Working,with,graphic,designers marketing Working with graphic designers: top ten tips

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1. Work with someone you’d like to work with As with any business relationship, it is important that you work with someone you can trust and is on your wavelength. If you attend networking events, there are likely to be a few designers there. Chat to them and try to get a feel for whether or not you can work with this person. Alternatively, ask colleagues if they know a designer they can recommend. Most graphic designers will offer a free initial consultation where you can meet with them and sound them out. If they don’t fill you with confidence, then look elsewhere. 2. Check their credentials How do you tell a professional graphic designer from an enthusiastic amateur with a copy of Photoshop and a bunch of wacky typefaces? Designers will have examples of their previous work on their website. Does it look professional? Do a bit of investigation: how long have they been working in the industry and do they have any testimonials from satisfied customers? 3. Provide a suitable brief Once you’ve found someone you want to work with, the graphic designer will need to understand exactly what you want to achieve. For example, if you want a new company logo, the brief should contain information such as: • Your company’s main areas of business • Your company’s core values • How your company distinguishes itself from its competitors • Primary applications for the logo (stationery, signage, vehicle livery, etc.) • Any potential points of contention (e.g. “The chief executive hates the colour green!”) • A timescale for delivery of the job This will help the graphic designer understand your company and produce a logo that is properly representative. 4. Keep the brief as open as possible As essential as it is that the brief properly communicates your needs to the designer, it is also important not to give the designer too many restrictions. You may have some fixed ideas as to what you want to see, but it will be in your interests to keep an open mind. The more freedom you can grant your designer, the more you will get out of him/her. 5. Don’t let costs spiral out of control Every organisation will have different ideas as to how much it is able or willing to spend on graphic design and it is important that your designer works within these budgets. Make sure that both sides agree on costs before any work commences. If you change the requirements along the way and add in extra items, the designer will have to charge more money than originally agreed. 6. Don’t let too many cooks spoil the broth So your designer has presented you with design visuals and you’re feeling pretty excited. Naturally you want to show them to other people in your organisation. By the end of the working day, however, you may have heard so many different opinions that you won’t know what to think anymore. Ideally, you should only really involve a few key decision-makers in this process. If you try and achieve something that keeps everyone happy, you will end up with something that is so compromised and so diluted, that it will become devoid of all meaning and not fulfil the original brief. 7. Don’t mix and match When commissioning your new logo or brochure, your designer can present you with a few ideas to choose from. But what if you just can’t decide which idea you like best? A common mistake people make in this situation is to try and combine more than one idea. Take the colours from idea one, mix it with the typeface from idea two and squeeze in the tree symbol from idea three. This ultimately just creates a big mess. If none of the ideas presented to you seems like the perfect solution then give some feedback to your designer and ask them to supply some more designs based on your comments. 8. Plan properly and allow time If you are working on a project which is deadline-specific, you should agree a schedule with the designer which both parties must stick to. Avoid letting your design project end up on the back-burner. Otherwise, the job will become urgent and end up being rushed, so inevitably it will not be as good as it should have been. It is also more likely to be full of errors, which can be expensive to correct. 9. Check, check it again and check it again! Before signing off any work to be printed or published on the web, it needs to be thoroughly checked by several different people. Ideally at least one of those people should have had no involvement with the project, as they will then be looking at it with a fresh pair of eyes. Ultimately however, there is no substitute for a professional proofreader. Any money spent on employing a proofreader is money well spent, as errors can be very expensive to correct once a job has gone to print. Your designer should know at least a couple of good proofreaders they can recommend, or alternatively they can organise this for you. 10. Give feedback If you feel happy with the work your designer has done for you, don’t feel shy about letting them know and recommending them to others. Conversely, if you are unhappy with the service you have received, this also needs to be communicated. The way your designer responds to criticism will be a true test of their character and help define your future working relationship.