How to save time and money in your upcoming design project

Getting ready

Before you start working with a designer, make sure you prepare:

1) A work description (a brief), including short info about your company, industry, target audience and the main message for the target audience.

2) A brand book, if you have one. Usually, it is a PDF file containing guidelines for the use of color, font, pictures, and logo.

3) Ready-to-use pictures and final text (which is corrected and accepted by your leadership).

4) If you are planning to do printing, arrange your final text in Word and do all the needed highlights.

5) If you have visual examples of how you want your project to look like, include those as well.

How to choose a designer

Before you start working with a designer, make sure you like his works (also, if possible, be aware if your communication styles are more or less in sync). Otherwise, you may lose time and money simply because your design style preferences and values are too polar.

Agreement

Make sure you clearly communicate the project’s due date, budget, and other important details. If it requires more than a week of work, the designer may ask for a pre-pay.

Use designer’s insight
Before you and your designer start working on the project, go through the agenda together. Often the designer has valuable insights from previous projects that you can benefit from. If there are some alterations to be made, make them as soon as you can and then stick with them.

Time and quality

Just like any creative project, good design development is a process. It takes time to choose the best forms, colors, fonts, pictures, and spacing to develop the final version. All these elements have to point to the main message you want to communicate.

Is everything going as planned?

When it comes to choosing the right version from examples the designer has developed, make sure the chosen one is in alignment with the main task of the brief you agreed upon at the beginning. You don’t want to lose money and energy by going in the wrong direction.

Get leadership approval

If you need to get approval from your leadership, make sure you do it in the brainstorming stage or by the first drafts at the latest. Otherwise, the final work you as a project manager think is great might need to be thrown away or redone just because your leadership has a different vision altogether.

Don’t chase perfection

Realize that there is no perfect design for your project. There are many ways to communicate the main idea. Although good design can stand the test of time, the most important thing is to create the best solution that works in this given situation and season. Don’t waste time by chasing an illusionary, unproductive and nonexisting perfection!

Beware of unnecessary spending

Sometimes people lose money because of ongoing alterations in the text, or because the main agenda gets constantly changed (these changes cost the same hourly wage as the development of the design).

At last…

Remember who this project is for? It is for people you want to help, serve, speak to! It has never been meant for satisfying your or the designer’s selfish ambitions. At the end of the day, both of you should be glad for the work done.

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