Six Ways to Recognize a Good Graphic Design Agency
There are more than 133,437 Graphic Design Agencies in the US alone, find out how to spot a good graphic design agency with these tips.
The stat pulled from, IbisWorld, only counts actual agencies think how many freelance designers and creative businesses you actually could be sifting through online.
It’s staggering!
That being said, having a good graphic design agency is still essential for every business in order to effectively reach your target audience, market effectively and build customers.
Choosing an excellent graphic design agency is not easy. A lot depends on how the designers portray their business and then ultimately how they portray your brand to the public. For start up businesses, choosing the right graphic design agency becomes even more important, because any mis-interpretation in the communication of the brands’ messaging could end the business.
Importance of Hiring Professional Graphic Design Agency
The hunt for a team to brand, market and grow your business can be a bit daunting, but it’s also an important first step.
Finding the right team will provide a clear path to defining your business, your message, your audience and how you can engage them.
The right agency makes, collaborating on projects with team members much smoother and puts you in a position to get an overall picture of the design workflow. Once you know which tasks have room for improvement, you can put a workflow management system in place that helps your team manage their work better and enhances performance.
Hiring the services of a professional graphic design agency, such as Artisticore Graphic Design Agency, gives you some peace of mind as well as some guarantees that the work done will achieve your business goals. Hiring a professional graphic design agency will allow your business to generate a positive ROI on your marketing efforts much more quickly.
How to Spot a Good Graphic Design Agency
A study out of Missouri S&T showed that website visitors looked at logos for over 6 seconds on their first visit. That’s a long time when it comes to making first impressions. Your graphic design work has the power to persuade or turn-off potential customers the instant they land on your site.
Unfortunately, a quick search on Google will list more than a dozen graphic design agencies near you.
Do you just contact the first couple on the list and begin work? No!
Graphic Design Services are among the most requested and most competitive business services searched by business owners every day. With literally hundreds of new graphic design agencies and freelancers popping up every day, it’s hard to tell who can really deliver true business results.
Here are some points that help you spot an excellent graphic design agency so you can shortlist some of them and begin the painstaking process of selecting the right one.
1. Check Their Work
Undoubtedly, a portfolio is a window to any graphic designer’s work. It is a sneak peek into what you should expect from the agency or the designer. The portfolio can help you determine whether the work of that particular designer is what you are looking for or not.
Quite often, there is no doubt about the creativity of a team of designers, but their design alignments, contrasts, font choices, etc., might not be what you are looking for. You can’t tell this by simply looking at one design, you must examine their work as a whole. For example, a good agency should be able to capture a specific design style for a specific goal. However, if an agencies ‘style’ appears consistent for every client, this reveals that the particular agency has a limited forte. So, scrolling through the portfolio is the first step in recognizing a good graphic design agency.
2. Active Listening
According to statistics, visual marketing is the most effective form of content for any business or brand. This places great importance on choosing the right design agency for your business.
Imagine consistently explaining your idea and vision to a designer or an agency and not getting your message through. It is highly infuriating. More importantly, it’s going to confuse or anger your customers, and that my friend, impacts your bottom line.
Good graphic design agencies are the ones that have excellent communication skills. Some experts assert that active listening skills are the primary indication of an excellent graphic design agency. Companies always look for graphic designers with the same level of understanding.
Graphic designers with active listening skills understand your goals and requirements while also picking up on cues from previous marketing campaigns as to what you want from them. Ideas are subjective to the marketing heads or campaign leads, which is why active listening and excellent communication skills on the part of the designers help build an idea from a notion.
3. Clear Communication Channels
Another effective way to spot a good graphic design agency is to gauge how well they manage their communication with clients.
Ideas and designs never grow in a vacuum. They always require active communication and 360-degree feedback. Thus, graphic design agencies that provide open and accessible communication channels are the best.
You should be able to spot this trait in any graphic design agency by analyzing their communication channels. They should always have someone from their team to talk to you whenever you need to discuss something. Also, it is best if the graphic design agency you are narrowing down has a physical office close. It helps ease the communication process, thus, improving design discussions or brainstorming.
4. Consistency in Designs
Consistency is critical in creating designs for any business or brand.
It is a crucial part of creating and maintaining a brand’s identity. Consistency in visuals should have the same font style, design, color scheme, and theme.
So, designers whose previous or current works do not reflect consistency are not worth giving projects. It implies that the designers are not entirely on board with the design schemes or do not understand the client’s marketing vision.
5. Taking Criticism Constructively
Graphic designing is always fraught with some revisions, redoing, or modifications.
Often, the designs are not as aesthetically pleasing as they seemed on the board. Constructive criticism and discussions to improve the designs are much needed during any campaign.
Not every design the team comes up with a blockbuster on the first, second or even 3rd go. Some ideas need a little tuning, which has nothing to do with the designing capabilities or the talent. A suitable graphic design agency knows how to deal with criticism and feedback.
Accepting changes required by the clients and finding ways to incorporate them without getting offended is the best quality in any designer.
6. Testimonials or Reviews
You can also spot a good graphic design agency by going through their previous clients’ online reviews or testimonials. In this age of technology, everything is readily available online. So, a quick Google search for reviews about the agency’s work reveals a lot about their work.
Most design agencies have their clients’ testimonials on their websites. It conveys to the new potential clients that their work is appreciated and recognized. If you find out that the shortlisted graphic design agency does not have good reviews, you should probably think again.
Though it is good to give a chance to the newbies in the field, you should always weigh out your options thoroughly.
Make an Informed Decision
Thinking from all angles and holistically gauging any graphic design agency is imperative for an effective marketing campaign. You can take a look at these Top Graphic Design Agencies Ranked for a leg up on your search;
Visual marketing aids can make or break your brand as it is the most effective way to reach out to your potential and current customer base. Consider the above points in spotting an excellent graphic design agency before finalizing a deal.
