How to Hire a Remote Brand Designer 🏝️

A brand designer is responsible for creating the identity of a product, company, or brand. Their work touches all points of the brand, creating a cohesive narrative for the brand’s community that speaks directly to a target audience.

During the early stages of your branding or redesign, it’s crucial to get recognized in a saturated space and differentiate yourself from the competition. Graphic designers help you level up your brand’s image and attract the audience you’re looking for. The stronger your brand identity, the more compelled your audience will feel toward your brand.

A brand designer can help you:

Create a brand identity system. Brand designers create and work from style guides — documents that lay out the template for the visual representation of a brand with logos, typography, iconography, and more.

Apply research and strategy. Brand designers familiarize themselves with competitors, analyzing what's working for them and how to apply that to your brand.

Work with client briefs. A designer understands the primary requirements of the client and how those requirements should be presented in deliverables.

Develop visuals and logo designs. They’re responsible for a brand’s graphic design, creating a coherent visual identity for a company across various platforms or apps.

Create websites or apps. Designers with UI or UX design skills may also be responsible for designing and building branded websites and apps.

Manage social media platforms. A brand designer is sometimes responsible for overseeing targeted social media campaigns. However, the role of social media manager is quickly becoming a specialized position due to the rate at which social media grows and changes.

Oversee merchandising. If a company offers merchandise, a brand designer ensures that the merch conforms to the style guide and contributes to the company’s growth.

If you’re unsure about hiring a full-time brand designer, you can take the freelancing route; it's more flexible and can turn into something more.

Alongside the technical skills, there are soft skills required for brand designer jobs that build a solid and trusting relationship with the client. These necessary qualities include:

Communication. A brand designer must clearly understand the needs of a client and be able to explain problems or concerns to non-expert audiences, ensuring that the development team is on the same page.

Time management. Deliverables must be turned in on time. Whether freelance or in-house, brand designers must be able to keep to a schedule.

Teamwork. There’s a good chance that a brand designer will not work in a vacuum — consultation with management, marketing teams, and accounting departments is paramount in building a brand.

Organization. Creative professionals often have their own systems of working and achieving their goals. A brand designer must be organized and stick to established schedules as well.

Detail oriented. Brand designers must be aware of the full scope of a company’s branded content and tie all these areas together into a cohesive whole.

In addition to these skills, some projects will require expertise specific to the industry they are working for.

A solidified brand identity is crucial to completing projects and growing your brand. Brand designers blend their knowledge of design with your business goals to create the perfect brand that speaks to the audience you’re working to build.

Hiring an Independent brand designer is like having a fresh pair of eyes on your brand. Like an in-house designer, they will create your brand’s identity and teach you how to apply their design work to tastefully touch each part of your brand. There are additional benefits to hiring an independent brand designer, such as:

Unbiased expert perspectives. An Independent brand designer can provide fresh takes on your brand and research to back them up.

Niche skills. Starting from a wide array of skills and honing in on what they do best, an Independent brand designer can create timeless designs that accommodate current trends.

Focus and urgency. Unlike an in-house brand designer, who may be working on a million things at once, an Independent can spend their time on a specific project and take it from 0 to 100.

Hiring an Independent brand designer is excellent when you need an expert perspective on branding and visual communication, targeting their niche skills on a specific project.

If the preceding information has piqued your interest, the path of a remote brand designer may be right for you. Remote brand design is a challenging and rewarding career. Some benefits of becoming a remote brand designer include:

Growing industry. Branding is crucial for the survival and success of a company. Creative and talented brand designers are a hot commodity, and brand design is a rapidly growing industry.

Ongoing education. As the industry grows, so do the tools and techniques available to brand designers. Those pursuing this career are guaranteed to be constantly learning and improving.

In-house or freelance. Some larger companies may have an in-house design team. Designers who choose this path will enjoy a regular salary and benefits but will work on a single brand. Conversely, Independent designers can work on multiple brands, though they sacrifice some financial stability for variety and flexibility.

Flexible hours. Those who choose the path of freelancing can set their own work hours and have many more options for when or where they work. That said, a brand designer must remain mindful of deadlines and schedules regardless of their working situation.

Whether you’re looking for someone who’s freelance or full-time, here’s how to get to working with brand designers.

Share your opportunities. You never know where you’ll meet your next collaborator. Promote your opportunity within your community, or post it at contra.com/hire to get matched with independent brand designers that perfectly fit your needs.

Set clear expectations and deadlines. Laying out clear expectations with an independent brand designer from the very start will help them flourish in their role. Explain what you’re looking for, and give them all the resources to ensure they get there on time (e.g., market analyses, previous pitch decks, and/or logo concepts).

Establish milestones and goals. Success looks different for everyone, but the Independent must understand your definition for the duration of your opportunity. Set clear milestones to celebrate wins — big or small.

Give timely feedback. As much as you're in a time crunch, so is the Independent! Give feedback within a reasonable timeframe to push the project to completion and provide the Independent time to make edits and changes.

Pay them what they’re worth. The Independent will propose a rate (either hourly or per project). Show them how much you value their work by honoring their fees fairly and justly.

Keep in contact and refer. Just because the project is over doesn’t mean all ties are cut! Keep your line (or DMs) open, and refer the Independent for future projects. Independents often work with other freelancers, so don’t be afraid to ask them for recommendations if they’re unavailable to collaborate. You never know who they might refer you to.

Contra is an Independent-first community and commission-free hiring platform empowering the future of work. We match Independents with flexible opportunities and pair clients with the perfect Independent for any project, from content creation to coding.

To post your first opportunity on Contra, visit contra.com/hire to check out Independent brand designers, browse their Portfolios, and get helpful advice from our Slack community.