Where and how do I find graphic designers?

If you need some artwork but don’t have the skills yourself, you might need to work with a graphic designer, illustrator or artist to make sure you get awesome results. It can be daunting reaching out to people who work in a different industry to you; Where should you look? What should you ask for? How do you know who to trust? Our guide to finding graphic designers will make it less of a minefield for you.

Try one of the well-established online design communities such as Behance or Dribbble. They have hundreds of thousands of designers, artists, photographers, illustrators, animators and more, and are trusted by design professionals. They let designers showcase their work, get feedback from the design community, and take on freelance projects. Try searching by project type, for example; logo, album artwork, music poster, gig flyer etc. Once you find a designer you like, you can reach out to them over messaging to see if they’d be interested in working with you.

There are loads of freelance job sites where you can find designers, artists, illustrators and more. Some examples are Upwork, 5iver, Thumbtack and 99Designs. They’re all slightly different, but usually you submit your project brief, then designers will pitch in to complete your project. The cons are that you always have to pay, and sometimes you can’t set your own budget. Some services reserve their best designers for top-paying clients, meaning if you have a small budget you may be given an inexperienced designer. Some freelance work services have come under scrutiny in recent years for selling copied work and not giving designers a fair deal.

Don’t forget meetups and clubs in your local area. If you’re lucky enough to live in a large town or city there could be designer events happening under your very nose. Find out when they are and go down and talk to people to see if they’d be interested in working for you. That way you get to meet designer folks face to face. Try searching Facebook, Twitter or Meetup.com for events near you.