How “School-First” Agencies Hurt Clients, and What to Do About It •

Introduction: The Growing Shift in Creative Agencies
In recent years, a subtle but troubling trend has been spreading across the design industry. Creative agencies — once dedicated to producing high-quality design solutions — are pivoting away from their core craft. Instead of building brands, designing products, and solving real business problems, many of these agencies are focusing their efforts on… teaching design.

An agency that primarily markets training courses or educational programs as its main product or service often serves as a warning sign to potential clients and collaborators. This focus can indicate that the agency may lack a steady stream of real-world client projects or sufficient hands-on experience in delivering high-quality design solutions. Instead of showcasing a strong portfolio filled with diverse, successful case studies, such agencies might rely heavily on teaching others how to do design, which can sometimes reflect gaps in their own practical expertise and credibility within the industry.

At first glance, this might seem harmless. After all, sharing knowledge is good for the community, right? The problem is that in many cases, this “teaching” is not a sign of expertise — it’s a sign of survival. Behind the glossy course landing pages often lies a harsh truth: the agency isn’t teaching because it’s so good at design… it’s teaching because it can’t compete in the market anymore.

Why Agencies Turn to Teaching Instead of Designing

  1. Lack of Clients
    When an agency can’t attract paying clients, the revenue has to come from somewhere. Selling courses becomes an easy, low-barrier way to generate income.
  2. Lack of Real-world Competence
    Teaching a theoretical version of design is much easier than solving a client’s complex business problem. You don’t need to prove your solutions work in the real market — you just need to sound convincing to beginners.
  3. Branding as “Thought Leaders” Instead of Designers
    Some agencies replace client case studies with endless Instagram posts about “how to become a designer in 3 months” or “our secret design techniques.” It’s a content pivot — but one that hides the absence of real project work.

Design schools run by agencies can lead to a cycle where undertrained designers produce subpar work, leaving clients to pay the price.

The Damage This Causes to the Industry

  1. Multiplying Mediocrity
    When inexperienced agencies teach, they replicate their own skill gaps. Their students absorb not just the good, but also the bad habits, outdated methods, and poor design thinking.
  2. Flooding the Market with Underqualified Designers
    Graduates of such programs often enter the market without having faced real client challenges. They produce work that looks “okay” at a glance but fails in usability, strategy, and brand impact.
  3. The Redesign Economy
    This cycle creates more work for real professionals, but not in a good way. Businesses end up hiring competent agencies to fix or completely redo the flawed work delivered by these “training-born” designers.

Real-World Scenarios (Anonymous Examples)

Case #1
A startup hired a small agency that also ran a “Become a Designer in 6 Weeks” course. Their branding package looked sleek in the portfolio but fell apart in real use: logo variations were unusable, typography was inconsistent, and the website broke on mobile. We had to rebuild everything from scratch.

Case #2
An e-commerce company invested in a “creative agency” for a site redesign. The result was a template-based Shopify theme with random color palettes and no product hierarchy. The same agency was promoting “UI/UX Masterclasses” to beginners the same week.

Case #3
A client engaged an agency for a website development project after prolonged negotiations during which the agency persistently pushed their own services and vision. The project suffered from an unprofessional briefing process, where the client’s input and specific requirements were largely ignored. Instead of focusing on the client’s needs, the agency’s website and communication heavily promoted their own design school and training programs, showcasing an abundance of information about their courses rather than real project experience. This approach contributed to repeated delays, stretching the timeline by several months beyond the original estimate. Ultimately, the delivered website was poorly executed: several key pages were missing entirely, and the final product failed to meet the client’s business needs. As a result, the client lost revenue and suffered reputational damage due to the extended and unclear development process.

If you see that an agency offers paid design courses, it doesn’t always mean something bad. We also take interns, but internships are a completely different model. Unlike paid design schools run by unlicensed instructors, internships focus on real project experience, mentorship, and hands-on learning within a functioning agency. Choose wisely and understand the difference.

Why This Matters for Clients

Hiring an agency that survives on teaching rather than doing is a costly mistake:

  • You pay twice — once for the flawed project, and once for the redesign.
  • You lose time and momentum in your market.
  • You risk damaging your brand reputation with subpar design.

How to Spot an Agency-Pretending-to-Be-a-School

  • Portfolio Check: Real agencies showcase diverse client work, not just mockups or “class assignments.”
  • Experience of the Team: If the team is mostly made of recent graduates from the agency’s own course, that’s a red flag.
  • Website Messaging — If the homepage focuses more on “Join Our Design Bootcamp” than “See Our Work,” you’re probably not dealing with a client-focused agency.

Design is not a purely theoretical skill. It’s built in the messy, unpredictable world of real client problems, deadlines, and constraints. Agencies that abandon this reality to become full-time “design schools” often do more harm than good, both to their students and to the businesses that end up hiring them.

If you’re a client, vet your creative partners carefully. Check their case studies, ask about their experience, and look for proof of real-world problem solving. Your brand deserves design that’s crafted in the real market — not in a classroom simulation. And if you want reliable, proven expertise with real results, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

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