When in-house graphic design teams or marketing departments become overloaded with graphic design projects, hiring an external or oursourced graphic design company makes a lot of sense. The outsourced team can help get volumes of work completed, inspire new ideas and help save the day (week, month or year)!
Reasons to hire outsourced graphic design support
You have the immediate need, or forecast the need, for additional external graphic design support for your business. Your in-house team is overloaded or you have a growing need greater than your capacity to complete important projects. It’s time to hire an external graphic design company.
Outsourced graphic design support is an excellent way to start building a marketing team that can execute your organization’s marketing calendar. This allows your marketing manager to focus on what they do best for your business. Organizations can also use this opportunity as a means to build a graphic design support partnership for a long-term, cost-effective way of running a marketing department without having to source and pay additional salaries for talented, full-time graphic designers. It can also serve while growing your department and be a helpful, short-term solution while hiring full-time employees.
Hiring an outsourced team to take on some of the internal projects may be a welcome lifeline for your design and marketing teams. An outsourced graphic design team can allow your in-house employees to focus more on the day-to-day deadlines. Outsourcing larger initiatives such as branding, product launches or other new initiatives can help with workflow and ideation. In this case, the external graphic design team becomes an extension of your own team. Over time, collaboration becomes seamless and your external team becomes an integrated extension of your own department.
Things to consider when hiring an external graphic design team
Since the thought of hiring an outsourced team may be new to you, we put together a list of considerations when seeking the perfect fit.
Below are 6 ways you can go about hiring an outsourced graphic design team:
- Confirm the graphic design company has a portfolio commensurate with the graphic design work you expect or desire and seek out graphic design companies that are in geographic proximity to you (or at least within reasonable traveling distance). We have found that many of our clients who hire us as their external graphic design team like to collaborate face-to-face. Being local helps.
- Discuss your short-term and long-term graphic design needs. This will help your prospective external graphic design team understand how they will be able to support your needs and estimate the cost of doing so.
- Determine and reveal the estimated scope of work for each week or month. This will help you align your needs with a properly sized team. If you are unsure, then discuss your needs with your internal team first and define a point of contact to interact with your external graphic design company.
- Agree to a work arrangement (A retainer, master services agreement [MSA], project-based work). Hiring an external graphic design team can take shape in several ways depending upon the scope of your needs and the common interests between you and them. We typically work under an assumption of hours per month or estimate each project with the understanding of the terms of a MSA.
- Consider a trial project or time period. If you know you have a long-term need and have some lead time, try contracting a few graphic design teams for a smaller project or time period. This will allow you to test the waters before jumping in. It can also allow you to refine your scope of work or terms of the agreement without having a major commitment on your hands.
- Meet the team you will be working with. Since you will be relying on your external graphic design team, visit their office to see what’s going on behind the curtain. It could reveal some insights to your future together.
Trillion Works Seamlessly as Your Outsourced Graphic Design Support Company
Trillion helps internal marketing departments and in-house graphic design teams in a number of ways, including:
- Supplying additional, highly creative and proficient graphic designers to complete projects or contribute to larger design endeavors.
- Providing conceptual thinking, alternative graphic design solutions or look-and-feel options.
- Filling in when key creative staff are out for an extended period of time.
- Supporting graphic design team during busy or seasonal times of year, saving on the overhead of full-time staff members.
If you’re considering adding new, creative thinking to your team, give us a call at 908.219.4703, or just complete our contact form. We are happy to answer your questions about how to hire an external graphic design team and how Trillion could enhance your results and become your design partner.
