What would it take for you to feel proud of your brand?

I want you to be excited when you hand someone your brochure or product. Helping companies look their best and visually communicating to their target audience is my passion. But whether you work with me or another designer, here are 6 tips to help you get the most out of working with a Graphic Designer.

1. Share Your Production Budget
Your production budget (paper or materials, printing, die cutting, etc.) will give your designer important guidelines to work with so design time is used on the right ideas. For example, screen printing metallic inks on your wine bottle may exceed your price point for a small run. Then again, your designer may know a vendor with excellent pricing, and now you can get the look you were hoping for.

2. Organize Your Content
Have content ready in one place. Give them one clean document. Designers know there will be some changes, it’s the nature of our business, but excessive revisions can result in a lot of extra time and a costly change order. Don’t tell your designer “take this paragraph from here, and that sentence from there, but change all of the tense from first person to third, and that the intro isn’t ready yet.” The more organized and complete your content, the quicker for your designer to utilize it and send you the new design. This also makes for fewer revisions.

3. Discuss Your Design Budget Together
When your designer knows the design budget for your project, they can offer you solutions and ideas that meet your needs, while giving you the most bang for your buck. Even better, know your design budget for the year. Talk with your graphic designer about ways to maximize the use of your budget. Don’t be afraid they’ll take it all – if they are fair, all they care about is doing the best job within your budget. Be sure to ask your designer if they offer multiple items at a package cost. This can save you time and money.

4. Ask for Help Writing
Designers are very resourceful and want your brand to look and read its best. If you are creating a brochure, writing the content may not be so easy once you sit down to do it. It’s ok to ask for help. You might have other things you’d rather give your time to anyway. Designers work with writers and editors, and know people who can help with this. Some designers are also skilled at writing, but don’t assume that is included in design costs. Writing, editing and designing are all different things.

5. Stick to the Timeline
Quality designers have multiple clients and multiple projects just as you do in your business. We can be booked out for several weeks or months, so it’s important to establish a timeline and stick to it. If you need to send high resolution photos to your designer by Tuesday and you don’t send them until Friday, the timeline of the project will change. If you foresee a delay during the project, communicate with your designer.

6. If You Hate Red
If you hate red because of a traumatic childhood experience, tell your designer you hate red and you don’t want it in your logo. Tell them up front before design starts. Without this bit of information you will be disappointed to see red logos and your designer just spent valuable time in a direction you didn’t want to go. Knowing this information upfront will speed up the process and colors will be more to your liking.