Outsourcing the Right Hierarchy of Graphic Designers

A picture is worth a million words. This old adage is especially true for branding and marketing exercises. If you’re a marketing manager or a small business owner, access to the right creative team is essential for your business growth. Hiring a creative agency or your own team might affect your marketing budget. It is common for small businesses and budding brands to lose money over agency fees, with very little budget left for actual marketing spends.  Fortunately, by outsourcing graphic designers, you can cover this essential skill gap and expand your advertising budget. 

Since the language of visuals is universal, you can hire a graphic designer from anywhere in the world. However, there are a few things you need to know before you outsource designers profitably. 

Let us say you decide to hire a graphic designer from India because of the clear pricing benefit and India’s heightened understanding of global needs. You will get applications from multiple designers for your project. How do you decide which designer to hire then? In order to hire the apt resource, it is very important for you to understand the hierarchy of graphic designers before you hire graphic designers. 

1. Junior graphic designers

Junior graphic designers are freshers with zero to couple of years of experience. These young graduates generally have a better understanding of the tools used in graphic designing. However, they still have to learn to visualize.

Their deft understanding of software makes them ideal for any artwork that requires renditions, adaptations and duplication. Their inexperience means they need someone to guide them and match their understanding of graphic design to market standards. They also need guidance to understand creative briefs and execute their ideas once they’ve understood the brief. 

When do you hire a junior graphic designer?

A) You have the skill to guide the junior graphic designer 

B) You already have a brand manager and an art director in-house

C) You need renditions and adaptations of complete art-works

D) Both your budget and the scope of work are limited and you don’t need an expert

2. Graphic Designer 

If you want to outsource graphic design work that requires creative inputs from your design team, then you need your team to be experienced.  You should outsource graphic designers with three to five years of experience. 

These mid-level graphic designers are capable of quickly following any brief once the details have been explained to them. They have the ability to visualize and adapt any campaign to deliver different creatives.

They might not understand the finer elements of branding. However, they have had enough exposure to pick up on cues with minimal instructions. You can outsource graphic design requirements to them with little supervision from your branding team. 

When do you outsource a graphic designer?

A) You have an art director and brand manager on your team

B) The marketing campaign you envision for your brand requires skilled graphic designers 

C) If you require real creative work and not just adaptations of past creatives for various forms of media

3. Senior Graphic Designers or Visualizers

A senior graphic designer has at least 8-10 years of work experience. This is a key leadership position. A senior graphic designer not only follows instructions but also guides a team of junior graphic designers. Outsourcing a graphic designer with seniority is therefore a big commitment. These senior resources bring with them not only the knowledge of various tools required but also a vision of how a campaign should look. 

Hiring a graphic designer of such skill and caliber is extremely useful for your in-house team as it reduces the burden of day-to-day functioning on your management. Tasks will be assigned by the senior graphic designer to all the other members involved. Your Art Director has to only give a brief. 

Why should you outsource a senior graphic designer?

A) You’re going to hire an entire team of designers offshore 

B) You need graphics to be made on a regular basis

C) You want to expand your operations and you need a strong artistic backup for that 

D) You have a talented art director as well as a brand manager in-house

4. Art Director 

An Art Director is the highest designation you can look out for in the hierarchy of graphic designers. If your business requires regular production of artwork and graphics, it is essential to have a person who can guide you with your vision. An art director is then the man for the job.

Art directors not only understand your business requirements but are also capable of giving their own inputs to your creative needs. Graphic designers that become Art Directors have a lot of experience working in the field. They know how the market works and what kind of creativity would make a product or service marketable.

If you’re outsourcing an Art Director, it means you’re also outsourcing graphic designers. Thus, your entire creative team will be offshore. A good art director will help you hire graphic designers from a vast pool of talent to complete the job. Their presence adds a lot of value to your team - from inception to execution of ideas.

Why should you outsource an Art Director?

A) You’re looking to outsource your entire creative team due to the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing 

B) You’re confident that the country you’re outsourcing to has the global skillset to deliver your creatives 

C) This means proper knowledge of English and availability of the latest graphic tools 

D) You’re confident that the team you hire can deliver good quality work on time, every time

Which country is the best for creative outsourcing?

In order to achieve all your creative marketing goals, there are certain prerequisites you must take into consideration while approaching a said skill market. 

• The country you outsource your projects to should be connected to global culture 
• The laws and regulations of the country must be supportive of outsourcing 
• The skills and services you’re looking for must be available at an affordable price 
• The workforce you hire must be used to working with offshore clients
• The team you hire must be comfortable with English as the official language 

India has always been the preferred location for outsourcing. The country’s young and talented labor force is ideal for outsourcing ventures. The right laws and regulations are in place to make hiring simple for you. Cost of labor is offset by the difference in currency prices, making it a win-win situation for all parties involved. English is still widely used in India. India, as a country, follows and even leads in certain global trends. Therefore, you can hire the best graphic designers in India that match the caliber of your local market and are capable of creating an effective creative team for your company within a desired budget.