How Profitable Is Your Current Design Process?

When your agency is managing multiple clients, it can be extremely busy around the office. Busy does not always equal profitable, however. This is especially true when it comes to the creative aspects of a campaign. In order to properly price your services to remain profitable, you must know whether or not your teams are making you money or costing you money. Graphic design can be one area where agencies lose money, and most don’t even know that it is happening. Just how profitable is your design team? Do Your Project Fees or Retainers Account for Revisions? How many times have you shown a design to a client and they approve it at first look? We’d be willing to bet that the answer is less than one. Even if designers get darn close on the first try, they rarely, if ever, hit it out of the park with one swing. Clients will always have some type of change, edit, or suggestion to make when it comes to a design. Most will have many suggestions, and you’ll have to go through several cycles of edits in order to land on one they love. If your fee structures do not account for these multiple round […]

The Downfalls of Having a Full-Time Design Staff

There was a time, not so very long ago, when no agency would dream of existing without a full-time, in-house team of artists. However, the agency landscape has changed dramatically over the last ten years. Design is still a critical element of any campaign, but how necessary is a team of full-time designers, especially when your agency is new or of has taken a hit in the post-recession economy? While it may seem as though an agency must have its own design team, it’s not a necessity, and there are some pitfalls that come with the territory. Over Time, Designs Can Become Stale When a full-time design staff works day in and day on the same types of projects for the same clients over and over again, it can stifle creativity. Worse, designs can actually become quite boring. This isn’t the fault of the design team, it’s just a natural tendency that occurs when creative people get stuck in a routine. Variety is the spice of life, and it’s also crucial for creativity. All Designers Have Specific Strengths – and Weaknesses Not all designers are good at everything. That means you have to take extra care to put to gether a team that can complement one another in just the right ways so that you can deliver for a variety of clients. This is far easier said than done, and even if you do assemble a top-notch graphic dream team, there is no guarantee that all of those designers will stick with your agency for the long haul. […]

5 Tips Used by the Best Logo Design Firms

It’s common to take a do-it-yourself or DIY approach to graphic design, especially with the availability of products like Adobe Illustrator. Other small businesses may opt to rely on a family friend or lower-cost graphic design service. The overall goal of both approaches is to save money and reduce your company’s overhead cost. If you’re researching and vetting different logo design firms, you’ll find that many charge similar amounts for their services. Identical price ranges are normal in the industry — it’s usually the services they offer and the quality of those services that differentiate the best logo design firms from others. The services these design firms provide — from revisions and open communication to original designs and in-house graphic designers — make their company stand out from other agencies. They’re also the same factors and features consumers should be considering when looking for the best logo design firm in their area. Check out our complete list of the five tips used by the top logo design businesses to satisfy customers, as well as help you find the right design agency for your company. Avoid Logo Design Templates Design firms that offer lower prices than the rest of the marketplace tend to have a go-to cost-cutting measure: design templates. Templates allow these companies to lower their prices, which they pass onto consumers. And while customers are drawn to the cost-saving measure, the presented logos are far from high-quality or original. Logos from these design firms are built from a pre-existing template, which means designers add colors and fonts with only minor adjustments to the default image or logo. If you sell camping gear, for example, they may use a pre-made vector image of a mountain, which they recolor before adding your company’s name. It’s a simple, unoriginal process that’s similar to a factory assembly line. Many designers at template agencies are burnt-out, which further diminishes your logo’s potential to be more than a pre-packaged product. And because these companies are focused on profit instead of your satisfaction, they rarely exhibit concern for your business goal, brand or personality. It’s an impersonal approach that provides an unoriginal and uninspired logo. The lack of originality in template designs also goes against the very purpose of a logo. A logo is original and unique to your business. That’s why the best logo design firms avoid templates and pay attention to your company’s goals. You’re a client — not merely a customer. Give Unmatched Service and Designs Design firms tend to feature similar price ranges because they provide a similar product. And the best logo design firms? They create high-quality, original designs that are inspired by your business. Their team of graphic designers works with you one-on-one to learn about your company and what makes it unique from competitors, as well as ask about your business aspirations. All these details are essential to graphic designers because they provide them with the information necessary to create a logo that’s original and unique and features key [...]