How is a freelancer not a professional?

I’ve been designing professionally (as a freelancer) for hundreds of clients for over 7 years now and offer outstanding customer service and quality.

I’m surprised to read that you feel all freelancers are not professional, I’ve never heard that opinion before.

Shrish,

I second Amanda’s sentiments. Stating that freelancers aren’t professional is quite far off the mark.

Charlie,

I had a similar discussion on my blog a few days ago, linked to through my name. Some of your sentences are coincidentally the same as mine.

There’s a point you raise I feel is worth mentioning:

“Unlike big designing companies, freelance designers keep on presenting design samples until the customer is completely satisfied.”

From my experience, this just doesn’t happen, unless the client has an unlimited budget.

“Unlike big designing companies, freelance designers keep on presenting design samples until the customer is completely satisfied.”

When I read that I thought the same David. Not all freelancers will offer unlimited revisions, it really just depends on who the freelancer is and what their offering is.

Whoever works the best!
But with professional freelancers, I don’t know why, but I feel you have more options and can get good choices.

A little ironic isnt it that on the right hand side of the screen theres a link to “free logo design” lol

Ive used designoutpost a few times because, more often than not, a really well designed website can put me off a little because you associate that level of quality with serious cash (I speak from a website running point of view)

When I started up funds were more than limited and a lot of freelancing sites that hit the lower end of the cash spending market are aimed at startup websites that want toget up and running.

Saying that though Im working on a project soon where I will tender for agencies and see whats on offer from start to finish as for me, getting the artwork and design is one thing but implementation is often where that extra help is needed.

First up, I agree that “Not all freelancers will offer unlimited revisions, it really just depends on who the freelancer is and what their offering is.”

As for the corporate world, at one point in time a select number of agencies would be aksed to tender for the job. This process was a PAID for process - today I don’t know of many (companies or freelancers), who get paid for a proposal. It’s a change that we as designers have created… I think that the quoted statement speaks volumns about that. However, I’m a supporter of donating some time to worthy charities - build into the contract that you will do the first round of changes to their brochure free-of-charge (as an example).

To the question, who would I hire? - hard one for me to answer without maybe coming across as having an ego… but here goes.

I actually think that the idea of an agency can be totally different today - especially with the number of EXCELLENT freelancers out there and the world of the internet. 10 years ago, myself and partner were lucky to purchase an agency that had around a 15 year history and a list of clients. (I had worked for the agency full time for 3 years). Anyway, we use freelancers ONLY for our biz. It results in an agency with less overheads that can be passed onto the client - so you’re giving them the best service an agency can provide, with some of the benefits that a freelancer can provide.

As for the freelancers work, they are always professional in my experience. There is also a greater risk for them if they do a bad job - you’re only as good as your last job in both situations - but if you stuff up as part of a team in an agency, you still have your job (unless you really are to blame). But, if your stuff up as a freelancer, chances are you just lost part of your income.

If anyone is thinking of using a freelancer, don’t be afraid to check refs/portfolio - call and check what that freelancer was like. Or even find an agency that handles freelancers and hire one through them.

Parting comment, to Mark… I think that it’s unfortunate that you feel that “a really well designed website can put me off a little because you associate that level of quality with serious cash (I speak from a website running point of view)” - why not respect what they have done, and put in an email asking them for a quote. Even tell the agency of freelancer that you have a lower end budget and you were wondering what they could offer you. Chances are that they will surprise you with the scope of what they can do for you. It never hurts to ask

I think it is better to make logo from professional companies. A good logo helps a company have a clean, professional, polished look. The more clean, stylistic and original a logo is, the more chance there is that it will stand out from the competition and help get those extra salesAlthough I am not a designer but I am running a small business in pennsylvania and I design my Logo through a company called logoguru.

come on guys, this is silly. The difference is obvious. Bigger companies have more resources but charge you more because of their overheads. Freelancer of course, charge less but doing it solo.
Regarding whether who is more professional. It’s a f#@# coin toss. You could have a retard employee in the big company. Come on you know who they are. Anyway, I’m a freelancer and my answer is big corporate should go for big agency. Mid-size business have a choice. Mom and Pop stores has a freelancer.
As a bonus, big agency could even use the freelancer. So what the hell. It’s a win-win for everybody if we ever stop stereotyping things.

Its always best to hire a professional design agency rather than a freelancer, as a freelancer web designer would be working on many other projects because of which he would not be focusing on all projects which are handled by him, where as a professional web design agency would have many people who would be working on one project which would give better results.Because our website should be designed in such a manner as it will be viewed by many users all over the world. So it is better to hire a professional web design agency rather than a freelancer.

Hi Gary

I do agree that many people who are working in big agencies do work as a freelancers and also they will be working on many projects in their companies, but its the quality which matters.

As when they are working in an agency they will be working as a team, because many people will be involved in one project, where as a freelancer would be working alone and other thing is that he too might be working on more than one project because of which it might hamper the quality of the design. And other thing is that, benefiting a free lancer would not benefit the company.

So in that case isn’t its better to hire professional designers.

thanks gary……

I think both come with their own advantages and disadvantages. It is upto you to decide your budget and the work that you need to get done and then choose the right option. For small work within a limited budget, you can always go for a freelancer. And if you plan to get much more done than just a logo, and are looking at a long term professional relationship, it is best to go for a design agency.

We should avoid hasty generalizations; not all the design agencies are great nor all the freelances are #@@$#.

I have worked fulltime for large & small agencies and I’m now freelance. I always give 100% to any job whether it be freelance from home or freelance in an agency. I’ve nearly been working 10 years, so also have a great network of freelance designer friends, so that if I need help (eg. more web based stuff etc) I can call them in. Whether to use a freelancer or an agency is more down to the specific job and who is available when you need them and obviously cost. With an agency or a freelancer the most important thing is that you can trust them and they have a good track record. From a personal level, freelancing is better for me as a designer, due to being able to manage my own time and having a bit more creative freedom. However any good designer will never just ‘keep on presenting design samples until the customer is completely satisfied’ as it is our responsibility to produce good work that answers the brief , that we believe in from the very start.

For the Record, many design agencies hire out freelancers.

Sorry forgot to include my URL.

Get your logo done at a small agency. Best of both worlds.

As a small agency executive, my own agency is kind of in-between the two arguments here. While we are small (3 people at the moment, have had as many as 10 back in the late 90′s), provide one-on-one personal service, can do quick turn arounds, etc., we still have Fortune 500 companies as our clients, can handle large projects (we’ve done everything from business cards for the local bakery to 800 page catalogs for multi-national companies). Being small also has afforded me the opportunity to utilize all of my talents in one project, for example, I’ve planned, written, photographed, designed, produced, press checked, and taken every client call for a project when needed.

We also can do web, multi-media, photography, television commercials, and radio spots all in-house. And we currently work out of our house, have low overhead, and lower rates than an agency.

The majority of work I’ve seen from freelancers points directly at what the article states above: No one is supervising them. If you’ve never worked for an agency, there’s a lot of things and technical details about projects that they just never teach you in school. I’ve been extremely unhappy with the majority of the freelancers we’ve tried to use for work overflow. It’s really a shame, but technology has afforded just about anyone to call themselves a designer, undercut quality small agencies on price and take their work, and produce inferior design.

Design schools keep churning out graduates, 90% of which have no real talent, have not been taught many basic design skills, and have no real hope of succeeding long term in this industry. It’s diluting our value as designers. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of applicants when we’ve hired, and believe me, I know what I am talking about here.

To anyone who is a qualified former agency designer, who has legitimately gone out on their own, I don’t consider them to be freelancers. They own small businesses, produce great designs, and are an asset to the business. They’ve paid their dues in a corporate setting and know how to get the job done for you.

Personally, I think any of us as designers ought to lobby schools to either teach graphic design properly, or stop pushing graphic design as this “awesome job” where you do things like “merge a person’s face over a chimp’s” (real actual commercial for a national school with a design program)

I think its a never ending issue … any way your mentioned terms are attractive

Sorry for the typo. ‘generalize’