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Hi there, welcome to our blog where we share ideas, tips and tricks. Today, I want to talk about one of the topics that You may consider “outsourcing t-shirt designs”
You might be wondering why I would outsource something as important as t-shirt designs, especially when I can hire a dedicated design team to do so.
Well, let me tell you the benefits and challenges of outsourcing t-shirt designs and how it lets you tap into the expertise of providers who have serviced different clients in different industries, giving you access to vast design possibilities like never before.
Top 5 Benefits
- Save time and money. Outsourcing t-shirt designs means you don’t have to spend hours brainstorming, sketching, and editing your own designs. You also don’t have to invest in expensive software, equipment, or training to create professional-looking designs. You can simply hire a talented designer from a platform like Designhill, where you can get hundreds of custom t-shirt designs for a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house designer.
- Access a wider pool of talent and ideas. Outsourcing t-shirt designs allows you to tap into the creativity and expertise of designers from around the world. You can get different perspectives, styles, and trends that you might not have thought of yourself. You can also get feedback and suggestions from the designers on how to improve your designs or make them more appealing to your target audience.
- Focus on your core competencies. Outsourcing t-shirt designs frees up your time and energy to focus on other aspects of your business, such as marketing, sales, customer service, production, and quality control. You can leave the design work to the professionals and concentrate on what you do best.
- Scale up or down easily. Outsourcing t-shirt designs gives you the flexibility to adjust your design needs according to your demand and budget. You can order more designs when you have a busy season or a special promotion, or less when you have a slow period or want to save money. You can also cancel or change your orders anytime without any hassle or penalty.
- Stay ahead of the competition. Outsourcing t-shirt designs helps you keep up with the latest trends and customer preferences in the fashion industry. You can offer fresh and unique designs that stand out from the crowd and attract more customers. You can also test different designs and see which ones perform better before investing in large-scale production.
As you can see, outsourcing t-shirt designs has many advantages for textile companies. It saves me time, money, and stress, while giving access to high-quality and diverse designs that boost my sales and reputation.
However, because you’re bringing one of your company’s processes to a third-party organization, design outsourcing can also be challenging. Below are four common challenges that businesses face when outsourcing their design processes.
Benefits comes also with Challenges
Challenge #1: Talent availability
Hiring the services of a freelance designer or a creative agency is more economical than hiring an in-house designer, but this also means dealing with availability. This is because a lot of freelancers and creative agency designers typically handle two or more clients, so their availability is not fully yours, which means they won’t be readily available whenever you need them.
Solution: Look for a creative agency who can provide talent whenever needed
It would be wise to tap the services of outsourcing companies because many of them are flexible enough to be able to accommodate your design needs whenever needed, even during weekends and holidays. This means that if the talent that’s dedicated to you is currently not available, the agency will be able to provide a substitute. This also means being able to allocate additional talent if you deem it necessary.
Challenge #2: Skill set and style
Every designer has a specialty, but sometimes that specialty does not really match what you have in mind. Your designated designer may have successfully captured the summer vibe that you gunned for, but that doesn’t mean he will ace that winter wonderland feel that you want. When this happens, the solution would be to look for another designer who is good at this particular design, and that could need more time and resources.
Solution: Tap a creative agency that has a wide-ranging design portfolio
When outsourcing your design processes, you need to pick a creative agency that can accommodate a wide range of skill and style requirements. One way of knowing this is by looking at their portfolio of designs as well as the trainings that their designers have attended and the certifications that they have. You can also check their current and past clients so you can get an idea of what the agency can do when it comes to design.
If the outsourcing provider has a great track record, then there’s a very high chance that it will provide the right skillsets and styles to meet your design requirements.
Challenge #3: Communication
Outsourcing typically involves bringing a part of your processes, in this case your design process, to a provider that’s located far from where your organization is. This can be problematic since communicating with them will involve impersonal channels such as email or video calls and can result to the client and the outsource provider not being on the same page.
Solution: Look for agencies that use effective communication channels
Communication is important in any organization, but more so when it comes to outsourcing. That’s why the design outsource provider that you choose should have in practice processes that ensure a smooth communication flow between your organization and theirs.
These processes must also make communications predictable e.g. a weekly call or end-of-day emails, using widely-recognized communication tools such as Skype and Slack, to allow timely feedback and to ensure that both parties are aligned.
Challenge #4: Expectations
As a client, you have expectations, and creative agencies must be able to meet those expectations. Some examples are deadlines for deliverables, design quality, schedule of calls or meetings, and when a website will go live, to name a few. However, sometimes these expectations are not met. This is problematic because not only can this affect the timely completion of a project, it can also consume more time and resources.
If you are looking for a way to improve your t-shirt business, here is the Solution: Hire a creative agency that effectively manages expectations
When hiring a creative agency, you need to make sure that the said agency is doing all the necessary practices that allow them to manage your expectations effectively. Here are a few ways agencies effectively manage the expectations of clients:
- They communicate constantly, allowing them to give updates on the status of a project as often as possible
- They give comprehensive creative briefs that establish the objectives, what needs to be achieved, and how they will be achieved
- They are not afraid to relay bad news, and are comfortable with telling you about them the moment they emerge, which makes coping up with delays and timeline offsets easier
- They over-deliver, which not only meets your expectations but also exceeds them
Outsourcing your design processes is one of the best decisions that you will ever make as the manager of your business. Design outsourcing allows you to improve the bottomline of your business and also lets you focus more on your core activities. Your design horizons will also widen, making the sky the limit when it comes to design.
