How to collaborate and not work with a Designer

The TPT team shares its’ experience of working with a designer and suggests some approaches for shaping the most effective communication with the specialist.

The Current State of the Designer Market:

Today it is difficult to imagine a project without designer. The high demand for specialists has led to the fact that a large number of non-professionals have appeared on the market, whose main task is to make money, and not to provide a high-quality result.

Moreover, designers are creative people. And interaction with creative people, of course, requires an individual approach.

After conducting a series of interviews and using its experience of working with designers, the TPT team defined several tips and hints that will make the process of interaction with a designer more fruitful.

Тalent Рowered Тeam’s tips and hints for working with a designer:

1. Analyse the Freelancer’s Portfolio

Before hiring a freelance designer for a project, look at his/her portfolio and ask for links to personal resources. There are some of the most popular resources, such as Behance and Dribble.

2. Initiate a Test Task

Try to agree on starting from a test task. Such a task can be done as a separate project (if you work through a freelance exchange).

Be aware that a freelancer may refuse to complete a test task. Unfortunately, it is quite common that due to “test tasks” dishonest customers get the result for free and freelancers, taught by bitter experience, stop agreeing to such a format of work.

3. Define the Baseline Requirements and Share Your Expectations

Before starting work with a graphic designer, it is necessary to discuss the details of the project: figure our specific terms and agree on scope of works. It is important to find out how, where and when you will communicate with each other, and whether intermediate results will be presented.

If you decided to hire a designer, it probably means you have ideas that you want to visualize. Share your ideas with the freelancer; the result of their work depends on it.

4. Look for the Appealing Ideas

If you don’t know how your website design or new logo should look like, then the best way to work with a graphic designer is to show them the examples of images/designs that meet your needs.

Search the Internet for a selection of your favorites (Pinterest is great for that). If your graphic designer gets aware of the images, colours, and styles that you like, they are more likely to start the project properly, and as a result, you will get the outcome you want.

5. Explain what you DO NOT like

To communicate your ideas more effectively to a designer, you need to understand what you don’t like, and, therefore, what your graphic designer should definitely avoid. Things that you don’t want to see in the design are equivalent to the details that you prefer to include in the project.

Just remember that your graphic designer starts from scratch. They don’t know anything about the project, except what you decide to tell them yourself. Talk about all your ideas and share your wishes in a timely manner.

6. Meet Deadlines

Don’t expect the designer to be ready to do the project “right now” or “as soon as possible.” Graphic designers rarely work with one project only. Adhere to the agreements that you should have come to during the discussion of the project by agreeing on the working time. Do not be abusing and avoid bothering the freelancer with intrusive calls and messages, this will not make them to work faster. You should, however, try to provide a reply on all their questions.

7. Highlight the Problem, But Do Not Offer a Ready-Made Solution

In the process of making changes to the final works of the designer, we recommend that you describe design flaws, but not suggest a potential solution.

Yes, you might not like the crimson title colour, and you want to change it. However, you shouldn’t say a firm no, we recommend that you discuss the problem that has arisen and make a decision that suits both parties.

The TPT team knows that working with creative people is not easy at all. However, we hope that our tips and hints will ease building on effective collaboration and together you will achieve fruitful outcomes.