For clients wondering the difference between hiring a freelance graphic designer vs working with a design agency, here are some benefits of each:

 

Benefits Of Working With A Freelance Graphic Designer:

Pricing:

Freelancers typically are able to offer lower pricing than agencies. Many freelance designers work from a home office, so overhead costs are drastically lower than an agency who has the extra overhead. These savings for the freelancer can get passed down to the client.

Communication:

When you hire a self employed freelancer, you have the benefit of one on one communication throughout your project. This may not be the case when working with a larger design company where a secretary or manager acts as the main point of contact, relaying messages between designer and client.

Flexibility:

Unlike design agencies who have set work hours, many freelancers will respond to evening and weekend emails. So if you find the M-F 9-5 schedule for communication a bit restrictive, working with a freelancer may be for you. With that said, there should always be boundaries. Calling anyone at 11pm is a bit rude isn’t it?

Expectation:

One of the main considerations when hiring someone to help you with your graphic design project, should be that you like their work. When you hire a freelancer, what you see is what you get. Usually a freelancer’s portfolio consists of projects they alone have worked on. With an agency, the portfolio is going to consist of work from multiple designers, so it’s more or less a crapshoot as to who will be handling your project.

 

Benefits Of Working With A Design Firm/Agency:

One Stop Shop:

Design firms with many hands on deck are able to offer broader skill sets than their freelancer counterparts. This can be convenient for clients in need of a variety of services, but don’t feel like hiring multiple freelancers to get the job done. That’s not to say there aren’t freelancers who are versatile in the services they offer; but for the most part an agency with multiple designers employed will obviously be able to offer a more well rounded collection of services.

Larger Work Loads:

An agency with multiple designers on board can handle larger work loads than a freelancer. This may be a plus for clients with constant flow of new projects that need to be completed yesterday. There’s only so much one person can do. A team can tackle a larger or multi-faceted project more quickly.

Availability:

When a freelancer decides to take a vacation, gets sick, or has some family troubles; the client may have to wait until the designer is available to work again. This isn’t usually a problem with an agency, who can simply transfer a project task when someone is unable to work.

 

Because every agency / freelancer is different, there may be exceptions to the rule of thumb mentions above. Have I forgotten any important aspects of working with a design agency vs a freelancer? Please let me know by commenting below. Thanks for reading.