If you are a graphic designer that generates your own business and leads, it may be tempting at times when you are busy to outsource some of your work, particularly when some of the overseas designers in India and other countries offer such comparatively cheap rates.
There are no shortage of offers coming in through your email spam, and it is often true that you can obtain some good prices overseas. But there are a few problems that may be encountered.
The main issue seems to be with general communication due to language differences. Although the overseas outsource may speak english, being a second language and having different customs can cause great difficulties in understanding. Having sent through a clear and thorough brief, your proof may come back with variations that do not match up with your specific instructions at all. If you aren’t careful with reviewing all the details of the proof you have received, you may end up forwarding a very inaccurate proof to your client who may not be at all impressed.
Even having reviewed the proof first and sent back instructions to correct mistakes, oftentimes still the proof will come back wildly inaccurate. It can take many emails and phone calls back and forth to obtain what you requested with your original brief in the first place. So you then need to consider the amount of time this has taken you and balance out whether it was worth the savings in cost. Not only this, but in some cases the overseas designer may charge extra for the further changes to be made, blowing out your original estimate.
This may be a generalization, I can only speak from my experience and that of those around me. By all means there may be designers out there that do not encounter these problems having found someone reliable AND very cost effective to assist from overseas. And I’d love to hear about it! But thus far I’ve had to wonder at whether it’s been worth the effort.
