Effective design is becoming a critical competitive advantage
Therefore, choosing a creative partnership for your organisation is probably one of the most important business decisions that you will make.
A design agency should have the experience or capacity to understand your design and marketing problems and needs.
- It is beneficial to approach the selection of a design agency as a long term relationship. Understanding your market, researching your competition and analysing your customers' behaviour requires time and money. Using a different agency for each project - unless it is part of a strategic marketing plan - is not cost effective.
- They should be able to produce creative and effective solutions that inspire you, making you feel proud enough to have as the marketing head of your business.
- You should involve the designer/s from the outset of the project. This helps to achieve a more focused creative brief and a better understanding of available resources and limitations.
- They should have the organisational skills to serve you effectively, both technically and creatively. within your project budgets and on time.
Other Points to consider:
- Appoint internal personnel as a point of communication and keep the designers in the loop with agreed changes in a timely manner. You should also have realistic expectations for your budget. Creative industries, just like any other businesses, need to pay their rent, wages and make a profit.
- As creative industries are among the fastest growth areas in the UK economy, it won’t come as a surprise that there are many design agencies that fulfil the above criteria, all of them passionate about design and enthusiastic about the difference they can make. They like to innovate instead of imitate.
- An ideal combination is one based on trust and understanding. Your trust in the designer; he or she is trained to communicate visually and his or her solutions are objective, based on solid research and thorough analysis, but not to a degree that stifles creativity. The designer must also understand that the client is infinitely more knowledgeable about their own market. In short, it’s all about mutual respect.
- Of course, there are clients whose perceived requirements do not make full use of what a good design agency can offer. Their requirements are limited to a ‘designer’ with a computer and the right software. Luckily, there are 'designers' to cater for these clients too.
Once you have established the basics, you can decide whom you want to work with, because successful partnerships require shared enthusiasm.