If you’re an outsider to the world of professional creativity, it’s actually surprisingly easy to get lost in all the conventions and industry sub-cultures. Strangely enough if you look for long enough everything might start blurring into a homogenous blob. Broadly speaking you’ll likely come across websites full of the latest creative work, logos of selected clients and inspirational statements about the future.
Getting past the industry defaults – what’s really going on with all these nomenclatures? Are people talking about the same thing here or is there a real difference between the design agency, the design studio and the design consultancy?
Are they interchangeable?
When it comes to choosing a creative partner the subtle distinctions between these types of creative teams might just be the thing that makes a significant difference.
Design as a Service: More Same than Different
I’ll start by saying – at the end of the day – design agencies, studios and consultancies have more in common than not. Functionally they’re all a service to help businesses achieve their goals, connect with customers and realise their vision. How they go about doing this is where the difference lies.
Structurally they’re all likely to be small specialised teams. As requirements and scopes of projects scale, it’s not uncommon to see groups of small teams collaborate on a single project each with different responsibilities. Nor is it uncommon to see our three types of teams work together when needed.
What is a Design Agency?
I’ve explored this in detail but let’s jog our memories. Here’s how I’ve defined it.
An agency is basically a team that have a specialised skillset that help businesses solve specific types of problems and provide strategic guidance.
Easy?
Well, no surprises here. As it turns out there are all sorts of design agencies all that offer varying kinds of specialised services. Keeping it top level agencies would likely have the broadest skillset amongst our group covering both strategic and creative execution.
What is a Design Studio?
A studio on the other hand focuses on delivering aesthetically driven, high-quality, detail-oriented creative. Studios are typically known for artistic excellence and craftsmanship in specific fields like brand, graphic or digital design. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to draw parallels with adjacent design fields like fashion or furniture.
With that said, you’ll likely work with senior creatives however the range or extent of services offered in comparison to an agency will be reduced.
It’s more common to see a studio with a house style than an agency. In other words there may be a emphasis on a certain aesthetic direction or idea that’s a common trait throughout their work.
What is a Design Consultancy?
A consultancy primarily offers strategy, advice and insights. Unlike agencies or studios, consultancies may not execute creative outputs directly but provide expert guidance to empower your team or other creative partners.
Consultancies will help businesses who need high-level strategic direction and require clarity before jumping into significant projects.
Like everything, it does feel like we need to put an asterisk next to it. Consultancies come in all shapes and size. From single-person lone-rangers to highly-sophisticated multi-national teams, there’s honestly something for everyone.
Smaller operations may offer a more creative-led consultancy in the form of brand governance whereas larger teams are more likely to have the strategic experience and know how to shift mindsets and drive real organisational and market change.
What is a Design Agency/Studio/Consultancy Hybrid?
What if we took a bit of everything, shook it up and see what comes out?
Meet the hybrid.
As things get increasingly competitive – that’s capitalism for you – traditional distinctions have blended together and differences have broken down. It’s not uncommon to see teams construct completely unique combinations of these services.
You might see this if a team is focusing on a particular industry, stage or niche that has unique requirements. As an example, a start-up will have different requirements and budgets to a legacy company. A cafe will have different requirements to a public company.
At the end of the day it means that teams are more flexible and better able to tailor to the needs of their clients on the ground.
What about us? ONETOO are a hybrid design agency. We’ve taken the best of our three team types and blended them together in a way that creates compelling and unique value for our clients. It means while we’re offering studio-level execution we’re primarily thinking strategically – We’re exploring high-level concepts like brand strategy, differentiation, onlyness and reimagining brand from first-principals.
How to Choose your Design Partner
There’s definitely no one-size fits all solution and like I said, they all have more in common than not. You’ll need to evaluate any partner based on their strengths, expertise and compatibility with your business rather than on the title alone.
Really, it all comes down to understanding your needs and to a greater extend, really understanding your business challenges. What good is it to solve a problem you didn’t actually have?
Saying that, here’s a few questions that might help:
- Problem? – Do you understand your problem? Do you need strategy? Or do you just need creative? Maybe you need both?
- Scope? – If you’re just after a logo, a consultancy isn’t for you. If you need strategy, creative and a digital experience to bring it all to life, a design agency might be your best choice.
- Timelines? – Working with an in-demand team will mean you may need to wait. Be clear about your time requirements and factor in your scope. Detailed consumer research will take more time than a landing page.
- Budgets? – Different models will have different cost structures. Large teams with large offices will likely cost more. Different models will also have different pricing structures.
- Capabilities? - If you have an in-house team or strategic leadership there may be things you can do internally while partnering with an external creative team.
- Culture? - You’ll work closely with any team
Questions for Design Partners
If you haven’t worked with creative teams much or are looking to work with a team in the future – here’s a couple quick questions that might help guide your initial conversation.
- Can you share case studies relevant to our specific challenge?
- Who will be working directly on our project, and what is their experience?
- What is your process for ensuring strategic objectives translate to creative execution?
- How do you measure success for projects like ours?
- What happens if we need to make changes or pivot direction?
What’s Next?
While I’ve tried to break these categories down into their common traits – things on the ground are always a bit more nuanced than they appear from afar. As it turns out there’s no single right path or option just a number of possibilities
Like creativity itself, there are no boundaries and things are constantly changing as culture, commerce and technology influence us and our world. Creative teams are just responding to the shifts and emerging challenges businesses face.
ONETOO are doing just that.
If you’re not sure where to start or need to grab a coffee see how we can help – Reach out.
