Tips on Working With a Designer

Making your vision for your outdoor advertising materials come to life is one of the most exciting parts of running a small business. When you see pieces built from scratch with your graphics and logo on them, you can't help but feel pride. These items can also help you attract new customers and expand your business.

Your advertising materials will be even more effective if you collaborate with a designer. A professional will make your marketing products look spectacular, enhancing your reputation. Here are six tips on working with a designer for your custom products.

1. Be Picky About Who You Work With

You want to work with the best designer — ask them about their previous experience and request examples of their designs. You should feel comfortable with the person and also see designs within their portfolio that appeal to you.

Working with a company that employs designers makes this step easier. Companies have reputations to uphold and only work with the best. You can skip a few steps when you work with a company because you know they will have reliable designers.

2. Know Your Objectives

The more clearly you can communicate what you want, the better the end product will be. Think about these questions so you can tell your designer everything about your project. You should be able to answer these questions:

• What do you want to achieve with your design project?
• What action do you want customers who see this product to take?
• What is the timeframe for your project?

When you can answer these questions, it gives your designer more to work with and gives them a better picture of your ideas.

3. Offer Specific Feedback

Saying "I like this" or "I don't like this" doesn't help your designer figure out your preferences. Give them something more concrete to work with, so they know what they need to fix or what you do like for next time. For instance, you might say, "I like the large lettering on this project, but I don't like the colors. Let's try orange and blue instead." This feedback tells the designer exactly what you want and why.

4. Convey Your Personality

Every brand has a personality. Whether yours is playful, conscientious, adventurous or conservative, your brand has a quality that sets it apart from the competition. Share that with your designer so they can customize their efforts with your brand's unique attributes.

5. Stay Involved in the Process

Your job is not over after you lay out the parameters of the project. Your involvement throughout the development of the graphic materials ensures your designer remains on task. However, you also owe it to them to provide feedback — they can't guess what you want.

6. Remain Flexible

You should have a firm picture in your head of what you want the design to look like, but you should also be open to changes. Designers know what they are doing. They may have ideas that build on your original concept, and their vision may be even better than yours. Designers also draw on past experiences and know what's most effective for attracting people to your store or office.

Stay open to suggestions throughout the process. Listen to input from the designer, since they know more about graphics than you. While you may ultimately stick with your vision, you want to know all the options, which will help you make the right choice.

Choose LookOurWay for Custom Designs

Are you ready to get to work? Submit a custom design request to LookOurWay, and one of our graphic designers can help you create materials that capture your vision.