I regret my website redesign
I recently left a boutique agency of 5 years and I can definitely resonate with this one. Our agency aimed to catch big fish, and we did, but since they are hard to land we&#x27;d pick up small jobs in the meantime, just like the project that you&#x27;re describing here. In my perspective, this isn&#x27;t someone deliberately ripping you off. I imagine they intended to ship at the cost they quoted, but the team didn&#x27;t adjust their working style to match your price point.<p>All the variations of the logo and design mocks are clearly overkill for a $15k project. The design team had time to fill and wanted to provide lots of options for you to pick from, as they typically would on a larger project. Those variations are an expectation for $100k clients, and you got the $100k customer treatment, but unfortunately not at a discount.<p>The reality is, small jobs like this are effectively make-work projects for an agency. They typically don&#x27;t pay enough to be an effective use of time for the agency, but are a way to stay in the black between higher value projects. Small customers become &quot;nuisance&quot; customers as soon as a something better is landed. The team members being swapped out as they are needed elsewhere and newly joining team members then need to re-contextualize and regain momentum, all on your dime.<p>Your takeaway is correct, don&#x27;t be a small fish for an agency. If they&#x27;re busy they won&#x27;t take your work, and if do show interest, they are desperate for work.