5 Tips for Business Owners Working With Designers

Working with a designer can feel overwhelming or stressful, but it doesn’t have to be!

These tips will help make it easier to work with a designer, be it for a one-off quick project, a full website build or a long-term retainer.

Preparation is your friend!

Have Clear Goals!

Clear goals can make any working relationship a breeze! If you’re looking to hire a designer make sure you get clear on:

• What’s your deliverable: What do you need the designer to create for you? Be as detailed as possible with what you need to make, there’s no such thing as too much detail.
• What are your over-arching goals: Why do you need this created? What are you hoping it will achieve for you and your business?
• Share your Inspiration: We know you’ve been filling out Pinterest boards with what you’d love to see us create for you! Don’t be afraid to share these. Sharing your inspirations and work that you love is a great way to get us going in the right direction from the get-go!
• What’s your deadline: If you need this by a certain date be clear about that with your designer and plan to get the final version at least one week before when you actually need it so that you have time for any unforeseen changes.

Communicate your expectations!

We all have expectations when we work with others but we’re not always the best at communicating them so make sure to be clear about your expectations surrounding this work:

• How often do you expect to hear back from the designer?
• What is your preferred method of communication? How do you feel you express yourself best?
• What would an ideal experience look like for you?

Prepare your materials!

Designers don’t work in a vacuum, we need context to be able to design effectively. Make sure to share as much as possible before working with a designer. Not every project is the same but it’s always best to over share, here are some materials that you should share with your designer:

• Brand Fundamentals: Share what makes your brand and business unique! Everything from your audience. what do your brand values and voice? These are all essential tools that will help a designer do their job!
• Brand Guide: If you have existing branding make sure to share it with your designer, colors, fonts, and logo files are all great to have right away and sharing them early will make the whole process easier.
• Your Content: If you’re building a site, flyer or anything that has copywriting attached to it please share the final copy with your designer. Sharing the final text with your designer from the beginning will help make the revisions easier and design focussed as they should be.

Be detailed in your Feedback!

There’s nothing worse than hearing a client say: I don’t like it! It does not cause we don’t like pushback or feedback it’s just causing that’s not very good feedback.

Whenever you provide feedback be as specific as you can, first drafts are just that, drafts but in order to improve them we need to know exactly what you don’t like about them!

Last but not least, trust us!

We’ve been working in this field for many years! And although that will never mean we’re always right it does mean that you should lean on our expertise when creating designs for your business.

We want you to love your design but we also want your clients to love it! So don’t be afraid to ask our opinion and believe us when we say something doesn’t work!

Ready to work with a designer? Get in Touch!

Do you have a project waiting for a designer? Then get in touch! I’d love to help you bring your ideas and projects into reality!