what the hell is a creative agency, anyway?

One of the biggest misconceptionsabout my product or service is

______________.

Lunch & Learn • July 29, 2014

what the hell is a creative agency,

anyway?

Lunch & Learn • July 29, 2014

Toi is a full-service digital agency, focused on helping companies

and organizations make a bigger, more effective impact in theirindustry through great design.

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Buenos Aires

Austin

It’s not just about making sure companies that are looking for creative

services find the right style in their partner, but that the job itself is matched

with the right kind of creative partner.

One of the biggest misconceptions about the creative industry is that different kinds of

creative service providers functionthe same way.

They don’t.

Freelancer

Freelancers are individual team members for hire. Because they’re only one person, they’re typically only available for a very

limited amount of work at any given time, but are much easier to integrate directly

into a team or management structure. They usually have a very specific skill set

and style, and are less expensive to employ because you’re contracting an

individual, not a team.

Studio

Design (or development, or film, or whatever) studios are small teams that are usually very focused on practicing a very specific set of creative disciplines. They

are usually highly skilled at a certain kind of creative service, usually require a

pretty high budget, and a longer timeline.

Creative Agency

A creative agency is a company that manages every creative service under one

roof: from strategy, conceptualization, web, mobile and print design, film, photo,

technology, marketing and advertising. Budgets are typically on the higher end

(especially compared to, say, a freelancer), but timelines can be flexible.

If your project needs…

1. Tight control over the timeline 2. Flexible deliverables

3. Low-ish budget

You probably need a freelancer.

If your project needs…

1. A very specific aesthetic 2. Very specific deliverables

3. And you have a healthy budget

You probably need a design studio.

If your project needs…

1. Insights & strategy 2. End-to-end creative services 3. Management infrastructure

You probably need an agency*.

* you should also have a pretty healthy budget for this one too

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