer in no time.
Check Out Their Portfolio
Before you even begin working with a designer, you should ask to see their portfolio. By seeing work they’ve done before, you can decide if they’ll be able to represent the image you want to portray with your business. Ask yourself:
- Can they capture your voice?
- Do they accommodate a Kentucky audience?
- What clientele did they work with before? And do you think they’ve represented these companies well?
- What’s their success rate?
Based on these answers, you’ll be able to see if their work will rival other designers’ work in the Kentucky urban sphere as well as online.
Simply looking at their design portfolio isn’t enough either. Ask your designer where they got their inspiration from. By doing this, you can evaluate whether their ideals match with your own. If they do, your designer will be better at representing your company’s brand image.
Ask to See Their Contract
Contracts often contain small details that could land up damaging your company if you don’t understand them properly. Even if you need to discuss the contract with a legal advisor, make sure you understand every word so that it doesn’t cause any issues in the future.
If your designer doesn’t have a contract, you should write one yourself or hire a professional lawyer to create a contract. It’s for both parties’ benefit. This will help to cover any additional costs that you might face and will protect you in any legal situation. It’s also an effective means of clarifying Copyright Laws at the beginning of your collaboration so that everyone is on the same page.
Research Their Skills
Before you employ a designer, it’s useful to research skills that one should have so that you can be ensured that your designer is up to the task. The more knowledgeable the designer is about marketing trends, the more likely their work will appeal to your target market. As a business designer in Kentucky, your designer also needs to have an understanding of the state’s diverse culture and incorporate it into your design such as people’s faces, art form, or images.
Various skills can add to a designer’s talents, such as:
- Sales intelligence
- Math marketing skills
- Awareness of social media trends
When it comes to your website design, it’s important that your designer has enough training to make it visually appealing. He or she must be skilled enough to capture the image of your business in its Kentucky environment and translate that into beautiful graphics for marketing channels.
You Must Be Prepared to Do Some Work
Even the best designer in the world can’t create branding for your company if they don’t know anything about your business. Before you meet up with potential designers, write up a brief that states exactly what you’re looking for from your designer:
- Do you want your business to be more professional or quirky?
- Must it capture the online audience only?
- Or perhaps you want to cater to the laid back rural community?
If your graphic designer understands the values and image you’re trying to portray, he or she will create designs that capture this image more successfully.
Start with a Trial Project
Creating logo designs are small projects and often inexpensive so a useful way to test potential designers is to ask them to create one for your business. Your logo is very important because it’s what most people associate with your company and its values. If a particular designer is able to capture your company’s image perfectly in a logo, they’re very likely to tackle your other design projects as effectively.
This is a simple way to determine the differences between designers. It might cost a bit of money but it’s better than losing even more cash when it turns out your designer isn’t suited for your company.
Conclusion
Because the online and offline audience are in the millions, your website and logo need to make an impact otherwise you’ll be lost among the other startups and boutiques. By finding the right designer, your marketing needs can be sorted. Are you ready to see magic happen in the state of Kentucky?
Author’s Bio:
Alicia Rother is a freelance content strategist who works with small businesses and startups to boost their brand reach through creative content design and write-ups. You can connect with her here.
