Where to Outsource Graphic Design Jobs

Your corporate identity is a huge part of how you market your business, no matter what size. However, for small to mid-size businesses, it can be hard to get that identity nailed down graphically on a limited budget. This, of course, is where outsourcing comes in. According to Forbes, outsourcing is just good business, and in the field of graphic design even small businesses can utilize this economic practice to help bolster their business on a budget. Finding a designer or agency online capable of doing your design work on a deadline and within your means is easier all the time, but that doesn’t mean you can just choose the first agency you find.

Crowdsourcing and competitive sites like Designhill are helping take the guesswork out of choosing a designer by offering quality graphics from professional designers, without paying super high professional fees.

Reaching Out

Choosing the right outsourcing agency or crowdsourcing community is a matter of looking for the right features and options. First you need to know what kind of designer you need; there’s a great deal of overlap between design fields when it comes to working digitally, but that doesn’t mean that every graphic design agency will have someone on staff skilled enough in web design and development to make your website sing.

To choose the best outsourcing agency for your design work, follow these simple tips:

  • Look for agencies that value quality over price. You don’t want to pay out the nose for a logo, but you don’t want to work with an agency that cuts corners on every step of the design process to get your project in and out in a matter of hours.

  • Seek out established websites with multiple active projects and a huge database of designers. You can easily find a graphic designers at Designhill that can do the job you need thanks to the high level of activity on the site. Services and groups with a lower rate of activity may produce good work, but there’s no telling how long it will take to get what you need when the majority of designers are inactive.

  • Do some research on the service from a designer’s standpoint? Find out what graphic designers are saying about the agency you’re interested in, make sure they’re treated well and paid well. Well-paid and well-treated designers are happy designers, and happy designers produce better work in less time.

Brafton reports that up to 51 percent of businesses outsource their graphic design; whether or not to outsource your graphic design work isn’t the question anymore, it’s where to outsource it. The best way to find a service that works with you is to make sure that the agency has worked well with everyone else, from former clients to current design staff.

Criticisms of Outsourcing Agencies

As with any industry, there are some common issues found in outsourcing. While choosing the right agency can bring these to a minimum, if you’re new to the world of graphical outsourcing you should be aware of these common problems. BlogOhBlog.com reports that the top two problems with outsourcing, while completely avoidable with the right agency, are fairly simple:

  1. Limited availability of preferred designers. Many outsourcing agencies have a limited number of highly skilled designers, meaning these agents work on more projects than anyone else in order to keep the design quality up to standards. This can make it difficult to get a complex project done on a tight schedule.

  2. Limited range of styles. Because some companies only have a handful of skilled designers, this means that the range of styles you can expect from a given agency could be limited by their abilities. While this is hardly a problem if you love the style in question, it can make changing things up difficult.

These issues are really the only major problems you have to worry about when it comes to outsourcing your graphic design work to an agency. The easiest way to work around these issues is to do the research necessary to make sure that the agency is a good fit for you and your business by following the tips offered earlier.

Where to Start

You already know about a couple outsourcing options to look into and research with regard to your business design. Check out the top agencies for graphic design outsourcing and see which will work best for you, which ones have the kind of work you want to see, and which ones have the most capable and comfortable designers on staff.

Make sure you have a detailed design brief for any agency you choose, and that you’re ready to be a good client as long as they’re a good agency. Getting what you need online can be easy as long as you know what you’re looking for.