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Do I need a Graphic Designer

t has been said that graphic designers are increasingly unnecessary - companies know what they want, they have a member of staff able to do the work, and companies are unwilling to pay for outside graphic design services that they deem expensive when costs are being squeezed.

But is this really so? Companies may be saving on costs, but maybe at the expense of what experienced graphic designers add to the profitability of the company.

Many companies understand the importance of how they project themselves through their printed materials. The effectiveness of the messages they want to get across to their customers are vital to their commercial success. They must be consistent in the way they present themselves; in the way they express their corporate identity. And they must forever steal a march on their competitors in exciting their existing and potential customers.

In recent years the software for graphic design (CorelDraw, Illustrator, Quark, Photoshop etc.) has become freely available on the High Street and compatible for PC's. This has brought the creation of the files to print from within the scope of anyone within a company confident enough to put together company leaflets, brochures and stationery.

In major corporations this task has been assigned to qualified graphic designers brought in house, or to existing staff with an interest in design and some appropriate training. In SME's staff have had to train themselves through trial and error (with the help of patient print studios!).

In the former the resultant files for print have been good enough to print from, and depending on the level of training invested, the design work has been fit for purpose.

In the SME's the quality of files has been frustrating sometimes for the ever patient printer to work from, and the design often done a disservice to the company concerned.

The printer receiving files that need work on to make ready for print suffers additional costs in his studio sorting the files out (which he is often hesitant to charge for), and time delays achieving delivery deadlines which his client invariably attributes to the printer.

The qualified graphic designer however has an advantage on both categories of in-house designer. He will be experienced in the software programmes so avoiding delays and mistakes. And whether he works alone or within a major design agency he will understand all the graphic design tricks of the trade that achieves effective design.

Whilst the non-qualified company designer will be fighting with the programme, trying to implement in the design work at all, the qualified designer will be concentrating on how to get a complicated brand message across in a simple visual way.

Even in-house design studios with excellent designers struggle with one basic problem. How do we create the next printed piece that moves the company forward into new territory when their imaginations and creativity has been stifled for so long within the same stories and visual solutions?

Again, the outside graphic designer has the advantage. He works on a range of different briefs from a range of different clients within different industry sectors. He is exposed to the on-going evolution of design ideas through colleagues, different client interactions, and the design media - as well as drawing on all the years of training he endured that covered the history of design development and the understanding of what designs work in each and every design scenario. He can think outside the box that the in-house designer is trapped in!

Perhaps you are beginning to suspect that your competitors are biting at your heels because your customers are being lured away by more exciting design; by design that they feel more able to trust and identify with. Perhaps effective design is more important than short-term cost-cutting.

Perhaps you do need to use a graphic designer?

To Discover How to Get More Out Of Your Graphic Design:

Visit: http://www.pxlpig.com

Copyright 2006 - Neil Aplin

About The Author
Neil Aplin has been working in marketing and sales for more than 22 years, including representing the Field Marketing industry on the ISP Codes of Practice Committee. He has worked on both sides of the fence; for both client companies as the design and print buyer, as well as for design agencies and printers.