If you are trying to choose between a packaging design agency vs studio this is the breakdown nobody in the industry wants to publish.
Do you want to work with the person who sold you the work or the person actually doing it? That is the question nobody asks out loud. So I will.
That’s the question nobody in the packaging design industry wants you to ask out loud. So I will.
You hired the agency.
Great call with someone senior. Charming. Knew their stuff. Asked all the right questions. You thought, finally, someone who gets it.
Then you got handed to Tyler.
Tyler is lovely. He has a design degree and a really good eye for Instagram aesthetics. Physical products are not something he has ever held. Printers are not something he calls. Seventeen follow up emails will go out before he considers picking up the phone and by then your print deadline has passed and your pantone colour is now whatever the printer felt like that day.
Congratulations on your beige.
The file got opened in Illustrator. Corel Draw is not something Tyler has heard of. Three concepts arrived in 48 hours because there are six other clients this week and a stand up show on Friday. The concepts look incredible on screen. On a matte pouch they look like a completely different brand because a print room is not somewhere Tyler has stood and held a proof up to the light at the angle your customer will see it from.
You paid agency prices for Tyler. The senior person you fell in love with on the call has not looked at your project since the proposal was signed.
This is not Tyler’s fault. He will be excellent in five years. Just not yet.
Why the Person on the Pitch Is Never the Person Doing the Work
When you hire a mid to large packaging design agency you are paying for overhead. The office. The account managers. The senior creative director whose name is on the door and whose face was on the pitch deck. None of those people are doing your packaging.
The person doing your packaging is talented, probably juggling four other briefs, and has never had to chase a printer on the phone at 4pm on a Friday because the run starts Monday and something is wrong. That phone call is where packaging experience actually lives. Not in a mood board. In the moments where something is about to go wrong and someone has to catch it before it does.
What Actually Happens to Your Brief at a Packaging Design Agency
You brief the senior team. They brief the mid team. The mid team briefs Tyler. By the time the brief gets to the person doing the work it has been translated three times. Like a game of telephone but the prize is your brand identity and you are paying $15,000 for it.
Packaging Design Agency vs One Person Studio: The Real Difference
When you work with a one person packaging design studio the person who asks the hard questions on the call is the same person who wakes up at 3am wondering if your yellow will print correctly on a matte pouch. The same person who calls the printer directly because printers respond to calls and ignore emails. The same person who has held enough bad print runs in their hands to know exactly what questions to ask before the run starts.
No handoffs. Or account manager translating your brief into something unrecognisable. No Tyler.
Does Location Matter When Hiring a Packaging Designer?
My clients are in California, London and Melbourne. I am in Croatia. Nobody has asked me to fly over yet. Turns out you do not need to be in the same room to do great work. Covid taught us that. You are welcome.
How to Choose a Packaging Designer: The Questions to Ask
Before you sign anything ask these questions. Who will actually be doing the work on my project. Have you worked with physical products in my format before. How do you handle print proofing. What happens if something goes wrong at print. Can I talk to a previous client. Not read a testimonial. Actually talk to someone.
The answers will tell you everything you need to know about whether you are hiring the person who does the work or the person who sold you the work.
The Honest Cons of Working With a One Person Studio
I will tell you things you did not ask to know about your own brand. Push back on your price point. I will ask uncomfortable questions about your customer that your previous designer never bothered with. I will not tell you your packaging is fine when it is not. And I will never not once hand you to someone else.
15 years. One studio. One person. Every project.
If that sounds like what you actually need, book a discovery call and we will figure out whether your packaging is working for you or quietly working against you.
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