Do I need a graphic designer when there are DIY options out there?
This is something I hear a lot, from businesses big and small. I put this blog together to look at some of the positives and negatives of doing your own graphic design for your business.
The pros and cons of DIY design.
Here’s what I think: DIY design apps are fine if you are using them as a layout tool. If you’re overlaying text over images, working with simple colour blocks or grids, but with your own imagery. It’s a useful tool for creating the correct size graphics for, say, twitter posts and facebook covers.
What do DIY design apps offer?
What Canva and other similar apps offer, is a set of resources that can be used over and over by multiple users (and there’s a lot of them.) This is where I worry that businesses relying solely on free app generated content can get lost in the crowd. The whole point of creating content is to get you seen! The best way to do that is to be original.
DIY Graphic Design templates
Also where I think it get really ‘iffy’ is when you use Canva to create a logo – A logo is a business identifier and therefore it should be unlike any other. Using a logo template or simply a fancy font, means that your business logo can be replicated fairly easily by another business, and in fact a lot of the time by a business in the same industry, it doesn’t look great having the same logo as your nearest competitor does it. Not to mention you most likely won’t get the files you need and you only get a single version of your flattened logo.
Over-saturation of
templated design
I’m also not a lover of the ‘popular’ canva templates – Yes its tempting when you want to chuck something up on social media quickly and easily, and they are the first ones you see when you open the app – I get it, were all busy people and its super quick and easy, but when people see the same old templates used over and over they almost tune off to it. I mean who hasn’t seen this template used a million times before?!
When should I hire
a graphic designer?
So here’s where I think a graphic designer comes in.. It’s when you are ready for your brand to have its own personality, when being instantly recognisable across all platforms is a must, and most importantly when your business is ready for real growth.
Can I hire a professional graphic designer with a small budget?
I’m not saying go the whole hog, if you are a smaller business – start small, maybe approach a designer with a budget and see where they can help. It might be that you get a couple of backgrounds made up for social media – perhaps your own ‘canva style’ template that no one else has access to. It could be as simple as getting a set of font and colour palette suggestions to ensure you have a consistent look.
Have something created that holds value, and can be applied to multiple resources.
You can slowly build up a bank of resources which are unique to your business, use design apps as a simple layout tool to build them as and when you need to. Recycle your content (because spoiler alert – no-one loves your brand enough to have seen every bit on content you put out there) by swapping out backgrounds, alternating graphic elements and changing colours, you can make your content work for you without needing to spend a small fortune.
We also offer flexible payment options, just get in touch and let us know what would work for you!
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