Working with other people is a necessity of business. Particularly when it comes to specialized subjects like design. Professional graphic designers bring a lot to the table. Hiring an expert to do your design work can save you the time and stress of trying to do the job yourself. It gives you a more consistent, professional look than anything you could achieve yourself.

Despite that, many small business owners dread hiring work out. Especially if it involves dealing with what they imagine is a high-strung creative type. Fortunately, working with a graphic designer does not have to be a hassle. The only trick is to know how to communicate effectively so that you can get the product you need with minimum frustration to anyone involved.

A few tips on how to make that happen:

1. Know What You Want

If you haven’t yet hired a graphic designer, take a few moments to think about what you want before you start looking. If you don’t know what you want, you can’t expect to give the designer an accurate idea of what you’re looking for either. Vague descriptions are a sure-fire way to end up with something that you don’t like.

Redoing everything frustrates the graphic designers, costing you time and money. Before doing anything else, take a few minutes to do some research on your own. Jot down specific things that you want to see in your own project. If you see something really good, consider saving it to use as an example.

Visual examples are great because even the best descriptions aren’t always received the way they’re meant. Your idea of modern might be completely different from your designer’s idea. Save both of you some trouble and find a concrete example of what you’re interested in.

2. It Takes Time

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Your website won’t be either. It can be hard to see just how much work goes into a quality design. Keep in mind that it takes the designer longer to create a design and implement feedback than it does for you to glance at it and offer a few words of feedback.

That said, a good graphic designer does not keep you waiting forever. In your first meeting, discuss a reasonable time frame. Make sure that you have a written plan for when to expect the first draft, the final proof, and the finished product. This helps both you and your graphic designers by creating reasonable expectations for both sides.

3. Give Some Wiggle Room

While you need to have an idea of what you want, remember that you hired the designer because you cannot do it yourself. Offering solid guidelines is great and helpful. Trying to micromanage everything frustrates the designer. It probably will not turn out as you envision it.

Once you let the designer know what you like, leave them alone to work. You paid them to design your project. Go ahead and let them design it. You may be surprised at the creative ideas they generate to fit your desires into a coherent, functional framework.

4. Ask Questions

Try to trust your designer. At the same time, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the process. If you see something that seems off to you or are curious about an element, feel free to ask what your graphic designer intends to accomplish with a page element or color choice. Just be careful not to cross the line into micromanaging, which leaves everyone frustrated.

5. Be Specific

When you give feedback on a draft, remember that vague feedback doesn’t help anybody. General comments like “make it pop” or “clean it up” are useless. They don’t communicate what you mean by pop or what specifically needs to be cleaned up.

Instead, keep in mind the five components of a design:

• Overall aesthetic
• Layout
• Images
• Fonts
• Colors

Instead of commenting that everything looks “blah,” try to pinpoint exactly which of these bothers you. Hearing that the colors, for example, need to be brightened is a much more helpful critique. It allows the design team to focus precisely on what needs to change.

6. The First Draft is Just a First Draft

Many clients make the mistake of panicking when presented with a first draft that looks nothing like what they imagined. Try to keep in mind that the first draft is just that. It’s only a mock-up presenting the designer’s concept so you have something to give feedback on. This first version won’t be perfect. By giving quality feedback, you can be sure that the final proof will be much more in line with your wish list.

7. Don’t Control the Solutions

The natural follow-up to a first draft disappointment is a micromanagement situation. Often a person sees things that they don’t like in the first draft. They become something of a control freak and try to tell the designer exactly how to fix it. Remember that one misstep doesn’t mean that you hired a bad designer.

It just means they weren’t totally sure what you wanted. Instead of trying to tell the designer how to do their job, explain what you don’t like. Give an idea of your vision. Then, step back and let them use their tools and training to figure out the best way to make the needed changes.

8. Enough is Enough

Finally, recognize that the finished project will not be absolutely perfect. There will always be something that could just be a little bit better if you made a change or two. There’s an old quote about not letting perfect be the enemy of good. That applies here.

If you keep making minuscule changes to a very good design, you’ll never be able to use the final design. This is, after all, the entire point of hiring a graphic designer in the first place. Try to recognize when the design is good enough so you can call it quits there instead of wasting time on a very small improvement.

Conclusion

Graphic design is inherently a group process of bringing together your needs and the designer’s expertise. Collaboration is always difficult. It doesn’t have to be impossible. Keep in mind these tips for working with graphic designers. You can look forward to a productive, stress-free partnership.
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Links Web Design is a Website Design Company in Bangor, Maine.