Deer Designer vs Freelancers: What’s the best solution for your design needs?
Like most people out there, you’re probably a one [wo]man band, right?
With too many instruments to play, before you get out of tune looking for design help, the first option that might come to mind are freelancers.
Been there? I know I have 🙋♀️
Did you know that freelancers, just like you, have similar struggles?
- Time management
- Wearing too many hats
- One eye on the work and another eye always on the lookout for a bigger paying client.
One of the most common tasks handed over to freelancers is design outsourcing. That’s because graphic design is a highly-skilled task that needs constant output.
If you had to choose one, between having a call with a paying client or “having to design 10 cards for social media posts”, what would it be? My money is on you prioritizing a client and outsourcing the design work to a freelance designer.
However, hiring a graphic design freelancer is not a walk in the park.
Time and effort drainers
Hiring a freelancer takes as much time as hiring a full-time employee
If you’ve been to freelancing sites such as Fiverr or Upwork, you probably got paralysis by analysis (a.k.a “I’m wasting my time deciding due to soooo many options”). And in the attempt of rummaging through the noise, you end up messaging all graphic designers within your budget.
After selecting a few of them, you interview them one by one, only to realize they cannot replicate the look and feel that you wanted for your brand.
Doing the hiring by yourself, you’ll need to spend hours searching for a good match, and after you find THE ONE, you still need to onboard and train them to your liking.
When you choose to outsource your designs with Deer Designer, your Deer Designer Team will be ready to help from the very next day you sign up.
That saves you tons of time, money, and resources, not to mention that you won’t have to do any interviews, onboarding, training, managing payments, and all the HR drama.
Sounds good?
Scale or Stale?
Design outsourcing through freelancers is not built for scale.
You just had a new client coming in. Great! Or maybe new projects start piling up on your desk. Freelancers, like anyone else, have limited time.
And because a freelancer is just one person, you should always be prepared for delays when you’re in need of more design work as your business expands.
When your business grows, Deer Designer can give you more “hands on deck” whenever you need by adding designers to your team. And you’re always in control of which design requests are more urgent.
Our process makes sure that we keep you updated every step of the way.
What if they disappear?
When a freelancer walks out, design consistency goes through the window
You chose design outsourcing because you know nada about graphic design. So, when a freelancer goes bye-bye, all the know-how, SOPs, creative instructions from you go adios too. Can you imagine having to do everything all over AGAIN?
With Deer Designer, you don’t only get one… not two… but three people working with you. You get a TEAM that will help you get the job done.
Your first person is your dedicated Deer Designer. I’m sure you guessed that 😉
Second is your Account Manager, who manages all the admin stuff, helps you prioritize your requests, and organizes if you choose to add more designers to your team or let some designers go.
The third teammate is your Quality Analyst hero. They ensure your brand stays consistent and double-check all design before they’re sent to you. This way, you won’t have to ask for many revisions, saving you a ton of time.
Besides, if your designer takes a day off, they belong to a Squad of other designers that will be ready to pick it up from where they left off. No idle time here!
Worry-free, ego free, 100% design consistency with Deer Designer
Compared to hiring freelancers on your own, Deer Designer can unburden you with the below and more:
Hourly rates and surprising fees
With a freelancer, it’s easy to lose money with unclear pricing rates and unexpected charges.
Freelancers can be paid in different ways: per hour, per project, or per milestone.
If you’re paying through a credit card to auto-debit the charges, you might be surprised when your bill balloons with fees that weren’t discussed before they started working.
On the other hand, you can micro-manage payments by transferring money to them manually.
This is the safest route, but should you really be wasting your time like this?
Oh, and don’t get me started with bank transfer fees and currency conversions if you’re working with someone overseas…
With Deer Designer, you pay the same amount each month, no matter how many design tasks you request.
No hourly fees, no surprises!
You’ve got 5, 20, 100 design requests within the month? No sweat!
You always pay the same low flat fee.
Here’s a quick comparison:
| Freelancers | Deer Designer | |
|---|---|---|
| Excellent design work | ✅(If you take your time to find the right one) | ✅(You get a reliable design team to do all your design work) |
| Managed hiring process | ❌(You have to look for designers yourself and repeat the hiring process every time.) | ✅(Easily add artists with just a few clicks) |
| Built for scale | ❌(You’re limited to the freelancer’s max capacity and will have to hire more.) | ✅(Add or remove artists when you need them) |
| Brand consistency | ❌(when working with multiple freelancers) | ✅(Your design team comes with a quality analyst and all your design assets are shared among your designers) |
| Client controls priorities | ✅ | ✅ |
| Flat-rate pricing | ❓(Depends on the freelancer) | ✅No additional fees. You only pay for your monthly fee. |
Design outsourcing through freelance graphic designers is a hit-or-miss, no doubt.
And if you’re like me, time is of the essence.
Depending on your needs, you’re better off with an on-demand design service like Deer Designer to always have your back so you can focus on your business, where you are needed most.
