In today’s digital age, where social media and email reign supreme, some may question whether networking is still a valuable tool for building professional connections. However, while technology has certainly made it easier to connect with others remotely, the importance of in-person networking and relationship-building should not be underestimated. And when it comes to making a strong first impression and staying memorable, print items like business cards can still be an incredibly useful tool.

Networking is about building relationships and trust with others in your industry or field. While social media and email can facilitate initial connections, they often lack the personal touch that comes with in-person interactions. Attending events and conferences, meeting with colleagues and clients face-to-face, and participating in professional organizations are all valuable ways to connect with others and build a network of contacts. These relationships can provide access to new job opportunities, business partnerships, and valuable insights into industry trends and best practices.

When it comes to in-person networking, print items like business cards can be incredibly useful. While some may argue that business cards are outdated in the digital age, they can still serve as a tangible reminder of your connection with someone. Business cards with an eye-catching design and clear, concise information can make a lasting impression and help you stand out from others. Plus, having a physical item to give to someone allows them to remember you and your business even after the initial interaction.

In addition to business cards, other print items like brochures, flyers, and promotional items can also be useful aids in networking. Handing out a brochure or flyer at an event can provide more detailed information about your business or services and give others a reason to follow up with you. And promotional items like pens, magnets, or stress balls with your company’s logo or contact information can serve as a useful and memorable reminder of your business.

So there we have it, while digital tools have made it easier to connect with others remotely, networking in person and building relationships with others in your industry is still an incredibly valuable tool for professional success. And while print items like business cards and brochures may seem outdated in the digital age, they can still be a useful aid in making a strong first impression and staying memorable in the minds of your connections.

Looking for Design Support?

If your business cards are in need of a refresh, or you’re looking for additional printed items to help make you stand out from the crowd at networking events – we can help! Our award-winning design team have been delighting clients for just over 30 years, and our studio is ranked in the top 100 of all creative agencies in the UK.

If you would like to learn more about working with us on your next design project, please get in touch.

Not quite ready to discuss a project with us? Why not join our fortnightly newsletter to keep up to date with the latest studio news, and get updates on the latest articles, giveaways and special offers from PHd Design – click here to subscribe.

If you’ve ever worked on a branding project, you’ve likely heard of brand guidelines. Brand guidelines, sometimes also known as brand standards or brand books, are a set of rules and instructions that define how a company presents itself visually to the world. They help to establish the visual identity of a brand, ensuring consistency across all channels and touchpoints.

Believe it or not, brand guidelines are a vital component of a company’s branding strategy. They provide a framework for designers, marketers, and other stakeholders to use when creating new materials, ensuring that every piece of communication reflects the brand’s personality and values.

What Do Brand Guidelines Cover?

Brand guidelines typically include a wide range of information, from colour palettes and typography to logo usage and tone of voice. Here are some of the key components of a typical brand guidelines document:

Logo Guidelines: This section outlines how the logo should be used and provides guidelines on size, placement, and colour usage.

Colour palette: A brand’s colour palette is crucial to its visual identity. This section outlines the colours that should be used across all brand communications, including primary, secondary, and tertiary colours.

Typography: The typography used by a brand should be consistent across all materials. This section provides guidelines on the fonts that should be used, as well as information on size, weight, and spacing.

Imagery: Brand guidelines also include guidelines on the types of imagery that should be used, as well as how they should be treated (e.g., colour treatments, cropping, etc.).

Tone of voice: A brand’s tone of voice is just as important as its visual identity. This section generally provides guidance on the language and tone that should be used in all communications, from marketing materials to social media posts.

Why are Brand Guidelines Important?

Brand guidelines play a critical role in establishing a brand’s visual identity and maintaining consistency across all communications. Here are some of the key benefits of having brand guidelines:

Consistency: Brand guidelines ensure that every communication looks and feels like it comes from the same company, creating a sense of familiarity and trust with consumers.

Efficiency: With clear guidelines in place, designers and marketers can work more efficiently, knowing exactly what they need to do to create on-brand communications.

Brand recognition: A consistent visual identity helps consumers recognise a brand more quickly, leading to increased brand awareness and loyalty.

Differentiation: In a crowded market, a strong visual identity can help a brand stand out from the competition, making it more memorable to consumers.

In conclusion, brand guidelines are a crucial component of a brand’s visual identity. They provide a framework for designers and marketers to create consistent, on-brand communications, helping to establish brand recognition, increase efficiency, and differentiate the brand from competitors. If you haven’t yet developed brand guidelines for your company, now is the time to start!

Looking for Design Support?

If you are considering working with a design agency, PHd Design might be the right fit for your business and brand’s needs. Our award-winning design team have been delighting clients for just over 30 years, and our studio is ranked in the top 100 of all creative agencies in the UK.

If you would like to learn more about working with us on your next infographic or design project, please get in touch.

Not quite ready to discuss a project with us? Why not join our fortnightly newsletter to keep up to date with the latest studio news, and get updates on the latest articles, giveaways and special offers from PHd Design – click here to subscribe.

When most business owners think about graphic design, they think about their business logos. A business logo is just one of the final products that an agency produces, along with your brochures, banners and websites. And although you know why your business needs these items, do you know why you should choose an expert graphic design agency to create them?

What a Graphic Design Agency Does

Graphic design agencies, like PHd Design in Lichfield, are creative. Our team are also artistic and technical. But there is a lot more to graphic design than that. We are also experts in communication, marketing and perhaps most importantly, psychology.

We understand that human beings are very visual. We respond to pictures and colours on an emotional level before our thought processes can jump in. You’ve heard the one about judging a book by its cover. It’s true. We make a judgement call on whether we want to pick up a book by its front, watch a film based on the poster, buy a product because we like the packaging and so on. All of these judgments are decisions influenced by details such as the colours used, the type and even size of the font, the placement of the letters and the choice of image.

As graphic designers, we understand how each of these elements will impact on a person’s emotions and influence their choices and decisions.

How Graphic Design Helps Your Business

As every business owner knows, first impressions matter. Whether it’s from meeting you and assessing your clothes, the words you use during networking, or the first page of your website, our subconscious starts filing away details about you that makes decisions on whether you are a business we can buy from.

You need to decide what you want the first impression of your business to be – corporate, friendly or fun, perhaps. Do you want potential clients to feel secure in placing their money with you, or confident that you’re technically efficient, or that you’ll provide a safe, happy environment for their children?

The design of your logo, brochures and leaflets will create your professional image before a single word is read.

Building Brand Awareness

It’s not enough to simply create the right impression, you need your potential new customers to remember it. Every time a client sees your logo or a social media post, for example, the aim is that they recognised it’s you straightaway, and for that first impression and confidence in you to be reinforced.

The more you build your brand awareness, the more well-known and memorable your business will be. Consistency in the design of your marketing and content ensures that your brand becomes stronger each time it’s used. This means that whenever someone sees your brand, they also think of the things you want connected to you – professionalism, positivity, vibrancy, proactivity, and trust.

It’s a lot for a piece of design work to do – which is why you need to choose the right graphic design agency in the first place.

Communication Through Graphic Design

Of course, graphic design agencies don’t just work on your business image or create lasting impressions. Strong clear design is also key to communication. Take, for example, a fire exit sign. This very simple image – a strong colour, internationally recognised to mean ‘go’, and a single running figure – can be recognised in any language.

A control pad for machinery, warning lights on your car, and even the instructions that come with your flat-pack furniture – are all examples of graphic design work that communicates a universally understood message without words. If you have a website or are creating an app, the design is vital to helping visitors find their way around, with clear layouts, obvious buttons and easy steps to your key message. Here, graphic design is used to create a positive user experience.

In business, your communications will be more complex than a simple ‘run this way’ instruction. You will need to explain detailed statistics in an infographic or intricate ideas in a combination of words and pictures. You may want to ensure that the product you are selling appears luxurious and expensive, and the right branding will help to communicate this message.

Graphic design is used to help you communicate visually, clearly and in such a way that your audience understands your message. The layout of the information, the colours and the imagery all combine to ensure that vital details are clear and the reader is not overwhelmed.

Choosing the Right Graphic Design Agency

When you consider just how important graphic design is in making your business stand out, you can see why you need to use the right agency for the job. PHd Design is a graphic design agency in Lichfield in Staffordshire, and work on projects for companies all around the UK. We love what we do – being creative and using our magic design skills to communicate on your behalf. We do branding, infographics, packaging, digital design and so on. But do you now know the main thing that we do for you – and why graphic design is important to your business? We help you to sell.

Looking for Design Support?

If you are considering working with a design agency, PHd Design might be the right fit for your business and brand’s needs. Our award-winning design team have been delighting clients for just over 30 years, and our studio is ranked in the top 100 of all creative agencies in the UK.

If you would like to learn more about working with us on your next infographic or design project, please get in touch.

Not quite ready to discuss a project with us? Why not join our fortnightly newsletter to keep up to date with the latest studio news, and get updates on the latest articles, giveaways and special offers from PHd Design – click here to subscribe.

Infographics are a true powerhouse and a fantastic tool in the arsenal of any business. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that they’ve played a big part in marketing since the 19th century. And that a massive 84% of people who have used an infographic, consider them to be useful.

What is an Infographic?

Infographics are a great tool to help condense and simplify complex concepts by using a range of visual aids. They come in many forms, but essentially, an infographic is an aesthetically pleasing way of visually summarising data and making it more engaging to the end user.

Instead of boring the end user with pages of written content, data or statistics, infographics can be used as a way to captivate your audience and keep their attention. And as we all know, the more engaging and interesting you can make something – the more likely it is to be remembered. This is especially true when it’s something complex or topics that tend to be a little dull.

Here’s a great example of an infographic, that covers the wide range of services provided by our team here at PHd Design.

Why Are Infographics So Effective?

Did you know that infographics and other colourful visuals can increase sales by up to 80%? Or that presentations with visual aids, such as infographics, are on average 43% more persuasive? There is of course a significant amount of psychology behind the effectiveness of infographics and how they impact sales and decision-making – but let’s strip that down to a few simple points…

Infographics Catch and Hold a Users Attention

Research has confirmed that consumers tend to focus on ‘information-carrying images’, such as infographics, more than they read a page’s text. Combined with the knowledge that blog posts and news articles that contain an infographic are 30 times more likely to be read in full than those without an infographic – you start to get a picture of how powerful infographics can be in your marketing strategy.

Infographics Will Make it Easier for Users to Learn and Retain Information

It has been found that on average, people remember 65% of the information that they see in a visual, but only 10% of the information that they hear out loud. Meaning that an infographic can have a significant impact on everything from brand recognition to understanding the benefits of buying a product or service.

Infographics Can Boost Your Success on Social Media

It’s common knowledge that social media posts with an image tend to perform much better than text-only posts. But did you know that infographics are the most liked and shared type of content on social media?

A visual element helps to catch a user’s eye on social media, and if you can make that visual element something really informative and valuable, like an infographic – that post instantly becomes more interesting, and of course more shareable. And let’s not forget, sharing is a key factor in how social media algorithms determine whether it should be shown to more users, who will then potentially take action.

Infographics Can Boost Your Sales

Our brains process visual information 60 times faster than written information. So an infographic, not only helps people to understand it far more quickly than asking them to read a multiple-page sales pitch. Two of the most common barriers to sales are time and uncertainty. By making your sales pitch into an infographic, you make it simpler for the user to understand and quicker for them to consume and digest – giving them plenty of time to consider, and enough understanding that uncertainty is no longer an issue.

Infographics Can Be Used Anywhere

Not only are infographics an incredibly persuasive tool, but they’re also very versatile and can be used in a variety of ways. They can be used as social media content, included in a brochure, or a printed ad in a popular publication. They can be used on your company website, in a presentation, and so much more…

In fact, if you’ve visited our office you will have seen a giant infographic on the wall of our boardroom.

Benefits of Infographics

In our opinion, infographics are severely underrated! Not only are they the perfect tool for condensing complex ideas or large amounts of information, in a way that’s far quicker and simpler to digest – but it’s also a format that’s incredibly popular with users. Let’s have a quick recap of the benefits of using infographics;

– Infographics can help boost sales by up to 80%

– Infographics can make presentations up to 43% more persuasive.

– Infographics are more likely to catch the attention of a potential customer.

– Infographics make it easier for people to learn more about your brand/ product.

– Infographics are the most liked and shared type of content on social media.

– They can be used in every area of your business and across any platform or medium.

Looking for Design Support?

If you are considering working with a design agency, PHd Design might be the right fit for your business and brand’s needs. Our award-winning design team have been delighting clients for just over 30 years, and our studio is ranked in the top 100 of all creative agencies in the UK.

If you would like to learn more about working with us on your next infographic or design project, please get in touch.

Not quite ready to discuss a project with us? Why not join our fortnightly newsletter to keep up to date with the latest studio news, and get updates on the latest articles, giveaways and special offers from PHd Design – click here to subscribe.

Did you know that physical, printed brochures are as popular as ever? That’s right, even though digital solutions dominate most areas of modern marketing – when it comes to brochures, print is more powerful than ever…

There is just something about a printed brochure, that a digital version cannot replicate. Perhaps it’s the weight of the paper, the feel of the paper when touched that instantly gives an indication of quality, or maybe it’s the sharp print?

The Benefits of Brochures

Like any marketing material, printed brochures need to ensure that they will inform, sell or encourage a user to take action, such as signing up for a subscription. But how is it that brochures are so effective?

Informative

Brochures are a fantastic way of compiling a lot of key information in a small area. Now brochures of course come in many sizes, from just a handful of pages, right through to hundreds of pages – meaning that whether your business is simple, or something quite complex – a brochure can give you as much, or as little space for information as you need.

Easy to Distribute

It goes without saying that brochures are easy to distribute. They can easily be posted out to prospective clients for minimal postage, passed out to delegates at a conference or even displayed on a table for people who visit the office to review and take away with them.

Builds Trust

Brochures are a great way to build trust with your target audience. Not only do brochures clearly detail your product or service, but they’re the perfect opportunity to share more information about your company. Many companies opt to include their objectives and goals, and this is a great way to build trust. When clients can easily learn more about your company, they know that they can trust your business.

Cost-Effective

The cost of a brochure can vary, depending on a number of variables, such as; what paper weight is used, the number of copies required, etc. But generally speaking, brochures are very cost-effective and one of the more affordable methods of print advertising.

Leaves a Lasting Impression

Brochures are of course a fantastic way to leave a lasting impression on a potential client or customer. This can be especially helpful with any clients who may not be quite at the ‘buying’ stage yet. It gives them the information they need to make the purchasing decision but also serves as a handy reminder that your business can give them what they need.

Brochure Design

When working with us, we start by outlining your goals and brainstorming ideas and concepts, before we put pen to paper. We then start with sketches, using pencil and paper and don’t move to digital design until later in the process.

Our motto is that ‘the pen is mightier than the mac’, so our solutions are sketched and refined with your input first, allowing us to explore possibilities and finalise solutions much faster. This means that we won’t eat into your budget by testing ideas and shapes on the computer.

Only then do we diligently and accurately design everything onto beautiful on-screen visuals. Our design team use the latest technology and software, including the entire adobe suite, to create high-quality brochures for your business.

Size, Shape and Contents

Within reason, we can create a brochure of virtually any size or shape, to make it as impactful and visually appealing as possible.

Before we start any concept work, we ask the client to provide us with the following;

• Goal of Brochure
• Colour scheme
• Content ideas
• Photographs
• Brand Guidelines

We make sure to take the time to really understand your industry and your area of the market. A brochure becomes a physical connection between you and your client, so we make sure that you become eye-catching and memorable.

A great brochure will include just the right amount of information, not too little and not too much… You want the reader to be engaged, to hold their interest. The brochure should educate the reader without overwhelming them with more information than they need.

Whether you need a prospectus, a report, or a sales brochure – we aim to make it attractive and valuable for your target audience. We’ll help you to create a beautiful brochure that will impress your customers or prospects and leave a lasting impression.

Looking for Design Support?

If you would like to learn more about working with PHd Design for your next design project, then please feel free to get in touch with our team.

When discussing a new piece of work with a client, we’re often given a vague direction of colour for the project. Something along the lines of; ‘Can we make it red and black?’. Now this is always a helpful start, but selecting a colour is not quite so simple…

Each colour has a significant number of shades to choose from. Let’s look at red as an example, there are currently over 130 standardised shades.

So as you might expect, the first step is to drill down to a more specific shade. Let’s go with a medium dark shade of pink-red, or as we like to call it ‘PHd Design red’…. But it can be difficult for even those collaborators who are very comfortable with the colour spectrum, such as printers to understand exactly which shade we mean when we say a medium dark shade of pink-red. This is where colour models come into play.

What is a Colour Model?

In it’s simplest form, a colour model is a system used to describe a colour, so that it is consistent across all devices and materials. This standardisation of colour, means that you can be confident that everyone involved is working to the exact same shades of colour required for your project.

Believe it or not, there is more than one standardisation model. The 3 most commonly used colour models are: CMYK, RGB and Pantone. On the surface, it may seem counterintuitive to have multiple systems for standardisation. But each model has its own individual strengths and weaknesses.

So let’s look deeper into the most popular models…

CMYK

CMYK is an abbreviation of the main colour components, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key. To make this a bit simpler, the colours can be thought of as; blue, red, yellow and black. However, this method is sometimes referred to as ‘four colour’.

Now that we have the basics, let’s move on to ‘halftone’. CMYK printing uses halftone, where tiny dots of each colour component is printed in a pattern that we perceive as a solid block of colour. This makes CMYK a subtractive colour model, which means that when the colours overlap, the light wavelengths are absorbed, so we see the remaining wavelengths that weren’t absorbed. It often helps to think of it being similar to mixing paint to get the right shade. But in design work, instead of mixing paint by hand we use digital tools to assign a value to each of the four colour components to select the desired shade with precision. Interestingly though, if you get close enough (depending on the project you might need a magnifying glass), the image will appear pixelated, as you perceive the individual dots.

However, colour consistency can be an issue with CMYK printing, as the CMYK value may look different depending on variables in production.

Yep, we know it’s complicated…

RGB

Next on our list we have RGB, which stands for Red, Green, and Blue.

RGB is used for electronic and digital colouring, so you will likely have seen it in use on digital cameras, TV, and HTML.

Unlike CMYK, RGB is an additive colour model, which means that instead of layering colour to block light, it instead adds the light wavelengths together in order to produce new colours.

The main drawback of RGB is that it is a device-dependent colour. For instance, if you adjusted the presets on your TV for a ‘warmer’ picture, or adjusted the brightness and contrast on your computer monitor, then those specific colours you had so carefully selected, would look a little different depending on which device you viewed it through.

Pantone

The Pantone Matching System, commonly referred to as ‘Pantone’ has become the standard in colour matching and standardisation.

This system starts with a CMYK code, and then converts this into a ‘spot colour’. This spot colour then prints as a solid colour, rather than the CMYK halftone dot colours. But the Pantone system has a wider range of colours than the CMYK system and can even produce metallic and fluorescent colours.

But, as you might have guessed, this method is still open to ‘misinterpretation’, as colours can look different on different devices, and different again when compared with the final print. This concern was resolved by Pantone as they produced a range of physical swatches in both coated and uncoated formats. This allows designers and clients to not only see the actual colour, but to see how the printed colour would look depending on whether coated or uncoated paper was used for the final print.

When it comes to printing, it’s well known that Pantone will always produce consistent and sharp colours, but there is a downside… Each colour requires its own ink and screen, so can become quite expensive depending on the project.

So, Which Colour Mode is Best?

Most designers prefer to work in Pantone and will then find the closest match in another mode should the project be better suited to that mode.

But generally speaking, CMYK is best for printing at home, where budget is a concern and collateral prints. RGB is best for digital projects. And Pantone is best for colour accuracy, textile or product manufacturing and screen printing.

If you need support on a design or print project, we might be the perfect graphic design agency to help. Get in touch with our team today, by emailing info@phddesign.co.uk or call 01543 473 191.

Have you ever thought about how long it would take to design a logo? Well, this all depends on lots of different factors. As you might already know, your logo is hugely important. Your logo is the core representation of your brand and should communicate its quality and values. This logo will be ingrained on signage, stationary, website and more…. Something this critical should not be rushed or be done cheaply at a cost to quality.

Design can look easy from the outside, however, most people probably know that designing logos isn’t as simple as it seems. There is a lot of work involved which often requires a lot of time.

Realistically, How Long Should it Take to Design a Logo?

There are a lot of different factors that contribute to the amount of time a logo takes to create. It is possible to create a logo in anywhere between a few minutes and a few weeks. So, let’s explore the types of logos and how long it takes to create them in more detail.

The Logo Which Takes a Few Minutes to Create

There are of course lots of options for ‘cheap’ logos online. Sites like Fiverr and online logo generators promise quality designs quickly and at an affordable price. Now if you’re business is a ‘side hustle’ and you have a very limited budget this may seem like the right option for you – but think carefully…

A logo that is drawn on the back of a cigarette packet or generated by a program won’t have the desired effect on your potential customers.

‘You get what you pay for’ has become a bit of an overused cliché – but the sentiment holds true. In virtually every area of business, you pay more for a higher-quality product. If a logo only takes a few minutes to create, there will be serious quality issues. Chances are that you will not notice these issues, but your customers will!

If a designer hasn’t spent a good amount of time analysing your business, your industry and your goals – how can they possibly create a logo that is an accurate representation of your brand? It’s also worth remembering that logos like this are often very generic and are frequently used by designers for multiple clients. In simple terms, your logo will fail straight out of the gate at its primary task of making your business stand out.

The Logo Which Takes a Couple of Hours to Create

Although this is a better option than a logo which takes a few minutes, a couple of hours is just not enough time to create an effective logo. If you are working with a professional design agency, they will need time to thoroughly understand and analyse your business, before they can then plan and conceptualise your logo. This process alone takes more than a couple of hours, so a professional would need more time to complete the logo design process.

The Logo Which Takes a Few Days to Create

For most small to medium-sized businesses, a bespoke logo within a few days is achievable, but not ideal. The longer a designer can spend analysing your brand, the industry and your goals, the more effectively they will be able to design the perfect logo for your business. Likewise, the more time they can afford to spend on the design process itself, the higher quality your end design will be, and the more successful it will be.

Now you may be making this decision based solely on price, but don’t forget to take into account that the average lifespan of a logo is 10 years, at which point it will likely need a refresh. So it’s always worth investing more where you can, for the long-term success of the project and ultimately your business.

The Logo Which Takes 2-4 Weeks to Create

Realistically, the full design process for a professional logo should from start to finish should take between 2-4 weeks. When working with a professional design agency, the full creative process starts as soon as the first meeting/ phone call has taken place. Every company, service and product is different, so the agency has to gather as much information as they can to ensure that they understand your business, your industry, your goals and your requirements and more. Likewise, no two design solutions are the same – reputable design agencies don’t use templates or copy other designs. Everything should be bespoke and tailored to achieve your goals.Each design agency will have it’s own individual ways of working, but as an example of how the design process works, here is an outline of the key stages here at PHd Design;

We research your brand and brainstorm ideas before sketching and putting together some design concepts to help provide you with the perfect logo.

By using a traditional pen and paper we can let our imagination go. These concepts will be rough and possibly just outlines. This process allows us to quickly explore ideas for the design.

The pen is mightier than the mac. Our solutions are sketched and refined with your input first. This unleashes possibilities and gets to solutions quicker. Only then do we diligently and accurately design everything to beautiful on-screen visuals.

The next step is to provide you with multiple concepts we have sketched to discover which styles you prefer and to make any amendments you may request.

Finally, we provide you with the finished product files.

Who are PHd Design?

We are an award-winning little company that has been merrily doing this since 1992, and our thousands of clients love it, they’ve grown with us and stuck with us. Ranked in the top 100 of all creative agencies in the whole of the UK, we’re proud of our reputation of delighting our clients. We are located in a lovely barn in the heart of the Staffordshire countryside, near to historic Lichfield and on the doorstep of Birmingham.

Why not take some time to look around our website and plan how best to use our phenomenal services to make your business dreams come true? You can see more of our logo design projects on the ‘our work’ pages, or find out more about our services by contacting us today.

We’re on a mission to help make the daunting challenge of hiring the right creative team, simple and stress free.

The first part of our guide covered everything you need to create a shortlist of suitable candidates for your next design project. If you haven’t read that yet, we recommend going back to read our tips for creating a shortlist of agencies.

In this section, we’re going to cover the next stages of the hiring process…

Make First Contact

As you might have guessed, the next stage involves picking up the phone and calling a few of the agencies that are on your shortlist. You might think that at this stage it would be far simpler to send them an email, and in most cases yes, it is quicker and easier to write a single email of enquiry and ping it over to several agencies. But, by taking the slightly longer route of calling, you may gain some valuable insights, such as whether they will be a likely fit for your business in terms of personality and ways of working.

It is worth noting that although you are making the initial call, you may have to wait to discuss your needs in detail with the right person at the agency. It’s also worth noting that not all agencies will have a telephone number. Some agencies do not have a publicly available telephone number, and will instead insist that all enquiries come via email. Although this will work for some, it could indicate that contacting the agency if there is an issue could be difficult – which is less than ideal.

Your Call With the Agency

Outline Your Project

Use this initial call to outline the basics of the project. Don’t worry you don’t need to go into excessive detail at this point, but be sure to cover the key details; who you are, the name of your business and what it does, what you are looking for and any project timelines or hard deadlines.

E.g. You are John Smith, you work at Bakery Ltd which is an artesian bakery launching soon. You’re looking for logo design, promotional fliers, embroidered staff aprons and bakery signage. You plan on opening the bakery on 28th May, so would need the fliers before 14th May. 

Personality

Personality goes a long way. And a clash of personalities can make working with an agency difficult at best, and impossible at worst. This call is the perfect opportunity for you to get a feel for the ‘personality’ of the agency, by observing the personality and demeanour of the agencies representative. For an effective working relationship, it’s important that the agency is the ‘right fit’ for your company. For example if your company culture is very much ‘no nonsense’, an agency with the same ethos would be a good match. The personality of the agencies representative and their communication style should also give you a good indication of whether the agency will be pleasant to work with.

Discuss Costs

It’s rare for agencies to disclose costs on their website, so this is the perfect opportunity to ask for a rough cost for the project.

Now, when it comes to costing, some agencies like to play their cards close to their chest. They might insist on not disclosing a rough estimate and instead ask you to wait until they put forward a formal quote. This isn’t that unusual, but it could have implications for you and your business…

The issue here, particularly if you are a smaller or newer business, is that you have no idea if their prices are massively out of scope for your budget. If you are launching a new business, you may only have a small budget, let’s say £500. Imagine giving a rough phone brief to an agency, then spending a few hours discussing your project in detail with an agency, then having another meeting where they put forward their proposal and quote – only to find out that they intend to charge £2,500 – five times your budget for this project. You’ve wasted hours of company time unnecessarily, because they couldn’t give you a rough indication of costs, or advise that prices start from x amount….

Ask About Their Clients

It’s likely that the agency will have a small selection of case studies and testimonials on their website. But it’s worth taking the time to ask for more. Specifically, ask if they have worked with clients in your industry previously. Ask if they have covered many projects of this nature and if they have additional case studies they could share with you. Hopefully they will be able to discuss some recent projects that are of the same vein as your planned project, possibly detailing how successful the project was in achieving it’s aims, and maybe even disclosing some KPI’s.

Meet the Agency

Although you’ve already done a lot of research, and checks on the agency, this stage will give you even more insight and help to confirm whether they are the right agency for you and your business.

Generally speaking, at this point the best option is for the agency to visit your place of business in order to discuss your project in greater detail. This can help the agency to gain a deeper understanding of your business, which in turn means that they can apply this understanding to your project – ensuring that the end design solution is very much ‘on brand’. But of course, if you are not 100% sure that you’ve selected the right agency, or if you plan to discuss your brief with multiple agencies – you might want to visit their business with a view to learning more about which agency you prefer. In this instance, as a courtesy, be sure to mention to all involved agencies that the brief has been discussed with other agencies also.

Go Into Detail

This is your opportunity to not only explain the basics of what you are looking for, but to go over every tiny detail you have. If you’re looking for a new packaging design, don’t just explain that you’re looking for something colourful that appeals to a certain demographic… Give them detail on how you want the product to be perceived. Tell them about products that you’ve seen and loved, and why you felt drawn to those designs. Tell them about the product packaging you’ve hated and why you hated it. Tell them the history of your existing packaging. The more information you can provide, the more likely it is that they will be able to create the perfect design solution for your business.

Challenge is Good

Be prepared for challenge from the agency. They may challenge your plans, aims, or challenge you to re-examine or explain why you think something is a good or bad idea.

Rest assured, this challenge isn’t the agency trying to be difficult, it’s them trying to help you. They may be trying to dig deeper into something you have mentioned as part of your project details, to get more insight on your thought process, or to get more clarity on what you are actually looking for. They may challenge you because they can see that the creative work you have requested doesn’t align with the aims for your project… Challenge is good, so be open and honest.

Ask Them About Their Processes

Ask the agency to walk you through their process. What are the next steps after this meeting? Do they have a standardised process for design projects, and if so can they walk you through it? When will you be able to provide feedback? At what stages of the project should you expect invoicing?

This is also the perfect time to ask them what their expectations will be for you as the client. Will you need to provide them with asset files or images? Will they expect response from you on queries within a certain timeframe? What are their payment terms for invoicing, etc?

Proposal & Quote

Some agencies will prefer to send the proposal and quote via email, and some will prefer to present the proposal to you in person to explain the technical side of the design. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, or to provide constructive feedback. If you’re not entirely happy with the proposal, you should absolutely raise your concerns with the agency.

But if you are happy with the proposal, and of course the costs quoted – let the agency know that you would like to proceed with the project. Keep in mind that you will need to provide the agency with a purchase order before they are able to proceed with any project work.

If you have a design project in mind, and think PHd Design might be the right creative agency to support your business – please get in touch today.

If you find yourself in the market to hire support from a creative team, chances are that you might find the process a little challenging. But don’t worry you’re not alone.

Finding the right creative team can be a tough process – and for good reason. You need a team that has technical skill, artistic talent, who you get along with. Most importantly that you are confident will help to grow and develop your brand further.

We’re hoping to make this daunting process that little bit easier, by outlining a simple step by step guide to finding and hiring the right creative team for your business…

Start with a Project Outline

It’s important that you have a good understanding of what you need, before you start the hunt for the right creative team. Think of the search for the right agency as being like hiring a candidate for a job vacancy within your business. The project outline is essentially the role specification for this vacancy. You need a role specification so that you know what you want from the ideal candidate, and likewise this helps the right candidate to understand what you need from them…

Putting together an outline is simple enough, but if you’re unsure of where to start, here are a few prompts to help;

What do you Want?

Think about what type of design work you need. Are you starting a business from scratch and need a new logo designing? Are you an established business, and are instead looking to evolve and develop your existing logo? Will you need new stationery and business cards once the logo has been completed?

Or perhaps you need signage for a new office location? Or maybe an infographic designed to condense complex reports into a simple to follow visual guide?

There may be some instances where you as a client are not entirely sure which design solution would be the best fit for your needs and aims. But that’s ok, as long as you have outlined the remaining points below, a good creative agency will be able to help you determine which design solution will best fit your business.

What do you Want to Achieve?

Think very carefully about what you want this project to achieve. Are you looking to redesign your drinks packaging to appeal to a younger demographic? Are you looking to redesign your website to achieve more sales for your service-based business? Or perhaps a flyer for a mail campaign to encourage property owners to sell their property via your estate agency? This is without a doubt the most critical part of the outline, as an experienced agency will be able to advise if they think another type of project may be a better fit for what you are hoping to achieve.

When do you need it?

Think about the deadlines for your project. Are you planning on launching a newly designed website tomorrow or in 3 months? Consider whether your deadline is realistic. Very few agencies will be able to create a well thought out and constructed design solution with 24 hours turnaround. Don’t set an agency an overly short deadline just because you can. The more time you can allow them to work on a project, the more likely their end product will be the perfect fit.

What is Your Budget?

Think carefully about the budget that is available for this project. A bootstrap budget may seem like the best option – but remember the old saying of ‘you get what you pay for’.  A reduced budget could mean that you aren’t able to afford to hire a team with the right level of skill to support your brand. Similarly, there is no need for an excessive budget for a small and simple project. Take some time consider the right budget for your project.

But at this stage, budget – even if it’s just a rough figure – will enable you to identify which creative agencies are within scope of your budget, and which agencies are wildly unaffordable.

Now that you have a rough outline of the project’s requirements, you can begin researching and shortlisting the agencies you would like to reach out to…

Creating a Shortlist

The first step in finding a creative agency is simple – run a Google search. However, as a general search for ‘Creative Agency’ will return millions of results, let’s look at a few ways to help narrow down your options.

Be Specific

The term ‘Creative Agency’ is very generalised, so try to be more specific with your search. If you are looking for someone to design and manage paid ads on social media on behalf of your business, your search will yield more accurate results if you search for “marketing agency”. Likewise, if you’re looking for logo or packaging design, the more specific search term like “Graphic Design Agency” would be more effective.

Location, Location, Location

For many businesses, location is irrelevant. After all we live in a digital age, and tools like emails, Skype and more, mean that you can easily collaborate with a business anywhere in the world.

But location shouldn’t be an afterthought. It can make a big impact on a number of areas within your project.

From a cost perspective, an agency located in a big city will likely be far more expensive than one in a smaller city, as their fees will be covering higher overheads and competitive salaries, whereas smaller towns and cities will have lower overheads and more.

From a creative perspective it can be beneficial to work with a local agency. A local agency will be able to visit your business first hand to help gain a deeper understanding of your business. They will be able to meet in person more often, which often produces better creative results than meetings conducted over video. But then of course if there are no local agencies that fit the bill – you will need to expand your search.

Reviews

Google reviews are one of the most trusted review platforms around, and for good reason. At a glance you have a good indication of whether customers are generally satisfied or unsatisfied based on the star rating of the business.

It’s also worth reading through as many of the reviews as you can, particularly the lowest star rating reviews. It may seem negative to start here, but there is a good reason. Generally negative reviews are the result of one of two things – either poor performance of the agency, or a difficult client. By reading the reviews you will be able to judge for yourself in each instance who was at fault. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about the agency, by reading their response to a negative review. Their response may include key details that the reviewer failed to mention, or it could confirm that the agency is a little difficult to work with.

If you have time to read the positive reviews also, then it is certainly worth it. Some reviews will of course contain more details than others, but be on the lookout for any reviews that mention using the agency for multiple projects over multiple years – as repeat customers are a good indication that the agency are genuinely good at what they do.

Websites

As you might have guessed, once you’ve narrowed down your search results, the hard work begins. Read through the website for each potential agency you are considering. A good website will cover most everything else that you need to know about an agency. It should include a portfolio of their designs, information on the types of project they are able to cover, case studies, testimonials and more.

Now of course if you are looking for packaging design for a new product launch, you can instantly discard any design agency that does not offer packaging design services from your shortlist. And when you have found an agency that does offer these services, you can check whether any of their featured case studies cover this service. This can be a great opportunity to see what their design solutions can achieve. Similarly their testimonials will likely have more detail than a standard Google review, so finding one in the particular area of your project can help shed a bit more light on the benefit of this agency over another…

Next Steps

Now that you’ve read our tips for creating a short list of the right agencies for your next creative project, you might be wondering what to do next. Fear not, our second part of this part will cover the next stages of the hiring process, from initial contact and vetting, right through to hiring.

But in the meantime, why don’t you take a look around our website. Look through our portfolio of works, read our case studies and testimonials. And if you’re looking for support from an award-winning design agency with 30 years of experience, and think we might be the right fit to support your business with it’s next project – please get in touch.