Just lately we have been asking ourselves, what do web design agencies actually do?
A couple of years ago, it was easy. If you wanted a website as good as the ones you admired online, you either had to be a programmer or employ an agency. You’d provide them with a brief, they’d quote a price and a couple of weeks later you were the proud owner of a batch of code and, if lucky, a nice looking website. If you were smart you would also have asked for a content management system (CMS). This allowed you to type in your news, events, biogs etc and saved time updating your site.
In addition, an agency would typically host your website, sort out streaming and encoding.
The Changing Role Of An Agency
Now, the rules of the game have changed. Sites like Blogger.com, WordPress.com and NetVibes actually provide a great way for artistes to create complex websites that are beyond the abilities of even a good professional agency. The programming technology behind the blogs and social networks is the result of millions of dollars worth of investment, something a typical agency could never afford. The CMS systems allow a huge degree of flexibility and features, and offer templates and designs which will be fine for 90% of users. And the ultimate feature? They’re free to set up and use. For the time it takes to set up, an artiste can have a site featuring news, video, music, gig lists, mailing lists, photos and forum - something they would have paid anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand pounds.
This leaves agencies to re-invent themselves and why they’re necessary. It is no longer about the design but about the day to day management and more importantly, the interaction between artiste and audience. Although artistes may have the time to set up a MySpace or Blog, they may not have the time, motivation to keep it updated or ability to use online promotion. This still requires programming knowledge, in particular, cascading style sheets (CSS).
When deciding to hire an agency then, an artiste or label should now be looking at the ability of the people they hire to know more about marketing and promotion than design and graphics.
