Finding the Right Designers: Needles in Haystacks
The sheer range of design services that are out there to choose from can be overwhelming. An online search will reveal the bigger, more expensive, agencies. A word-of-mouth recommendation can lead to the friend-of-a-friend who is a freelancer, or the agency a colleague has used before. These routes are driven by ease, and success will be based on chance rather than strategy. Different businesses need different design agencies to suit their immediate needs as well as longer-term plans, but knowing which type of agency to seek, and then finding them, needs a process and some insight to get it right.
As an example, let’s take a simple “we need a new logo” request that might come from a new start-up or from a business entering the next stage of growth. Logos are in the realm of graphics, so surely it’s graphic design services that are required? But logos are one part of ‘visual identities’ and visual identities are one aspect of overall ‘branding’. So, a branding agency is what might really be required? But before we get to logos, colours, layout styles, core messages or the need for brand guidelines, there needs to be a ‘brand strategy’ and consideration of the ‘brand hierarchy’. Will a graphic designer do that? It can quickly feel like that simple logo request just got complicated and expensive!
Or let’s consider “we need to upgrade our website”, which is no longer the term, because websites are now just one part of ‘digital marketing’: responsive websites, e-commerce, apps, SEO, social media, UX, database management, video, CMS, animation, motion graphics. A ‘digital design agency’ may offer some, or all, of these services and some will excel more at ‘creative digital’ whereas others will focus on robust ‘technical design and build’ capabilities. And of course, not forgetting ‘content creation’ and ‘content marketing’ services with plenty of additional PR and marketing companies offering a range of social media services. Which way is a business supposed to turn?
“But before we get to logos, colours, layout styles, core messages or the need for brand guidelines, there needs to be a ‘brand strategy’ and consideration of the ‘brand hierarchy’. Will a graphic designer do that?”
Digital design is one of the most complicated areas because it is evolving so quickly and comes with a vast range of technical jargon, but the design industry does not present clear terminology in any area. Product design, interior design, packaging design, exhibition design and others all have their own specific processes and language. And, I cannot start listing design services without including the related skills of photographers, copywriters, printers or illustrators. Do they come with an agency, or are they separate? Is it better to work with an agency that can take responsibility for it all, or does that just mean they will add unnecessary mark-up and sub-hire?
Designers can get frustrated when they feel that prospective clients “just don’t understand what we do!”. But from the business perspective, where people are already busy with other pressures as well as trying to get the logo, website, pack, product or print materials that they need – it’s easy to see how clients would very quickly revert to the easiest, rather than the best, route to a design supplier.