What’s the difference between an Advertising agency and a Graphic Design Firm ?
January 24, 2010 by
Filed under graphic design firms
and what are the different roles in each?
Designing how we work
January 24, 2010 by
Filed under graphic design firms
and what are the different roles in each?
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
Advertising agency offers broader scope of services compared to Graphic design firm.
Advertising agencies are in the business of promoting brand/product through various channels. They are usually contracted to do the entire advertisement campaign from creating the concept to actual launch in the media.
Graphic design is usually related to the creative part of an advertisement – visual presentation, logo, website – everything that conveys images into messages.
Most ad agencies have their own graphic design teams or hire external specialized firm for the creative part.
An ad agencies focus is usually the creation and placement of advertising. They make money by creating campaigns for a company on their product, event, service, etc. and then by placing ads in newspapers, websites, etc., on which they earn a commision. For example, Ford Motor company uses a private ad agency to create the ad for their new car who creates the ad and then buys the ad space in places where their target buyer might see it.
Graphic design firms typically focus on the creation of art – in all its forms including signs, logos, graphics of all kinds, for online, print, etc, and sometimes do ads as well.
Keep in mind that there is no clear definition for either and that both ad agencies and design shops can provide a wide variety of services. If they do it “all”, they are sometimes called a full-service company.
Ad agency take care of the whole marketing and charge a lot more for it. They come up with the concept and carry it out into print, ads, direct marketing, radio, TV, billboard, research, media buying, etc… They usually have their own graphic department.
Graphic design firm handle mostly the creation part of it. They can come up with the concept and produce the print and web materials for it but they don’t do the business and marketing side of thing.
Of course, sometime they do cross over into each other.