
Why are you investing your company’s time and money into this project? What do you hope to achieve?

Micah Panama, Creative Director at Gusto Your creative brief must include: If you don’t set things up correctly, you can waste a lot of time and money, and potentially ruin your relationship with the folks you hire. You can also share the brief with vendor candidates during your search to make discussions efficient, and use it as a basis for your project contract. Next, operationalize those needs into a creative brief document for the specific project you’re hiring for, which will guide your search.Ī creative brief is your opportunity to get consensus from your team and any project stakeholders so everyone is aligned on goals, budget, and scope.
Freelance graphic design studio how to#
We’ll show you how to get the most out of your relationship, from laying guardrails for collaboration to giving effective feedback to troubleshooting when the work isn’t up to par. Create great work togetherįinding a partner isn’t the end goal. This section is all about the search: getting vendor referrals, vetting their portfolios, which questions to ask during screening conversations, and what to put in the contract before you kick off a project. We’ll also look at the pros and cons of freelancers, studios, and larger agencies. We’ll help you clarify what you need and what resources you have available, which will fast-track you to the right match. Start by understanding the project (and yourself) better. This guide will help you build long-lasting, fruitful relationships with creative service providers who can bring your visions to life. You’ll also hear tips from our design community-not just from clients, such as founders and heads of design, marketing, and brand, but from service providers themselves. In this guide, we’ll pass along best practices we’ve uncovered over years of hiring creatives and acting as a design advisor to startups.

In a sea of creative vendors, how do you make sure you have the right early conversations, screen candidates, and make a great impression yourself? How can you structure a partnership to produce the best work possible?

But we also see folks struggle to hire someone for the first time, find a good fit, or get quality work out of the relationship. Freelancers, studios, and agencies can also be more than just an extra pair of hands they can be strategic thought partners, helping you create work that is core to your business.Īt Designer Fund, we have seen many productive, inspiring pairings between our portfolio companies and their external creative partners. Nearly every startup needs creative help at some point in their lifecycle-often during key inflection points, such as raising funds, up-leveling into a new market, or communicating who they are to the world for the very first time.
