Design Agency VS Freelance Life

May 31, 2011 by Kevin Michael Gray

Design Agency VS Freelance Life:

Design Agency Picture 1
 

As a designer, I often get asked what is better, freelancing or working at a design agency? To be honest, there is no correct answer but there are certainly perks and pitfalls of both. In this article, I’ll share my honest opinions based on 6 months of working at an agency and 4 years of professional freelancing.
 
Before I launch into comparing them, I thought it should be known that I still currently do both… I work full time (Mon-Fri, 9 to 6) at Carrot Creative and also do contracting under my own business, Just Creative Design, mostly at night and occasionally on weekends if need be. I love both.
 
For comparison’s sake, I’ll look at the components that form the foundation of a happy designer: the type of projects they get to work on, the amount of work they have to do, what they get in return, the amount of freedom they get, as well the ‘fun’ factor.
 

1. The Work/Workload

 

Design Agency Picture 2


Freelance:

As a freelancer, you get to choose when you work and what type of projects you want to work on, however this perk comes with much more behind-the-scenes work such as marketing yourself, doing paperwork, emailing etc. Consequently, this means you will be doing less of what you love (designing).


Agency:

At an agency, the behind-the-scenes work is being done for you, which means you can do more designing but the downfall of this, is that you don’t get as much say on the type of projects you work on… however, if you find the right agency, this shouldn’t be a big problem. Another bonus of working at an agency is that you get to work for larger brands though this is not always a ‘bonus’ (so I’ve been told). In my short time at Carrot, I’ve luckily enjoyed every project I’ve worked on, especially the ones for Disney & Star Wars.


Verdict:

As long as you work on projects you like, you will be happy either working for yourself or an agency, though personally, I prefer working at an agency as it gives me more time to actually design and on a much wider array of projects… and I just love Disney pixie dust.



READ THE FULL ARTICLE

 

 

Subscribe to "Seeding Ideas"
Enter your email address