5 Ways to Work with Your Designer

Chances are, as a business owner (small or not), your plate is probably already pretty full. Even if there’s still room for more, nobody wants to add potential tension or confusion with a designer to their list of things to deal with. Luckily, there are a few ways that this can be avoided. Taking these tips into consideration can greatly decrease the potential for issues arising and also make the entire project advance smoothly and quickly. Let’s take a look at what those suggestions are:

1. Understand Your Goals and Communicate Them

It’s essential to the success of your project (and potentially your company) to have a clear idea of what your goals are. What do you want to achieve with this project? Are there problems that you want to provide a solution for? Have an idea of what your realistic, attainable goals are, and make sure you have methods in place to measure your success. Once you’ve established those, be sure to communicate them to your designer. You are more likely to get a good start on the design if your designer knows immediately what direction you want to head it.

2. Provide Examples and Suggestions

If you have specific ideas on elements or colors or even simply design styles that you want incorporated in your project, it’s always better to show than it is to try to explain. Show your designer pictures of what you have in mind, and always describe what it is that you like about each image. At this time, feel free to mention suggestions that you have regarding the overall design as well. Your designer might implement some of these, or may explain why some might not work. Either way, you will have a better understanding of why the design ends up how it does.

3. Be Clear and Realistic with Deadlines

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but it is definitely worth a mention. You should always be up front from the beginning with the deadlines you would like your designer to meet. However, be realistic with these, and also listen to your designer if they say that they will not have time to complete the project within the deadline. Meeting in the middle is a good way to keep everyone happy and get the best quality work in the process.

4. Be Specific with Feedback

Once your designer starts putting ideas in front of you, in order to keep the process moving smoothly, it’s important that you are honest and clear in your feedback. By being specific, such as pointing out certain elements you like and don’t like, as well as why you feel that way, will help your designer know what edits to make, and whether or not the design is headed in the direction you intended.

5. Allow Some Creative Freedom

Last, but certainly not least, it’s important to remember that you hired your designer for a reason. They most likely have devoted a decent portion of their lifetime to learning the essentials of design and practicing the skill of piecing together unique creations. Keep yourself open to the idea of allowing some creative freedom, and hearing (or seeing) suggestions from an educated artist.

Overall, putting these into practice with make whatever project you have your designer working on go tremendously smoother, and will most likely be finished sooner as well. (Plus good communication leads to better work relationships, and everyone ends up happier!)