Hi, my name is Tim with TM Media Design, I am one of the creative directors and owner of the design firm.
What I want to talk about today is what I think you should look for when hiring a creative design firm. Now, the first thing that comes to people’s mind is to look at the portfolio and yes, that is definitely a priority. You do want to take a good look at some of the different projects the design firm has produced and usually that is represented on a website. A good design firm should have a website in this day of age to be able to show you different works and different projects they have completed.
Another thing you want to find out is you want to understand and get some details on exactly what their creative process is and find out what happens from start to finish. That is extremely important. You can find a lot of firms that will eat up a lot of your time and money if they don’t have a good creative process setup. They can go basically 30 miles down a road you didn’t want to go 1 mile down on a creative direction; so, you really want to look at that.
Time Lines – you really want to get a feel that the firm is realistic on their time line. All I can say on that is use your common sense. If they say they can do a 60 page magazine in 2 days, chances are they it’s not gonna get done. So use your own common sense on that. Also, you want to find out how their budgeting works – do they seem realistic in their budgeting. Now, a good design firm will ask you basically point blank – what is your budget? And I know a lot of firms, especially companies that have never dealt with a design firm, kinda step back and say “why do you want to know that?”
Well, what they’re trying to find out is #1, they’re trying to find out if you’re realistic in what you’re talking about and if you understand a little bit of the value of some of the work that’s created. So, for instance, you come in and you want a 20 page catalog and you want to spend $50, of course chances are the design firms are going to say “sorry, we can’t touch that.” (more…)
