How to work with designers

There are two options to start working with a designer. 

The first is when you hire a freelance designer for a specific task. In this case, you independently select candidates, screen them and choose the right one.

In the second option, you entrust the implementation of the project to a studio that already has designers. Here the choice is limited to those design specialists who are already working in the team.  

Since we need to work with designers non-stop, graphic design studio Veonix has developed its formula for perfect interaction.

No matter how you met your graphic designer, stick to our rules and the collaboration will be mutually beneficial. 

Tune in to the wave, or Communication without obstacles

The customer and the designer, when working together, pursue the same goal. This is an axiom. 

To move synchronously in one direction, the best thing is to be on the same wavelength. The only way to configure is communication. It is important that both want to agree. And, of course, avoid the usual obstacles.

The first obstacle. Everyone speaks their own professional language.                

Terms and jargon are thrown around on both sides. And the more incomprehensibly the customer speaks, the sooner he will turn the designer against himself. Know that showing off with complex words only irritates.

Avoid abstruse phrases. If it is important for you to include professional phrases in the structure of visual graphics, explain them in simple language. It’s better if it’s figurative and with clear examples. 

And then you won’t hear in response about “identity” and fonts of the “grotesque” family. Or something more intricate: “your design was worked out according to the golden ratio” and “this photo was taken during the golden hour.” The designer will definitely switch to an understandable syllable.

As they say, you provide ordinary terminology and human language of communication!

The second obstacle. The designer doesn't agree with your vision.

The client comes to the designer with his task. The professional will make every effort to understand your request. Even if the customer cannot really explain anything, the pro will try to get to the bottom of the truth. 

Note that the truth is in the knowledge of the goal, and not in the ways to achieve it. That is, you can talk about the destination, but not about the roads leading to it.

For example, a customer needs a presentation of his real estate agency. He sees the project exclusively in black and white and close-ups of cozy living spaces. 

The designer, of course, understands the idea, but does not agree with it. Referring to his experience, he earnestly proves to the customer that the idea is unsuitable and will not work, and also imposes his opinion on beauty.  

We consider it unprofessional when a designer stubbornly stands his ground. A master of his craft should not insist that your idea is bad, he should offer options on how to make it better. An experienced specialist will always try to help you and not slow you down. Moreover, the choice is still always yours.

How to work with a designer if he insists on his own and ignores your message? It seems that the only correct thing to do would be to reject such a specialist (when he works for you) or put him in his place through his boss (when he works in a team).

However, in a situation where you tell the designer which button to press or which program he should use, be prepared for a protest. 

And secretly, an experienced designer will, without arguing, reject the obvious stupidity that the client will ask for. It will simply produce a finished result that satisfies the customer 100%. 

Understanding is the beginning of agreement, or Brief to victory

The great philosopher Spinoza said: “Understanding is the beginning of agreement.” This statement is especially true when working with a designer. 

We all seem to speak the same language. But for some reason the meaning of the same word is different for each person. And then we are surprised. 

You asked to include bright pictures of the sea, meaning photographs of inviting waves. And the designer included photos of girls in bikinis, drawn in vector.

And it’s good if we are talking about such more or less specific things. A frequent situation is when a customer tells a designer “I want it to be beautiful,” “the graphics should sell,” or “let’s make a cool design.” And what to do about it?

To reduce such stories to zero, there is a cool magic wand - brief.

A brief is something like a questionnaire that the customer is asked to fill out. It is with him that the designer works, bringing your project to life. Therefore, the less formally and in more detail you answer all the questions, the closer to ideal the execution will be. 

And also, as our practice shows, a correctly completed brief significantly reduces the risks of defects and subsequent rework.

It happens that the initial brief does not contain all the answers the designer needs. Therefore, be prepared that he will contact you and “torture” you with various questions for an hour or two. The only correct option is to give yourself over to the conversation without reserve.

Be careful, carefully and meticulously answer all the designer’s questions. Be calm if they ask about your ideas for colors and fonts. They will ask you to show which sites you like and which you don’t. They will clarify why you like some people and can’t look at others. 

For example, you note that you don’t like black backgrounds and large photographs. And then an experienced designer immediately understands that this graphics option is no longer needed. 

Designers, as creative specialists, have very developed associative thinking. For example, in the Veonix “design brief” there is a question “if the site were a person, describe this person.” When the customer explains how he imagines the future site to be - a man or a woman, an experienced designer immediately begins to understand the direction of the work. 

There are no difficult questions in the brief. In fact, the questionnaire asks the same question in different ways - “what do you want to see.” Using synonyms and images, the designer gives the customer the opportunity to catch on to the association and promote it.

Remember, a professional will get the essence from one small thought. The main thing is to give him this opportunity.

Freedom for parrots, or you can’t hide a creative awl in a brief

A brief is a brief, but the designer must choose the means of expressing what you have in mind. It doesn’t matter when the customer stands over the designer’s soul and tells him what to fill the background with or what program to use to improve the quality of the photo.

It only seems to you that with your increased attention you are helping the master move in the right direction. In fact, with such participation from the customer, the project will move much slower and not as efficiently as we would like.

Give the designer freedom and don't teach him how to design.

Then how to work with a designer in his creative freedom? Our call: if you decide to trust a designer, trust to the end.

Design is a business that has many stages. So you can always watch some of them. You will see where the project is developing, understand the prospects and can always make adjustments.

For example, you ordered a landing page for 15 screens. Ask to make the first 3 screens and show them. If you like everything, then let him do everything else in the same vein. If not, then adjust it and set it free to float.

We advise you to avoid explaining your disagreement with the sketch with words like “I don’t like it,” “remove the black and yellow colors,” or “it’s too neutral.” Let your comments always be accompanied by maximum specificity. 

• “I don’t like it because the font is small and the words are hard to read easily,” or
• “It’s better to remove the combination of black and yellow: I don’t want associations with other companies” or
• “The images seem too neutral to me - I would like to see more of our company’s products in them.”

Have no doubt, such interaction is much more productive than fussy control at every stage of work. Moreover, you gave the designer a natural limiter - a brief.

As you understand, working with designers is easy and interesting. 

A real pro first learns all the rules and algorithms, typography and color theory. And then he deliberately violates them, creating exclusive exceptions to the rules. Believe me, this is a special kind of talent. And you will definitely see brilliant results when you give this talent the opportunity to manifest itself.