Sarah - hhhhhhhh makes a lot of sense.
However, if you want to go to the other extreme, and see what a quote for design would look like, contact the likes of:
RMG Target
Dialogue Marketing
Proximity
Direct Brand
Creative Solutions
- or check the full listing on the Irish Direct Marketing Association's website: [broken link removed]
From my experience, these companies (I am not affiliated with any) can come up with amazing ideas that you would never think of.
However, if you use their design services you have to pay the rates... anywhere from 100-300 per hour. You could end up spending at least 2-5k on designing a campaign, let alone the print costs (do NOT get these designers to print the materials for you - go to a printer or do it yourself).
Maybe the solution is try the low cost route first, see does that work... if the work is not coming in, have a rethink and see if it's worth investing in the design service.