The stress of starting a business or working for yourself is as real as it gets. It’s like one day you’re at school, surrounded by nice adults who are literally paid to ensure you do not perish (and learn stuff, I guess). Then, the next day you’re suddenly the adult and oh god suddenly you’re the person in charge, except the one who’s paying you is also supposed to be you. So, yeah — it’s stressful.

What’s worse is that “being good at what you do” isn’t even enough any more: now you also have to look the part and present well. So, naturally, you google ‘Branding’ and you’re hit with two options: either you pay someone to take care of this nightmare for you, or you go full DIY and graduate from MS Paint to full-blown Photoshop (with a minor in web design and Illustrator).

Whether you’re the founder of a small business, the man-child owner of a rubbish social media platform, or the brilliant and charismatic mastermind behind a world-class design blog that my mum “sometimes reads,” you won’t get very far without professional branding. And even then, it might not save your rubbish social media site.

I’ve come up with a number of things to look out for when you’re hiring or working with designers. These should help you work out whether you’re dealing with an honest-to-goodness flesh-and-blood human being who you can trust with your brief… or a goblin.

In case you’re not too familiar, briefs are what we call the little dance of social anxiety that graphic designers and prospective clients perform before any real work is done. 

I’ve been to the Edinburgh Fringe every August since 2012, and usually spend the week wandering around eating all the pastry, drinking all the coffee, and taking every flyer I’m given. The festival is such a great place to pick up some design inspiration that I always come home with a rucksack crammed to the brim with hundreds of pieces of paper, and enough ticket stubs to plaster the outside of my house.