Graphic Design FAQs
Answering Your Questions
The internet changed the way people interact with small businesses. Brick and mortar small businesses used to rely on personal interactions with local clients to build their brands. Today, people are increasingly finding and interacting with small businesses online where it can be difficult to translate that personal touch that sets your business apart. Even if you still offer brick and mortar services (many of our clients do!), more people are looking for businesses like yours online than ever before.
That’s where your brand design comes in. A strong brand puts a face to your business when you’re not there to personally represent it. When done right, your brand seamlessly reflects your in-person business personality to the broader, online community. A well-executed brand design helps grow your brand awareness – and your bottom line.
If you have a small business, there are three main graphic design services you need: logo design, website design, and marketing. Your logo is the face of your business. Your website tells people what you do so they can use your services. Your marketing puts your brand in front of the right people so they know you exist. All three of these graphic design services work together to build your brand and grow your business.
No. Our small team is based 100% in the United States. We are an American small business that takes pride in building brands for other American small businesses. While there is a place for overseas designers and developers in the market, we would not trust our Daor Design brand in the hands of overseas contractors – so we don’t send your brand overseas either. Quality control, security considerations, and best practice alignment are just a few of the reasons we like to keep our team, our brand, and your brand all here in the United States of America.
Graphic design services are usually priced by the project, by the hour, or as a subscription service. For project-based pricing, you usually know what your project will cost upfront, which is nice. Typically, there is a formal estimate and acceptance process before the project begins to avoid any surprises. For hourly pricing, your final cost will reflect the amount of time spent on the project. If you have a good relationship with your graphic designer, they should make sure the project comes in at a reasonable price for you. However, the risk of runaway project costs with unproven graphic designers may be enough reason to shy away from hourly graphic design services. You don’t want to be surprised by a big bill you aren’t prepared for. Finally, for graphic design subscription services, you usually pay a flat monthly rate for a certain amount of work or deliverables each month. If you’re serious about building your brand for the long haul, a quality subscription service can be a great way to diligently build your brand month after month.
At Daor Design, our small business clients typically start with project-based pricing for their logo design and website design projects. Then they transition to a monthly subscription service designed to help get their new brand in front of the right people with marketing and search engine optimization (SEO).
It depends. If you have a hobby business, or personally have a knack for branding, marketing, and SEO, a subscription service may be overkill for you. Likewise, if you are large enough to have an in-house graphic designer or marketing team, you may already have your bases covered. However, if you’re somewhere in between, a flat-rate, monthly graphic design subscription service is probably the most cost-effective way to build your brand. This setup allows you to develop a strong working relationship with “your” graphic design team at a fraction of the price of actually hiring an in-house team. Over time, they will start to anticipate your needs as they get to know you and your small business.
Graphic design subscription services can cost anywhere from $200 to $2,000+ per month. A good graphic design company will help you find the level of service that perfectly fits your needs. When choosing a subscription service provider, look for one with transparent pricing and a results-driven approach so you can be sure to see a good return on your investment.
According to the SBA, you should base your marketing budget on a percentage of your revenue. Depending on your industry and stage of business, the amount can range from 1% to 12%. If you’re just starting a new small business with no revenue yet, it is important to factor branding and marketing into your startup budget so people can find your new business. While it is essential for all small businesses to set aside a percentage of revenue for marketing, there is good news. As you grow, the percentage of revenue needed to sustain healthy brand and marketing momentum typically gets smaller with time.
Graphic design and marketing go hand in hand. Graphic design is the tool used to bring your brand identity to life. Marketing is the vehicle that helps get your small business brand in front of the right people. When done well, this dynamic duo helps you build your brand and grow your business.
Your brand identity is the visual side of your brand including your logo, colors, fonts, and other design styling. When you “brand” a product, service, or message with your brand identity, people can quickly associate it with your business. A strong brand identity can help grow your brand awareness so people are more likely to use your products or services.
Trusting someone to do your brand design is no small step for a small business owner. When inviting a design team or branding agency to put a face to your business, you’ll want to be sure they’re a great fit. A few things to look for include a strong portfolio of work, good client reviews, a comprehensive suite of services, a highly-responsive project manager, and a willingness to really get to know you and your small business so your brand feels like yours.
A good branding agency will help build, maintain, and grow your brand over time. It is worth taking the time to find the right fit for you and your business.
There are many facets to your small business brand. If you’re a typical small business, you might have a logo, a website, a few social media profiles, business cards, letterhead, team uniforms, office signage, some marketing materials – and the list goes on. A common mistake of small business owners is to hire a logo designer for their logo, then a web design company for their website, then a social media person for their social media, then a graphic designer for their marketing materials – you get the idea. (Or worse, you try to wear a few of the design hats yourself.) Before you know it, you’re trying to wrangle half a dozen people to put out a consistent brand image. While each person may be excellent in their given craft, they don’t see the big picture to understand how their work affects the other facets of your brand. Some symptoms of this fragmented approach include multi-party group emails that go nowhere, frustrating hurdles to make seemingly simple brand updates, and weak brand integrity from having too many cooks in the kitchen. With this setup, your brand never quite looks right and you begin to wonder if it is holding you back.
After a few years of witnessing this recurring problem for our logo design clients of all shapes and sizes (yes, we started as a logo design company!), we knew something needed to change. We would design a beautiful brand only to find the logo skewed on the website, or the fonts all wrong on the marketing materials, or the brand colors completely forgotten on social media. Our hearts would sink for our clients as we watched their brands slowly dissolve from a distance.
So we decided to fix the problem. We narrowed our client focus to serve small businesses but broadened our services to include comprehensive brand management. While going comprehensive means we can serve fewer clients, it also means we can better serve the ones we do take on. We’re good with that trade-off. Now you can have one company with a single point of contact manage everything from your logo to your SEO. Over the years, this model has allowed us to shorten turnaround times, be more cost-effective, and build stronger brands for our clients.
If you have a small business, it takes about a year to really build your brand well. That includes everything from your logo to your SEO. To help spread out the cost for new businesses especially, we offer a brand-building package as a twelve-month subscription service. Pricing and details are available upon request. Start here if you’d like to talk with Sarah, a Co-Founder of Daor Design, to learn more.
After your brand is going strong, you may continue to reinvest to maintain momentum, shift to a “maintenance mode” service, or go at it alone and just reach out when you need a tune-up. No matter what path you choose, we’re here for you and are rooting for your long term success!
The most creative graphic design companies know how to connect the dots between design and business. They offer simple, practical, effective design solutions that help grow your bottom line. So many creative agencies crank out beautiful designs that follow the latest trends or push the envelope – they may even win a design award. But they’re missing a major component – your ROI. As a small business owner, you care a lot more about seeing a good return on your investment than having a logo that wins your creative agency a design award. Yes, your brand should absolutely look great, but your design firm is missing the mark if their designs are not moving your business forward in a meaningful way. The most creative graphic design companies see their work through the lens of your long-term business success.
When looking for an affordable graphic design company, look for one that is big enough to cover your needs, but not so big that you’re paying for layers of unnecessary overhead. A well-run design company with a team of up to twelve people or so is probably that sweet spot between depth of skills and cost-efficiency for most small businesses.
Keep in mind that the cheapest option is not always the most cost-effective option in the long run. So many clients come to us on the heels of a failed project with the cheapest graphic designer they could find. It is always more expensive to do a project twice than to do it right the first time.
Graphic Design
If you have a new business that needs a new brand, or an established business that needs a rebrand, you’re in the right place. Daor Design builds brands for small businesses just like yours.
Graphic Design Projects
for Other Small Businesses
“They exceeded my expectations… they are the only website design company I will use here on out.”
“Daor Design was worth every penny and then some!”
“Beautiful design work and amazing customer service! We couldn’t be happier!”
“I’m officially on the Daor bandwagon…y’all made the process a breeze!”
“Daor Design always has a special place in my heart for all their hard work and dedication to my business.”
“Their work is high quality, they respond quickly to emails and phone calls.”
“Daor Design did an amazing job redesigning my law firm’s logo and website.”
“I highly recommend Daor Design….they are trustworthy, responsive and professional!”
“Daor Design’s dedication and design took our breath away.”
“…makes me feel important, not like I am one of a hundred clients.”
“Pleasure working with an extremely friendly and professional team.”
“Daor Design was exactly what I needed
to elevate my business.”
“The Daor team has been top notch. The final outcome of our project is a testament to the quality of their work.”
“Daor Design made us feel like our project mattered. They made us feel like our success was their success.”
“They have taken what felt like an overwhelming task and made it happen.”
“They took my amateurish drafts and made them WOW…I’ll use this team again, no doubt.”
“Daor Design is our one stop shop…we owe it to them for expanding our footprint.”
