Freelancers are playing a bigger role than ever in helping small businesses stand out, business trends suggest. From social media posts to business cards, websites, and flyers, design touches almost every consumer interaction. But creating material that captures the consumer’s attention is not always straightforward. Deadlines, creative blocks, and the pressure to produce professional-quality assets all pose challenges.
Adobe Express has surveyed 500 freelancers and 2,000 business people to understand how business assets are designed, the hurdles freelancers face, and the impact strong design has on purchasing decisions. The findings have been shared with Digital Journal.
The output reveals what grabs attention, what turns consumers away, and how freelancers and small businesses can use design to stand out in a crowded market.
Why good design matters
Design is not just decoration; it drives trust and sales. Nearly two-thirds of consumers (64%) say good design is important when deciding whether to buy from a small business. Additionally, 41% have avoided buying from a business because its branding or design looked unprofessional.
When consumers evaluate a brand, certain design elements stand out. Clear, easy-to-read fonts grab attention for 44% of people, while creative packaging (36%) and a clean, minimalist style (36%) are also highly noticeable. Unique logos are also slightly more likely to attract men (36%) than women (33%).
Technology is constantly changing the design landscape. Around 37% of consumers are comfortable with AI-generated branding if it looks professional, yet 35% worry AI makes brands feel less authentic. Nearly half (48%) think AI could eventually replace designers entirely or take over routine design tasks.
How design preferences differ by gender
Both men and women appear to value good design, but they notice different things. About two-thirds of women (63%) and men (66%) say design is important when deciding to trust or buy from a small business. Around four in ten of both genders have avoided businesses with unprofessional branding.
Women are slightly more drawn to social media promotions and free samples, while men respond more to traditional marketing. When it comes to AI-generated branding, about a third of both men (36%) and women (37%) are open to it as long as it looks professional.
The generational perspective
Age also shapes how people respond to design. Millennials place the highest value on strong branding, with 74% saying it’s important or very important, compared to 65% of Gen Z and 50% of Baby Boomers.
Younger consumers are also more critical of unprofessional design, with over half of Gen Z (54%) and Millennials (53%) having avoided buying from a small business because of poor branding, compared to just 19% of Baby Boomers. Alongside this, creative packaging catches Millennials’ eyes most (43%), while Gen Z prefer clarity (38%), and Baby Boomers are less influenced by packaging (24%).
AI remains a generational divide, with Gen Z more likely to see AI branding as less authentic (31%) than Baby Boomers (16%), while Millennials are slightly more likely to think AI could replace human designers entirely (21%).
Freelancers navigating design challenges
For freelancers, creating professional business assets is rewarding but not without hurdles. Many report that design is time-consuming, staying on top of trends is tough, and creative blocks are common.
The most designed assets are social media posts, logos, flyers, business cards, and website graphics. To save time and maintain quality, freelancers increasingly rely on pre-made templates and easy-to-use tools.
The top challenges freelancers face when creating designs
- 54% say designing assets is too time-consuming
- 37% lack design skills for certain projects
- 33% struggle to keep up with trends
- 31% feel pressure to produce multiple assets quickly
- 28% cite limited access to tools or templates
To address these challenges, the report from Adobe Express provides the following advice:
- Focus on clarity: With36% of consumers preferring simplicity, prioritising clear layouts, legible fonts, and simple messaging is key in many cases.
- Enhance creativity with AI: With 37% of consumers being open to AI-generated content, try using different tools to see how they can help support the design process. Alternatively, AI can be used for creative support, including sparking fresh ideas from scratch, too.
- Explore different templates: The study found that many freelancers struggle with time and costs when it comes to creating stand-out assets. Pre-made templates, however, allow for quick creation while leaving room for personalisation.
- Keep branding consistent: 30% of freelancers mentioned their struggles with maintaining brand consistency across platforms. From social media banners to profile pictures, further use templates for quick repetition in content creation.
