There is a desire by some companies to keep every part of their operations in-house wherever possible, but there are plenty of benefits to both cost and quality that come from outsourcing to external specialists,
Nowhere are the benefits of outsourcing most easily noticeable than in the world of graphic design, and for many small businesses outsourcing these essential assets is the norm and not the exception.
One reason for this is that hiring a skilled graphic designer in-house can be quite expensive; graphic design skills take a long time to develop and there is a correlation between quality and price in this regard. The best artists typically know their own value.
However, there is a way to lower costs without sacrificing quality in the process, which is to outsource individual graphic design tasks as and when they are required.
For businesses that only have occasional graphic design needs that cannot be fulfilled using a suite of brand stationary and universal assets, outsourcing is an ideal solution, as it means that businesses only pay for the work they actually need.
In-house graphic designers can sometimes face the problem of not having enough projects to justify a full-time position, with no truly elegant solutions.
The options are to either have an in-house graphic designer undertake multiple roles (often in marketing, content writing and editing), have them work part-time hours which may limit recruitment pools or use in-house graphic design assets more heavily to justify the recruitment cost.
The latter option can work in some businesses that extensively advertise or use social media regularly, meaning that there is a justification for the creation of many different graphic design assets.
However, not every company requires constant new art and design assets, and for those that don’t, it is best to pay for quality by outsourcing what you need only when you need it.