Top Graphic Design Companies

While there is a difference between a website designer and a graphic designer, a beautiful site is so imperative to business growth that you should consider investing in both. A graphic designer will be able to assist with branding, create imagery for content marketing, and design banners for websites and retargeting purposes.

In fact, 46 percent of search engine optimization experts believe that retargeting in particular is the most underused online marketing technology. However, partnering with the right design agency will place additional muscle behind growing digital marketing tactics proven to grow brands.

Did you know that emails containing graphics have nearly a 27 percent higher open rate and a click through rate that is almost 4 percent higher? Well, it’s true. So while you might associate email marketing campaigns with copywriters and data lists, incorporate strong graphic design will improve those efforts.

Properly executed email marketing campaigns can have a return on investment of over 122 percent, so incorporating the services of an amazing graphic design agency is well worth the expenditure. A designer can create custom graphics, engaging banners and even specialized layouts personalized to your content and campaigns.

Thirty-seven percent of marketers claim that visual content is their second-most valuable form of marketing. While quippy tweets and engaging blog posts are important in growing a business, the time will come when you might need business cards, stationery, promotional posters, signage for a brick and mortar store, and so on.

The best graphic design firms will have the resources and in-house experts to handle any request for on-brand collateral that you might have without requiring you to keep a department of designers on retainer, which is particularly helpful for growing startups.

Perhaps the greatest service a great graphic design agency can provide is logo design and branding. Creating a cohesive brand -- including a responsive logo, recognizable color scheme, consistent imagery and more -- drastically improves brand awareness, increases returning customers, and, ultimately, boosts a business’s bottom line.

Because 59 percent of consumers purchase products from brands that they are familiar with, cultivating a recognizable visual identity is paramount. Plus, studies show that consistent brand presentation across every platform can increase revenue by up to 23 percent.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Design projects are, first and foremost, rooted in art. Therefore, make it your mission to understand how each and every design expert determines trends, sources inspiration, and how they will incorporate that art into your brand identity in a way that will captivate consumers. The following questions should help you grasp a

• How would you describe your design aesthetic?
• Where do you find inspiration?
• What brands, designers, artists or campaigns speak to you and why?
• What design elements or trends should our brand focus on and why?

What other design projects have you worked on?

Prior work is a strong indicator of the type of results a great graphic design agency can provide your company. However, don’t rely on them to just hand you all the information about previous projects. Do your own homework to learn who they have worked with and the projects they have produced. Then ask the questions below to hear the agency’s take on their portfolio and how they continue to grow.

• Who are some of your top clients?
• What clients within our industry have you worked with and in what capacity?
• What business objectives have you helped clients reach that are similar to ours?
• Have you learned any lessons from collaborating with clients?

Working with a top design is a partnership. And like any collaborative environment, there will be time, energy and information that you and your internal team will need to provide in order for the project to be a success -- you aren’t just handing over the keys to the castle and coming back when the project is done. Always ask the questions below to understand how involved you will need to be throughout the entire campaign.

• Will there be a contract?
• Who is our point of contact and how often will they update us?
• How many meetings will we have with the whole team?
• What information or materials do we need to provide and when?
• What is the timeline on the project?
• How often can we expect deliverables?
• How much input will you need from us?

The best graphic design agencies are well-versed in identifying the proper audience and targeting designs to them with pinpoint precision -- which is the most important aspect of any design project. Before you hire an agency, review how they plan to analyze your current visuals and their success, define your demographic, and combine trends and goals into a functional design with these questions.

• How would you describe our brand?
• What design materials of ours do you like and why?
• Which design materials of ours would you change and how?
• How will you merge our brand identity into a functional design?
• How do you plan to determine our audience and target them visually?
• How will you incorporate design trends into our design while still realizing our goals?

While you discuss potential collaborations with great graphic design agencies, ask them questions about their process. Creating a stunning visual design that accomplishes a goal is a difficult task that requires plenty of organization and communication, so you need to feel comfortable with how a specific design agency will approach your brand, understand your objectives and translate those into an end product.

“I begin all of my designs like a puzzle,” says Taylor Carney, senior graphic designer at King Strategic Communications. “I need to figure out who the audience is and all the assets to the piece. Once I can lay out everything in my mind, the actual designing part comes easy.”

No project is perfect, but designers at the best design firms can rely on their expertise, resources and work history to adjust to any changes. When you’re searching for the best firm to elevate your visual identity, ask potential team members tough questions to test how they can adapt their strategy to a flexible campaign.

Another great indicator of ability is asking designers what they learned from unsuccessful projects and what they would change if they had to do it over again. Also, assess portfolios and client lists, and don’t be afraid to ask them specific opinions regarding your brand, what they would change, or any ideas they have to help you reach your goals.

Reliable design agencies will create a contract to solidify the agreed upon timeline, deliverables, communication, team members and price -- but don’t commit to a firm before you read it yourself.

Enlist the help of your internal legal team to look over any contract before you sign on the dotted line. This way, you can amend any points, add any requirements, or even outline any private information that you want to prevent from being disclosed to the public or other competitors. Although it may seem like a long process, creating a detailed contract will protect your business, the agency, and ultimately foster a most positive working relationship.

Working with a top graphic design agency will cost you -- but do you know exactly what you’re paying for? Make certain you ask any potential agency exactly what their pricing looks like and precisely what your dollars are going towards.

Know whether their cost is a flat rate for a design campaign or by hour, which team members you are paying for (and how much time they dedicate each week to your project!), and if additional drafts or meetings will drive the price per project up.

It’s easy to churn out the same templated mockups for every client regardless of the project. This is the reason why so many websites end up looking indistinguishable from one another. If you want your website to stand out from the competition, you have to work with a graphic design agency that employs talented, hard-working designers. Your digital assets should be designed specifically to meet the needs of your company, as opposed to being copied from a previous client’s design. Look for an agency that values its employees and that encourages designers to embrace experimentation and creativity. 

Top graphic design companies will have a portfolio of work they will be happy to share before kicking off work on your project. Reviewing an agency’s portfolio is an essential step in the process of choosing a graphic design company. It’s the best way to make sure you have a solid understanding of the style, skills, and experience of the agency. Look for examples that demonstrate the skills required to make your company’s project a success. Have they worked with similar clients before? Do they understand the needs of users in your industry? Do they have experience with the technologies that are essential to your project?

The importance of user experience cannot be overstated. Graphic design is about more than simply making a website that looks beautiful, it must also be appealing and engaging to your company’s target audience. The best graphic design agencies incorporate a discovery phase which they use to learn about your company’s customers -- their needs, desires, and pain points -- so that they can design an experience that works for them. Depending on the audience certain colors, fonts, and image directions will resonate better than others. 

No agency worth their salt should ask you to sign a contract blindly without first pitching you what their approach to the project would be were they to win the contract. Whatever your specific vision for the project is, all top graphic design companies should be able to take your ideas and apply them to the creation of the site mockups.. Before selecting an agency, ask to see a few simplified concepts that represent their vision for how they would approach the project based on what they know so far. Doing this will give you a much clearer perspective on whether the agency is in sync with your needs, and whether they’re likely to be able to pull it off.