How to Choose a Brand Designer (without ending up a horror story)
Introduction
Choosing a brand designer is perhaps one of the most intimate things you’ll ever do for your business. So naturally, it’s not something you want to decide lightly.
I write this post in the hopes that I can make the whole process even slightly less daunting. By arming you with the tools you need to make a decision that’s not only good for your business, but stress-free for you.
If I were in your shoes looking to hire a designer for my brand, here are all the things I’d look for in excruciating detail (plus a quick overview below for those who just want the SparkNotes—yes, I know I’m dating myself, pretty sure the kids just use AI these days).
How to choose a brand designer: quick tips
A designer’s style is usually what gets them onto your shortlist, and that’s a perfectly valid way to narrow things down. But once you have a shortlist, there are a few details you want to be paying close attention to. What process does the designer follow when building brands? How will the project fit into your life over the weeks or months you’ll be working together. From the very first interaction with any designer, you’ll want to vet them for:
- Strategy. Do they dig into your audience, positioning, and business goals before they design anything?
- Process. Do they show you clear milestones for every stage of the project?
- Communication. Do they communicate well from your very first conversation?
Once you get a sense of these things, you’ll have a much better idea of what makes a good designer, and which one feels right for you.
Why choosing a designer feels so risky
If you’ve started looking for a designer, you’ve probably done a lot of scrolling. Instagram, Pinterest, portfolio after portfolio, until one popped and made you stop and say “okay, that’s the one.”
Style matters, of course. But a portfolio only shows you how a project ended up, not the process it took to get there. And some projects go very wrong.
One of our clients worked with an agency before she came to us. After going through their whole process, they started demanding payment for things she assumed she’d already paid for, and she ended up walking away with nothing (not even her files) after spending over $10K.
Sometimes you get the short end of the stick. This guide is here to help you avoid becoming one of those horror stories with your own branding project.
What you’re actually hiring a brand designer to do
If you’re still deciding whether you need a new brand at all, you can start with our article on the only reason to hire a brand designer. But if you’re already past that point, let’s talk about what you’re paying for.
A logo is one deliverable. A brand is a system.
A logo is one piece of the puzzle. A brand is everything around it: your colors, fonts, photography style, voice, packaging, website, social templates, and the rules that hold it all together so you look like you everywhere. A good brand designer builds a system you can hand off to a social media manager, a printer, or a web developer without having to double-check every single thing they make.
Pretty isn’t the point. Strategy is.
Anyone with a good eye can make something that looks nice. What you’re paying a brand designer for is a brand that gets picked by the right people. Maybe you want to raise your prices, attract a new type of customer, get your product into retail, or land a feature in a publication your dream clients read. Your brand has to be built for that goal, and the only way to build for it is to start with strategy.
What their strategy process should cover
Before a single sketch, a strategic brand designer should be digging into:
- Your target audience. Who you’re trying to attract, what they care about, and what makes them hesitate.
- Your positioning. Where you sit in your market right now, and where you want to sit.
- Your competitors. What everyone else in your space looks and sounds like, so you don’t blend in with them.
- Your unique selling points. What makes you different, and how to make that obvious at a glance.
This is literally the foundation your entire brand sits on. Before you choose colors or fonts, or design your packaging or website, you and your designer need to be on the same page about who you’re talking to, what you’re offering them, and why it matters.
So if a designer’s process doesn’t cover any of this… well, that’s a red flag. (We cover all the red flags in more detail below, if you want to skip ahead.)
What a good branding process looks like
It starts with a discovery call
A good designer wants to understand your business problems before they talk about solutions. What are you struggling with? Why are you looking for a new brand right now? What would success look like a year from now?
Imagine going to the doctor with a broken arm and getting prescribed cold medicine the second you walk in. The doctor didn’t ask a single question before diagnosing you, and obviously, you didn’t get the right treatment. Branding works the same way. Be wary of anyone who tries to sell you a logo before they even know why you need one.
Clear milestones with dates
A good process has milestones you can see from day one: when you’ll see the strategy, when you’ll see first concepts, how many rounds of revisions you get, and when your final files land in your inbox. Milestones show that a designer has done this enough times to plan for it, and that they’ve thought through how to keep your project running smoothly. They also give both of you an easy way to tell if things are on track.
Communication is a preview of the whole project
From the very first moment you interact with a designer, you’re getting a preview of how the project will go. How fast do they reply? Do they meet with you on a call, or is everything over email? Do they send Loom videos walking you through their work? Are they close enough to meet in person, and does that even matter to you? None of these are right or wrong, but you should know what you’re signing up for, and it should work for you.
Questions to ask on a discovery call
The discovery call is your chance to interview them, too. These are the questions I’d ask, along with what a good answer sounds like.
| Ask this | A good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| What strategy work do you do before starting a branding project? | They walk you through how they research your audience, positioning, and competitors, and how that shapes the design. |
| Can you show me a project where the strategy influenced the design? | A specific example, like “we learned this about their customers, so we did that.” |
| Walk me through your process and timeline. | Clear phases with dates and a realistic total timeline (not “a few days”). |
| How many rounds of revisions do I get, and what happens if I don’t like the first round? | A set number of rounds and a plan for when a direction isn’t working, without getting defensive. |
| How do we communicate during the project? | Where updates happen, how often you’ll hear from them, and how quickly they usually reply. |
| When do I receive my files, and how does ownership transfer? | A clear list of files and formats, when you’ll get them, and ownership terms spelled out in the contract (including what happens if the project ends early). |
| What are some challenges you’ve faced on past projects, and how did you handle them? | A real example where they own their part, explain how they fixed it, and share what they changed in their process afterward. |
| What’s been your most successful project, and what results did it get? | Business results, like more inquiries, higher prices, a retail deal, or press, not just “the client loved it.” |
| What happens after the brand is done? | Brand guidelines, help rolling it out, or a plan for next steps like packaging or your website. |
Why these questions matter
These questions reveal so much about how a designer or agency actually works. They might even bring up past projects that didn’t go well and why, the kind of horror stories you never would have thought to ask about.
Like the one I came across while browsing the r/PackagingDesign subreddit this past weekend. A card game maker had hired a freelancer to design their box. The project was supposed to take 2 months with 3 rounds of revisions, and the first design came back within a week. So far, so good. Then the second design missed a deadline the designer set herself. She asked for a couple more days, then a little more time, and on the day it was finally due… nothing, not even a message. The client was left wondering how to even start that conversation, and understandably, they’d lost their trust in her.
One of the commenters, a packaging designer, said it best: it only takes a minute or two to send a quick update. A simple “you won’t get anything today, but here’s when you will” would have saved a lot of that trust.
Asking the right questions up front can save you so much heartache. You might not have known to ask them before, but now you do. So take a screenshot of this table, print it out, whatever works for you, and you’ll have it ready for every designer you talk to.
Red flags, yellow flags, and green flags when hiring a brand designer
Red flags
They never ask about your business. Remember the doctor who prescribes before asking about your symptoms? It’s so important for a designer to understand what the project is, who you’re designing for, why you’re designing for them, and what a successful project would look like. Maybe you want the brand to bring in more customers, get you featured in major publications, boost your sales, or build brand loyalty. How is a designer supposed to build a brand that does any of that if they don’t know anything about your business?
They can’t explain their design choices. “It just felt right” isn’t a reason. Every design choice should connect back to strategy. When you’re talking to a designer for the first time, ask about their strategic process, and have them walk you through a few past projects. A lot of designers even break down the strategy behind each project right in their portfolio. You can’t fix a problem you haven’t acknowledged, so if a designer doesn’t know what they’re trying to fix (or why), they won’t be tackling the right problem.
There’s no contract, or file ownership is unclear. You don’t want to become the next horror story, so get everything in writing and read your contract carefully. If there’s a clause you don’t love, ask the designer or agency why it’s there and whether it’s flexible. A lot of the time they’ll change it for you, so don’t be afraid to ask.
They go quiet. You won’t always know this before it happens, but pay attention to their communication style early on. Do they respond to emails promptly? If they told you they’d email you on Tuesday, did they? Deadlines slip sometimes, but a designer who disappears instead of sending a two-line update will most likely do it again when it matters even more.
Yellow flags
They promise a full brand in a day or a week. You’ve probably seen offers like VIP days or “branding in a week.” That’s not to say some designers don’t have dialed-in processes that create something amazing. But there’s a limit to how much you can get done in 24 hours or a couple of days, and shortcuts are inevitably going to be taken. Sometimes things are templated too, so you won’t be getting the most custom experience. That might matter to you a lot, or it might matter to you zero. The question is whether you want it fast, or done with time and attention to detail.
For reference, I’d question anything under 2 weeks for a full brand. In our studio, a branding project usually takes around 6 weeks, sometimes 8. That can include strategy, creative direction, brand guidelines, packaging, and collateral like social media templates, business cards, and ad creative. Some projects include website design, too. When you’re creating a brand, you want to think about every touch point customers will have with you over the next 1, 2, 5, or 10 years. You want a brand that works with all of those things, stands the test of time, and is easy to hand off to other people.
Their testimonials only talk about looks. If the reviews only say things like “beautiful design!” and never mention the strategy, timeliness, reliability, or being easy to work with, it’s hard to tell how the project actually went. You have to wonder what’s being left out.
Green flags
They’re booked out. That’s a really good sign. The best designers are usually booked several months, or even years, in advance.
They aren’t the cheapest. When a designer isn’t the cheapest option, you know they’re putting real time and effort into your project, because that’s what you’re paying for. There are times when pricing gets inflated (a lot of agencies, for example), but generally, you don’t want the absolute cheapest price, since that can be a sign of low quality. Somewhere in the middle is good, and the higher end of the middle can be great. And if the designer you loved talking to the most also happens to be the most expensive, but you love their process and got a good vibe from them? That’s a good sign. If you have the resources to invest, it’s probably a good investment.
They send you a questionnaire. This is fantastic. It means they’re doing their homework before diving deeper into your brand, and that they care enough to learn about your business so they can do their best work for you. Try not to treat it like a chore. Think of it as a time investment in your own business. Some designers will go through it with you on a live call, but having your answers ready ahead of time makes the important deep work a lot more efficient.
One more thing: they don’t have a project exactly like yours
Don’t be thrown off if a designer doesn’t have a project that looks exactly like yours. Some of the best designers work on a small number of very custom projects, so they may not have done something identical to what you need. That fresh eye might even make them more creative.
What’s important is that skills are transferable. If they have the right design thinking and the right approach to strategy, they can usually apply it to your industry. The exception is a project that needs specialized knowledge. If you need a medical website and they’ve never done one, that’s a legitimate reason to keep looking. But if you’re an author and they’ve only worked with photographers, there are a lot of similarities between those two creative services, so it shouldn’t scare you off.
When in doubt, ask on the discovery call: “I noticed you have [project] in your portfolio. Is a project like mine something you’ve done before, and how would you approach it?” Then see what their plan is.
Your options: DIY, freelancer, studio, or agency
| Option | Typical cost | What you get | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY or AI tools | $0 to $100 | A fast, cheap starting point | Rarely unique or trademarkable, and no strategy behind it |
| Freelancer | About $500 to $5K | One designer, with quality that ranges widely | Experience is hard to vet, and one person is a single point of failure |
| Boutique studio or small agency | About $3K to $30K | Strategy-led work from specialists, with hands-on attention | Often booked out, and not the cheapest option |
| Large agency | $20K and up, often much more | Big teams with lots of resources | Higher overhead, and work may be handed off to people you never meet |
Why the extremes are riskier
There are horror stories all across the industry, but you definitely tend to find more outliers on the two extremes. The agency that pocketed $10K without delivering files and the freelancer who went radio silent at every milestone sat on opposite ends of the price range, and yet the clients ran into the same problems.
With big agencies that charge a lot, you might think you’re paying for a guarantee. But a lot of agencies are bloated, pass the work off to other people, and charge a premium for deliverables you can’t always trace back to the person who did them. Which means you really have to do your due diligence before you sign any contracts.
On the other hand, freelancers often aren’t vetted, so you’re kind of rolling the dice when you work with one. You often don’t have a lot of reviews to go off of, and you don’t know what you’re getting until you work with them. So while you will save some money, you have to decide how much of a risk you’re willing to take with your project.
Studios like ours sit in the sweet spot, and not just because that’s where we sit in the market. You’re usually working with a small team of specialists who have years of experience working directly with clients or at big agencies, and who pay close attention to detail. So the whole project doesn’t hinge on one person’s availability or expertise.
Before you reach out: how to prepare
A good designer will help you think through a lot of this, but you’ll get even more out of the process if you come in knowing the following.
The biggest problems you’re trying to fix. Maybe you’re raising your prices, going after a new type of customer, heading into retail, or trying to look like you belong in bigger rooms.
Who your target customer is. What problems are they dealing with? How does your product or service solve them, and what makes it uniquely positioned to do that? What do they need to know before they’ll trust you? This matters so much because your whole brand should be crafted around that ideal customer.
What makes you different. Your unique selling points, even if you’re not sure how to put them into words yet. This will be the basis for how your designer differentiates you.
Your budget and timeline. If you’re rebranding, you might also need other assets like brand or product photography, copywriting, or something else entirely. Set aside some budget for the extras if you can, and leave room for your designer to suggest things you might need.
Your availability. Bring a willing attitude, be ready to work, and make time to give feedback. It’ll help the whole process go a lot smoother.
And finally, once you’re ready to get serious about your branding, start looking for a designer at least 2 to 3 months out. Designers typically stay booked, so if you have a very specific designer in mind, you might even need to reach out 6 months in advance. Rushing at the end tends to give you exactly the result you’d expect, and you’ll usually pay a premium for last-minute hiring too. Keep that in mind if budget (and quality) matter to you.
Where to find a brand designer
Once you know what you’re looking for, the searching part gets a lot easier.
You can search Instagram for hashtags like #branddesigner, #logodesigner, and #visualidentity, or look for more specific styles and project types on Pinterest, Behance, or Dribbble. Ask business owners whose brands you admire who they worked with. If you see a website you love, scroll down to the footer, since a lot of sites list who designed them. For bigger brands, you can sometimes just Google the brand and find out who their designer was.
You can also read designers’ blogs (like this one), and don’t sleep on Reddit and Threads, where we’ve met a bunch of our clients.
Once you have a shortlist, go back through the questions and red flags above before you book any discovery calls.
A quick summary
Style gets a designer onto your list, but strategy, process, and communication drive the project. So do your prep work, ask the hard questions on the discovery call, and pick a designer you can trust: one who does their research, does top-notch work, and will deliver the best results for your brand.
And look at reviews, past work, and their process, sure. But at the end of the day, a gut feeling is valid too. Sometimes you’ll just get a good feeling about a particular designer, and that’s okay. As long as they tick most of the boxes above, you’re in good shape.
Looking for a strategy-first branding studio? Tell us a little about your project here, and we’ll talk through what your brand needs.
And if you’re not sure whether you even need a designer… well, we have a whole theory on that (spoiler alert: there’s actually only one reason to hire a brand designer).
FAQ
How much does it cost to hire a brand designer?
DIY and AI tools cost next to nothing, while freelancers range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. Boutique studios typically run anywhere from $3K to $5K on the low end, and around $20K to $30K for a full premium brand. Large agencies usually start at $20K and can go well past that. You can see the full comparison table here.
How long does a branding project take?
Anywhere from 2 to 12 weeks. A logo on its own is much faster than a full brand identity, but add on packaging, social media templates, or other marketing materials, and that’s extra time on the project. Our branding projects take around 6 to 8 weeks on average.
Should I hire a freelancer or an agency?
It depends on your budget and how much risk you’re comfortable with. Freelancers cost less but vary widely in experience, and large agencies cost a lot more without guaranteeing a better result. If you’re looking for something in between, boutique studios typically sit right in the middle. Here’s how the options compare.
Should I hire a brand designer who works in my industry?
It’s always a bonus if you can find someone who’s done exactly what you want a million times before. But design and branding skills are very transferable, so it’s more important that you like their style and the quality of their work, and that their process and communication style work well for you.
What should I have ready before I reach out?
Know the biggest problems you’re trying to fix, who your target customer is, and what makes you different. Have a budget and timeline in mind (including room for things like photography and copywriting if you’re rebranding), and be ready to give feedback. More on preparing here.
