1) Choose your designer carefully. Look at their previous work. The best designers don’t have a “signature look.” Their projects look as different as their clients do. Awards don’t necessarily mean the design
worked for the client.
2) Leave your preconceived notions at the door. Don’t ask for a project “like someone else’s but in a different color.” Be open to new, unexpected ideas. Don’t be afraid of something different.Let new ideas sink in.
3) Tell your designer what you want to say rather than how you want it to look.
4) Be clear about specific features you need . You want your designer to create a design specific to your needs. If you try to add features as you go along, the design won’t fit as well.
5) Do your research and be specific about your needs. “I need to sell meeting planners on the idea of hiring me to create costumes for their events.” That’s clear and specific about both the product and the audience. The more detailed and specific you are at the start, the better the designer can tailor the project to your needs. If you add requirements later on, the designer will probably just have to shoe-horn them in, which won’t give you the best results.
6) Make sure your message and content are clear.
The more of your content you have complete, the better the designer can build your project around it. A good designer may make suggestions to refine your content to get your message across faster or more clearly, but the more content you have complete, the more the designer will have to work with.
7) Design for your customer, not yourself, your friends or your colleagues. Be specific so your designer knows who your customers are and what they want. It’s more important that they like your project than that you like it. Always remember, “What’s in it for them?” *
8) Have good reasons for your preferences .You can show the designer projects that appeal to you, but dig deeper and figure out why
they speak to you. Think in terms of feelings.* *
9) Don’t design by committee. No good design was ever created by a consensus. The more people who have a voice in the process, the more watered down the results will be. Your friends and coworkers will often give you conflicting advice and people often have ulterior motives when they give you comments (they may be jealous or threatened if you get something that’s too good, or they may just be ignorant). You should only have one person making decisions. Don’t be wishy-washy and try to change direction late in the process.
10) Don’t tell your designer how to design.
That’s not your area of expertise. Instead, give the designer your requirements & preferences, while giving them the freedom to create something that answers them as effectively as possible. If you micromanage your designer, that person won’t be motivated to do anything but cash your check.
11) You can’t please all the people all the time. Bill Cosby said “The only sure way to failure is to try to please everybody.” If everyone thinks your project is “OK” then it’s probably too dull to get much of a reaction from anyone. If you design a project with NO personality no one will hate it. Or love it.
12)Trust your designer (you are paying for their expertise). Designers aren’t just people who can use graphics programs, and if you treat them that way, they will become people who just want to receive a check.
A good designer’s work will make something: WORK BETTER SELL BETTER LOOK BETTER SHED NEW LIGHT ON OLD SUBJECTS
