- Today, I'm talking about the designer-client relationship.
But, instead of focusing on the designers, as I normally do,
today, I'm gonna share some advice for being a good client.
I'm gonna give you some tips for working with a designer
to get the most out of your project.
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Now, you may have heard some of the creative folk
in your life complaining about clients from hell,
and there's even a whole website dedicated to stories
of bad designer-client relationships.
But, I'm not about that, I don't believe in it.
I think that when the designer-client relationship
breaks down, first of all, it's often the designer's fault
for not communicating properly,
and it's also the designer's fault for perhaps taking on
a client who is not going to work
within the proper design process.
You need to spot those red flags early.
That said, there are definitely some things
that you can do, as the client,
to make the designer-client relationship a healthy one,
and help progress the project instead of hinder it.
So here is my advice for working with a designer
to get the most out of your project,
and to get the best result for you and your business.
It's quite common for a lot of people
when they're hiring a designer to think
they have to go to them and be able to describe
exactly what it is that they want.
But, here's the thing, you don't.
And, in fact, it's much better if you don't.
Design isn't creating the exact thing
that you have in your head in Photoshop.
Design is taking a problem that you have with your business
and coming up with a creative solution for it.
For example, you might need a new landing page
to make it clear what your new online course is about
to encourage people to sign up.
That's a problem.
You might need a Christmas card design that fits in
with your brand and makes your clients feel
special and appreciated during the holiday season.
That's a problem.
I need a logo with the text exactly like this
and a circle behind it, and it has to be blue
because that's my favorite color.
That, my friends, is a solution not a problem,
and it's now how you should start off
a designer-client relationship.
You provide the problem, and the designer will provide
the solution.
Trust me, it's better this way.
The designer is trained for this.
They know how to problem-solve with creative thinking
and design thinking, and they're gonna come up with
the best solution to solve your problem for your business.
This is great because it means that you don't need to
be able to describe exactly what it is that you want.
And if you're not sure how to articulate your problem
correctly as well, well that's okay, too,
because your designer should be asking you some questions
to uncover that and get to the bottom of it together
to form a brief.
My next tip, I suppose, is that you need to be
open to solutions to that problem that perhaps
you didn't have in mind to start with.
Hopefully, you're hiring a designer that you can trust
and so you should be open to their solutions
to your problems.
They're the professional.
They're trained in this.
They understand creative problem-solving,
and they want to help you achieve your goals.
If you can't be open-minded and take on board
the suggestions and solutions
that your designer is providing,
perhaps you need to question if it actually is a designer
that you need, or if it's just someone
who knows how to operate Photoshop to create
the exact thing that's in your head.
But, I would warn against that
because is that really the right thing for your business?
Designers are taught to think from the user's perspective,
and to think outside the box to come up with
creative solutions that perhaps you haven't seen before.
And they're taught to layout content in a way
that best achieves your goal.
Your designer should communicate all of this with you
when they're showing you the solutions,
so if you're unsure of something,
if something isn't feeling quite right to you,
definitely feel free to voice that,
and hopefully you can have a good discussion about it.
Maybe the designer didn't quite grasp something
that is important to take into consideration
when they were first looking at your problem,
and so that can be taken into account.
Or perhaps they can explain it to you
exactly how they're thinking that this solution
is the right one for your problem.
When it comes to feedback and critique, though,
it's really important to leave
your personal preferences out of it.
Perhaps you, personally, really like websites
with a nice big photo header that takes up the whole screen
when you first go to it, but that might not be
the best solution for your website
and what you're trying to achieve for it.
If there is something that you don't like
in the work that your designer is showing you,
try and explain why because saying I don't like this
is not very useful.
There's nowhere we can go from there.
Instead, if you said something like
I really don't like this color, I feel like my brand
is a bit more light and airy than this,
that's something useful that you can then have
a discussion about, and the designer can take on
that feedback and work it into the design.
You're not likely to hurt your designer's feelings
by giving critique on the work, just make sure
it is about the work and not the designer as a person.
So don't be afraid to speak up if there is something
that doesn't feel quite right.
Remember, when you're giving feedback
we're not expecting you to come up with the solution to it,
we just wanna know what you think of the piece
and what you see as the potential errors
or places to work on.
My last tip for clients working with designers
is that if you have a deadline to hit
and you don't provide feedback by the date
that your designer said they needed it by,
if you don't provide the content on time,
it's not the designer's fault if that deadline is missed.
Yes, they should be chasing you for those things
and reminding you of those deadlines upcoming,
but if you're delayed in providing them with
the information that they need to do their job,
then you can expect that the deadline
will be delayed as well.
It is a collaboration in that sense,
and you have to do your bit of the project as well
so that they can do theirs.
Ohh, and one more, if you think of something else
that you might need to do with this project
half way through, don't expect that the designer
will just be able to cram it in with all the rest.
That's technically counted as
redefining the scope of the project.
It might take more time.
It might cost more money.
And so, it needs to be thought about up front
or it'll be something that you can add on
as another project at the end.
I really hope that was useful and that it didn't put you off
working with designers in any way.
Honestly, the right designer should ask you
all the right questions and encourage you and coach you
through this process.
You're not expected to know
exactly how the design process works.
They'll explain it to you and take you on that journey.
You just need to be open to it,
and open to learning about it I suppose.
Thank you for watching this video.
If you've got any questions about
the designer-client relationship,
please leave them down below in the comments.
I do try and respond to them all.
If you're new around here, if this is the first video
of mine that you're seeing, then welcome, hello.
My name is Charli.
I'm a designer.
I live in London, and I make videos about design
and my life here as a designer every Tuesday and Saturday.
So, hopefully, you will hit subscribe
and I will see you in the next one.
Bye.
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