What are the different types of freelancer?

Hiring freelancers is a fantastic way of getting quality creative work done for your company. Whether it’s a logo, a website or music, there will be someone out there who has the answer. But here’s a secret – you’ve got to ask the right one…

If you’ve never worked in the creative industries in your life, it can be difficult to pinpoint who has the right skill-set to get the job done. So here are some handy profiles of the types of freelancer you might want to hire.

Graphic Designers

If it’s a logo or website banner you need, graphic designers are the answer. Their main job function is visual communication, so think branding, marketing, social media – the works. They’re Photoshop pros and they use different fonts, graphics, colours and shapes to get the right message across. Get a few graphic designers together and between them, they can do practically anything. That said, they normally specialise, so it’s best to hire someone who’s an expert in the particular job you need doing. Here are a few things that a graphic designer might do:

• Logo design and branding materials.
• Brochures, fliers and leaflets.
• Layouts for magazines and other publications.
• Ad design.
• Packaging design.
• User interface design – they’re the people who make your app useable.
• Motion graphics.
• Web and mobile design for apps, websites etc.
• 3D Design – e.g for game development.

Illustrators 

If you need book, magazine and graphic novel illustrations, then you need an illustrator. They work with traditional and digital two-dimensional art. They might also work alongside graphic designers (who aren’t necessarily great at drawing themselves) to make images for different products and brochures, which the graphic designer will then incorporate into their work. Here are some ideas of things you might hire an illustrator to do:

• Children’s book illustration
• Magazine illustrations, like the New Statesman’s political covers.
• Fashion illustration – the fashion industry needs illustrations for showcases, fashion editorials and advertising.
• Technical illustration – think blueprints and similar diagrams, as well as medical illustrations for healthcare.

Animators 

Need to get pictures moving? Obviously the animated films of Disney spring to mind, but you might also need animators for an advert, YouTube video or even a music video, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. They’ve got loads of skills, combining creative genius with technical expertise.

Web developers 

Websites don’t build themselves and long gone are the days you can host your website on GeoCities and call it a day. Coding’s the name of the game and web developers use HTML and CSS to make your shiny new website look great. They’ll also make sure it’s easy to navigate so that users don’t have to treat it like the Triwizard tournament maze in Harry Potter. Ideally, you also want a website you can edit yourself and add content to easily.

Music Producers

Freelance musicians often need a helping hand. Producers are master organisers – they get your tracks up to scratch, arrange them into a cohesive album and get the studio time booked. They’ll also oversee the actual recording. Some of them also mix and master tracks (although often you’ll need to hire a specialist mixing engineer for that) and might even get involved in promotion and marketing. They do all the things you can’t and make everything sound better.