My experience with hiring a graphics artist on Fiverr was interesting. I’d like to start by saying I went into this with low expectations. At the same time, $5 USD to someone in India is about to double their average daily income. Low expectations doesn’t mean I’ll accept shit quality.
I knew there were graphic artists on Fiverr from other countries with the skill and talent to take on my request. There was a user on there with about 300 or so 5-star reviews willing to create a logo for $5 within 48 hours. I decided to hire her. I gave her very broad directions and wanted to see how creative she would get with my request. I wanted a scribble text logo but make it unique.
What I got was some blob logo and a serif font. Okay, maybe there’s a language barrier that may have caused the visionary discrepancy or maybe she gets so many jobs she simply doesn’t care? I email her back and I carefully detail what I want and provided examples to images of the type of font face I wanted. I also asked her to explain what her thought process was with the logo design.
Instead, I get a reply back with a revision. Same blob logo, slightly different font. This goes back and forth several times before she has to request for an extension on time. I gave her an extension in time and I received the same logo with a different font. I must have asked her at least four times to explain her design. I didn’t mind the design, I just didn’t comprehend how it was relevant to my business.
Yes, it was only $5 but it was the principle. I’m big on that. What I imagined is that she had a bunch of basic designs around and threw it together with text and called it a day. She refused to explain her vision and only kept sending font revisions. I asked her to cancel the order and she sent me a refund.
I ended up designing the logo myself to my satisfaction. I should have done that in the first place but I thought I could outsource it for $5.
This time it was a product graphic artist who creates ad images for products. I sent the guy my product images and a basic description of what the products were.
The results were the same. Uninspired, factory churned graphics that I wouldn’t use on my website or in ads. I felt like I had wasted $7 ($5 for the designer plus $2 fee).
I’m sure there are a lot of people with positive experiences hiring graphic artists on Fiverr. My advice is perhaps to be specific on what you want. Provide more samples or examples of what you like. Check how many revisions you’re allowed and see if you can keep the working files(photoshop[.psd]/illustrator[.ai]) afterward.
Graphic artists aren’t the only thing you can hire on Fiverr. You can also find professionals in many fields from different countries. In the future, I plan to hire another graphics artist on Fiverr again but maybe I’ll find someone from a country where English is the primary language.