When It’s Time to Hire a Graphic Designer

Printers are always complaining about how difficult it is to hire a graphic designer because they either want too much in wages or their portfolios aren’t that impressive. My advice is for print owners to stop wasting time looking for the perfect designer and concentrate on hiring a good press technician or desktop designer. Most small commercial and quick printers don’t have much original design work that requires a trained graphic designer. They need someone who can get customer originals ready for press.

Most originals are now submitted as digital files, so a prepress person’s job is to make sure the customer-created file will print properly. Most printers need a desktop publisher for changes, file corrections, or to have something replicated. Like the typesetter in years past, the desktop publisher’s job is to type or import text, choose the correct fonts, styles, justification, paragraph, line, word and letter spacing. They make sure illustrations and color meet specified criteria for printing. They also ensure good presentation, readability as well as proofread and check for consistency of style. These are the tasks most small printers require.

The graphic designer’s role is to create the visual concept to communicate ideas that inspire, inform and captivate consumers. They also develop branding and advertising materials that integrate with a formalized marketing plan. The graphic designer comes up with the ideas and concepts, and the desktop publishers and prepress staff makes it work. Most customers, particularly those with marketing projects, already have a designer and just need technical help with the printing.

If you can only have one person in the prepress department, hire a desktop publisher/prepress technician. Graphic designers quickly become bored with what they consider mundane, day-to-day prepress work that doesn’t require their design expertise. Having a graphic designer doing prepress and typesetting work is like having a full-color press operator run a duplicator press all day. They quickly miss the challenge.

If you think you do want to hire a graphic designer, make sure you can answer “yes” to the following questions:

• Do you have enough design work to keep a graphic designer busy and cover their cost? If you are only billing a couple hours a week for true design work, you are better off using an outside contractor.
• Are you comfortable that you can sell your graphic design services based on value? It isn’t the amount of time used to create the work that sets the selling price. It is all about the perceived value for what the design will accomplish for the customer. Look at prices that graphic designers charge and determine if you are comfortable asking for that amount for your work.
• Do you have a proactive sales staff to sell the graphic designer’s services? This type of work doesn’t just walk in the door. It requires making sales calls to the promising prospects who already buy graphic design services. In many cases, it will also mean the salesperson will be taking the graphic designer on the call. Make sure the graphic designer is as good a “people person” as they are a graphic designer.
• Do you have prospects who use and buy graphic design services? Your best prospects will be your customers who are already buying graphic services from someone else. You don’t want to sell graphic design to customers who will get sticker shock when they see the price. You need to identify customers who consistently buy advertising and marketing material. Amateur graphic design buyers can waste your time. They often have unrealistic expectations of what the design will do.
• Are you comfortable charging premium prices for your graphic design services? Providing a customized, unique design concept that was developed specifically for a specific customer by your staff deserves a high price. If your first thought is “the customer won’t pay this price,” you probably shouldn’t be trying to sell graphic design.
• Are you ready to pay a higher wage for a graphic designer than a prepress technician or desktop publisher? The average wage for a graphic designer is just over $20 an hour. Expect to pay even more for one with more experience.

Graphic design services require a big commitment from a print owner. Before you hire a graphic designer, make sure you already have someone who can provide customers with the technical assistance to get the job printed right and on time. The profitable print shops have a prepress staff who can work with graphic designers and guide them through the print process. Fill that position before you attempt to add a graphic designer and you will have the profits to expand the prepress department when you are ready.

John Giles is a consultant for the printing industry who welcomes questions from readers. John works with Tom Crouser and CPrint International to help printers prosper. He is the author of The DTP PriceList that is included in the 2018 Crouser Pricing Guide found at www.cprint.com. If you have questions about making your printing company more profitable, contact John at (954) 224-1942, [email protected] or [email protected].

Printers are always complaining about how difficult it is to hire a graphic designer because they either want too much in wages or their portfolios aren’t that impressive. My advice is for print owners to stop wasting time looking for the perfect designer and concentrate on hiring a good press technician or desktop designer. Most small commercial and quick printers don’t have much original design work that requires a trained graphic designer. They need someone who can get customer originals ready for press.

Most originals are now submitted as digital files, so a prepress person’s job is to make sure the customer-created file will print properly. Most printers need a desktop publisher for changes, file corrections, or to have something replicated. Like the typesetter in years past, the desktop publisher’s job is to type or import text, choose the correct fonts, styles, justification, paragraph, line, word and letter spacing. They make sure illustrations and color meet specified criteria for printing. They also ensure good presentation, readability as well as proofread and check for consistency of style. These are the tasks most small printers require.

The graphic designer’s role is to create the visual concept to communicate ideas that inspire, inform and captivate consumers. They also develop branding and advertising materials that integrate with a formalized marketing plan. The graphic designer comes up with the ideas and concepts, and the desktop publishers and prepress staff makes it work. Most customers, particularly those with marketing projects, already have a designer and just need technical help with the printing.

If you can only have one person in the prepress department, hire a desktop publisher/prepress technician. Graphic designers quickly become bored with what they consider mundane, day-to-day prepress work that doesn’t require their design expertise. Having a graphic designer doing prepress and typesetting work is like having a full-color press operator run a duplicator press all day. They quickly miss the challenge.

If you think you do want to hire a graphic designer, make sure you can answer “yes” to the following questions:

• Do you have enough design work to keep a graphic designer busy and cover their cost? If you are only billing a couple hours a week for true design work, you are better off using an outside contractor.
• Are you comfortable that you can sell your graphic design services based on value? It isn’t the amount of time used to create the work that sets the selling price. It is all about the perceived value for what the design will accomplish for the customer. Look at prices that graphic designers charge and determine if you are comfortable asking for that amount for your work.
• Do you have a proactive sales staff to sell the graphic designer’s services? This type of work doesn’t just walk in the door. It requires making sales calls to the promising prospects who already buy graphic design services. In many cases, it will also mean the salesperson will be taking the graphic designer on the call. Make sure the graphic designer is as good a “people person” as they are a graphic designer.
• Do you have prospects who use and buy graphic design services? Your best prospects will be your customers who are already buying graphic services from someone else. You don’t want to sell graphic design to customers who will get sticker shock when they see the price. You need to identify customers who consistently buy advertising and marketing material. Amateur graphic design buyers can waste your time. They often have unrealistic expectations of what the design will do.
• Are you comfortable charging premium prices for your graphic design services? Providing a customized, unique design concept that was developed specifically for a specific customer by your staff deserves a high price. If your first thought is “the customer won’t pay this price,” you probably shouldn’t be trying to sell graphic design.
• Are you ready to pay a higher wage for a graphic designer than a prepress technician or desktop publisher? The average wage for a graphic designer is just over $20 an hour. Expect to pay even more for one with more experience.

Graphic design services require a big commitment from a print owner. Before you hire a graphic designer, make sure you already have someone who can provide customers with the technical assistance to get the job printed right and on time. The profitable print shops have a prepress staff who can work with graphic designers and guide them through the print process. Fill that position before you attempt to add a graphic designer and you will have the profits to expand the prepress department when you are ready.

John Giles is a consultant for the printing industry who welcomes questions from readers. John works with Tom Crouser and CPrint International to help printers prosper. He is the author of The DTP PriceList that is included in the 2018 Crouser Pricing Guide found at www.cprint.com. If you have questions about making your printing company more profitable, contact John at (954) 224-1942, [email protected] or [email protected].