In house if you can find a quality guy and he is worth it you will do better in the long run.

Just to clarify this comment both our designers were contractors and worked good for a time, then just disappeared, with mid-projects too!
I agree next time we are going to try and hire in-house....

Very interesting......I just woke up and read the replies. My brain usually wakes up about a half hour after my body so let me digest this and take a shower and I will be back.

Thanks for all the different points of view....I have to admit that I was not expecting it to be this diverse of a group....in fact, I figured that with all of the deisgners that are on this board everyone would be telling me to outsource......very interesting indeed.


--T

I would say that from my experience, the benefits of an in-house designer outweigh an outsourced one.

Outsourced programming is great, because there isn't much room for them to go outside what you want.....unless they do the job wrong or the specifications were too vague.

Design, on the other hand, is a lot of back-and-forth work. You want things to look just right, change this, fix that, try this, etc.....

Outsourced, you will lose a lot of time on just this one aspect. Unless you don't really care what your sites look like and let the outsourcing company just build you something with the sections you ask for.

As for 2 years, I think that's a great turnover time. The hiring process is a pain, but you will get someone with fresh ideas, fresh designs and hopefully updated skills (your current designer might not keep on the edge of technology if he has a comfy job where it's not required)

Those are my thoughts for you :winkwink:

Have someone in House that work on Major stuff and be in charge of outsourcing galleries, banners, etc...:)

Sweet T -

I'm going to break from the other recommendations here and suggest outsourcing to a design company. Now note I said design company, not designer.

While an in-house guy brings advantages, I feel they are outweighed by the values and relationship with an outsourced team. With an in-house guy you will certainly save a few bucks, however you only have access to one designers talent, creativity and ideas. When outsourcing you have access to a TEAM of designers and programmers who can pool their talents, creativity and ideas for the betterment of your project. Not only that, but you may be assigned a project manager who will actually care about you and your company. His job is to learn EXACTLY what you want and to manage the different designers on the project, saving you time and headaches!

Moreover, there isn't as much of a learning curve. When hiring a new employee there is always an adjustment period. The designer has to set up his station, get compfortable within the company and really doesn't have top output for at least a few weeks. With outsourcing, you only pay for the final product, not the learning curve.

With that said, You have my number T! If I can be of any assistance, please let me know. I'd love to grab your ear for a second and give a few real world experiences to help make your decision a little easier :thumbsup

Happy Holidays!

We give ours half a day then it's time t get to work slave !!! :1orglaugh

In-house

While I'm sure they get some work done, it's certainly not their full quality work! :-)

Tony,

There are indeed two sides to everything, (three if you count the right side), but I'm a control freak, so it would be my choice to hire in-house just so I know the work is getting done to my specifications without excuses.

However, I can also see the intelligence of outsourcing. It would be cheaper, you wouldn't have to change people every couple of years, and with a reputable company, I highly doubt that you'd have to worry too much about getting stiffed. Besides, I've seen incredible work done by folks whose ideas I'd never have had. Keep the ideas fresh and that alone is worth a fortune, imho.

Whatever you choose, I wish you the best.

I have found that there is NO BIGGER HEADACHE in this business than dealing with contract designers. They have got to be the most unstable, unprofessional, unreliable group of people I have ever run across.

In my opinion, if you can find a good one in house, do it.

I would agree with you in some regards with some of the outsourcing out there.

However, the ones I have had the joy of working with have been Sharky's, Todd's, and Wades/Acura.

I intend to still use them for projects that can't be done inhouse.

T, here is my take on all of this:

Contract work is great - until they fuck up. There is nothing like putting your name on the line for something you can't control. If you are doing mission critical work (time constrained stuff) contract work often isn't the best route to go.

An in house person is great, except that when they leave, they take the house with them. You effectively go back many steps and start breaking in a new person.

My solution? Get yourself a good in house person, but don't be afraid to outsource some of your stuff to at least get contacts and find people that can do the work. I know that appears to add expense, but it will give you a variety of designs while still keeping the speed and controlability of someone in house. Plus you can have that in house person adjust, maintain, and modify outside designs quickly to keep looks fresh or add new features.

As a bonus, this gives you a list of contacts for when the next designer decides to leave, so you are not stuck if you need something short notice.

Alex

Well, there are exceptions to every rule, and the three you mention are very good exceptions. I have done business with two of the 3 and would highly recommend Sharky and Todd.

Thank you JMM and Anthony.

For the reasons you mentioned, it is exactly why I said Design COMPANY rather than designER. A company has more riding on something than a designer. I have salaries, bills and other overhead. I cannot afford to have unhappy clients. I try to make sure that we meet or exceed or clients goals and deadlines. We have only missed a few in the past, and our clients were notified ahead of time.

Thanks Anthony - JMM :)

Happy New Year.