Why You Should Outsource Design For Your Projects And How To Do It
When it comes to launching a new project or campaign, the question of outsourcing design tasks and projects comes up. If you don’t have experience with hiring someone outside your team yet, you might be afraid of many issues that could arise along the way, from the quality of work delivered to the impact of the potential collaboration on your business.
However, if you explore the topic, you’ll realize that outsourcing design has a lot of benefits. You can get a new perspective on your business, cut down costs, save your time by delegating your projects to others, and more. Read this article to find out solid reasons as well as popular ways to outsource design for your projects.
Reasons for outsourcing design for your projects
Work with experienced specialists
Working on an upcoming project with your in-house designers seems to be a great solution unless they need to learn new skills and work extra hours to complete the project on top of their regular workload. Your team might be excellent at coming up with creative designs for emails or banners. It might take them just a couple of hours to introduce a different solution for presentation design, while they might lack hands-on experience in creating a landing page or brand book.
To successfully launch a large-scale project, you need to collaborate with professionals that have been in the business for years. Outsourcing projects to an agency or a self-employed designer that has a complex approach will bring you better results than working with in-house professionals sometimes. They also stay on top of trends and are ready to offer you the latest, more creative and innovative solutions for your projects.
Get new ideas and a fresh perspective on your business from the side
Undoubtedly, nobody knows your business better than your in-house specialists but sometimes it is also worth getting a fresh perspective on things. Working on the same product or service all year round might blur your vision and make you unintentionally stick to the same approach for months.
To get new ideas and a fresh perspective on your business, you should try outsourcing design projects to other professionals. They are used to working with different clients all the time. Thus, after research and briefing, they will be able to grasp the intricacies of your brand and offer you innovative design solutions you might not have thought of.
Save time
In addition to getting new ideas and working with niche specialists, outsourcing design allows you to save time. If you hire a person outside your team, you won’t be pulled away from your everyday work delving into every detail of the project if you give the designer a comprehensive, complete brief.
Also, you won’t have to run through every step of the hiring process, from onboarding and buying design software to educating the new employee. You’ll just find a team or a single specialist to whom you will deliver the project brief and from time to time, you’ll arrange the meetings to find out the updates.
Reduce costs
Time is not the only resource you’ll save. If you outsource design projects, you’ll get a chance to reduce costs. Here’s a couple of reasons why. Firstly, working with a design agency or a freelancer, you’ll be paying for the hours spent creating the project. You can also agree on a fixed rate at the very beginning and not worry about the surprise sum that could unexpectedly arise at the end. You can also test services such as logaster to create your logo or other branding materials and get a small logo done for free.
Besides, as we’ve already mentioned, you won’t have to buy the software, as well as allocate funds to create a new workplace and provide a new staff member with a computer and other equipment.
Ways to outsource design
Run a contest or a challenge
If you’re outsourcing design for the first time, you might be confused about the ways to do it. Where do you find the professionals you can trust and who have the same values as you do? How do you know their style fits your brand? A surefire way to outsource a designer you’ll enjoy working with is to run a thematic contest or challenge.
You’ll get dozens of professionals entering it and among them, you’ll be able to choose the one that will be a perfect fit for your project. To ensure that your contest runs smoothly and you find a great specialist eventually, try to thoroughly plan and prepare a contest or challenge. The more thoroughly you specify the rules and requirements, the better results you’ll get.
In addition, this competition or challenge can be presented as a separate project with an aim to support independent professionals from around the world.
Partner with a design studio or agency
A popular way to outsource design is to hire a design agency that will work on your project from the very beginning and till the launch. This is a cost and time-effective partnership that allows you to do your job and not stress because of the need to manage a project and other issues that arise when you create projects in-house.
You can also consider this way of outsourcing design to be a strategic step. By partnering with a popular design studio in your region or from around the world, you can increase brand awareness, expand your audience, and even generate new leads. You will also be able to build case studies based on your collaboration with an agency that can be presented on your website or pitched to different media.
Collaborate with the industry influencers
Another way to outsource design is to collaborate with well-known Instagram influencers. Designers that managed to gain thousands of followers are usually aware of the latest trends and have a recognizable style that would endow your project with a unique and signature touch.
In the future and in case of successful collaboration, this Instagram influencer can become your brand’s ambassador. You might also work on other projects and grow your audience together, converting your potential and existing clients into loyal ones.
Look for a designer on freelance websites
This way to outsource specialists in different fields is one of the most popular ways to go nowadays. You just explore freelance websites like Upwork, choose the one that you like the most, and register with it. Then, you should write your project’s brief and place the order. In a short period of time, you’ll get a variety of specialists ready to take on your task and complete it within the time frame specified by you.
However, this way to outsource design has significant pitfalls. You can choose a specialist to hire based on their rating and feedback in their profile but this does not necessarily mean that your first or second candidate will provide you with high-quality results. Before they start the work, it is worth asking them to complete the test task to see the level of their professionalism and understanding of the brief.
Conclusion
Whether your brand is small or big, outsourcing design can help you create an impactful project. You just need to carefully choose professionals you will collaborate with to make sure you don’t waste your time and money working with people that don’t understand you and your business.
Moreover, hiring a team or a specialist outside your team can help you establish a long-term partnership and achieve much better results than just launching a project in time.
