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Are you a client who has provided a rough creative brief? Given your graphic designer a blank canvas, but found the final result lacking in innovative design?
Are you a designer who has found yourself working on what you believed to be your client’s objectives? Only to discover (often too late) that you’ve missed the mark completely? You’re likely to have been missing one crucial ingredient.
Without information, designers will have to resort to an awful lot of guesswork. Which is not a great basis for a successful project.
There is a saying in life that ‘You get out what you put in’. This is never truer than in graphic design. Graphic design is about crafting solutions to real problems. This requires understanding, and there needs to be information to support it. Without knowledge (a meaningful insight), graphic designers will have to resort to an awful lot of guesswork, which is not an excellent basis for a successful project. In comparison, they may be able to produce something that looks great (that should be a given with a professional). Will it hit the mark when it comes to solving your problem, achieving your objectives or generating results?
A graphic designer who takes the time to unravel your mind and get to know you will always deliver better results. If your designer doesn’t understand you, your audience won’t either.
Design is the intermediary between information and understanding.
Hans Hofmann
As a designer, hearing the words “you’re the experts” can be both a blessing and a curse. Sure, it’s fantastic that a client has faith and trust in your ability, but that’s not a reason to bypass the all-important ‘getting to know you’ phase. That process can sometimes take a little time – but ultimately, it’s time well spent for everyone and can save time and money.
The onus for this process falls to both the graphic designer and the client. At the same time, a client should be willing and able to provide detailed insight into the context, challenges, and preferences. Any designer worth their salt should also have the skills to probe further to leave no stone unturned.
At best, you could end up with something that looks great but achieves nothing. At worst, you could create confusion, undo previous successes and potentially even damage your brand. If that’s not worth a detailed conversation upfront, we don’t know what is.
First, a graphic designer needs to understand why a particular piece of design is needed. Have you seen a decline in sales? Do you have a new product or service to launch? Way before a designer should be putting ‘pen to paper’ (or mouse to Mac). The designer needs a solid grasp of the project’s context. Understanding where the longer-term vision and goals lie. This ‘bigger picture’ insight is an essential foundation, and, in our experience, it fuels the creative process and enables more imaginative thinking.
If so, the graphic designer will need to know what’s going on beforehand, what’s going to run next and what’s going to come after that. Not only is this critical for providing insight into established branding and visual styles. It also helps us understand which stage in the buying process your customer is currently at. Thus, this is how this particular piece of creativity should perform.
The more clearly you can define your target market, the more a graphic designer can tailor their work. There is a well-known saying that ‘you can’t be all things to all people,’ and this is undoubtedly true in the case of design. If you have evidence to support why previous campaigns have (or haven’t) worked well with your target market, that information is incredibly valuable.
The design should be intended to elicit a response, provoke a specific reaction, or prompt a particular action. Without understanding what answer you’d want, or what you think ‘success’ looks like, how can your graphic designer hit the nail on the head? If you calculate success based on an increase in sales revenue. But your designer is building on growing brand awareness or social interaction. You may not be entirely happy with the outcome.
In some instances, your business may face obstacles or challenges. Your designer will need to bear this in mind during the creative process. These may be linked to the competitive environment, broader market factors, or even something specifically related to your business. Be they small or significant – we need to know about them.
All businesses have something that sets them apart from their competition. But not everyone is excellent at identifying or summarising what that is. You must understand your key messages and selling points. This is so your graphic designer understands them too and can clearly (and concisely) convey them in your creative.
Do you have a ballpark budget in mind? If so, your graphic designer needs to know. This isn’t so that we can go away and start planning our next shopping trip. It’s so that we understand the full scope and feasibility of what you’re asking. This way, we can come up with viable suggestions that will deliver against both your brief and your budget.
Let's get straight to it. Design isn't just about making things look pretty (though we're rather good at that).
Let's get straight to it. Design isn't just about making things look pretty (though we're rather good at that).