On Valentine’s Day today, many of us will be thinking about our relationships. While romance may not be top of your list when it comes to choosing your ideal design partner, chemistry should be.
Developing a successful partnership with your designer will not only help you achieve the best result, it should also make the whole experience a lot more fun – which right now seems more important than ever.
So if you’re on the look-out for the perfect creative relationship, here’s our best match-making advice.
Communicate clearly
Miscommunication is one of the biggest challenges faced by clients and their design teams. You may think you’ve explained what you need and when you need it but are you absolutely sure your message got through?
All relationships have communication issues and, while most meetings remain online, the likelihood for a designer/project manager/client communications breakdown is high, so always agree next steps in writing. Better still, have direct contact with the designer working on your project – doing it this way will ensure your expectations and instructions are always met.
Respect each other
As the client, you have a greater understanding of your organisation so you can deliver a comprehensive brief; but once you’ve communicated your needs, let your designers apply their creativity and skills to visualise your messages.
Design projects can be stressful and passions can run high, but if you respect and recognise one another’s strengths, you’re much more likely to achieve a successful result.
Establish boundaries
Are you giving your designer a free rein, or do they need to comply to corporate guidelines? Creatives will want to push boundaries – to bring fresher design approaches – so let them know from the outset what is, and what is not, OK.
Also, if there are hard stops in your schedule, make sure your design team understand so they don’t get carried away. And if timings get stretched your end, check in with your design team, because if your relationship is strong, they may be able to make up for lost time.
Show them the money
The current economic situation in the UK is taking its toll on marketing budgets for many organisations. The most important thing is to be open and honest from the get-go. If you’ve chosen wisely, your design team should be able to apply their creativity so you can get better value for money.