Visual marketing strategies are some of the most essential for a business’ success. According to a HubSpot research, up to 70% of companies invest in content marketing, including graphic designs. This is why having a dedicated design team is crucial for your brand’s growth.
But why is it that some businesses fail at designs while others thrive their way towards increased revenues? With Penji’s extensive experience in providing graphic design to businesses, big or small, we know why. The answer is the design team’s structure. Learn about how to have a design team that’s efficient and driven to succeed.
Effective Design Team: Roles and Responsibilities
Having an effective design team means categorizing the work and delegating them to those most befitting the job. Each role should have distinct tasks and responsibilities to avoid confusion and miscommunication. The aim should be at creating a design team that’s well-balanced and productive.
Here are the leading roles and their corresponding responsibilities:
Designers
These are the graphic designers that are tasked to generate the design chops. They are a design team’s heart and soul. Their primary role is to conceptualize art, create, and document them.
While it may be sufficient for some companies to have only one designer, this may not be recommended. Every designer has a specialty, and for most cases, this isn’t enough. A web designer may be good at creating web and app designs but may not excel when you need custom illustrations.
It’s worth pointing out that projects may vary, and having multiple designers with various skillsets can cover all your needs. This adds efficiency and competency to the team.
Managers
These are the people that will oversee all the projects. They will ensure that the tasks are done right and on time. They must create plans, timelines, and schedules that everyone on the team will adhere to. This will make the entire design team’s work flow smoothly and seamlessly.
For this role, some companies hire people who have design backgrounds. They believe that managing a design team is better if you understand what is expected from a designer. Knowing how designers behave and think will give them a better grasp of how to handle them.
However, some managers successfully maintain a design team even without any design inclination. As long as the group delivers their promises, management efficiency will trump any design credential all the time.
Quality Control
These are what some companies label as “design leads or leaders.” They are in charge of ensuring that the final product is what’s required. They must have the creative vision to know what will work and what won’t.
Preferably, it would help if you got your leads from the design team itself. They already know the ropes and the ins and outs of your business. They already have insights into the basics of designs your company deals with the most. Plus, they are tasked to check the quality of every designer’s output. This is to make sure that every design will get positive results.
Subject Matter Experts
These could either be a separate entity or be combined with the tasks of the design lead. These are the people that are knowledgeable in how the design team works. Of course, being a subject matter expert requires experience and background in design. They will be the go-to of your design team for their expertise and knowledge base.
Stakeholders
The stakeholders are the people that will be responsible for the success of the entire design team. They hold the right to the disposition and management of the company finances. They are the ones having the inordinate interest to see a product or design fully developed and marketed.
The roles and responsibilities listed above are what an excellent design team must have. But these are no hard and fast rules. You can always add functions that you think can make the team more suited for your business. Once you build your design team with these, you will know from experience if they are sufficient or need additional staff.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Design Team
A great design team must always keep the company’s goals and objectives in mind. They need to understand that working as one keeps the team focused and accomplished. Here are some points to consider if you want to get the most out of your design team:
Look for Experience in Your Design Team Leaders
You can build a team with the most talented graphic designers you can find. You can even hire designers with no work experience but are full of potential. However, to make the design team work effectively, you need to get a team that leads with ample experience.
Look for people who have solid experience in working in a design team. Those who can motivate and inspire. Those who can provide creative inputs that newbie designers will need to hone their crafts. The experience will give the team’s output the quality and excellence it needs.
Get Your Design Team Members Involved
Involve your team members and get them engaged with how the business works. Most especially the team leaders, introduce them to their counterparts in different departments. This way, they can participate in such business processes as decision-making and product development.
You need to empower your team members in such a way that you allow them to speak their mind about the business. They can give their share their ideas and help with finding ways to grow the business further.
Never Be Afraid to Experiment
According to an article from Harvard Business Review, companies whose design teams conduct experiments use designs as key differentiators. This means that these companies get more from their designs than just the visual aspects. These companies see a direct connection between the design team’s efforts and the business’s revenues.
The benefits they enjoy vary from cost-saving to improving their time in marketing themselves. This is opposed to companies that simply use design because it’s what’s expected from them. Experimentations such as A/B, beta, and concept testing are excellent ways to identify and measure business benefits.
Related Post: The Right (and Wrong) Ways to Do Facebook A/B Testing
Set Benchmarks
A positive customer experience is what most businesses aim for. However, it isn’t something that’s easy to measure. Analytics tools such as those provided by Google can help you quantify these data and let you set benchmarks. Having these measurements in place can help you set goals and achieve them.
Encourage Others to Participate in the Design Process
Let people outside of the design team participate in the design process. Even nominal interactions will prove to be beneficial. An InVision study found out that businesses practicing this possess a coherent design culture. There is accountability in the work you deliver, and this accountability is shared with everyone in the organization.
Related Post: How To Use Graphic Design Services To The Fullest
Why Penji Should Be a Part of Your Design Team
Building your own design team can prove to be a demanding task. It’s not as simple as hiring a designer or two and going on from there. As with your business, a design team needs strategizing to get the right results.
This is the reason working with Penji can be the best business move you can make. Here are more reasons why you should be making Penji a part of your design team:
Your Design Assistant
Instead of hiring additional designers, get Penji as your design team’s assistant. During crunch times, when the workload is full, and there aren’t enough people to do it, Penji is the solution. You won’t have to replace anyone on your team, you’ll just be adding us to your team as backup designers.
A sample scenario would be when you’re designing a website. You can delegate the smaller tasks to us, such as the creation of landing pages. This takes precious time and energy off your hands and allows you to focus on what’s more substantial.
Related Post: Everything You Need to Know Before Outsourcing Graphic Design
Penji Services
An effective design team is one that has flexibility. It would be inadvisable to expect one designer to create all the design genres there are. Our graphic designers specialize in a wide range of design types. From logo designs to ebook covers, we got you covered.
Here’s a list of what Penji can design for you:
- Digital and Print Ads
- Logos
- Web and App Designs
- Social Media Graphics
- Banners
- Landing Pages
- Package Design
- Custom Illustrations
Watch our demo video to learn more about how Penji can be the design assistant you need for your team.
High-Quality Designs
Penji hires only the top 2% of graphic designers in the industry. This way, you won’t have to worry about the quality of the designs we’ll be providing you. Our designers can quickly adapt to the quality of work you’re used to.
On-Demand Design Service
Penji is an on-demand graphic design service. You’ll get your designs in under 48 hours, which is ideal for projects that need to be completed ASAP. You won’t have to sacrifice the quality of work just to meet deadlines.
Affordable
Graphic design can be expensive. With Penji working for you, you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get that extra helping hand. For as low as $399 per month, we’ll take the work off your shoulders. Plus, there are no contracts to bind you. You can cancel anytime you no longer need our services.
No More Tedious Recruitment Processes
Finding that perfect designer comes with a long and laborious recruitment process. Looking at portfolios after another can get tedious. Add to that the papers you need to take care of when a new employee gets hired: tax forms, health and insurance benefits, and a long list of other requirements.
With Penji, we have done them all for you. Just log in to our dashboard, describe your project, and we’ll assign it to the best designer for the job. All you need to do is review and have it revised and then download. No more HR stuff you have to sweat out to complete.
Final Thoughts
Graphic design today serves more purpose than it did a few years ago. It is now used widely as business drivers. The demands are escalating, and building the ideal design team requires thoughtful attention. Penji will help you create a design culture that would provide your business with the growth it needs towards success.
Sign up today to get the design process started.
