How to Save Money on Branding & Packaging Design

In the world of agency pricing, commas and zeros get thrown around like terrible ideas for brand names at 10 PM, when all logic is finally forsaken.
Indeed some agencies do better work than others, and some agencies deserve higher premiums based on their client list; however, it isn’t uncommon for one agency to charge 2X, 3X, 4X, 10X, etc., for essentially the same deliverables as another.
How to avoid this:
First and foremost, by shopping around. An agency shouldn’t be chosen without having been compared to at least two others with identical deliverables. Keyword, identical. Agencies may exclude something you want or include something you don’t, simply due to their design process. So it’s crucial to fully understand the fine print.
For example, the Brand Deck. Everyone loves a beautiful brand deck. No one more so than the person who conceived the brand. It’s like a newborn’s photo, only far more interesting and pretty.
Nevertheless. Without a potential investor or retailer to show it to, or an additional agency that needs to follow its guidelines, that brand deck is as functionally useless as it is exciting.
If the project is just Identity Creation, the deck is, in fact, the only logical deliverable. However, if an agency is also creating the packaging or website, they might, if requested, skip the creation of the brand deck and reduce the project cost accordingly.
Another way to save money as an emerging brand is staying standard.
Template sites have become ubiquitous, yes, but they eliminate programming costs and reduce design costs as well. Same thing for packaging. Molding a new bottle is very exciting, but it’s also very expensive. With great graphics and material choices, anything stock can become individual.
Lastly, logos. Design sourcing sites offer multiple logos for as little as fifty dollars these days. That means you can stake your entire aesthetic future on a design half as expensive as your jeans.
Detect some sarcasm? Indeed. Cutting the fat from a proposal isn’t the same as cutting corners. Shame on anyone who even considers 99 Designs.