A picture is said to be worth a thousand words.
Consider this: if someone saw one of your brand assets right now, would its creative design express the value you’re providing?
If you don’t know the answer straight away — don’t worry! Read on as ReferReach provides the definitive guide on the basics of creative services.
In the digital world, you only get a few seconds to stand out from the sea of available content and leave a positive impact on potential clients. A good first impression means that people will give your brand the first win: attention.
In the digital world, these eyeballs turn into priceless KPIs like impressions, engagements and conversion.
But what if you are not equipped with creative solutions in your team?
For companies where the day-to-day operations of running a business take up so much of your time, figuring out creative strategies may impose a heavier workload than anticipated.
Don’t stress! A creative agency can help you with this regardless of the size of your company.
Keep reading to find out how to pick a design agency in Singapore that suits your brand!
The Definition of Design Agency
A design agency, also known as a creative agency, is a company that provides a wide range of advertising and marketing services.
Basically, they can assist you with whatever form of creative direction, creative solutions, or advertising you require.
On a topline level, a design agency helps to bring your company’s marketing strategy to life while keeping your brand strategy in mind, developing solutions for your business through design thinking.
A design agency has the expertise needed to marry clever copywriting with gorgeous graphic design into creative work, allowing effective communication for the masses.
It is more than simply your company’s logo, font, page layout, or photographs. All user touchpoints, from your brand identity to social media marketing content, will be thought through by them.
A creative agency can provide you with the physical and digital solutions you need to get the leads you’re looking for. Some examples of how they can help your company are:
- Coming up with ways to improve customer service while also raising profits
- Campaign development to attract a wider market
- Technical services like website development to align with brand strategies and improve consumer experience
Types of Design Services in Singapore
Some creative agencies in Singapore concentrate on a single service, such as advertising or graphic design. This can be helpful if you want to improve only certain aspects of your marketing strategy.
Want an all-new brand strategy that supercharges your company?
Consider a fully integrated creative agency in Singapore instead!
A professional design agency has a comprehensive range of combined experience across multiple industries and a breadth of creative solutions.
This means that you’ll be getting creative design solutions that address your goals, developed by established companies that only want to see your business succeed.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common creative services in Singapore.
Graphic Design Solutions
Graphic design is probably the service you’re most familiar with on this guide!
Incorporating graphic design into your marketing strategy can look like this:
- Social media posts
- Email marketing headers and media
- Infographics
- Postcards
- Logos
- Branding solutions
- and more!
Visual content is highly valuable in any marketing and brand strategy.
That’s because graphic design engages and communicates with your target audience while reflecting your brand personality.
An advertising agency, graphic agency or any digital marketing agency will have experts who are skilled at developing content that are visually arresting.
UI and UX Design Solutions
The goal of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design is to improve the way clients interact with and experience a product on a website, app, or software.
Although some professions integrate UI and UX design, the two are very different solutions.
UI design focuses on delivering a visually pleasing experience that is easy for clients to navigate while staying true to your brand. Effective UI makes the user’s experience simple and intuitive, requiring little work from the user to achieve the maximum desired result.
Meanwhile, UX designers employ usability testing, user flows, and digital prototypes to ensure that a solution truly solves a problem. Good UX doesn’t stop at making a website functional – it also aims to make clients’ experience pleasurable, efficient and fun!
It can be hard to draw a concrete distinction between the two, but that’s not for you to worry!
Keep reading to find out which creative agencies in Singapore that can best handle it for you.
Web Design Solutions
Web design refers to the part of the website that users can see. The way you are viewing this article on your digital device is a result of web design.
Do note that web design and web development are not the same things!
Web design involves many aspects, some of which are:
- Web graphic design
- User interface design
- Coding, including standardised code and proprietary software
- User experience design
- Search engine optimisation
The end goal is to build an appealing and functional website that optimises clients experiences while staying true to brand identity. Some assets that support this goal are
- splash pages
- navigational components
- sitemaps and pages
- scrolling and clicking abilities
- content management systems
The difference between engaging a creative agency to do this work versus a web development agency will be the focus on how your brand will be articulated through the details on top of building a functional site.
Multimedia Design Solutions
Multimedia design, or motion graphics, involves graphic design for a range of media but most notably animation and video production.
Multimedia designers are in charge of producing movable assets that communicate and target your market audience. This includes:
- moveable logos
- GIFs
- animated videos
- educational videos
- animated websites
Not all graphic design teams can do multimedia as it involves a different skill set. If your digital marketing requires a lot of animated formats of work, it is best to work with a team that has the relevant skill sets.
Benefits of Hiring Design Agencies Singapore
Fresh, unbiased perspective
A creative agency can provide new perspectives that can help you improve your marketing approach and achieve your business objectives more quickly.
The suggested solutions are based on detailed market research, allowing you to take the appropriate steps when crafting your next brand strategy, digital marketing strategy or social media marketing strategy.
Efficient and effective work
It can be hard to produce the digital solutions you want when you’re juggling the day-to-day operations of a company.
You are not alone – many brands struggle to execute their strategies because they don’t have the infrastructure in place to handle production.
Furthermore, quality, consistency, and cadence are crucial to a successful content marketing operation.
To make things easier, consider hiring a design agency!
A design consultancy has the experience required to churn out content for you quickly and reliably, and at comparatively affordable rates as opposed to setting up a full internal team. Your team can then be focused on the business while having the agency articulate your brand.
Industry-specific expertise
Creative companies will have access to the most up-to-date industry practices and know what will work best for each company.
They have a better understanding of which techniques are effective for a specific niche and which are not. Thus, they can help navigate your issues and create a marketing solution that’s specific to your industry.
Some agencies have platform-specific knowledge that enables them to enrich your digital strategy through good graphic design.
They’re also aware of the common roadblocks, mistakes, or pitfalls that can sabotage production, so they can better navigate through them. Better than you having to fuss over them!
Wider network and connections
A creative firm frequently collaborates with various other professional teams to better serve its clients.
This organisation will have access to a rich network of contacts in a variety of fields.
Think about it. Want a new video but the firm you hired doesn’t specialise in it?
A professional design agency can develop a creative approach and manage a video production house to shoot new video advertising to bring your campaign to a success. This network can be extremely beneficial to small business start-ups.
Picking a Design Agency Singapore that Suits Your Company
Have clear goals and objectives
Before you hire a design agency, you should identify your business goals and key messages in your strategy.
At this stage, you don’t need to fuss over the details of execution – that’s what the agency is for!
That said, the more specific your goals are, the easier it will be for your agency to come up with a unique solution for you.
Look for proven results
Any agency worth its salt will have a strong portfolio of work, as well as case studies that demonstrate its success.
This will help you get a sense of the agency’s style, expertise, and creative approach and how they provide solutions to answer a business objective.
You should check if the firm has carried out work that’s specific to your industry, or similar to the digital strategy you’re thinking of.
Find out whether they are willing to share their knowledge
A good agency is dedicated to the advancement of its field.
As a result, they should demonstrate their competence through blogs, articles, books, contributorships, and featured in industry magazines.
This eagerness to share their knowledge—and to participate actively in their field—is always a good sign that they are thought leaders in their field.
Top Creative Companies in Singapore
ReferReach is a platform that allows you to connect with and get recommendations to trustworthy and vetted digital marketing agencies in Singapore. To get connected with these top-notch businesses, create an ‘Ask’ with the details of what you’re looking for. Then, just sit back and wait to get connected!
This time, we’re introducing creative companies that deserve the spotlight in the digital marketing industry.
A creative firm with experience, a wide portfolio, and a large number of long-term clients is the best option for your company. Once you’ve found the right fit, work together to build a strong partnership that will help your company develop.