Robyn & Robyn Featured on ThinkMobiles' 20 graphic design companies to consider
You know the saying: “Good clothes open all doors.” Often, a first impression may end up the last impression, if it does not succeed in generating customer interest about your goods and services. Design has to convey a style, a voice and a soul of a brand. Thanks to great variety of graphic design companies for hire, you spare precious time and acquire professional service for your brand. Let’s drop some examples.
20 Best Graphic Design Companies
As there are literally hundreds and hundreds of agencies providing graphic design services, we’ve set aside 20 after many hours of research. We tried to be as objective as possible. We paid close attention to skills, experience, portfolio and customer reviews (both on their websites and independent platforms).
About graphic design companies
What is graphic design?
Graphic design is a type of design employing art, design and technical tools to create a visual representation of products. More recently, the term was used only in print, though today it is a bigger part of contemporary art, with the goal is to combine aesthetics and functionality.
The goal of graphic design is to draw consumer attention first, and to help sell a product/service/idea, secondly. It usually applies corporate identity elements such as logos, colors, fonts, etc. Types of graphic design include:
Corporate identity and branding. Each company strives to have its own style, to differentiate among competitors. Manufacturers draw attention to products with stylish, informative packaging. Brand design includes company logo, fonts, company colors and various graphic elements, presentation sets, print materials.
Design for online. Graphic layout for web sites, banners and other graphic elements for the Internet. Though a graphic designer is not a web designer, that is different.
Font development. Text fonts that serve for a long time and are practically independent of fashion trends.
Advertising design. Here, whole groups of advertisers could be involved to devise effective methods of communication between sellers and buyers, research the market, target audiences, and, of course, realize advertising concepts via graphic design.
How to choose a graphic design company?
There are a lot of companies and graphic design freelancers today, selection might be troublesome. One will certainly have to spend some time, despite shortcuts, “best” lists, recommendations, etc. We recommend to pay attention to the following criteria:
Portfolio – a collection of work samples, case studies, proud projects, etc. that give an idea of creative possibilities. Each company or freelancer has should have a portfolio, where you’d be able to find works similar to your idea/field.
Communication. Start negotiating with a potential designer and pay attention to how he/she/they conduct a dialogue, how much interest is displayed. Thus, you’ll be able to understand how well you’d fit for each other.
Budget. In most cases, perhaps, the most important factor for customers. It could be impacted by timeline, scope/complexity, company/freelancer rates.
Location. Often, a personal meeting with your graphic designer simplifies things a lot. If you prefer full control and fast execution, try to find a local company. For other cases, any distant part of the world is not a problem nowadays.
What services do graphic companies offer?
Game animation – with skills in such programs as: 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, LightWave, Softimage XSI, Blender, Modo, Adobe After Effects, Houdini, 3D-Coat, etc. For 3D animations also the understanding of psychology and anatomy is required.
Game design – development of game rules and mechanics, where a game designer is essentially the project director. This work implies knowledge of programming, market trends, and sociology.
Web design – a part of creating a web site. Web designer designs a site and analyzes user behavior on it, he/she is aware of Internet marketing, analytics, and participates in talks with a customer. He knows HTML, CSS, Photoshop etc. Web design is for landing pages, brand sites, online stores, interfaces, email campaigns.
UX / UI design – for user interfaces, where usability is just as important as appearance. UI and UX designer must possess skills in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.
Digital design – for conventional and adaptive web sites, digital advertising materials. The task of a digital designer is to create media content incentivizing people to do certain actions (place an order, write a comment, etc.).
Product design – creating and improving methods of interaction with a product/service, designing attractive interface and appearances. Used software: Adobe, Sketch, InVision, Balsamiq, Axure, Flinto.
Note, that companies suggested above are not the whole list or the “best” list in graphic design. These are merely examples.
Pricing for graphic design
The cost depends on project scope and complexity, time of implementation, additional variables (company reputation, location, rates, cultural nuances, etc.). For example, if we consider graphic companies from our top-20 list in this article, we can group them more or less by hourly rates:
In the USA and Britain, they charge $150/hour on average
Mid-tier graphic design companies charge between $50 and $150
The cheapest rates offered by upcoming design agencies, are $50 or less
Now, let’s also take into account general time estimates for popular tasks in graphic design:
Leaflet: 1-10 hours
Logo: 5-20 hours
Infographics: 4-20 hours
Mobile app design: 15-40+ hours
UI casual game design: 40-150 hours
Web design: 30-250+ hours
VR animation: 5-10 hours per 1 minute video
To reduce the time, prepare all related materials in advance, give specifics of what and how, make the approval and review process as simple as possible.
Agency vs Freelance
Main advantages of a freelancer are remote work (at no service cost), several work modes to choose from (full time, part-time, contract). But the sky is not always bright and clear. Let’s look closer at freelance graphic designers first, and then companies.
Pros:
Cheaper cost, because you only need to pay one person.
Direct responsibility. A hired freelancer works on his own and cannot shift the responsibility to another employee.
Expertise, which is typically high in a chosen field.
Cons:
Reliability issues. Customers often encounter various problems, i.e. long reply times, disappearance, working on multiple projects simultaneously.
Availability. As mentioned, a freelancer might be working on several projects at the same time, thus sacrificing one or another.
Quality of work. Often freelancers try to take as many orders as possible to earn money, which affects the quality of work, of course.
Design companies, working with graphic design, may offer a wider range of services and provide several options for a requested job. They may also have their own advertising department that can give good advice for your corporate identity. Here are some pros and cons of hiring graphic design companies, contrary to freelancers.
Pros:
Full package. Expert services from consultation to the implementation of corporate (brand) identity.
Collective expertise. Team members can go straight to the point, consult with each other and as a result produce a sound outcome.
Service and support. A valuable company will keep in touch up until the finish and beyond.
Cons:
Higher cost. Obviously, hiring a team of graphic designers will be more expensive than a freelancer.
Extended timeframe. Internal processes and communication may take time.
Miscommunication. As long as you communicate only through a project manager the actual work will be performed by another person. There is a risk of misinterpretation.
Graphic designer skills
Important qualities of a graphic designer are artistic taste/style, figurative and spatial thinking, initiative and creativity, involvement in modern culture. A graphic designer should have a number of skills, such as the ability to translate ideas into graphics, knowledge of art history and design, proficiency in specialized computer software (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.).
via ThinkMobiles.
