Agency vs. Product Design company — what is it like for designers
Being a designer means you are a full-time artist. An artist who creates and regenerates. The brain never settles for less and keeps challenging itself to become bold with each design. Even though working as a designer is fun, the experience varies in an agency and a product design company. Both setups come up with their set of demands and challenges. But do designers feel the same?
What is it like for them to work in both? Many fields of us wonder what it feels like to be a designer. Whether you are a designer, this article will tell you things you have never read! Stay tuned
What is an Agency?
Design agencies are consulting firms for companies looking forward to outsourcing product designers. Outsourcing ain’t bad. From big companies like Google and Slack to small startups, everyone has outsourced designers from agencies.
How do agencies work?
Agencies work like a cluster. At one time, they are on multiple projects. It isn’t a symbol of unproductivity, but they have lots of stuff to cater to at one point. Designers working in agencies learn to tackle pressure and increase their pace to catch up with the pending work. At times, it’s great for their creativity, but sometimes, designers face burnout, losing their interest once and unless someone’s a workaholic and loves to face challenges.
An agency has a team of UX and UI designers, graphic designers, design leaders, researchers, and content specialists. And they all have specific deadlines and tasks to be completed at a certain time on a specific date.
How does a designer feel working in an agency?
As a product design company designer, you must first consider the client rather than the audience because you’re directly answerable to the client. But designers must maintain the balance between satisfying the client and addressing the audience’s needs. Moreover, product designers always look forward to keeping up with the task deadlines without losing personal growth. Designers have enough room to grow and evolve because, with multiple projects on hand, they can learn and be more creative.
What is a product design company?
Product design companies are COMPANIES in a literal sense. They have multiple stakeholders and product owners. Designers can learn more about domains and understand the work process. Product design firms provide the benefit of getting a deeper understanding of product design and a thorough understanding of product implementation.
How do product design companies work?
Product design companies tend to be more fast-paced. There are long-term projects that might go on for years. Moreover, they continue to hire more people for specific tasks.
How does a designer feel working with a product design company?
Being a designer in a design company is no piece of cake. You’ve got the entire responsibility, and it’s on you how to improve user experience and UX/UI design. You are not catering to the needs of one client- but millions of users. Designers have to remain consistent throughout the work process. One of the challenges faced by most designers is that they have to be their own critics. As no one will guide them about the corner cases, they’ve to learn them independently. They’ve to think from the user’s perspective and imagine what happens if the user gets stuck on a point.
Agency vs. Product Design Company
For starters, none of the above is lesser than the other. Both hold equal importance. Product design agencies are growing exponentially. The agencies don’t just look into the design but focus on the technical aspects to ensure a smooth UX UI experience. Contrary to popular belief, agencies only have short-term projects sometimes. One project is mostly around 6 months or even more. However, communication is the biggest key, and designers must keep in contact with the clients.
Designers reckon that they are offered more variety at an agency, and they are closer to the people they are working with.
On the other hand, we have design companies! The companies work on a bigger scale. Companies are lenient towards the deadline culture, unlike agencies that strictly follow deadlines. They are agile, and rules are made to break them.
Final Thoughts
Be it an agency or company, if the work environment is toxic, it will take a lot of work for a designer to work efficiently. Your workplace should help you grow and evolve with time. There need to be challenges and a few relaxing days to maintain productivity.
