Working with a design firm for the first time can be challenging. But in every design relationship, there are two key players, the client and the designer, and there are expectations for both.

As the client you are getting a service that has great value. Good design will help you build your brand and properly present your business to your customers. Design isn’t just pretty colors and putting things together. Design requires a clear thought process and insight into you as the client in order to produce a quality product that will help your business. Design and marketing firms help present your company to the world through things like branding, websites, stationery, and taglines. A lot of research and time goes into preparing a logo, or developing a tagline and the overall brand. We go through several concepts internally in an effort to achieve a unique and effective representation of your brand before we present our best ideas to the client.

All designers go through these moments with clients where there is a struggle with the design direction for the project. It’s not uncommon that a client wants something done, but as experienced professionals in the design industry, we know that it is not recommended, whether it is a font selection or an image type. A good designer will be able to explain their recommendation. We hope that you will heed our advice. After all, if you knew how to design well, you wouldn’t have hired a professional. So let’s dive into some client and designer expectations.

Designer Expectations

The role of the designer is to create a design strategy or look and feel for your materials that communicates who your company is to your target audience. Here are some expectations you should have of your designer:

1. Knowledgeable: A designer should have a clear understanding of the design industry and practice, as evidenced by their portfolio. There are several fundamental design skills and techniques that a good designer should know and be able to implement, which is why you hired them. As a result, the designer can, for instance, recommend fonts or colors that will work well with your brand and help the piece shine. Colors and fonts impact your customers’ perception of your company and most designers are knowledgeable about the various associations for each.
2. Responsiveness: Designers should respond to you in a timely fashion in order to help keep the project on track. Designers need to respect your time as you do theirs.
3. Estimates: You should receive an estimate outlining the work to be done and cost for you to approve before work begins.
4. Research: Most designers do this by default, but you should expect some research on the part of the designer or design firm at the beginning of the project to make educated design decisions.
5. Budget: A firm or designer should be able to stay with budget. If for some reason they foresee going over budget, let you know before they go over budget to approve any next steps. Its respect for you as the client. If you change the scope of the project, the budget will need to be revisited. Extra costs, such as stock photos or web licenses, should be approved before the designer purchases it.
6. Mock Ups: Most designers provide around 3 designs mocks or comps to choose from for a print project or web project, depending on your budget. From there, you and the designer work together on any changes.

Client Expectations

Here are some some expectations designers have of good clients:

1. Educate:  No one is as close to your business as you are. As the client, part of your job is to provide as much information about your company at the beginning of the project as possible so the designer can execute a design tailored for your company. Know what makes you different. Be clear with your business goals. Know who you are trying to reach.
2. Budget: Know your budget and be upfront with it. There is a designer for every budget. Hopefully you have created a reasonable budget to get the designer that you want on your team. Communicating your budget to your prospective designer allows them to plan accordingly and set expectations on what can be achieved.
3. Images: Provide any images necessary, if you have specific ones you want to use, in a hi-resolution format. Images from the web are not hi-resolution and will not print well.
4. Text: Provide any text that the designer or web developer may need to get started. If you haven’t requested copywriting services, but sure to proof all of your content as this is your responsibility. Having your content ready will help to avoid delay in getting your projects completed. 
5. Response Time: In order to complete your project on time, you need to respond in a timely fashion. If you know that your company have several people to go through to get authorization, but up front with your designer so that the timeline can be planned to accommodate your company requirements. If a client takes longer than the time allotted for reviews, then the deadline will be impacted accordingly. Be sure to respond in such a manner that allows your designer adequate time to implement your edits, which may be a few days or a week, depending on the request made.
6. Timely Payments: For smaller and independent design firms, they depend on cash flow. Don’t hurt your designer by paying late or even requesting work that you really can’t afford. Once their time has been spent on your project, it can’t be given back to them or used for another project. So treat your designer like you would want to be treated by paying on time.

The designer / client relationship is a partnership. Clients provide the business goals and the designer helps you achieve those goals through smart design decisions.

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