By Fernando Berrocal

Whether you're seeking to recruit an in-house team, outsource a project, or hire an outside contractor to produce your digital product design, you will first need to examine their technical qualifications to see if they're the proper fit for your project. Here are the most relevant graphic design abilities to look for, as well as some important soft skills to go along with them:

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Principles of Design: The knowledge of design concepts is a crucial skill for graphic designers. Knowing this set of principles, whether it's for a picture editing job, a print job, or a digital design, demonstrates the designers' abilities. Balance, hierarchy, alignment, repetition, contrast, and other graphic design concepts are among them.

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Design Software: A crucial thing designers must understand is that there are numerous types of design tools. Your graphic designers will require varied design software abilities depending on the type of job you need to be completed. If you want to make mockups and prototypes, you'll need a graphic designer that specializes in User Experience (UX) design. However, if you want to create a website, you should check for experience with web design software such as Adobe Photoshop. Check the designers' competence of Illustrator and InDesign for print production projects.

Ideation: Designers must be able to create original concepts and ideas. They'll almost certainly have to manage the rest of the product team and encourage them to be more innovative as well. That is why designers must be knowledgeable about various research tools and methodologies, as well as the "Design Thinking" process, which helps in the structuring of creativity as well as better evaluation and implementation of ideas.

Communication: Every graphic designer must be able to communicate effectively with their clients, management, and coworkers. Your graphic designers must connect with their employers, management, and other team members to best express their ideas and perspectives and build something that will provide actual value to the business. 

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Creativity: When it comes to working as a graphic designer on any project, creativity is certainly the most important factor to consider. However, creativity entails more than just generating brilliant ideas now and then. When working as a graphic designer is your full-time job and you're working on multiple projects for various customers, you'll need a system in place to help you focus your creative process. As an employer, you should seek graphic designers who have organized their creative thinking and have a framework in place that allows them to generate ideas regularly.

Problem Solving: Apart from utilizing design tools, problem-solving is one of the most important of all graphic design skills. This is because all digital products should answer the concerns of their consumers. The consumer will have a specific requirement in mind when they decide to utilize your product. If the product fails to meet their needs, they will simply move to another. As a result, problem-solving should always be included in a graphic designer's skill set.

Designing the User Experience: It refers to all of the components that make up the process. Market and user research, as well as ideation, prototyping, and testing, are all part of the process. Even if their job is to make advertising for social media, every graphic design expert should have such talents. Not just for mobile and online design, but also for physical product design, the ability to study and analyze the results is essential. Designers with extensive UX design expertise will also have excellent workshop and ideation processes, which will be quite beneficial to your internal team.

Time Management: Lastly, time management is a must-have graphic design ability. Many businesses search for this expertise while hiring for a variety of jobs. Graphic designers, like practically any other profession, must manage their time effectively. Working with visual materials in front of a bright screen and being creative all of the time might be exhausting and monotonous. Designers must be able to manage their time in such a way that they complete their tasks while remaining open to new ideas and project adjustments. Because objectives and criteria are always changing.

Hiring The Best Graphic Design Team: Hiring a good graphic design team is difficult, especially if you lack the necessary expertise. Contacting an outsourcing provider, describing your requirements, and waiting for them to select the best applicants is a different strategy. It is a good method to save time and money on the recruiting process as well as employment expenditures. A contractor who will oversee the full design process is a great resource when looking for a graphic design team. It's ideal for larger projects like creating a website, establishing a new brand, or developing a mobile app.

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