Have you ever gone through the hassle of hiring a graphic designer only to find yourself headed down a rabbit hole instead?

Well, you are not alone. 

When it comes to hiring graphic designers, we have had our fair share of ups, downs, and even more downs.

There is nothing more frustrating than having a design idea in your head—one that you know will appeal to your audience— and going through a bumpy road to bring it to life. That is assuming you find someone who can attempt the design in the first place. 

Finding a skilled designer who understands your vision is anything but a walk in the park. Unlimited design services seemed to be a great, simple solution. Unfortunately, we learned that something that sounds too good to be true usually is.

Unlimited design services are a great solution, but not for us

Unlimited design services are a wonderful solution that makes custom designs accessible to business owners. And we know many agency owners leverage those services to deliver their client work. And they worked well for us for a time, too. It was when we had a clear understanding of what the GoWP brand is and isn’t that our struggles and frustrations reached the surface.

The unlimited design services we used (and there were a few) all had one thing in common: we found ourselves constantly training and retraining the designers on our brand guidelines and best practices. As it should be, we are very protective of what GoWP designs should and shouldn’t look like, and we never got a feeling that our design team understood this well enough.

Out of all our frustrations, this one stood out because it seemed to be something very easily avoidable. After all, we provided a stylebook and brand guidelines to adhere to during our onboarding.

We wanted a designer who could translate our ideas into something our audience would love. We tried one unlimited design service and it worked for a while, but as our business grew so did our design needs. So we started to look into other providers. And that was the beginning of our journey down the rabbit hole.

The endless repetition

No one likes revisiting the same instructions over and over. But that’s what we found ourselves doing.

Also, we would spend weeks iterating on designs before receiving a final version. Each time we requested a design, we had to set clear reminders of our brand guidelines and best practices. 

We did our best to make things simple for the design team. Someone on our team always took the time and effort to create an easy-to-understand brief detailing our brand guidelines, tone, and overall design directions. The idea was to make sure the designers had all they needed to breathe life into our design ideas. And hopefully, enable them to create something that would not require a lot of back and forth.

The repetitions, inconsistencies, and lag time in communication grew tiring.

We had two options. Quit using visuals altogether (which would have been the worst decision ever) or bring our designs in-house. Of course, we chose the latter. It was time to explore better options to level up our graphic design options.

Our new game plan: Bring design in-house

Finally, we decided to hire our own Dedicated Designer. And that was the beginning of our journey toward a better brand design and productivity.

We wanted to have people on our team who would take the time to know and understand our brand and accurately communicate our messaging. 

First, we decided that if we were going to hire Dedicated Designers, we weren’t going to settle for just anyone. We didn’t mind going through rigorous vetting and testing to find our designers. All hands were on deck. And in the end, it was totally worth it!  Keep in mind that we’ve been through this hiring process before with developers and copywriters. All we had to do was identify the best assessments and processes to end up with the best all-around designers.

The value of in-house designers

A lot has changed since we added Dedicated Designers to our team.

Nothing beats having Dedicated Designers who commit their time, effort, and creativity to birth visually-compelling designs for our projects.

Thanks to our onboarding process, in a short time, our Dedicated Designers have come to understand our brand image and identity, our tone of voice, and our overall design needs. This makes it easier to communicate our needs and get the desired feedback that matches our goals for each project.

Some of the perks we now enjoy include:

• Design consistency throughout the GoWP brand.
• A broader perspective on our design approach.
• Quicker turnaround on final versions.
• Adherence to our brand guidelines.
• New creativity and ideas that are in line with our brand.

We can rest assured that our Dedicated Designers will deliver designs that will appeal to our audience — and on time. 

High quality, on-brand designs are waiting for you

Great visuals and designs are an integral part of your brand image. It’s often the first thing your customers and prospects see, even before reading the messaging.

Which would you prefer?

Continue down the bumpy hiring road, or step up your design game by allowing us to do the heavy lifting for you?

At GoWP, we have the art of successful hiring down to a science. We understand what digital agencies like you want in your designers, and we’ve found those talents all across the world. They’re waiting to join your team.

Our Dedicated Designer service puts our highly-vetted designers on your team to help you take on more projects and increase your profits. All you need to do is let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll assign you the best designer for your needs. We even help you onboard your designer to ensure you are set up for success from day 1.

If you have questions or think you’re ready for a dedicated designer, please schedule a call with us today.