
Hire Visual Designers
Hire the Top 3% of Freelance Visual Designers
Hire visual designers, specialists, and experts on demand. Top companies and startups choose visual designers from Toptal to craft polished UI visuals, establish cohesive design systems, refine typography and layouts, design marketing assets, and more.
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Hire Freelance Visual Designers
Kevin Korpi
Kevin is a product designer and writer who works and plays in the hills of the Pacific Northwest. Over the past 20 years, he's contributed to messaging-based, conversational experiences with Microsoft Research; Android, ads, and analytics with Google; connected action cameras with Contour; devices and reading experiences at Amazon; and consumer, financial, and enterprise products in the US and Japan.
Show MoreGreat Ndidi
Great is a digital product designer with 10 years of experience designing mobile devices and web applications with clients like McKinsey, Spotify, Wise, and Checkout.com. He is skilled in user experience design, wireframing, prototyping, usability research, and user interface design. As a proven team player, he can work with teams of different sizes or independently. Great is an excellent communicator and enjoys solving complex problems.
Show MoreKate Valdes
With 15 years of design industry experience, Kate has produced successful digital experiences for both startups and well-known name brands alike, such as Netflix and BlackLine. This includes projects across industries and platforms. Leveraging her background in user research, Kate is able to bridge the gap between strategy and experience, integrating design thinking into the most complex of workflows.
Show MoreAdel Benzehda
Adel, a seasoned UI/UX expert with over six years of experience, specializes in creating flawless user interfaces. His expertise spans collaborations with notable teams like Airbnb, Colgate, and Supercell. As a dedicated freelance, Adel thrives on solving diverse user challenges, bringing a passion for innovative design to every project.
Show MoreLucía Merlo
A visual designer, Lucía has spent the last ten years working with companies and museums like IKEA, LEGO, Munch Museum, and the Museum of the Future, helping them build experiences for their customers. She is a keen problem solver and can deliver visual guidelines, exhibition artwork, event design, interface design, illustrations, and animations. Lucía loves challenging herself to find a unique voice for each project and developing it further through innovative yet simple visual communication.
Show MoreMari Ettlinger
Mari is an award-winning, end-to-end, fully stacked senior product designer who has successfully led small and mid-size projects, including product and design teams worldwide, for over 15 years. She has designed consumer and B2B native apps. She has also worked on web apps for the fintech, healthcare, eCommerce, SaaS, biotech, manufacturing, and transportation industries. Mari has worked with several clients, including Pixar and Adobe, and has excellent references.
Show MoreHugo Barbera
Hugo, an awarded designer with 15 years of experience, excels in AI design, branding, UI/UX, and web design. His MBA amplifies his ability to intertwine business insights with design innovation, notably enhancing startups and driving projects from concept to launch. His clientele includes Audi, FC Barcelona, Nike, Vogue, and Louis Vuitton. Hugo is also a recognized keynote speaker on integrating AI, appearing at the Toptal 2023 Conference, Paris' Digital Fashion Week, and Cannes Lions 2024.
Show MoreRami Hage-Obeid
Rami works independently with businesses worldwide to strategize, design, and build new brands and visual systems. When tackling multidisciplinary design challenges, he takes his strategic thinking beyond visuals. Since 2014, Rami has worked with ad agencies, product designers, and other clients to create impactful campaigns and pitches for major global brands like Samsung, Toyota, Vodaphone, Ooredoo QSC, Johnnie Walker, McDonald's, Qatar Foundation, and Red Bull.
Show MoreRodrigo Pitorri
Rodrigo is a product designer with nearly 20 years of experience in digital design for Brazilian, Colombian, Spanish, and U.S. companies. Having extensive knowledge in all significant product design disciplines such as UI, visual, UX, UX research, and workshop facilitation, he's proficient in leading digital products design and crafting unique user experiences. To Rodrigo, the most satisfying part is delivering solutions for complex problems and designing products that improve people's lives.
Show MoreAnna Sharvadze
Anna is a UI/UX designer with a graphic design background. She has worked as a visual and UI designer across mobile and web applications for almost four years. Her areas of expertise include UI/UX design, UX research, visual UI design, prototyping, information architecture, branding, research, and analytics. Anna believes that doing diverse types of work keeps her inspired and helps her find better solutions for new projects.
Show MoreBelle Villareal
Belle, who started as an illustrator and painter using traditional media, is a multidisciplinary designer and artist with over seven years of work experience in various creative fields. Her career in visual design kicked off in 2019 with a focus on the brand design. Belle has worked on numerous branding projects from scratch, as well as UI/UX design, digital media content, and packaging design projects. She works toward developing compelling concepts with strong and cohesive visual languages.
Show MoreDiscover More Visual Designers in the Toptal Network
Start HiringA Hiring Guide
Guide to Hiring a Great Visual Designer
Visual designers create engaging aesthetics for websites, apps, and print. Their expertise spans graphic design, branding, and UI design. This guide to hiring visual designers features an overview of relevant skills and the interview questions and answers that will help you identify the best candidates for your company.
Read Hiring GuideVisual Hiring Resources
... allows corporations to quickly assemble teams that have the right skills for specific projects.
Despite accelerating demand for coders, Toptal prides itself on almost Ivy League-level vetting.




How to Hire Visual Specialists Through Toptal
Talk to One of Our Client Advisors
Work With Hand-selected Talent
The Right Fit, Guaranteed
EXCEPTIONAL TALENT
How We Source the Top 3% of Visual Designers
Our name “Toptal” comes from Top Talent—meaning we constantly strive to find and work with the best from around the world. Our rigorous screening process identifies experts in their domains who have passion and drive.
Of the thousands of applications Toptal sees each month, typically fewer than 3% are accepted.
FAQs
How much does it cost to hire a visual designer?
The cost associated with hiring a visual designer depends on various factors, including preferred talent location, complexity and size of the project you’re hiring for, seniority, engagement commitment (hourly, part-time, or full-time), and more. In the US, for example, Glassdoor’s reported average total annual pay for visual designers is $91,000 as of September 2024. With Toptal, you can speak with an expert talent matcher who will help you understand the cost of talent with the right skills and seniority level for your needs. To get started, schedule a call with us — it’s free, and there’s no obligation to hire with Toptal.
How quickly can you hire with Toptal?
Typically, you can hire visual designers with Toptal in about 48 hours. For larger teams of talent or Managed Delivery, timelines may vary. Our talent matchers are highly skilled in the same fields they’re matching in—they’re not recruiters or HR reps. They’ll work with you to understand your goals, technical needs, and team dynamics, and match you with ideal candidates from our vetted global talent network.
Once you select your visual designer, you’ll have a no-risk trial period to ensure they’re the perfect fit. Our matching process has a 98% trial-to-hire rate, so you can rest assured that you’re getting the best fit every time.
How do I hire visual designers?
To hire the right visual specialist, it’s important to evaluate a candidate’s experience, technical skills, and communication skills. You’ll also want to consider the fit with your particular industry, company, and project. Toptal’s rigorous screening process ensures that every member of our network has excellent experience and skills, and our team will match you with the perfect visual designers for your project.
How are Toptal visual specialists different?
At Toptal, we thoroughly screen our visual experts to ensure we only match you with the highest caliber of talent. Of the more than 200,000 people who apply to join the Toptal network each year, fewer than 3% make the cut.
In addition to screening for industry-leading expertise, we also assess candidates’ language and interpersonal skills to ensure that you have a smooth working relationship.
When you hire visual experts with Toptal, you’ll always work with world-class, custom-matched visual designers ready to help you achieve your goals.
Can you hire visual experts on an hourly basis or for project-based tasks?
You can hire visual designers on an hourly, part-time, or full-time basis. Toptal can also manage the entire project from end-to-end with our Managed Delivery offering. Whether you hire a visual designer for a full- or part-time position, you’ll have the control and flexibility to scale your team up or down as your needs evolve. Our visual designers can fully integrate into your existing team for a seamless working experience.
What is the no-risk trial period for Toptal visual designers?
We make sure that each engagement between you and your visual designer begins with a trial period of up to two weeks. This means that you have time to confirm the engagement will be successful. If you’re completely satisfied with the results, we’ll bill you for the time and continue the engagement for as long as you’d like. If you’re not completely satisfied, you won’t be billed. From there, we can either part ways, or we can provide you with another visual designer who may be a better fit and with whom we will begin a second, no-risk trial.

How to Hire Visual Designers
Visual designers are interdisciplinary experts; their expertise covers both digital and print environments. Their work focuses on details, and their final goal is impeccable visual communication. A cohesion of function and form is achieved through carefully understanding and dissecting briefs and goals from clients, as well as colleagues like copywriters, strategists, and creative directors.
Whether they work freelance or full time, visual designers can develop brand identity, create campaigns, lead design teams, provide quality art and creative direction, create social media graphics, and design apps, provide web design for websites, and on-site digital experiences.
Visual design is about more than simply appearances: Function and form should be prioritized during all stages of the design process. In-depth knowledge of typography, iconography, color, space, and texture is essential for creating great visual experiences that inspire, engage, and excite the target audience.
Design is subjective; therefore, when being interviewed, designers need to show insight, courage, and their thought process. The reasoning behind their decisions and processes is sometimes more important than the result itself.
In a visual designer’s portfolio, the context and ideation behind their design projects should be clearly shown and explained. Reviewing a portfolio is just the first step of the screening process and helps determine a designer’s approach.
What Attributes Distinguish Quality Visual Designers from Others?
Visual design is the process of visual communication and creative problem-solving through the use of type, space, image, shape, line, texture, color, and material. A great visual designer is capable of creating a meaningful, effective, high-quality visual representation of ideas and messages. The design process doesn’t only rely on form and a given problem or brief; careful study of the problem, plus research and analysis, along with revisions, will yield a design solution and shape the project.
Visual designers work closely with UX and UI designers, graphic designers, web designers, product designers, copywriters, strategists, and clients. They have a variety of design skills and can translate insights, briefs, and data into cohesive, straightforward visual communication that adds value.
A good visual designer will be an expert in:
Branding:
- Designing a corporate identity
- Crafting logo design
- Creating a style guide
- Understanding website design
- Ensuring consistency across design platforms
- Adhering to brand guidelines
Visual Design:
- Applying branding across visual content
- Collaborating with UI designers to ensure consistent brand application
- Guiding visual identity throughout a company and product
Execution and Analytics:
- Coordination with UI/UX designers
- Coordination with developers
- Coordination with copywriters
- Coordination with art and creative directors
- Tracking goals and integration
- Analysis and iteration
- Print management
- Digital tool management
These skills can be translated into various mediums with deliverables including:
Concept:
- Strategy
- Naming
- Copywriting
- Photography
- Development
Design:
- Logos
- Visual identity
- Web design
- Illustration
- Fonts
- Editorial (books, magazines, brochures, etc.)
- Packaging
- Signage and wayfinding
- Type design and lettering
- Information design and visualization
- Infographics
- Motion graphics
Of course, not every designer will cover all fields, but exceptional designers are distinguished by their understanding of these particular fields and their ability to direct and guide the design process.
What Are the Most Important Visual Designer Interview Questions?
Specialization among designers is common. Their work can be driven by illustrations, or they can use a more organic and free approach to design problems, solving them as they emerge. This is why it is vital to examine a designer’s thought process.
After creating a strong job posting and interviewing visual designers, it’s important to evaluate their soft skills and their design process. Your job description should also include the specific skills and attributes you’re seeking for the role.
Can you tell us more about your design background?
The designer should tell you which school they attended, past/current work positions, design experience, problems faced and overcome, and details about completed projects.
Why did you become a designer?
When answering this question, the energy and imagination behind the responses will give you an idea of the designer’s professional motivation and career goals.
What is your design process?
The design process is essential to discerning how design candidates develop and create their work. Insights into the way they work can help you distinguish quality candidates. As they discuss their design process, listen for elaboration on and details about their approach and workflow.
The design process is often limited by budget and time, and a useful insight would be how they have handled various situations under these constraints in the past.
How would you describe your approach to design research?
Discussing design research is an excellent opportunity to learn about all the methods the candidate understands. You should ask them to explain the reasoning behind why they use a particular technique, tool, or methodology to achieve a result.
What software do you use, and when?
Standard tools for visual designers include Adobe Photoshop and Sketch, but additional software proficiencies and skills help a designer stand out. Look for illustration, animation, video, and art design skills that bring extra value to specific clients and projects.
What industries and design specializations do you work in?
This question helps you uncover the candidate’s interests and preferences to see if they align with your business’s needs. Designers may specialize in digital, print, or 360 solutions, and they may have worked in industries ranging from social causes to luxury goods. Discuss their professional goals, ideal projects, and growth aspirations.
What do you think of [insert specific] project?
Suggest a few proposed projects, or ask the designer to select one and then dissect it. Listen for answers that explain context, goals, references, influences, and pure aesthetics, as well as responses that identify problems, solutions, and outcomes of the chosen direction. If the candidate can elaborate with quick solutions to a set of specific problems, that’s even better.
What areas of your work life or professional development are you hoping to explore further?
Discuss areas of professional development, with emphasis on visual design. The designer should be able to speak to branching out into different areas and gaining expertise across the design spectrum.
How would you describe your work and your influences?
Look for elaborate and intriguing stories, and listen for a passion for design and design thinking. The candidate’s references to history, design history, art, culture, music, and architecture are instructive when describing choices, intentions, and solutions.
Please explain the three best projects from your portfolio.
The candidate should explain the entire design process, including the decisions, ideation, context, why’s, and do’s and don’ts, by describing the production and execution of a specific project. Question the designer’s decisions to discover details of projects and the reasoning behind these decisions. Ask how the designer would have made those projects even better in retrospect.
Featured Toptal Visual Design Publications
Top Visual Designers Are in High Demand.