Design is a pretty hot topic of discussion in the business world these days. Publications like Bloomberg and Business News Daily tout the importance of good design as a business investment, and brands all over the world are updating their look to differentiate them from the rest of the herd.
At the same time, design has been democratized and is easier to access than ever before. Today, any first-grader with a Mac can use Photoshop. As someone running a business’s marketing department, how do you know when to bring in an agency and when to complete projects in-house? Why spend the money on an agency partner when you think you could do everything yourself?
Let’s start with a “hypothetical” scenario.
It’s a tale as old as Times New Roman. You think your logo is a bit outdated and you’re probably right. You think there’s no way you can afford a professional designer to make a new logo. You remember that your cousin’s wife’s nephew through marriage, Chad, is good at Photoshop. Chad is not a professional designer. He is not a freelancer looking for side work. He has received no proper training. He is self-taught at Photoshop, but he offered a fraction of the price you’d pay an agency. You give Chad $500 to deliver a logo and you hope for the best.
Chad doesn’t know the right questions to ask and he doesn’t know to deliver what you need to grow your business. He delivers a .jpg file that supposedly contains your new logo, but it’s small and you can’t use it for anything because resizing it makes it look like a Super Mario Bros. character. Ever since your check cleared, Chad has stopped responding to emails. You’re stuck with an unusable file and you’re out $500.
You need a team of trained professionals. Members of a creative team have paid good money and put in a lot time to study best practices and hone proper techniques for effective design. They know how to quickly and efficiently solve your communication problems with a sense of beauty. The creative department at LoSasso, for example, holds over 10 degrees in art, design and communications, along with a handful of master’s degree-level pros. That’s over 45 years of education, not including decades of professional experience. When you work with us, you are literally getting a century of knowledge and experience. Chad can’t give you that.
We take pride in creating something that will foster success while keeping costs as low as possible for our clients. Hiring amateur designers or communication professionals can dramatically increase the overall cost of a project. Reprints, artwork corrections, retractions—all of these can severely impact a company’s return on investment. Working with a vetted agency mitigates these obstacles and removes stress from your workload. We provide full support even after the delivery of a project so you don’t have to worry. Most Chads don’t have the skillset to help troubleshoot, nor do they have accountability built into their processes. At LoSasso, accountability is part of our promise.
So next time you are faced with a project and must decide between cutting corners or paying for quality work that gets it right the first time, remember that design and communication are bottom-line investments that are necessary to a brand’s success, and that agencies have the skills and expertise necessary to save you money in the long-run and save you stress in the short-term.
