ManyPixels

I have been using ManyPixels for a few years and they're a great option to get an outsourced designer(s) on your team at a very reasonable cost. I've used them for illustrations, banners, social media graphics, document designs, and more. Their team is very reliable and accommodating. Great value for the price!

I am also running my own funding productized service. ManyPixels is excellent. Only thing I would love to see is a better platform to submit requests

Good value overall, especially when you can't justify an in-house creative resource. However this greatly depends on the designer you are assigned. You will often get assigned a designer who isn't very careful or thoughtful in their designs, and seemingly obvious things will be missed and lead to DAYS of delays. Ask for multiple variations up front, and best to mock everything up, but the danger is they take everything very literally and there is a trade-off between creativity and getting something close to your expectations. If you ask for a change, they for instance, won't think of the impacts on sizing, alignment, or spacing. You have to spell every single thing out, which can be difficult in words and the async nature of their business model -- especially when dealing with non-native English speakers. The worst experiences are when you are assigned a new designer mid-request (e.g. due to vacations), because the new designers don't actually read through the brief or look through the earlier feedback. I have had projects that should take a day or 2, take a week or 2. I have asked not to be assigned a specific designer, but still get him. The PMs don't seem to really care about the client experience. I am currently looking at alternative agencies who might have a higher quality bench of designers.