Usually I develop articles to help designers and other creatives, but today I’m going to write something that will help both designers and clients. For designers this will allow you to understand that you are not alone in wishing that circumstances in your client relationships were better and possibly give you an idea as to how to communicate to your client or employer the changes you wish to occur in your relationship with them.

For clients this will give you a much needed understanding in plain English of how to help your designers do their job more effectively, and how to improve your relationship with them, and avoid conflict.

I’ve also included a cute little video I found on Youtube that you all can enjoy weather you are a designer or client that will illustrate the points in this article.

Trust Your Designer To Do Their Job

You wouldn’t want your designer telling you how to run your business right? Neither should you expect them to. Value your relationship with your designer and show them that you respect their ability and knowledge of their craft. If you don’t understand the reasoning behind a choice they’ve made, rather than assuming its an artistic or creative issue, simply ask them to explain it. More often than not you will find that designers rarely if ever make their decisions arbitrarily.

Give Your Designer Any Information/Content They Ask For

When someone your dealing with does not communicate in a timely manner, complete any paperwork you send them, or provide you with all the details, you feel that they are being less than professional or even that something is wrong. This works both ways, its frustrating for designers who don’t provide them will all the content for a design or even tell them “what ever you write up is fine”. Designers are not mind readers nor should they try to be. Unless copy writing was a specific task noted in the arrangement you should ALWAYS provide any written content, and do so in a timely manner to allow the designer to meet deadlines. This also eliminates a liability issue.

There is also nothing more frustrating for a designer than to feel that you as a client are not acting in the best interest of the project.  By not giving them all the information or content they need to do their job you are tying their hands and preventing both of you from moving forward. Some people as clients try to rationalize this thinking, “Just move on to another part of the project until I get that to you, I”m busy running a business, or have other things I need to do”.

Let me be very clear about something…IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.
For one thing as you are not a designer may not realize how certain project task fit together, and how one thing will be dependent on another. Document layouts with multiple pages can’t always simply be rearranged, and knowing before hand weather is a project is going to be strictly used for the web only, or if it will be used for print at some point is certainly important, as it is not easy and in some cases impossible to setup or quickly redesign a graphic done for the web to all of a sudden be a print advertisement or flyer.

Give them what they ask for when they ask for it, and ultimately you will get what you want, (usually faster).

Being Sensitive and Respectful

The fact that I have to bring this up represents a problem. Everyone seems to remember the golden rule from childhood, yet so few apply it in adulthood. Designers and other creatives are people too. More over they tend to be of a sensitive nature and are very connected to their work. The best designers have a real passion for their work and have committed to it on a deep level. Which means you can’t deal with a designer or creative in the way you would deal with say an accountant.

For the most part a designer is creating, enhancing, or changing the visual image and representation of your company, product, service, or brand. Imagine someone was styling/cutting your hair,or  applying your facial, you would choose your words very carefully in correcting (or criticizing) them or their work on your appearance, and you extend a certain amount of trust in them during the process. If you were to start pressuring them or being overly negative you understand that the result won’t be favorable for you in anyway shape or form. One should extend this same bit of common sense to dealing with the individuals who shape and mold the image of their company, and give it the same or greater regard that they would give their personal appearance.

Know What You Want and Be Clear in Communicating It

I doubt that anyone has ever thought of indecisiveness, or inability to communicate an idea clearly was a desirable or acceptable trait. Sometimes we just don’t know what we want, and that is okay, we are all after all human. However one should never let that become the problem of someone else. If you don’t know what you want, be very up front and honest about it. I suggest entering an agreement where you pay a designer to do some research, sketch work and brainstorming to help you formulate your idea. In the event that you come out with an idea you like you can go from there.

The problem with this is that in many cases you want/need something sooner rather than later. There is ultimately no good way around this unless you have an existing relationship with a designer that has the mysterious ability to read what you want before you realize that you want it. This has been known to happen from time to time, creating the problem of people expecting it from every designer they hire.

In the event that you know exactly what you want, communicate it clearly and precisely, don’t be afraid of talking to much or being too detailed. Make sure that everything you communicate to your designer are documented, and make sure any changes in the project, or your expectations are communicated clearly and documented as well.

If you require revisions to a design, be clear about what you didn’t like, what you felt didn’t work, and why. Also have a clear goal for the changes. You probably don’t like flaws or short-comings in your decisions being made by your employees without specific information and a plan of action for addressing those problems, your designer has those exact same expectations and experiences the same frustration you do when met with criticism and no problem solving input or resolutions to the situation.

Don’t Expect Something For Nothing

I outright refuse to insult anyone by elaborating on this particular point.

Great Video About Life As a Graphic Designer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZED_Jph6Y8k

I hope that any designers viewing this article found it refreshing, any tips and advice you have for clients are welcome to be added as comments to this post. Clients and employers, I hope that after reading this article and watching this video you have more empathy and a better understanding of your graphic designers and creatives and how to build and maintain better relationships with them.