Like all good relationships, the key to getting the most from your graphic designer is effective communication. You don’t need to come up with the creative ideas, but the more you can tell your designer about what you want, the better the results will be. A comprehensive brief is essential to getting the right results, first time.

Employing a professional designer to develop your visual communications will not only help differentiate your product or service from the competition, it can save you time and money. Your graphic designer can:

• Develop designs that are tailored to your business and objectives
• Provide a fresh interpretation and come up with ideas you may not have thought of
• Set up your artwork correctly for use across a range of media

So what should you put in your brief?

The essentials

1. What do you do?

If this is the first time you’ve briefed your designer, they’ll need to know as much as possible about what you do. Include:

• A brief history of your business
• Your objectives (be specific and make them measurable)
• Examples of your competitors
• Your unique selling point (what differentiates you from your competition)

2. Where have you been?

Even if you want to change your look and feel, you should show your designer any existing material you have. How will they help you get where you want to go if they don’t know where you’ve been? Tell them what you liked or disliked about your previous communications.

3. Why are you here?

Explain what has driven the need for this project, for example you have an upcoming sale that you need to promote. Even if you’ve been working with your designer for some time, don’t make the mistake of assuming they know your specific objectives.

4. Who are you talking to?

Who is your target market? Consider their demographics and be as specific as possible. If you can’t identify your target market, consider investing in some market research to help you paint a clearer picture.

5. What do you need?

Tell your designer what you need them to do, for example a logo, a brochure, an ad or a poster. Do you know what format it should be in? If it has to be supplied to a third party (e.g. an advertisement for a magazine) you will need to provide their specifications.

6. What has to be included?

Provide details and appropriate files for any mandatory inclusions, such as logos, taglines, contact details or images.

7. When do you need it?

If there is a real deadline (such as a publication submission deadline or a lodgement deadline), ensure your designer knows what it is! Also provide a schedule that allows for internal reviews, changes, sign-off and production.

The desirables

8. What are your rules?

Your brand guidelines. If you don’t have any – you should. Your designer can help you develop guidelines to ensure your brand is applied consistently.

9. How much do you want to spend?

How much do you have or are you prepared to invest in this project? Your designer will give you a quote before commencing work with you, but it’s helpful to have an idea of your budget.

10. What do you like?

Show your designer examples of work that you like or think is positioned similarly to where you want to be.
Remember, your objective and your designer’s objective is the same – to give your business a strong image that will contribute to your growth and success. Provide a great brief, and your knowledge of your business combined with your designer’s creativity and expertise will be a winning combination.

What not to do

1. Be inflexible

Be open to new ideas. You’re paying for expertise, so use it. Your input is essential, but what you think is going to work might not be right for your target market.

2. Ask for more than you need

If you ask to see three ideas, you will pay for the time it takes to develop three ideas. Sometimes having options might be necessary (e.g. if you are rebranding), but if not, why pay for something you don’t need?

3. Withhold information

Neither you nor your designer wants to do the job twice. So don’t ‘wait to see what they come up with’ before you tell them what you already know you wanted.

4. Ask for your job to be done ‘as soon as possible’

Giving a real deadline will help ensure your expectations are met.

5. Set unrealistic deadlines or make the deadlines tight unnecessarily

It might seem efficient to ask for something to be done tomorrow, but if you don’t need it until next week, rushing the process will not help you get the best results.

Market Fresh has a team of talented and creative designers who can develop exciting concepts for all your branding and marketing materials. Contact us today.