Graphic Design Agencies: A Buyer’s Guide

Graphic Design Agencies: A Buyer’s Guide

The line between great graphic design and great art is a blurred one. Great design, like great art is all about communicating a concept or message with economy and in the most engaging manner that the artist or designer can conceive of. Great graphic design, like great art, can stop us in our tracks, take our breath away and open us up to the message that the artist/designer is trying to convey. The designer who knows how to break down the psychological barriers between his audience and his message is the master of his or her domain.

For these very reasons, the largest part of choosing a graphic design agency for your project relies on your own subjective judgement about the designers’ skill and creative flair. But there are still concrete ways to make the decision making process simpler and this Buyers Guide aims to help you along the way.

What is Graphic Design?

Working in studios with both traditional materials and up to date computer software, graphic design agencies come up with the images for a wide variety of marketing materials. These include:

• Brochures and leaflets
• Flyers and postcards
• Posters
• Book, DVD or album covers
• Letterheads, business cards, compliment slips and envelopes
• Websites
• Product packaging

Graphic design agencies can also be commissioned to create the branding for a business, organisation or product range. This might include a logo and colour scheme that’s used across all the marketing material for that brand.

Graphic Design Challenges

The great challenge of all graphic design projects is to come up with an original piece of design that is appropriate to the brand in question and engages the target audience of that brand. Different types of project also have their own unique challenges:

Logo and Branding Design

Here a graphic design agency is looking to create a look, feel and image that will be forever associated with a particular brand. The branding has to encapsulate the key qualities of the product, business or organisation in question and embody the brand ethos. It’s about creating an iconography that will be instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with the brand and that instils feelings of loyalty or trust in existing customers. The branding design also needs to be versatile and adaptable enough to be used across many different mediums.

Brochure Design

When a graphic design agency designs a brochure they are looking to present the actual content of the brochure (the text and images supplied by the client) in a way that provokes maximum engagement in the target market. A brochure doesn’t just need to convey the information held within but needs to scream out to the recipient to pick it up, open it and read it. Many techniques beside visual design can be employed here, including playing with shape, texture, interactivity, weight and paper quality to convey subtle signals about the brand to the potential customer.

Packaging Design

Packaging design needs to incorporate several elements beside visuals. Again, size, shape and the feel of the product in the hands of the consumer needs to be taken into account. A product doesn’t just need to stand out on the shelf or website but needs to be easily recognisable to people looking for the brand and inspire trust and confidence in the customer. Important information on the packaging also needs to be presented with clarity and economy.

Website Design

The internet is still predominantly a text-based medium. Much more often than not the information we’re looking for online is in the form of text. But how that text is displayed on a website, how it’s framed and highlighted can greatly affect the amount f trust we place in a website, the amount of time we spend on that site and the likelihood that we’ll buy something or register. Graphic design for websites needs to take into account both the brand that is being represented and what the user is being asked to do on each page, be it click through to another page, fill out a form or complete a transaction. Many design techniques can be employed, both subtle and not-so-subtle, to help your website visitors turn into customers or subscribers.

Choosing a Graphic Design Agency

There are several vital steps in selecting the right agency for a piece of design work:

Draw up a Brief

The first stage of commissioning graphic design is coming up with a clear brief for your project. Nail down the fundamental goals and objectives, define who the design is targeted at and how it will be delivered. The more precise you can make the brief the easier the task of finding the right graphic designers will be.

Start the Search

Then you’ll need to find suitable candidates. You’re the best judge of what style is or isn’t appropriate for your brand so look around for pieces of design that you like and think are suitable. It should be fairly easy to find out which graphic design agency was responsible, especially if you’re looking online. If you have friends and acquaintances in similar or related industries they can be an excellent source of recommendations.

Narrow the Field

Once you have a shortlist of potential designers scrutinise more closely their respective lists of previous clients, markets they’ve worked in and the size of job that they commonly work on. You neither want a company that’s out of its depth dealing with a brand of your size or one that is more used to working for much larger brands (and charging accordingly!)

Invite Pitches

For very small jobs this might be a step too far as you will already have enough information to select a supplier. For larger jobs you’ll want the prospective design agencies to come up with a rough concept and pitch it to you. Face to face meetings are best – this way you can get a clear idea of how well you communicate with the designers. This is a critical aspect since you might want to make changes to designs or tinker with the brief without ruffling any feathers.

Other Factors

Some other factors that could be a consideration:

• Printing: Does the agency offer printing as part of the service? If so, how do their quotes compare with other printing companies?
• Variations: You might want the designers to come up with several alternative design ideas from which you can choose. Can they accommodate this without changing the price?
• Future prospects: If you’re looking for a company with whom you can form a lasting relationship you’ll want to get an idea of where the firm is headed. Does it look like one of you might rapidly outgrow the other?

Commissioning graphic design can and should be an exciting and enjoyable experience. The best way to ensure that this is the case is doing your research and taking the time to choose the right company for the job. Lastly, it’s worth remembering that great design, like great art, doesn’t come cheap. That little bit extra on your budget could make the difference between a passable effort and a design that really turns heads.