Graphic Design Outsourcing: 10 Design Roles You Can Outsource

When you outsource graphic design, you can minimize your graphic production costs, improve design turnaround times, expand your talent base, and access hard-to-find or expensive capabilities.

Does your business need graphic design work done? You should consider graphic design outsourcing. You can delegate The following graphic design roles to a visual design outsourcing solutions provider.

IMAGE: PEXELS

1. Creative Director

The creative director plays a pivotal role in providing visual direction to a campaign or project. They harness the collective expertise of a team of designers, ensuring that visuals align with branding and storytelling objectives.

Outsourcing the creative director role can help small and medium-sized companies access high-level creative direction expertise as needed. This is better than hiring someone full-time and paying the high salary this position naturally entails.

2. Art Director

The art director is the person who ensures each project is running smoothly, meeting both quality standards and deadlines. By orchestrating the creative process, they ensure that client requirements are met with precision and punctuality. Outsourcing the art director role can add a layer of organizational excellence to design projects, ensuring quality output and successful execution.

Aside: Creative Director vs. Art Director

The roles of the creative director and art director overlap, especially in smaller organizations. However, their primary functions and responsibilities diverge in crucial ways.

Creative Director

The creative director sits at the strategic helm of creative projects, charting the overall vision and direction. They are responsible for:

Setting The Tone: They determine a project or campaign’s high-level concept and overall creative direction, ensuring they align with the brand’s messaging and objectives.
Team Leadership: They manage the entire creative team, including art directors, copywriters, designers, and other specialists.
Stakeholder Communication: They liaise with top-level management, marketing teams, and clients to ensure the creative vision is consistent with broader business goals.
Big-Picture Thinking: While they have a keen sense of details, their primary focus is on the overarching narrative and strategic objectives of the project.

Art Director

The art director is immersed in execution, translating the creative director’s vision into tangible outputs. Their primary responsibilities include:

Visual Oversight: They supervise the visual aspects of a project, ensuring that the designs, illustrations, graphics, and other visual elements align with the creative vision.
Project Management: The art director manages the project day-to-day, ensuring it stays on track and meets deadlines.
Hands-On Creation: The art director may also take on a production role in some organizations, especially smaller ones.
Collaboration: They work closely with copywriters, designers, and other project team members.

In sum, while the creative director defines the “why” and “what” of a project, the art director takes charge of the “how.” The creative director charts the course, while the art director ensures the journey is completed with precision and flair.

3. Logo Designer

The essence of a brand often lies in its logo. Logo designers specialize in distilling a brand’s identity into a single, memorable mark. A logo may seem like a simple graphic, but creating it requires specific expertise that you and your employees may not have. Outsourcing this role ensures your company can get an excellent and meaningful logo that represents what your company is and does.

4. Brand Identity Developer

A brand is more than just a name – it’s a promise. A brand identity developer crafts this promise into tangible assets, creating visual assets like logos, cover photos, and profile images and deciding on color palettes, typefaces, and other design elements.

They ensure that every individual graphic and design element, and all of them collectively, resonates with a brand’s essence. Outsourcing this task gives your company access to the specialized expertise brand identity development requires.

5. Product Packaging Designer

In retail, product packaging can induce or prevent a sale. A package designer crafts both the aesthetic and functional elements of product packaging. Their designs ensure products look good on the shelves and everywhere customers can find and see them.

Their work also helps protect products and enhance the unboxing experience. Outsourcing this skill can help small retailers ensure their products stand out, ultimately leading to increased sales.

6. Visual Image Developer

A visual image developer is the artist behind compelling digital visuals. They use various techniques (e.g., photo manipulation, image editing, and 3D modeling) to translate ideas into vivid digital imagery.

Visual image development work requires specialized software and expertise. Unless you have both in-house, you’ll find it more practical to outsource your occasional visual image development needs to a third-party provider.

7. Interface Designer

Interface design refers to designing user interfaces that are both aesthetic and functional. A fuel delivery app, for instance, has to have an intuitive interface that is not only easy on the eyes but also simple to use, even for first-timers or those who have never seen or tried it before.

An interface designer ensures a system looks good while providing system users with a seamless and intuitive experience. They draft wireframes and refine interfaces to enhance usability. Outsourcing this role will ensure your systems’ user interfaces have a user-friendly design that maximizes engagement.

8. Web Designer

A web designer creates website layouts, graphics, and designs that a web developer can translate into a working website. Website design is typically a one-off need, and it makes sense to outsource it.

9. Visual Journalist

Making complex information digestible is crucial, especially now when people have many options and can easily abandon your content if they find it too hard to understand.

A visual journalist designs visual content that conveys data and ideas concisely and engagingly. Outsourcing this task will enable you to produce compelling content that will engage your audience.

10. Multimedia Artist

Today, videos are indispensable content marketing tools. A multimedia artist crafts engaging video content, using video editing tools and motion graphics to tell your story and communicate your key messages.

Multimedia content creation requires specialized skills and software. By outsourcing this task, small businesses needing the occasional reel or shorts can get professional videos at cost-effective prices.

Outsource Graphic Design Roles

Outsourcing graphic design can provide you with a strategic advantage. It grants you access to a wealth of specialized expertise without the overhead of a full-time graphic design team.

From shaping overarching creative visions to crafting compelling web experiences, offshore outsourcing enables you to tap into diverse design talents you can tailor to your specific needs.