Alan ‘Bo’ BorensteinPicking a designer for my website felt like a chore (or a full-time job in itself). At times, it even felt like online dating—I did endless searching and scrolling, looked through pretty portfolios, and dealt with occasional unresponsiveness.
And when I finally lined up a few initial meetings, some design companies pitched me an idea that could cost me over 2 months of rent! While I was open to it, I wasn’t given a clear enough breakdown of what I was actually paying for, which confused me more.
Luckily, my business-minded pals and I have already done the hard part and dug through all the glossy pitches to find the real gems. Whether you’re looking for the best design agency in Vancouver or simply looking for ideas, we’ve got you covered below.
How We Chose The Best Design Agencies in Vancouver
1. The Branded Agency
The Branded Agency is one of our favourite Vancouver design agencies, providing a long list of comprehensive services.
This includes branding, creatives, website design and development, and content marketing. We found that most clients work with the team on many of these simultaneously.
Moreover, this agency has worked with multiple clients with budgets of up to $50,000, so we believe this shows how capable its team is in handling complex design projects.
A client we talked to also vouched for the team’s efficiency during meetings and attention to detail from brainstorming to execution. We heard the project timelines were very clear too. For us, this is key in saving everyone time and resources.
However, note that this company requires a minimum project size worth $5,000 or hourly rates between $150 and $199. We think this might not make it suitable for many smaller or starting businesses.
10 Out of 10
“I worked alongside of The Branded Agency for a shared client in the CBD industry. Folks at The Branded have a “can do” attitude and simply get in there and figure it out. I felt I could always get in touch with them for thought partnership, strategy—all the way through execution. The Branded was willing to put in the commitment to make our shared client successful. 10/10 would absolutely work with them again.”
-Mr. Chase Damiano, Google Review
Super Pleased
“Incredible content, and an incredible team! Super pleased with their speed and organization! Couldn’t recommended anyone more!”
-Ms. Maya Yearwood, Google Review
2. BragDeal
BragDeal is a Vancouver web design and marketing company with over 40 years of experience in the industry, so we think this agency is competent enough to handle diverse design projects.
The company also takes project costs ranging from $2,000 to $35,000, so we believe its team is pretty flexible with most budgets.
Moreover, one of its previous clients told us about the team’s solid communication skills, being quick to respond to inquiries and diligent in providing updates.
Not only that, but we also heard that this company has accommodated several short-notice projects. Though we feel this isn’t always ideal for the agency, we’re still impressed with the team’s dedication.
Nevertheless, another client shared with us that the team went over the quoted price once. While this could be inevitable, we think the team could still try to be more transparent with the pricing.
Fantastic
“I cannot recommend Bragdeal enough. Dan was a huge help in the strategy and real world application of my idea. The whole process was very easy with BragDeal. If you are on the fence I highly recommend shooting them an inquiry and talking through it. The team gave very consistent updates and never left me wondering where we are at in the process. Dan and his team delivered on everything they said they would. I can’t say enough good things about this company. Reach out to Dan and his team, they are fantastic.”
-Mr. Duke Brenner, Google Review
Can Handle Anything
“Professional company that knows how to handle any challenge both technically speaking and communication-wise – especially with clients who may be picky due to high attention to detail. 🙂 Most importantly, they don’t ghost you.”
-Ms. Zahra M, Google Review
3. Y5 Creative
Y5 Creative is one of our top picks for Vancouver design agencies that can create strong brand identities, logos, and other marketing materials.
For us, this company has some of the best portfolios for creative brand logos due to their simplicity and character. We recommend checking its online gallery for inspiration.
One of its clients we had a chat with has also worked with this agency for over 5 years. In our opinion, this shows the company’s capability to maintain good client relationships with satisfactory outcomes.
Do note that the agency has a smaller team than others, so its team can handle only a limited number of clients at a time.
Moreover, the agency requires a project size of $10,000, which we think makes it less accessible for firms with smaller budgets.
Great Results
“Professional webdesigners. We had the pleasure of having our three websites (Explore Nootka, Baymont hotel MMFN.ca) designed and serviced by Carol and team, resulting in significant positive feedback from customers, friends and First Nation Citizens. I strongly recommend Y5 Creative to anyone looking to design and service their website(s).”
-Mr. Jean-Paul Khayat, Google Review
Highly Recommended
“Carol is creative, knowledgeable, and passionate about what she does, and I had the pleasure of working with her over the last 12 months. Carol was the lead on helping me with rebranding my business, launching a new website and all things marketing. Carol’s ability to make the process fun, exciting and easy all while doing this on zoom was impressive. Carol’s experience and industry knowledge was huge in moving the project forward as creativity and marketing is not my strength. Carol and the rest of the Y5 team made the experience working together as a partnership which makes us both shine when we succeeded and the work they have done has given me the foundation to spring board the branding and marketing efforts to the next level. I look forward to working with Carol and the Y5 team on new projects and I highly recommend them to anyone looking to go through the branding and marketing process.”
-Mr. Bryan Hack, Google Review
4. MD Creative Agency Inc.
If you believe your business needs a woman’s touch, we think MD Creative Agency Inc. is worth a shot. It’s an all-women-led graphic design agency in Vancouver dedicated to providing branding, graphic, and website designs with both aesthetics and function.
And while this agency started relatively new in 2015, we believe it has tons of fresh ideas from its young team.
For one, its portfolio looks practical since the designs here are shown in varying perspectives—some on desktop websites, smartphone versions, physical signages, cards, stamps, and the like.
We also appreciate that the company website details its typical turnaround times, showing its transparency and commitment to strict timelines.
But for us, it’s worth noting that it only has a small team of 5 as a boutique agency. We reckon this could impact the company’s ability to work on several large-scale projects.
Exceptional
“I am grateful for the gifts of Meg’s and her team’s insight, creative talent, and professionalism as I started my own business. Working with Meg, I felt understood, excited, and confident. Everything about her process contributed to this, including her clean, clear communications, the thoughtful and productive intake forms, and her professional and real presence. The MD Creative team is exceptional in their talent and dedication to client satisfaction. Giving 5 stars only because I can’t select 100!”
-Ms. Rebecca Hockin, Google Review
Really Gets Me
“It’s hard to find a graphic designer who “gets you” and can translate written narrative or a discussion into a clean, easy-to-follow graphic representation. Megan not only does this incredibly well, she is good at predicting your needs, suggesting creative ideas, AND she teaches you along the way! Our company has hired Megan for various graphic services including a fully customized InDesign training course for our team. The course was thoughtful, relevant, and addressed our real-time projects and needs, and Megan supported us all individually to address our different levels of prior knowledge and skillsets. MD Creative has been instrumental in taking our proposal team to the next level, and I definitely recommend her for graphic development, branding, template design, messaging and conceptualization, and Adobe training!”
-Ms. Carrie Good, Google Review
5. Original 72 Creative
Original 72 Creative provides a good range of design services, such as web and graphic design and digital marketing for small and medium-sized businesses. This applies to both online and print media too.
On top of that, its graphic design services include photography, which your company might find useful when required.
Its founder, Greg McKinnon, also has more than 23 years of experience in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. We like that he’s pretty hands-on with the work too—we heard most clients know him personally, which we think showcases his dedication.
Just one thing, though. The company portfolio is limited, so we feel you’ll have to contact the team directly for more samples.
Its social media platforms aren’t that active too, which we think is a tad ironic, given that it’s a digital agency. For this, we reckon it’s best to reach the team through its phone number for a faster response.
True Experts
“Greg is an expert in his field. I highly recommend his services. He has built two sites for me and he will be the person I contact for any future projects. He can turn your ideas into reality. He The has built me sites that have the functionality I needed and had esthetic vibe I wanted. He is also a pleasure to work with and has the ability to explain tech things to non tech people in such a way that it’s easy to understand. He is a true gem and made everything run so much more smoothly. He also will solve problems you didn’t even know you had. He is truly a master at his craft.”
-Ms. Iniko Blue, Google Review
Translates My Ideas Well
“Greg is prompt, thorough, professional and awesome to work with. He helped me out in an emergency situation with my website, and has been helping me make changes and updates, as while guiding me and giving me tutorials on how to make changes and updates myself. He is down to earth and easy to talk to; and able to translate my ideas effortlessly and efficiently, at affordable, reasonable and fair rates and time frames. I cannot say enough good things about this company, the expertise, knowledge and personable service. For sure recommend to anyone building a site, tweaking or updating an existing site, or wanting some help translating ideas or a vision into reality. Thank you , Greg!”
-Ms. Amanda Karpoff, Google Review
