How to get the best from your designer or illustrator

Creating the most communicative working relationships

Preparation

Ask the “why”

What's the reasoning or ultimate goal behind your request? For instance, you might request animated hyper colour ninja kitten banner ads, but your “why” is “need more clients, want to get online conversions”. With this information, the designer can recommend solutions that will best suit your goals, based on their experience in the industry.

Sometimes clients can get frustrated with their designer for “being difficult”, but often people can get carried along a path and so invested that they don't ask the question that needs to be asked, in order for your project to be successful.

Approach

Don't be afraid to sketch

When it comes to visual communication, designers are pros! That might make you embarrassed to draw anything for your designer. We're not going to make fun of your stick figures - on the contrary - since we're good visual communicators, a simple sketch can make a world of difference. An idea sketched can potentially save hours of emails, and days of designing with feedback going back and forth.

Don't be afraid to ask questions

I've done thousands of designs, but we're all on a never-ending journey to better, clearer communication. So there are never any stupid questions. As your designer, I'll try to keep you as best informed as I can, but in any dialogue, there are always a multitude of assumptions made. So if either designer or client decides to ask a question instead of making an assumption, it gives both parties an opportunity to educate, inform or open up a conversation that leads to a better result overall.

Copywriting

Get your copy sorted

No matter what kind of project, the expectation is that you have your written content ready before the designer starts. Waiting on copy for content-heavy projects (like catalogues, brochures and websites in particular) is the “number one” hold-up when it comes to timely and within-budget delivery of a project.

Ideally you'll get your content written by a copy-writer, and then edited by a proof-reader or editor, and only then it will be sent to your designer. I offer proof-reading, by default, as part of my service. Most designers don't. And if you're particularly budget conscious, and it's already been well edited, don't worry, I'll notice and you won't be charged unnecessarily. In a good designer/client relationship, both parties are aligned in their vision for communicating clearly through design, and creating the best possible product. Sometimes designers get attached to their design, even if it no longer serves the purpose. And sometimes a client can get attached to their wording, at the risk of the product not being clearly understood. These scenarios show that either party can become personally invested to their detriment. Their egos have become involved. The best thing to do in any project is watch out for defensiveness or stubbornness. They are the usual signs that you've conflated the project with your sense of you as a person. And be objective by constantly asking yourself “what's best for the project?” If you're my client and you would rather err on the side of your project not being understood, than me “messing” with the grammar - it's best that you flag this with me before we get started.

Informed Decisions

Research your customer

The more you know about your customer, the better! Market research, metric-tracking and user feedback are all your friends, when getting the most from a design.

User-centered design (UCD) is a term a designer might mention on occasion. It's a theory that means putting the user, customer or audience at the centre of the design process and designing the project around them (rather than around the client or the designer), which will result in the most effective design. The user doesn't necessarily have to be a real person - it's usually best if they are an amalgam of your typical or ideal customers. The alternative to UCD can mean using personal preferences to lead the design. The same source of conflict inherent in design-by-committee can also become apparent when using personal preferences.

The best way to watch out for this is to notice arbitrary judgments, and personal preferences. For example, “I don't like blue, please use pink for the background”. A good designer will have a good reason for every decision they make, so it's best to reflect on where your requests are coming from. Consider whether they are personal preferences or if they're based on customer research.

Making Decisions

Don't design by committee

The more people there are to please, the muddier the results will be. When a committee sits down to decide on a bold, vibrant colour, brown will always be the result. Sometimes designs need to be bold and adventurous. Polarising designs generally perform better than designs that play it safe and try to appease everyone. If there is a group of people involved, make sure there is one dedicated contact that's the only one with the authority to make decisions.

Feedback

Don't use value judgements

A “value judgment” is defined as a judgment of the rightness or wrongness of something or someone, or of the usefulness of something or someone, based on a comparison or other relativity.

When it comes to feedback. Be specific. Instead of saying “I don't like X”, use the simple formula: “I'm concerned that X looks Y, we need to convey Z”.

The more explicit you are with exactly what your concern is, and why, the better the outcome of the project.

If everything stands out, nothing does

This is one of my favourite things to say when a client forgets what's most important about the design. It helps for both designer and client to reflect on the hierarchy of information. That means that you decide what's most important, and second most important, and so on.

It's increasingly important to consider these things as people these days have less and less patience, and “attention” has become the most important commodity.

Tell your designer what you want to say rather than how you want it to look. Communicate the meaning, emotion, and informational hierarchy. As an example, rather than saying you want some words “orange, bolded and underlined”, communicate the message and importance of certain features. That way expectations are bypassed, and there is room for the designer to use their expertise to design a solution which may best communicate exactly what you need.