Why you should be using a design agency

In today's fast moving and volatile business world, image is everything. Well, at least it is initially. What I mean is that first impressions count. If a potential customer or client is looking at exhibitors at an exhibition, through a directory website or even the local yellow pages, is your company standing out and saying the right thing?

Of course, there is the other side of the equation. Your logo might be displayed prominently and might stand out to the client for all the wrong reasons. If your logo is amateur and poorly designed, that is exactly what the client will expect from your company, an amateur product, poorly delivered.

I'm sure none of the above is 'breaking news' to you. If you are running a business, you'll know that having a professional corporate image is the basic requirement to distinguish yourself from the competition. So why do so many businesses take risks with something so important? Unless you are a mechanic with the correct knowledge and tools, you wouldn't try and replace the wheels on your car. So why do so many businesses try and create their own company website or branding?

From my own experience, there are 2 main reasons most companies do not approach a design agency when looking to design their company branding or corporate website.

1. They feel it will cost a lot of money. And new businesses need to watch what they spend.
2. It looks easy enough to do yourself.

Over the years, computer based desktop publishing has come a long way. So much so, that it is now by far the most common solution for drafting and preparing graphic design and company branding. Software such as Quark Express, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator and even Adobe Photoshop have allowed professional designers to create digital design work in shorter times as well as allowing techniques that either did not exist or were hard to achieve.

However, the desktop publishing software revolution also blurred the line between professional and home design. The majority of this software is easy to use and with a little bit of self tuition, you can produce graphic designs in no time at all. Heck, the more recent versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher practically do it for you with templates and clip art a plenty to get the job done. What could be simpler? Job done. Off to the cheapest printer you can find to print your newly designed business cards and you've saved yourself a packet. And that's what business is about, right? If only it was that simple.

False economy

You'll remember that at the beginning of this article, we established that image is everything in business. So what is wrong with the free and easy method of producing your business designs?

• You can always spot a 'home made' design.
  Whether it be the re-used layout from Microsoft Publisher or the clip art of the guy on a surfboard you got from the clip art library that comes with Microsoft Office. You can always spot when a design is home made.
  N.B. It's worth pointing out that I do not have anything against the Microsoft Office products or any other office suite. I'm sure even they would admit that they were not intended to be used as a substitute for professional design software. They certainly have their place for business use in word processing letters, spreadsheet analysis and business presentations.
• It's difficult to stand out.
  No matter what you do, without professional design skills and knowledge. You will be limited to the tools at your fingertips. If you cannot freehand illustrate. That means you will have to use some form of clip art or stock photography. If you are not used to layout design, you'll be reliant on templates supplied. If you are not a professional designer, than you probably don't know about the principles of colour or typography and how to use these things to make a certain type of impact on your customer. You'd be surprised what emotions you can stir up with some colour and well chosen fonts.
• It does what it says on the tin.
  I've mentioned this one already, but you can spot a home made design. Look at this from your customers perspective. You are given a business card that is plainly a home grown project. What does this tell you about the company? Unprofessional? Small time? Naive? Cheap? Not to be taken seriously? Worse still, the tag-line below the logo uses words like "premier", "premium", "professional" so now you don't trust them either. Complete disaster. And to make things worse, your competitors are handing out shiny, well designed, professionally branded business cards. Who would you use?

All the above (and probably some more which I have missed) are all good reasons not to "do it yourself" when it comes to company branding, websites and graphic design. The end product will give the wrong impression to your customers and ultimately lose sales. How many sales? You'll never know. But if you made the small investment and called in the pros to design your business cards... well, you know the rest.

OK. OK. So I need a design agency. But who?

Tough question. I don't envy you. It's hard work finding a trustworthy and knowledgeable designer or web developer from a reputable design agency. Why? You remember earlier I said that it was pretty easy to pick up basic desktop publishing software? Well, now the phonebook is full of people who attach the title "graphic designer" to themselves because they once designed a poster for their mates band, who were playing at the local community centre and all the guys there thought the posters were awesome, so now they do it for a living. These people mean well, and they have your best intentions at heart I'm sure. But what a lot of current graphic designers miss these days (in my humble opinion) is that corporate graphic design has to have a viable commercial function (or a 'pitch'), and that requires marketing knowledge.

I once knew a graphic designer who was amazingly talented. He was really young at the time and showed me some of his work in the hope of getting some freelance work. I was really impressed with the guys style, but he had no examples of 'corporate work', just doodles and personal stuff from his college portfolio. He was fresh from school (hence the lack of corporate work) and liked the idea of freelancing. I really liked the guy and he seemed to have genuine enthusiasm for the work and I figured that we all have to start somewhere. I offered him some work in return that he agreed to come into the office when he worked on our stuff. The idea behind this was that he could work alongside other designers who could guide him if he was having problems or take over if there was a problem.

Like I said, he seemed to be a naturally talented artist. The problem was he had absolutely no idea (or interest) in commercial marketing. Briefs would be completely ignored and not a single one of his works made it to the clients eyes. The work was of high quality and looked pleasing, but they did not fulfill the clients needs as far as marketing their company was concerned and at the end of the day, graphic design without a marketing purpose is just art. The only way we could get anything of passable quality was for another designer to sit and guide through every aspect of the brief.

The point I am trying to make is that not all good artists are great graphic designers. When choosing your graphic designer it is important that you see some of their work before hand and get some examples of their successes and customer testimonials which show the design worked on a commercial level. Many people will claim that they are graphic designers today, so you might have to potentially sift through a lot of people to get to the good ones.

The same problems exist when looking for a web designer for your website. Web design is different in many ways to graphic design. The Internet has rules and limitations and not everything can be replicated on the web that can be achieved on video or print, so your chosen graphic designer might not be the best choice for your web designer if they specialise in print design. In an ideal world, you would be able to go to the same person for both. Again, make sure you get examples relevant to your project. You don't want to find out half way through the web site project that your design cannot be translated to the web.

The safest bet is to use a professional design agency who employ graphic designers and web developers and take the guess work out of it for you. A design agency will have access to many different people all of which can offer something to your project and will be more professional in general and draw up specification sheets and briefs before starting your project. This will protect you in the future should the company not deliver the goods and will allow the project to be managed and organised in a structured way, so everyone involved will know what is required.

If you decide to use an agency. Make sure you are able to talk to someone. This sounds rather obvious, but sometimes it can be difficult to talk to someone about your project when more than one person is involved as it is easier to pass the buck to another team member. Ideally, you will want to have a project manager or at least a someone who you can ask for by name who is accountable for your project.

Don't be scared to ask questions. Get to know the people dealing with your design. You are effectively handing over a very important part of your business to these people, so find out about them. How long have they been a designer? What is the piece of work they are most proud of? Having a personal, yet professional relationship with your chosen agency will lead to better communication and allow the creative process to flow better.

You may have to pay a little bit more to a design agency, but it really is "you get what you pay for" in this case as agencies tend to have a lot more experience and projects under their belt and have access to resources that freelancers do not have. If you have a budget, it's best to let the agency know in advance. This way, they can make sure they are offering you the most for your money and not give irrelevant quotes for projects outside your requirements. You might be surprised, not all agencies are as expensive as you might think.

Having said that, don't compare agencies on price alone. It's not like shopping at your local supermarket. If the value brand tastes worse than the premium brand, you won't buy it again. You probably don't have the budget or time to redesign your branding should the cheaper company not work out, so make sure you do your homework.

If you like the agency and their work, but they seem a little too expensive for you, be honest and tell the agency. They may be able to offer a little less work for a lot less money or be able to fit in with your budget in return for small sacrifices in features. At the end of the day, the agency will want the work as long as it is profitable to them, so might be able to compromise.

Summing it all up...

• A design agency is able to offer many services under one roof and have access to more resources and experience.
• If you decide to use an agency, always ask for examples of their work. Most companies will have this on their corporate website. If possible, try to get examples specific or similar to your project.
• If possible, take a look at testimonials on the agencies website. If they don't have many testimonials, chances are that clients are not saying good things about them.
• Talk to the agency. Ask questions about their background and individual experiences. Why are they better than the agency down the road?
• Make sure you get an agreed project specification outlined before the project begins.
• Do not compare agencies on price alone. The cheapest is not always the best.

Good luck in finding your future design agency. I hope it is a long and productive relationship. Of course, you could always give Juiced Media a call (just a thought ).