Should we look for freelancers instead of agencies? We think that agencies have advantages like faster turnover and multiple involved people who bring in different ideas and concepts. The downside is the higher price.
Is the project/budget too small for an agency?
Where do I look for good designers that fit our needs? Upwork, Dribble, Behance?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
The way I see it, the biggest problem with freelancers is higher risk. The market is crowded, and even if you like the portfolio, and initial conversations make you optimistic, the chances that something will go wrong in the process are higher.
So yes, agencies are much more expensive, but in exchange they offer higher reliability.
If I were searching for a brand designer, I'd probably start with friends of friends. As in many fields, positive feedback from people I trust is an important factor (provided I like the portfolio of course).
If I did not have any friends of friends (actually I don't :-) - surpsiringly, I'd pick freelancers over agencies. I'd just be ready to spend significant time researching them thoroughly, talking with many designers, starting off with really small test task, etc. This way, I do my homework and reduce the risk of someone disappearing in the middle of the project. And the advantage of lower payment (comparing to an agency) remains long-term.
One more thought - for smaller company (such as yours), I'd search for more "full-stack" designer (if I may call us that). A designer specializing on, e.g., only branding is good fit for larger companies, where there many designers each work on their particular field. The best fit (again, in my opinion) for small teams is a "product" designer - that is, someone who has experience in designing all the entire product life cycle - from initial business requirements to UX wireframes to UI designs (that starts with a "design system" usually in form of Figma library), to marketing materials (that starts with a "brand book").
Shameless plug: I am such designer :-) and I'm available for part-time projects currently [0]. Despite the self-ad, I hope my response is useful.
Practically speaking, what kind of programmer can you get for $5-10k and an explicit "the downside is higher price" approach to paying market rate?
But the truth is you don't need a good designer. At worst, you just need a good enough designer. Nobody really cares if your marketing material is professional if your product is solves customers problems.
Moreover, if your product is consumer focused, coming across as professional might not matter much. Think skateboard culture. Good luck.