How to communicate with your graphic designer – in 4 simple steps
This guide will help you make the most of your graphic design project. Ensuring that you are providing your graphic designer or website designer with the right information is crucial if you want your project to go well and end well. Here are our best tips on how to communicate with your graphic designer.
But before we go on to tell you how to communicate with your graphic designer we must tell you to choose wisely. Your choice in designer is very important.
Image of designer, coming up with ideas.
10 Questions to ask yourself before selecting a design company or designer
1. Are they a graphic design agency or an individual designer like a freelance designer?
2. Are they reliable? and established?
3. Have they designed for many clients?
4. Are you familiar with any of their clients?
5. Do they have a website and is it a professional looking website?
6. Do they have a portfolio?
7. Do you like their previous design work?
8. Do they have client testimonials?
9. Do they provide you with a creative brief form to fill in and do they ask enough questions to understand your needs?
10. How many years of experience do they have and does the work they have on their portfolio reflect this?
One question that you should not ask and why?
– What if I am not happy with what you design for me?
Why not? because this means that you are entering the project in a negative way and you pass this on to your designer. If you are positive from the very beginning, everything should work out better!
Usually great results start with the client providing the information. If you provide the right information, have patience during the design process and you provide examples of other work that appeals to you, then you should not need to worry as long as you select a reputable design agency.
How much the logo design or website design work costs is not as important!
Yes, you may have a budget but you can save on groceries, right? It’s okay to select a competitive price but don’t pay $20 for design services as you will get only what you paid for. Most importantly, don’t base your decision on price only.
It is important that you select a reputable design company. There are freelance designers and crowd sourcing websites but you may have issues because the designers may not be as reliable, they may not even be experienced or qualified. Many of the designers on crowd sourcing websites are most probably just teenagers in a country other than Australia wanting to make a few bucks, at least that’s what their design work shows.
Once you have selected the perfect design company to design your logo follow the steps below to ensure that you have the best work created for you
How to communicate with your graphic designer
Step 1. Provide your own creative brief or complete the creative brief that they provide if they have that option.
When you order your logo, website or any other design work from a design agency ensure that you provide the company with as much information as possible. Don’t just type two words per field and then expect them to do a great job. For example; if you are a builder don’t just mention that you are a building company.
Provide the designer with a proper description just like you would when you are describing your company to a customer or client. Provide the right information on what your business or organisation offers, who your customer or clients are and let them know what you prefer.
Step 2. Look through your chosen designer’s portfolio or previous work page and let your graphic designer or web designer know what you prefer.
You may think, but I don’t have a preference and I don’t want them to copy. So that you know, any great designer will not copy other work and if you don’t have a preference, you may think this but once you look at their portfolio or logos or websites on the internet, you may change your mind and immediately know that you do in fact have preferences.
Mention logos or websites that appeal to you from the very beginning of the project, on the creative brief.
If possible, send the designer an email with images or links of logos that appeal to you. It’s even better if you can mention why you like those logos or websites, if you like the colours, fonts, style, layout etc. and which areas of the logos or websites appeal to you the most.
By providing this information you will be guiding your designer in the right direction. Because without the right information from you, even the best designer in the World may not get it right. There are millions of ways that a designer can design something for you whether it is a brand/logo design, website, business card or stationery. But by knowing what you prefer then you are eliminating millions of options that don’t apply to you and your business or organisation.
You may think, but the designer should know what to design for me based on what my business offers?
Even though a brand/logo or any design work is created to be suitable to what your business does, who your clients are etc. Every brand is different and in a large way the brand and business represent who is leading it, whether it is the owner, a group or a team. The brand becomes unique when it delivers a message and represents the people behind it.
Step 3. Have patience during the design process.
Every logo design project, website design project and overall design projects involve a process. As a designer I have dealt with clients that don’t want to give any feedback and they want us to design the best logo or website for them but they have not provided the right information and they don’t want to corporate. Then they expect a refund if they don’t like the initial concepts.
A refund can be provided in most occasions depending on who the designer is or what their terms are, but is this the best decision to make? Because all projects involve a process, it is not wise to just give up. If you do this with one designer you may find that you try another and the same thing happens over and over again. Plus most designers charge an admin or exit fee to end a project that has already been started, meaning that you will be wasting hundreds of dollars.
Any issues and a headache can all be avoided by providing the right information, providing examples of other work that appeals to you, providing helpful feedback during the design process and having patience.
Step 4. Do not expect to love the first concepts that you are provided with at revision 1.
As a designer at a design agency, we try to ensure that the client loves the initial concepts, but most approve their work like a logo at revision 2 or 4. Because the logo is in a production stage, the logo is not a logo until it is approved, this is why it is called a concept. It is an idea based on what you like and what you do, an idea that needs to be enhanced at most times to take it to the point to where it is your logo or in a state where it is ready to be finalised.
Patience is the key.
If your designer does not get the design right from the start it may be that they don’t have enough information on your company, your target market or your preferences, in most cases this does not mean that they are a not a great designer and that they cannot achieve a great end result.
Your patience during this time is crucial, work with the designer to achieve perfection, don’t expect them to make all the decisions and give them proper feedback to help guide them in the right direction.
You may think, but this means that I will be designing the logo?
No, you will not. Your designer designs your logo but you tell them what you want just like when you are having a house built, you make choices and let the builder know what you prefer right? well this is the same, you let your designer know what you want and they create it for , making recommendations based on what you need and what is right for you individual company or organisation.
Now you know how to get the most out of a design company and have the perfect logo, website or other work created!
The author of this post is a graphic designer working for Logoland Australia. Logoland is a professional graphic & logo design studio located in Melbourne Australia. The designers at Logoland have over 10 years of experience, the designers at Logoland have designed thousands of brands, marketing materials and websites in the 10 years plus of having worked for Logoland. Logoland’s clients include RMIT University, Crime Stoppers Australia, The University of Melbourne, Glencore, The University of Queensland and many more. The designer and author of this article speaks of their own experiences and up to the discretion of the reader to take the information on this article as advice or not.
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