The Lemon Fool

I do some small scale self publishing, selling a handful of items each month (between 2 and 8 usually). I would like to improve the professional quality of what I produce in terms of graphic design. Basically comes down to a corporate style, font, images, including a cover page and a logo or other identifying feature - a style that I could also use online.

The income from this hobby project precludes me from spending a lot of money on it, but is it possible to get something useful without costing a lot? Where would I find a graphic designer who could help?

Thanks
C

Hi Clariman.

My brother-in-law is a Graphic Designer and operates as a one-man-band these days. A lot of his recent work has been with smaller scale publications, I understand.

If of interest, I could put you in touch - you could see if you can come to an accommodation?

Regards, Newroad

If it's not an ongoing issue, that is design it and goodbye, have you thought of local colleges.

Graphic art students may be pleased to get a bit of work experience. You could always drop them a few quid for 'expenses' if so inclined.

You could follow up with Newroad's lead but I would also suggest you google 'graphic designers <name of area/town/county>, there will be loads, lots of one man bands working from home as well as bigger outfits. Have a look at their websites, ring a few, tell them what you're about and what you're after, they'll be only too happy to discuss your ideas and ask have you thought of this, what about that, etc. You'll learn a lot yourself from the conversations and hone your requirements accordingly. You'll get a feel for who you can work with, who seems keen, who sounds too busy or a bit too upmarket etc. Finish by asking for a quote for the work and see what they come back with.

I did this myself last year for a charitable project that I'm involved with, we wanted some signage designs. Having never considered graphic design for anything before it was quite the experience, but here's the thing I ended up doing it all myself. It was lockdown and I was bored what can I say. Two stood out from the search, either of which I would happily have given the work to.

How about one of those web small job tendering things. I've never used one but I think it's just the type of job suitable. I used to know another website but the one I can remember just now is https://www.fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design just the first hit.

kempiejon wrote:How about one of those web small job tendering things. I've never used one but I think it's just the type of job suitable. I used to know another website but the one I can remember just now is https://www.fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design just the first hit.

I was impressed with the results a friend obtained from designcrowd with respect to logos
That included in the brief that it needed variants that could be cast in metal - and the end result took minimal tweaking

Not sure how well that kind of croud scourcing could come up with a whole corporate style guide but it could be a good place to get ideas

-sd

kempiejon wrote:How about one of those web small job tendering things. I've never used one but I think it's just the type of job suitable. I used to know another website but the one I can remember just now is https://www.fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design just the first hit.

https://www.upwork.com/cat/design-creative and https://www.peopleperhour.com/services/ ... ogo-design might be the ones you had in mind?

plaguedbyfoibles wrote:

kempiejon wrote:How about one of those web small job tendering things. I've never used one but I think it's just the type of job suitable. I used to know another website but the one I can remember just now is https://www.fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design just the first hit.

https://www.upwork.com/cat/design-creative and https://www.peopleperhour.com/services/ ... ogo-design might be the ones you had in mind?

Also might be worth checking out https://www.guru.com and https://www.freelancer.co.uk to see if you get any bites on them.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and offers of help. In the end I remembered that I knew a graphic designer so I'm going to pay her to do the work, which she is charging at mates rates. Very happy with her initial ideas.

C