In this chapter we will outline:
- Getting involved
- Understanding the creative process
- What to expect from your designer
- Planning for extra costs
Working with a designer may be an unfamiliar process. Unlike the suppliers of many other services to your business, designers will need to work with you creatively to achieve the best results. This means that one or more members of your business will need to invest time and thought in the process, liaising regularly with the designers.
On the other hand, if you’re already familiar with this type of creative work the difficulty may come not from investing enough time, but in relinquishing some control and allowing the designer to take overall creative responsibility.
Either way, it is worth bearing in mind that this is a collaborative process aiming to achieve what you have set out in your original design brief.
One the most important things to realise about the creative process is that it is iterative – this means that ideas will be developed, tested, refined, then passed around for feedback and discussion a number of times.
Ideas may also be dropped as part of this process. This type of cycle is an essential part of good design and it will involve a time commitment from whoever is managing the project.
Any given design may also move through a number of different stages, such as:
- Concepts – initial options and ideas
- Design development – refining a chosen concept
- Evaluation – testing and reviewing the design
- Implementation – production to launch
If you haven’t worked through such a creative process before it may be tempting to think you should be able tell the designer what you want so they can go away and produce it, delivering the finished article back to you a few weeks later. But the results from working like this will almost certainly be poorer - and the process less interesting - than if you engage with the development.
Design is not a completely black and white process, but nor is it a dark art to be left to entirely to the ‘creatives’. Getting into the process is not only essential, it’s also fun.
‘I enjoyed the creative process. The designers were very good at interpreting what we were harping on about. The actual creative guys were in the workshops with us and we were bouncing ideas off each other which was great. It takes a long time, but you don’t want big gaps in between trips, so it’s always fresh in your mind. They were very good at holding our hands, as any good consultancy should, but if you don’t like a route make sure you quiz them hard.’
Read the Munchy Seeds case study.
Alternatively, if you work in a creative environment yourself and are used to this type of process, you may find it hard to give up your control over the design development. But if you want to get the most from your designer’s skills and input you will also need to leave space for their judgements and creative ideas. Gillies Jones co-founder Kate Jones found herself in this situation:
‘It was quite a scary process and I found it hard to let go of control; it was well outside my comfort zone, but this is a really good thing and it was good process to go through. You need to give up some control to get some objectivity and see how others perceive you and your business. It’s a very valuable thing to do. We went through lots of iterations of the identity, so we could pick out elements we liked and didn’t like. The whole process took about a year.’
Read the Gillies Jones case study.
When approaching the creative process, remember:
- It doesn’t make sense to buy design as a commodity
- You need to develop creative ideas in collaboration with your designer
- Design is an iterative process: prepare to invest the time to work through different routes
- Try not to control every aspect of the creative process – trust your designers to use their own skills and judgement
As part of this creative process, a number of businesses find they come up against certain language barriers when trying to explain what they want, as well as in trying to understand what the designers mean.
As with most professions, designers may use a set of terms that you would never normally come across. Such technical terms and shorthand phrases have been adopted to help them work more effectively, but you shouldn’t be expected to understand immediately.
‘Never be intimated by design professionals just because you don’t know the jargon and the language. As a client you don’t need to know everything about colour and design. Ask basic questions about colour – ask friends if they have a good eye. If something does not make sense, ask what’s meant. And have a sense of humour during the process. Don’t think the atomic bomb is going to go off if you screw up.’
Read the Good Schools Guide International case study.
You should also be prepared to describe your reactions to design using language that may be different from how you’d speak about other areas of your business. It may need a more emotional response, or it may be helpful to make use of comparisons with other designs you’ve seen when explaining what does and doesn’t work for you, as Okayso director Simon Meek explains:
‘The more literate you are, the better the work you’ll get out of it. Even if you’re only pointing at a painting or something in a book. The more you know about design the more confident you can be in speaking to your designer and pushing them.’