Graphic Design for Marketing Communications Agency
- Other Design
- $50,000 to $199,999
- Nov. 2016 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 4.5
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"Adchitects puts a lot of heart in their projects. They have a great taste in design."
- Advertising & marketing
- Berlin, Germany
- 1-10 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Adchitects is a permanent graphic design partner for a communications agency, providing professional design and brand development services for a range of large spirits brands.
The quality that Adchitects produces, along with the speed that they deliver their work, is what distinguishes them from other design firms. They put effort into developing personal relationships with their clients that makes them trustworthy and respected partners.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Proof and Sons is a consulting and marketing communications agency working for the spirits industry predominantly. We founded our agency in 2013. Some of our main clients are brands of the Campari portfolio, Jägermeister, for example. We also work in the US. We are a small company but we have a very high profile in creating marketing strategies and product launch strategies for our spirits brands. I’m the general manager.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Adchitects?
We don’t have graphic designers or product designers on our team. We work with a lot of external agencies or freelancers for that service. We have a very large network of different people that have different skillsets. Adchitects is one our latest partnerships when it comes to graphic design predominantly.
They are one of our preferred partners in a portfolio of six different agencies. We have people that are strong in brand development like BDI development. We have other people that are very strong in 3D animation. We have a lot of permanent partners. Adchitects takes probably 60% of the contracts we have.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
We are in contact with them every day. We talk to them about what we need and they invoice us afterwards because we have fixed deals with them. We have a fixed budget relationship which is easy to handle.
Since we work with Adchitects as our permanent graphic design partner, we don't have to brief them as much as we would have to with other people. Other agencies don't know how we like designs, what the syle of our agency is, and what our expectations are of the quality. With Adchitects, we train each other, making it much faster and more relaxed to work on projects together.
We talk to them on the phone and on larger projects, we write briefings and discuss them. What’s nice about Adchitects is every time we give feedback, they write notes about that and have us approve them. It’s a simple and fast way to always keep track of feedback and changes.
We’ve only used them for our clients. We are working on a project right now where they are a 90% partner for CI development of a brand.
We also have a very big project right now for a product design. They are a very strong partner and we work with them on 5-6 accounts permanently.
What is the team dynamic?
We need different skill sets for different projects. All the people working at Adchitects have been involved in our projects. I work with the general manager, Jakub [Partner, Adchitects], most of the time. He takes time to talk to me and we have a good relationship. He knows what I want and translates my wishes to the team. Most of our team members work directly with their team members. We don’t have one point of contact. It depends on the project we’re working on.
How did you come to work with Adchitects?
One of the owners of Adchitects is an uncle of my business partner. When they founded Adchitects three years ago, they asked us if we could work together. We gave them some small projects in the beginning and we were always happy with the work they did for us. Our partnership grew and now they are our biggest partner when it comes to design issues. It started as a family relationship and a professional relationship grew from that.
How much have you invested with them?
We have spent 50,000-60,000 Euros over the course of our relationship. Poland has a very low level of wages and cost of life compared to the US. That amount would be twice or three times as much in the US. Poland is a cheap country when it comes to things like this.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in November 2016, and our work is ongoing and growing.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve been very happy with their work 100% of the time. We’ve worked with graphic designers before and we're not always happy on the first day they send us things. But in the end, it’s always been a fast process. What I’m really happy about is the quality of Adchitects work and the work speed they have. It's difficult to find graphic designers that deliver quality in a very short time. This is something really valuable for us.
How did Adchitects perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re very good. We’ve also trained our relationship. When we started, everything took a little longer. Now as we know each other and the way we work, it’s really easy and fast. We don’t write a lot of briefings anymore. We use Slack or talk on the phone about what we need which is handy for us.
What did you find most impressive about them?
What we appreciate the most about Adchitects is the trust we have in the relationship. It's really important for us to have trustworthy partners when it comes to timing and quality of the graphic results. They take time to understand and investigate the meaning of the work they do for us. They will sometimes question our briefings and make better offers.
The price is also something that sets them apart. They are 150 kilometers from our office, but they cost half of what graphic designers in Berlin do. We can offer more graphic designs for the same price to our clients.
I like their personalities. They have a young and dedicated team. This is something I don’t like about other graphic designers we’ve worked with in the past because they don’t really care and aren’t curious anymore. They don’t put a lot of heart in the project anymore, but Adchitects puts a lot of heart in their projects. They have a great taste in design.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, not from the perspective that we’re working with them right now. Sometimes we would like them to do things that are different than what they normally do. For example, one time we asked them to do a 3D rendering in video. Adchitects doesn't do moving pictures, and it would be great to have them work on other projects, but I can respect if they don’t want to go into other disciplines. Sometimes we try to stretch their portfolio or they try to stretch it for us because we have a bigger contract with a client. Graphic design is also a very broad field between illustration and desktop publishing.
RATINGS
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Quality
4.5Service & Deliverables
"Adchitects is creative and they have a deep understanding of our needs."
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Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"They’re always on time. Most of the time they deliver faster than we agreed on which is rare in the business."
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"Poland has a much lower rate for graphic designers compared to the rest of Europe."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"Definitely.
