Tips for Providing Your Graphic Designer with Helpful Feedback That Will Make the Process Go a Lot Smoother
Whether you are hiring a graphic designer for the first time ever or you are simply hiring a different graphic designer, providing feedback will help you get the most out of the process.
But what does “providing feedback” look like? And what kind of feedback is most beneficial to both parties?
Let me start by saying that as designers, we aim to please you, our clients, first and foremost. We want you to be happy with what we create. That’s the main goal. But we have another goal: to communicate what your business is all about, in a visual manner. In order to do both, we need to have a strong working relationship with our client. As the designer, we need to understand your business and what it stands for. We ask that you trust us to translate that into a visual design. So, having said that, the best way to move forward is with open communication and giving your designer feedback.
These 3 tips will help you give the most constructive feedback:
Be specific
Give examples
Be mindful of revisions
1. Be Specific
When your designer shows you the concepts that they’ve come up with, it’s much more helpful to say, “The color is a little too dark; can you make it brighter?” than to say, “I’m not sure about the color.” Here are a few other examples:
Rather than, “can you show me other colors?” try, “I’d like to see some oranges or blues”
Rather than, “I don’t like the font,” try, “can you find a font that is less formal, more friendly?”
Rather than, “I’d like to see more variety,” try, “can I see concept #3 with font from concept #1 or something similar?
Tell us what you like and dislike about it. By being specific, we are better able to target areas that need to be changed to meet your needs. Otherwise, it feels like we’re aiming blindly. Your guidance goes a long way!
2. Give Examples
Is there a particular logo that you’ve seen that you love? Show it to us! But don’t stop there - tell us why you love it. Is it because of the type of font or is it because of the delicate appearance? Telling us why you love it will help us communicate that same emotion with the design we are creating for you.
You know what else is helpful? Showing us what you don’t like! It’s just as important as giving us examples of designs you love because we know what to avoid from the beginning.
I always welcome any examples clients have, whether it comes in the form of a web link, just a business name (for me to look up), or even a Pinterest board full of examples.
3. Be Mindful of Revisions
One thing that also helps your designer is that you provide feedback in a way that is efficient for everyone. What does that mean? Well, first, let me give an example the revision process:
Designer shows you a few concepts and you tell them you like #3 with the font from concept #1
Designer opens the original file in Adobe Illustrator,
Designer makes all requested changes and saves the file,
Designer exports the new design,
Designer formats it in a presentable way to show you - this could mean creating a mockup (usually in Adobe Photoshop) or creating a PDF to show you the before/after.
Client reviews revision and likes the changes, but they just noticed something was spelled wrong.
Designer goes back to original file in Adobe Illustrator,
Designer retypes the word, expands it into outlines, ensures that the size fits the format properly, recreates any effects that were in the previous rendition, and saves the file.
Designer exports the new design,
Designer formats it in a presentable way
Client approves the spelling; requests a change in color
and the process continues…
Now, I’m not complaining at all - this is our job and this is what you are paying us to do. As insane as it sounds, I’m kind of neurotic about little details like making sure everything is sized, aligned, and spelled properly and I love seeing the design transform with each revision.
However, to make the process much smoother, I would suggest that clients review the options and start making a list of changes. Then, step away for a few hours and come back to reevaluate. Did you find something else you’d change? Great! Write it down and send it to us when you can’t think of anything else. Providing us with a list of changes all at once, truly makes the process more efficient and we are able to get revisions to you more quickly if we are doing less opening of software, saving, exporting, etc.
I hope you find those tips helpful. Designers: what are some other tips you have? Clients: what can we do to make the process smoother for you?