Tips for choosing the right design firm
Tips for choosing the right design firm
As a consumer, how do you protect yourself and your company? The answer is more simple than you may think… all you have to do is a bit of homework.
1. Self Analysis : Your Creative Brief
A proper commercial design firm will work with you in defining your organization’s requirements, but you should still have a basic idea of what you need, and what role the items will fill within your organization. In order to find a design firm best suited for your project, your organization should be aware of the following:
* Your intended audience
* The intended scope and goal of the project
* Your anticipated budget (be fair and realistic here - remember, you get what you pay for)
* How the project will fit into a larger marketing/corporate scheme
* The individuals/departments within your organization responsible for the project
* The specifics of each of the items you want designed
Once you have determined these initial requirements, document them and use them as a basis for evaluating each design firm. This document gives you a common yardstick to measure each design firm you will be contacting. Similarly, a professional design firm will respect the fact that you are taking your project seriously, and would ask you all of these questions (and more) anyway.
2. Generate a list
There are a number of ways to search for a design firm. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses, so a combination of the different approaches will be your best bet for finding a design firm to match your needs.
OTHER COMPANIES: Find at least five good examples of other companies whose image materials you admire or would like to emulate. What do you like about each one? What do you not like? How do you see elements of each of these as relevant to your brand? These organizations may be your competitors, or in related or unrelated industries. Again, this is something that a good design firm will help you with or at least ask you about. In order to create a quality, relevant design for your company, they will need to know what you like, what you dislike, and who your most successful competitors are. A good design firm will include research into the development phase of your project.
REFERRALS: Ask business acquaintances, friends, and family which design firm designed the materials for their respective organizations - but only IF you feel their materials are exemplary. Be inquisitive. Find out what the individuals responsible liked or disliked about working with the various design firms. Some firms are better suited for taking a project from start to finish. Others are more inclined to work from an existing concept.
Once you have gathered a list of potential design firms you are ready to pare them down to a shortlist.
3. Create a shortlist
From the list of potential design firms, your organization’s goal should now be to create a shortlist of 3-5 firms that are best suited for your project. In order to determine which design firms are most appropriate for your project, do the following:
EXAMINE THE PORTFOLIO
This is the absolute Number ONE item. A good design firm should have an extensive portfolio available online for you to view, with a wide variety of design concepts and applications. The work displayed in the portfolio should be excellent, and should display a consistency of quality.
You will also want to look at the design firm’s breadth of experience - they may be able to address your immediate needs, but will they be able to provide solutions 6 months down the road, or 1 year later, or 5 years later?
Thanks to the distributed nature of the Internet, some of the best design firms have implemented systems that allow them to work with organizations across the globe as easily as organizations across the street. When reviewing the Web site of a design firm, note the geographical locations of their clients. A design firm that has worked with clients in many geographical locations will have a more global approach to your designs.
ANALYZE THE PROCESS
Does the design firm have a clearly stated design process? Do they spend enough time understanding your goals and planning how those will be achieved? Avoid selecting an individual designer, on a freelance basis, to design and develop your organization’s materials. It is rare to find a single person capable of handling the combined visual and technical elements that make an effective brand image. Additionally, by depending on an individual, your organization is at risk of losing its investment should anything occur to that one individual.
DETERMINE WHAT OTHER SERVICES THE FIRM CAN OFFER
What kind of value-added products or services can the design firm offer? Internet marketing and promotion? Newsletter or email campaigns? Professional printing discounts or fulfillment services? If your organization is not currently dealing with a print design agency, for example, this might be a factor for dealing with one group over another.
SPEAK WITH A REPRESENTATIVE FROM EACH FIRM
During this stage, your organization should make contact with the potential design firms that are on your shortlist. Does the representative conduct themselves knowledgeably and professionally? Are they quick to respond to your emails? Do they know what they are talking about? Don’t be afraid to ask questions… who will be managing your project? Since this is the person you would be working with, then this is the person you should be speaking with now. How long have they been working in the design field? Which of the items in the online portfolio was done by them or their current team? Can they provide references?
While a lot of consumers may prefer speaking on the phone, it is a better idea to communicate with your design firm by email. This way, both you and your firm have a written record of all questions, answers and instructions should any conflict arise in the future.
4. Get proposals
Once you have selected your top Web design firms, send them your creative brief (the document you created in step 1) and request that they send you a proposal. Ask that each design firm include a description of their development process and a price breakdown for the various aspects of the project.
5. Evaluate the proposals
Start off by examining each proposal individually. Before dealing with the content, evaluate the format and presentation of the proposal. The winning design firm will be creating your organization’s image materials, viewable to hundreds, thousands or even millions of current and potential customers. How do they present themselves? Do they communicate with you using their Web site and digital documents?
Maintain a list for each proposal, consisting of its strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of the respective design firm based on its other materials (web site, portfolio, brochure, case studies, etc.).
After your organization has reviewed all proposals, compare them with each other. How do they fare in terms of presentation? Do they present upgrade paths for your project, going beyond the needs of the immediate goals outlined?
6. Pick a Winner
Once you have made a decision, contact the winning design firm and let them know the good news!
Tips for choosing the right design firm - To learn more about this author, visit Chanie Pritchard's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
If ever there were an overly competitive industry with little to no regulation, it would be the commercial design industry. Any child with a computer and some basic software can market themselves as a designer, while the true industry suffers wide scale devaluation and thousands of business owners are taken for a ride by unqualified or even unscrupulous “designers”.
As a consumer, how do you protect yourself and your company? The answer is more simple than you may think… all you have to do is a bit of homework.
1. Self Analysis : Your Creative Brief
A proper commercial design firm will work with you in defining your organization’s requirements, but you should still have a basic idea of what you need, and what role the items will fill within your organization. In order to find a design firm best suited for your project, your organization should be aware of the following:
* Your intended audience
* The intended scope and goal of the project
* Your anticipated budget (be fair and realistic here - remember, you get what you pay for)
* How the project will fit into a larger marketing/corporate scheme
* The individuals/departments within your organization responsible for the project
* The specifics of each of the items you want designed
Once you have determined these initial requirements, document them and use them as a basis for evaluating each design firm. This document gives you a common yardstick to measure each design firm you will be contacting. Similarly, a professional design firm will respect the fact that you are taking your project seriously, and would ask you all of these questions (and more) anyway.
2. Generate a list
There are a number of ways to search for a design firm. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses, so a combination of the different approaches will be your best bet for finding a design firm to match your needs.
OTHER COMPANIES: Find at least five good examples of other companies whose image materials you admire or would like to emulate. What do you like about each one? What do you not like? How do you see elements of each of these as relevant to your brand? These organizations may be your competitors, or in related or unrelated industries. Again, this is something that a good design firm will help you with or at least ask you about. In order to create a quality, relevant design for your company, they will need to know what you like, what you dislike, and who your most successful competitors are. A good design firm will include research into the development phase of your project.
REFERRALS: Ask business acquaintances, friends, and family which design firm designed the materials for their respective organizations - but only IF you feel their materials are exemplary. Be inquisitive. Find out what the individuals responsible liked or disliked about working with the various design firms. Some firms are better suited for taking a project from start to finish. Others are more inclined to work from an existing concept.
Once you have gathered a list of potential design firms you are ready to pare them down to a shortlist.
3. Create a shortlist
From the list of potential design firms, your organization’s goal should now be to create a shortlist of 3-5 firms that are best suited for your project. In order to determine which design firms are most appropriate for your project, do the following:
EXAMINE THE PORTFOLIO
This is the absolute Number ONE item. A good design firm should have an extensive portfolio available online for you to view, with a wide variety of design concepts and applications. The work displayed in the portfolio should be excellent, and should display a consistency of quality.
You will also want to look at the design firm’s breadth of experience - they may be able to address your immediate needs, but will they be able to provide solutions 6 months down the road, or 1 year later, or 5 years later?
Thanks to the distributed nature of the Internet, some of the best design firms have implemented systems that allow them to work with organizations across the globe as easily as organizations across the street. When reviewing the Web site of a design firm, note the geographical locations of their clients. A design firm that has worked with clients in many geographical locations will have a more global approach to your designs.
ANALYZE THE PROCESS
Does the design firm have a clearly stated design process? Do they spend enough time understanding your goals and planning how those will be achieved? Avoid selecting an individual designer, on a freelance basis, to design and develop your organization’s materials. It is rare to find a single person capable of handling the combined visual and technical elements that make an effective brand image. Additionally, by depending on an individual, your organization is at risk of losing its investment should anything occur to that one individual.
DETERMINE WHAT OTHER SERVICES THE FIRM CAN OFFER
What kind of value-added products or services can the design firm offer? Internet marketing and promotion? Newsletter or email campaigns? Professional printing discounts or fulfillment services? If your organization is not currently dealing with a print design agency, for example, this might be a factor for dealing with one group over another.
SPEAK WITH A REPRESENTATIVE FROM EACH FIRM
During this stage, your organization should make contact with the potential design firms that are on your shortlist. Does the representative conduct themselves knowledgeably and professionally? Are they quick to respond to your emails? Do they know what they are talking about? Don’t be afraid to ask questions… who will be managing your project? Since this is the person you would be working with, then this is the person you should be speaking with now. How long have they been working in the design field? Which of the items in the online portfolio was done by them or their current team? Can they provide references?
While a lot of consumers may prefer speaking on the phone, it is a better idea to communicate with your design firm by email. This way, both you and your firm have a written record of all questions, answers and instructions should any conflict arise in the future.
4. Get proposals
Once you have selected your top Web design firms, send them your creative brief (the document you created in step 1) and request that they send you a proposal. Ask that each design firm include a description of their development process and a price breakdown for the various aspects of the project.
5. Evaluate the proposals
Start off by examining each proposal individually. Before dealing with the content, evaluate the format and presentation of the proposal. The winning design firm will be creating your organization’s image materials, viewable to hundreds, thousands or even millions of current and potential customers. How do they present themselves? Do they communicate with you using their Web site and digital documents?
Maintain a list for each proposal, consisting of its strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of the respective design firm based on its other materials (web site, portfolio, brochure, case studies, etc.).
After your organization has reviewed all proposals, compare them with each other. How do they fare in terms of presentation? Do they present upgrade paths for your project, going beyond the needs of the immediate goals outlined?
6. Pick a Winner
Once you have made a decision, contact the winning design firm and let them know the good news!
Tips for choosing the right design firm - To learn more about this author, visit Chanie Pritchard's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Chanie's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Sample Press Release 9 Questions From New Marketers Your Marketing Mindset Content Challenged The Evolution Of Networking |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
 |
Top 50 Social Media Blogs
Top 50 Social Media Blogs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
