9 Tips for Hiring Graphic Design Agency in Singapore

In the modern business ecosystem, you cannot rely on logos alone to create product and service awareness.

You have to grow it into a brand and this is where you need a graphic design agency in Singapore. 

It will be vital in developing and creating eye-catching messages about your brand. 

What Does A Graphic Design Agency In Singapore Do?

A professional graphic design agency in Singapore will have a variety of design services.

This includes web design, graphic design, product design, and more.

y7uplOn top of this, the design agency in Singapore will have to work with an advertising agency in Singapore, among other agencies that provide design and creative work.  

However, how do you choose the best graphic design agency in Singapore?

We spoke to some of the top web designers and creative directors to find out where you should look for a graphic design agency in Singapore, the qualities to consider, and what you should know before the first meeting. 

Before you look at the tips of hiring a graphic design agency in Singapore, ensure that you read the reasons why you should hire a graphic design agency for your business. 

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9 Tips for Hiring A Web Graphic Design Agency in Singapore

• Craft a Good Job Description

As mentioned, there are various services offered by a graphic design agency in Singapore.

One of the ways of eliminating delays and frustrations in the process is to create a detailed job posting.

However, to create a good job description for your post, you have to put in the time and the effort. 

This step eliminates the chances of hiring unqualified design agencies.

Here are the essential items you should include in your job posting:

• • Include a design mock-up – First, identify an ideal design to help a creative agency know what you want. You can create sketches using a tool such as Balsamiq or use an image editor
  • Include names of businesses with designs you like and do not like
  • Include a list of must-have design elements
  • Express the design styles you do not like
  • Include your preferred colour scheme if you are clueless, use this guide on how to pick and coordinate colour
  • Set a specific timeline for when the project should be complete 

• Where to Look

One of the best ways to find the best design agencies in Singapore is by word of mouth. You could ask somebody you trust to recommend an agency.

You could also look to other businesses with designs you like, and inquire who created the design. 

After you narrow down to your preferred agencies, be sure to look into their portfolio. With that said, you should ask the following questions:

• • What role did they play in the design project?
  • Who was in charge of art direction in the design project?
  • Did they source the images themselves or it was given to them?
  • Who else they work with on the project? 

The answers to these questions will give you insights into their creative perspective and independence.

Here are more things you should consider when shortlisting design agencies:

• • Technical skills – a graphic designer should be proficient in Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop or other image editors
  • Soft skills – This includes how fast they respond to your feedback requests, their understanding of the job posting

• Experience That Relates To Your Design Plans

Before hiring a graphic design agency in Singapore, ensure that you have a clear design strategy. The ideal design agency has experience in using your preferred format and medium and in solving design challenges in your industry. 

For example, an agency experienced in web design in Singapore will not be the best solution for your product designing needs or designing packaging for your print project. 

An experienced creative agency in Singapore will be quick to understand your purpose and will know how to express it to you and your audience.

• Know What You Want

Most professional design agencies in Singapore will offer a free consultation to understand your design needs.

However, when going for the consultation, you should already know what you want to achieve with your design project, as this will give the designer a foundation to work with.

Prepare a detailed business brief that will be the blueprint a design agency in Singapore to deliver a design.

Instead of explaining, have the brief in writing outlining your objectives, the available resources, and constraints, as well as the business environment. 

By outlining, your objectives, you will clearly explain what you want by the time the project is complete. This will also make the designer’s job easier.

• Know Your Message/Tag Line

The success of a brand lies on a catchy phrase that will elicit an emotional connection with the audience. A professional agency offering graphic design in Singapore will focus on getting your brand’s image across to the audience.

The message should contain your brand’s attitude, values, and purpose. 

For the designer to deliver successfully on the design work, they need to have a clear message to work with.

The message should contain your brand’s attitude, values, and purpose. 

Some of the critical points to consider include:

• • A clear definition of your target audience and thoughts on how they will be reached
  • A short explanation of what your business model
  • What the audience should do or know when they see in the design project
  • Thought about the look and feel of the overall design, you can use examples of businesses whose design work you like or do not like

Having a clear message will ensure that you communicate your design requirements and needs in clear adjectives to describe your message. For example, clean, conservative, innovative, and elegant.

Here is how to create a powerful tagline for your business.

• Price Depends On What You Want

Many factors determine the cost of design in Singapore, but for starters, you should consider the two most important and basic factors:

• • The designer’s experience
  • Design requirements and needs

A design agency in Singapore with experienced designers and a large portfolio will be more expensive.

On top of this, the more complex and extensive the project is, the higher the rate. The hourly rate is the most common pricing methods used by design agencies in Singapore.

If your preferred design agency in Singapore offers an hourly rate, you should lay out the specifics of the deliverables you are set to receive.

However, you should always be ready to negotiate on the price before the project starts.

• Set Deadlines

It is essential that you have a budget when interviewing a design agency in Singapore.

Since the design process has many parts to it, you should clarify when you want each section to be complete. 

The best practice in web design is to have two or three versions of a design, from which you will select one to use.

You need to push for at least two revisions. With that said, you also need to meet your deadlines.

One of the biggest causes of project delays is content delays and unplanned changes.

This calls for you to start putting together the content needed for the design.

However, for services such as web design in Singapore, you can always outsource a copywriter to do the content for you. 

• Customer Ratings and Testimonials

A creative agency offering graphic design services will portray itself in the best light.

However, to hire the best design agency in Singapore, you should look at client ratings and testimonials.

Most customer testimonials are unbiased, and show how easy it is to work with a design agency in Singapore. 

However, to prove the authenticity of the feedback, contact the client directly.

Preferably, call the client instead of emailing or contacting them on social media. 

 With that said, you should dismiss a graphic design agency in Singapore that primarily has glowing and positive feedback. This is a sign of fake testimonials.

A genuine and unbiased customer will highlight all the positives and negative aspects of the service and the process. 

• Claim Ownership

There is a little known fact that a design agency in Singapore can retain ownership of the design.

By claiming ownership, we mean that you should ask for the original art files when the web design work is complete. 

You should make it clear that you will own every aspect of the design from the start, and they have to give it to you.

This ensures that you have the freedom to edit various aspects to suit your needs in the future. 

Failure to claim ownership will mean that you have restricted access to the work and that you cannot use another design agency in Singapore to redesign the project. 

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11 Important Interview Questions to Ask Graphic Designers before Hiring

The information above will help you prep for hiring a graphic designer to create impressive visual content for your website and ad campaigns.

With hundreds if not thousands of graphic designers at your disposal, you must carefully vet them to hire the most qualified. 

Here are 11 essential interview questions to ask a graphic designer before hiring.

We also believe this information will help graphic designers prepare well for an upcoming interview.

• Tell Us about Yourself

While this is usually the first question that the interviewer asks in the graphic design industry and other niches, it helps set the interview in motion.

If you are not careful, it could disqualify you from this position.

Since this open-ended question will help you know how well the designer prepared for the interview.

Most creatives tend to be verbose in their quest to prove they are the best fit for the job.

The employer should pay more attention to the designer’s recent successful project, strengths, weaknesses, and abilities to contribute positively to your company.

For example, take note of similar projects that the candidate has done in the past, such as ad or logo design.

Write them down and inquire more to get a clearer perspective of their skills and expertise.

• Why Do You Want to Work for Our Company?

This is another crucial question that will point the interview in the right direction.

It acts as a conversational starter by giving you a deep understanding of why the graphic designer decided to apply.

The right candidate will go to great lengths to show you they have done background information about your company.

They will then match their skills and expertise to your brand’s culture and the projects you usually handle.

Give the candidate ample time to answer this question while jotting notes for future references.

• Where do you see yourself as a Graphic Designer in 10 years?

It’s every employer’s goal to hire employees who are not only focused on contributing positively to the growth of the company but also keen on career and personal growth.

How they answer this question will help you know if the graphic designer is self-motivated and results-oriented.

It would be best if you strived to bring on board a graphic designer who has the right attitude towards the job and industry and is also motivated and goal-oriented.

Such a candidate is highly productive and focused on achieving their set goals.

Ask them how they intend to achieve that goal based on the response. Be open-minded but also keen on analysing their planned journey to success.

• Why did you choose to Venture into Graphic Design?

The main reason why employers ask job candidates why they decided to settle on a particular profession is to know who they will be working with and their motivation.

Please take a closer look at their education and personal experiences to know what keeps them going and interested in working as graphic designers.

You definitely don’t want to hire someone who has a negative perception of the current status of the industry and the future.

Be vigilant of candidates who seem unsettled as they may be easily convinced to jump ship, leaving your brand in shambles, especially if a project assigned to them fails.

The right candidate will candidly describe how they became interested in the profession and decided to enrol in a graphic design course.

They will also go into detail on how past experiences (both negative and positive) encouraged them to keep on improving their skills.

Tip for graphic designers: Take time to gauge how formal or informal the office appears to know how to respond to this question.

Learning more about the workplace will also help you decide the amount or kind of information you can safely reveal to the interviewer.

• What makes you a Good Graphic Designer?

Your company is only interested in hiring a graphic designer who you believe will contribute positively to the current and future design projects.

Asking this question will help you get additional details on the qualifications of the graphic designer. Use the job requirements to weed out candidates who don’t fit the bill.

The answers offered will help you gauge their ability to see through a project from the planning stage to completion.

Ideally, the right candidate should be able to meet your client or company’s specifications.

Some additional soft skills you should be looking for when looking for a graphic designer are passion, communication, patience, time management, reliability, curiosity, and the ability to take criticism positively.

Dwell more on this question, and don’t hesitate to ask for clarification to get as much information about the graphic designer’s capabilities as possible before proceeding to the next stage.

• What are your Weaknesses and Strengths?

Contrary to popular belief, graphic designers also have their fair share of strengths and weaknesses.

The main reason you should inquire about the strengths and weaknesses is to know how well their abilities and skills match the role requirements.

You should focus on hiring a graphic designer who not only has the required academic qualifications but is also confident about their capabilities.

More importantly, the candidate should be self-aware of their weaknesses.

The right graphic designers will give examples of scenarios where their strengths helped them achieve the expected results.

They will also not be afraid or shy of highlighting weaknesses and indicating how they ensure they don’t hamper their performance or how they are working to turn some of the weaknesses into strengths.

Tip for graphic designers: Avoid exaggerating your strengths to impress the employer.

Otherwise, they will negatively perceive you if you fail to complete a task you said you are good at.

Be truthful and ask a family member or colleague for suggestions if you are unsure about your weaknesses and strengths. The chances are that they have a better understanding of your weaknesses better than you.

• According to you, What Skills and Qualities Should a Professional Graphic Designer Have?

Even though you are the employer, make the candidates feel valued and part of the process by asking for their input on the qualities and skills that a professional graphic designer should have.

The response to this question will give you additional information about their professional skills, social skills, and understanding of the industry.

One of the most sort after skills of a graphic designer is the ability to coherently discuss or communicate project details to clients and other team members verbally and visually.

In addition, the right graphic designer should be able to create robust work plans, amicably solve problems that arise, and convey your company’s vision and mission to the target audience.

Ask the graphic designer about a recent trend in the industry to know how well they keep tabs on industry news.

The goal is to end up with a futurist designer in that they are not only aware of current trends but also the future of the graphic design industry.

• Please Describe A Scenario You Had a Conflict at Work?

This question will help you gauge how truthful and genuine a graphic designer is before hiring.

Most of them will create a fake scenario to give you a positive impression, but you can always tell if they are true by asking questions.

No workplace is immune to conflicts, and how they are solved determines the project’s success and the team productivity.

Analyse the uncomfortable situation to gauge the designer’s ability to handle conflicts and deliver the expected results.

Apart from focussing on the situation, you should analyse the designer’s approach to solving the problem and the results or outcome.

The best designer will not try to wing everything alone.

Instead, they will schedule meetings with other team members and ask for their input instead of bulldozing recommendations and solutions.

You may have to contact the previous employer to know if, indeed, the scenario described happened if it seems too good to be true.

Tip for graphic designers: As a team leader, it’s easy to get carried away and disparage an individual or the team you were working with.

Doing so will paint a negative image to the interviewer, and some may think that you’re a narcissist or you are not a team player.

The right way to approach and respond to this question is by highlighting how you identified the problem and the steps you took to solve the problem.

As mentioned earlier, you should be 100% truthful – the interviewers are professionals and can quickly tell when the results you describe are skewed or impossible to achieve.

• Do you Work Best in a Team or Alone?

Teamwork is essential when working on a graphic design project.

Even though there are specific projects that one designer handles solo, a team best works on most projects.

Therefore, you should focus on gauging the candidate’s ability to work efficiently in a team and solo.

If the designer prepped well for the interview, they expected this question from you and highlighted the ability to work well in a group as one of their strengths.

Ask them to give examples or 2-3 projects they worked on as a team and solo.

Give them ample time to describe the experience and the result achieved to gauge their ability to be integrated into your existing team.

• Do You Incorporate Feedback in your Designs?

Graphic designers are inherently creative and thrive by bringing to life ideas that may seem far-fetched to other employees and department heads.

That said, the best graphic designers have mastered the art of positively portraying negative criticism and feedback.

This trait enables them to create the best possible designs and work cordially with other designers in the team and clients.

The best designers respond to feedback by mentally removing themselves from the project to get a bird-view of the situation and why the client or team member differed with their suggestion.

Doing so gives them a deeper understanding of the criticism and enables them to respond correctly.

You are better off working with a graphic designer who can naturally take negative criticism without making a fuss or creating a scene at the office for no reason.

Such a designer is entirely focused on providing the best design services.

• If Tasked with Designing a Logo or Ad Banner, Which Software Would You Use and Why?

Please don’t get it twisted; the logo or ad banner is just an example of a task that may be assigned to the graphic designer.

And so, feel free to change this question to match the roles or projects the newly hired designer will be working on solo or alongside other designers.

The answer to this question will help you gauge their project planning skills and ability to work with different design software such as Photoshop and CAD.

If you have time, you can give them a simple test to see them apply the skills and work with the software first-hand. Please don’t limit the software they should use.

Instead, please give them the freedom to use any to understand their knowledge and skill set better.

The quality of graphic designs used on your website, print materials, and ads will significantly impact the success of your digital marketing campaigns and business.

Be open-minded and give the newly hired graphic designer the freedom to use their creative skills to breathe life into your ideas.

More importantly, establish a cordial working relationship with the new designer right from the first day they report to work for the on boarding process.

Otherwise, if they think the working environment is not conducive or doesn’t match their skills, expectations, and remuneration, they may soon table a resignation letter, thereby sending you back to the drawing board.

Save time and money by outsourcing your graphic and website design projects to MediaOne Marketing.

Our team has years of experience in the industry, and our rates are fair. Call us today or +65 6759 9852 for more details.

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Conclusion

Hiring a graphic design agency in Singapore is not easy.

It will determine the impression your audience has on your business.

However, the most important aspect has to be that you need to claim ownership of the design and all the original artworks. 

Contact us today for professional digital marketing and web design services in Singapore.

Our support team is on hand to provide you with a free and non-obligatory quote and to schedule for your free consultation.