By Bianca Frank, Creative Director · Bianca Frank Design, Anchorage
Originally published June 2023. Rewritten and updated October 2026.
You don’t need all of it. Most small businesses in Alaska need about six pieces of graphic design to operate and another handful as they grow, and the rest is money spent because a printer or a salesperson suggested it. Below is the list in the order you’ll actually need it, what each piece is for, the ones to skip, and what to ask for when the files arrive.
In short:
- Buy graphic design in the order customers meet it: logo, the places your name shows up online, the paper that changes hands, then signage, then the extras.
- Every piece should answer one question for one person. If you can’t say whose question it answers, skip it.
- The estimate, the invoice and the email signature are graphic design too, and they’re seen more often than the brochure.
- Ask for vector files, both print and screen color versions, and a one-page guide. If you don’t get them, you’ll pay again.
- Alaska adds lead time: anything printed or fabricated outside the state needs two extra weeks.
First: the pieces you can’t operate without
1. The logo, delivered properly. Not a picture of a logo, a working set: primary mark, a stacked or horizontal alternate, a simplified icon for small spaces, one-color versions, and the files in vector format. We’ve covered what makes a logo good and what one should cost separately. For this list, the point is that every item below is built from it, so get it right first.
2. Your Google Business Profile images. The logo tile, a cover photo and a first set of real photos. This is the piece of graphic design most people will see first, usually on a phone, usually a quarter-inch wide. It costs almost nothing and most businesses leave it blank or upload a stretched screenshot of the logo.
3. Business cards. Yes, still. In Alaska a lot of business happens at a counter, a jobsite, a Chamber lunch or the State Fair, and a card is what changes hands. One side, your name, what you do, phone, website. Skip the QR code unless it goes somewhere useful.
4. The estimate and invoice template. This is the piece almost nobody thinks of as design. A customer reads your estimate more carefully than anything else you’ll ever send them, and a cluttered template with a pixelated logo tells them something about how you run the job. A clean one with your logo, your contact details, clear line items and your payment terms is an afternoon of design work that gets used a thousand times.
5. Email signature. Name, title, phone, website, logo at the right size. It goes out on every message you send. Set it up once for everyone on staff so you don’t have five versions.
6. Website graphics. The site itself is a separate project, but it needs design assets: a favicon, social sharing images, icons for your services, and photos that are cropped and compressed properly. If you’re building a site, the nine things it needs is the list; this is the art that goes into it.
Second: the pieces you add as you grow
7. Signage. Storefront, window, yard signs, jobsite banners. Signage is where logos get tested: a mark with thin lines or small type disappears from across a parking lot in a snowstorm. Get a sign vendor’s specs before anything is designed, not after.
8. Vehicle graphics. A truck or van wrap is the most visible thing many Alaska businesses own, and it’s seen by people who will never visit your website. A partial wrap or well-placed door decals with a readable phone number do most of the work of a full wrap at a fraction of the cost. Design it to be read in two seconds at a stoplight.
9. Social media templates. Not a stack of finished posts. Three or four reusable layouts in your colors and type, so whoever posts for you can drop in a photo and a line and it still looks like your business. This is the difference between a feed that looks like one company and a feed that looks like six.
10. One printed piece that does a job. A menu. A rate sheet. A one-page services overview for the bid packet or the referral partner. A tri-fold brochure for its own sake is usually a mistake; a sheet that answers the question people ask you most is not. Decide what the piece is for before anyone designs it.
11. Staff and event items. Shirts, name tags, a tablecloth and banner for the booth. If you hire seasonal staff every summer or work a table at the State Fair, the Home Show or a job fair, these pay for themselves. Order them in March, not June.
12. The something unique. Every business gets one thing that’s a little memorable: a sticker people actually put on their water bottle, a hand-drawn map on the back of the card, a seasonal postcard. It should come last, after the eleven above are done, and it should feel like you, not like a trend.
What to skip
- A full brand book before you have customers. A one-page guide is enough until you have staff or vendors who need more.
- Letterhead, unless you send printed letters. Most businesses send PDFs; design the PDF template instead.
- Promotional products in bulk. Five hundred pens are five hundred pens. One good item people keep beats a drawer of giveaways.
- A new look for every campaign. Consistency is what makes design work. If every flyer looks different, none of them build on the last one.
- Stock imagery of Alaska. Your customers live here. They know what Denali looks like and they can tell when the photo isn’t yours.
What to ask for when the files arrive
This is where small businesses get burned, because the work looks finished on screen and the problems show up a year later at the sign shop.
- Vector files (AI, EPS, SVG, PDF) of every logo version. A PNG or JPG can’t be scaled for a sign or a wrap without going blurry.
- Print and screen color versions. Print uses CMYK or Pantone; screens use RGB and hex codes. The same red is a different recipe in each, and if you only have one, the truck won’t match the website.
- A one-color and a reversed (white) version for embroidery, engraving and dark backgrounds.
- The font names, and a license or a free alternative so your staff can use them.
- A one-page guide with the colors, fonts, spacing and the versions of the logo, so a sign vendor in Fairbanks and a printer in Anchorage produce the same thing.
- Editable source files for anything you’ll update yourself: the estimate template, the social templates, the rate sheet.
You should own all of this outright. If a designer keeps the source files to keep you coming back, that’s a reason to go elsewhere.
How to brief a designer so you get the right thing
You don’t need to know design terms. Tell the designer three things for each piece: who will see it, where they’ll see it, and what you want them to do next. “A yard sign, read from the road by homeowners driving past a jobsite, I want them to call” is a complete brief. The designer’s job is the rest. If a designer starts work without asking those three questions, they’re designing for themselves.
Alaska has one more thing to brief: timing. Printing, fabrication and shipping from outside the state add two weeks or more, and freight gets slower in winter. Work backward from the date you need the booth or the truck on the road.
Frequently asked questions
What graphic design does a small business need first? A properly delivered logo, your Google Business Profile images, business cards, an estimate or invoice template, an email signature, and the graphics for your website. Everything else comes after you’re operating.
What is the difference between a graphic designer and a brand designer? A brand designer sets the system: the logo, colors, type and the rules. A graphic designer produces the pieces within that system: signs, templates, social graphics, print. Small agencies like ours do both; the first has to happen before the second.
What file types should I get from a graphic designer? Vector files (AI, EPS, SVG or PDF) for every logo version, PNGs for everyday use, print and screen color versions, and editable source files for templates you’ll update yourself.
How much does graphic design cost in Alaska? Individual pieces range from a few hundred dollars for a card or a template to a few thousand for a vehicle wrap design or a full set of event materials. Price depends on how many versions and sizes a piece needs, and whether the brand system already exists.
Can I do my own graphic design with Canva? For social posts using templates a designer built for you, yes. For the logo, signage and anything printed large, no; the files won’t scale and the colors won’t match across print and screen.
Start with the six
If you have the first six pieces done properly, you can run the business and add the rest as it grows. If you’re missing some, or you have them and they don’t match, our graphic design services cover every item on this list. Tell us which ones you have and we’ll tell you which ones you’re missing.
Bianca Frank is the founder and Creative Director of Bianca Frank Design, an Anchorage agency that has designed brands and websites for Alaska businesses since 2007. She holds a BFA in Graphic Design and leads a small in-house team covering branding, web design, SEO and content strategy, with recent work for clients including Nalaquq LLC, the Native Village of Barrow, Solstice Psychiatry and Alaska Geographic. BFD was named one of Anchorage’s best web designers by Three Best Rated (2025) and received UpCity’s Local Excellence and Best of Alaska awards (2022, 2023).
