How To Communicate With Your Designer

Working with a designer can be painful. It sometimes seem like we speak a different language from you, leading to hours of frustration. Here at Isshoku, we understand your plight. Therefore, we’ve written a helpful little guide for you to communicate with your designer better and ensure a smooth project.

Make Your Business Philosophy Clear

One key factor that determines whether a designer is able to deliver something great for you is how well we understand your business. Share your company culture and brand identity, and let your designer know what your business mission and values are.

Some helpful things that you can share with us to help us understand your business are:

• A set of brand guideliness (if you have one).
• Your company’s website and social media.
• Informative brochures, posters etc.
• Past design works for your company that you and/or management liked.
• Design work done for other companies in the same industry that you like.

Clear Direction vs. Creative Freedom

This is an important question you’ll have to ask yourself when you start working with a designer – Do you already have a clear idea of what you want the end product to look like, or no idea at all?

If you have an idea already, communicate it to your designer: Send a detailed brief, oversee each step of the work-in-progress, direct the designer towards your vision. Don’t worry – many designers are happy to just be a means towards your objective. We’re here to provide a service to you.

On the other hand, many clients don’t know what they want, and that’s ok too. If that’s the case, give the designer a very brief idea of what you are working towards, and – this is very important – let us have creative freedom to deliver a final product for you. Sure, it’s good to step in and amend things that do not align your brand’s identity, but for the most part you can trust your designer to deliver something impressive.

There’s no middle ground here. Either you know what you want, or you don’t. There’s nothing more annoying to designers than the client who doesn’t know what he wants yet wants to have lots of control over the creative process. Don’t be that client!

Be Transparent

Finally, open communication is very important. Here are some pointers and guidelines.

• Draw a project timeline together.
• Make your requirements and vision (or lack thereof) for the project very clear.
• When we show you the draft, tell us with great specificity what you don’t like about it and help us make it better.
• If you feel that the working relationship is not working out, tell us too. Sometimes, the best way forward is for a company and an agency to part ways.