Graphic Designer Costs

Whereisgerry?

Hi there,

I'm in the midst of setting up a small company. I have a good knowledge of my product however I'm completely clueless about how to produce documentation/ a manual / a diagrams.

I could throw something together but I want it to look good. Am I naive to think that a quick course in graphic design is my friend? Would employing a designer add significantly to my product cost? The documentation would be very max 50 pages with maybe 5 diagrams.

jimmii

It's the sort of thing where you tend to get what you pay for. If you stump up for a course like that and do it yourself then unless you just happen to be good then it's going to look exactly what it is. No harm in doing the course and seeing how you get on and using that until you can afford to get the sort of thing you want done if time isn't an issue but personally I would probably look to get the job done by someone with some experience to free your time up with things you are better at. You could post it on freelancer and see what sort of numbers come back get a feel for a ball park price for the work.

thomas 123

Having dabbled in it for the last 10 or so years I’d be paying for someone to do it. You need to be focusing on your business and not wasting time learning how to make graphics - while it would be great to know you would be. long time at it.

That being said look at the likes I’ve Fivver.com there are some fantastic people on there with great skills(some awful ones too).

Whereisgerry?

I'm so new to this, I haven’t even heard of Fivver or Freelancer. I will check them out. Thank you very much.

beauf

I used to work in graphic etc, so I'm bias here.
50 pages with only 5 diagrams sounds very dry to me but not everyone gets diagrams, visuals.

Graphics and documentation are very time consuming. I think the first thing, is that best use of your time.
Then if they are done badly will they negatively impact the business, sales and impression. They may not.
At the same time, no need to go overboard on it either.

The other thing is they are subjective. So rather than trusting your own judgement.
Get a few diverse neutral people do give you give your their opinion, especially if you know someone with an eye for any sort of design.
Though if you get an opinion from 10 very similar people, (like 10 goths) they'll probably not give you useful feedback.
Most business owners have a eye for design more like Trump than Steve Jobs when it comes to design. Especially in small companies.

Mrs OBumble

Whereisgerry? wrote: »

Am I naive to think that a quick course in graphic design is my friend? Would employing a designer add significantly to my product cost? .

Yes.

No.

Prepare the content in Word or whatever.

A couple of designer hours will make it look a truckload better than you ever can, and cost you a couple of hundred euro.

beauf

That said our company keeps send stuff out to bad designers. Stuff looks terrible.
They also get stuff back in incompatible formats which our people can't edit.

So beware of that too. If you need it on word. Make sure you get it back in word.

Axwell

A 50-page document with only 5 diagrams - doesn't sound like there is much if any graphic design involved at all here. You know your product best but that sounds very text-heavy, which could be fine or it could mean you are misjudging the amount of design work involved and if you give someone that as a brief the project could end up growing astronomically as you find it needs more design and graphics than you thought.

You are better off initially creating the documentation in word/google docs and put a placeholder in for your images. Flesh out the document until a point you are happy with it and have as much of the groundwork done as you can yourself and then reach out and get some quotes to turn it into a polished manual with the necessary diagrams, cover pages etc.

If you are looking to have the manual printed you could reach out to a few print companies who will have in house designers who could give you costs for the whole thing, as it's a user manual it's more publishing than graphic design. Not all graphic designers are familiar with print and layout requirements so don't just assume someone doing some diagrams for you is capable of doing everything, look to see some previous similar work.

Whereisgerry?

Thanks Axwell.I think you have hit the nail on the head. I need a printing company. It's not a huge document- there is only 1 main diagram that will take some work and then some smaller diagrams and text. The layout /format and look of the document is what is most important to me. I have worked out the content. I just need to make it look more appealing. I will start with a printing company as suggested and go from there. Thanks again.