Meredith has been with boutique advertising and design agencies her whole career. In this blog post she shares why she’s sought out agencies with 50 or less employees.
Since graduating La Salle University’s School of Business I have had jobs at four agencies and design studios. The largest being around 50 employees, and the smallest just 4 employees. I’ve enjoyed working at these companies because I love getting to see all sides of the business, as well as providing my own input in creative meetings. I am not defined by my role as just being client side – I can write headlines and copy, I can brainstorm how best to fold a direct mail piece. I know the right kind of substrate to use in a large format design piece because the entire office got to tour the facility where production takes place. I am in charge of Fiore Design’s social media and it’s been awesome to learn more about social media strategy.
I love how flexible and nimble we can be, and how fast we can turn around a project for a client. No two days or projects are ever the same. I’ve been with Fiore Design for almost 10 years now, and the reason I have been able to stay here so long is that we have an incredible work/life balance. There are always late nights or working weekends when you work in graphic design, but those are the exceptions and not the norm. I also appreciate that I was able to work from home after having my 2nd child – the flexibility and willingness to try new things is definitely a check in the plus column for a smaller company.
We have all the creative talent of a larger design studio too – we’ve worked on projects with large budgets and projects that you have to be able to pull off with a shoestring budget, and those with the shoestring budget often times make you think way outside the box.
Working on a small team means everyone wears many hats and must be able to do more than one type of job. Having experience in all of these areas – account management, estimating, project management, proofing, copywriting, etc has given me a well-rounded experience and that’s not something I would have had if I worked at a larger agency or design studio my entire career.