Here’s the premise: you know that graphic design is a pretty fundamental part of digital marketing online and have therefore decided to reach out to an agency – such as PENNInk Productions – that can help you to get your brand image just right.
Chances are that you’ll have made the right decisions so far. That leaves the question of how exactly you work with your chosen graphic designer.
Here are three steps that will go a long way to making their (and your!) life easier, in the process enabling you to turn your ideas about your brand’s graphic design into a compelling reality.
1. Have a strong sense of what you want
Of course, we wouldn’t expect you to know exactly what you want your desired graphics to look like when you first approach us. However, it also helps if you have slightly more specific ideas to begin with than simply “can we make it ‘pop’?” or “just whatever looks ‘premium’ will do”.
Yes, we’ll certainly draw upon our graphic design skills, knowledge and experience to ask you the questions that will allow us to chisel down those initial vague ideas into something more solid.
But if you at least have some basic suggestions with regard to such things as colours, fonts and layout, it’ll help us to establish a coherent direction for your brand’s graphic design sooner.
2. Show references
If you’re thinking of investing in a graphic design service like ours, you’ll have presumably already come across a few sources of inspiration that could enable us to more easily get that aforementioned ‘direction’ going.
It might have been the websites of one or two of your industry competitors. Or maybe you were casually hammering some related keywords into Instagram or Pinterest, and found something that made you think, “we have to have something like that on our site”.
Whatever – don’t be afraid to show those references to the graphic designer you’re working with, or even to draw a picture of what you have in mind. Graphic designers are (of course) visual people, so even if it’s just a launching point for further discussion about what you really want, they’ll appreciate you bringing such material to the table.
3. Keep communicating
If you already use a file sharing platform – such as Dropbox or Google Drive – for your organisation’s work with clients or colleagues, why not also create a folder on there for all of the text documents and photos relevant to the graphic design you’re looking to have done?
Just imagine how convenient it would be for you and your graphic designer if you simply gave them access to this folder. That way, when they have new work to show you, they could just drop the PDF into there for you to look at.
It’s worth emphasising, though, that graphic designers are human beings, who therefore often work in different ways. The point I’m really making here, then, is to keep the conversation going with your graphic designer. Establish the ways of working together that best suit both of you, then maintain those open channels of communication throughout the project.
While the above things may largely seem like ‘common sense’ to some of you who are looking to join forces with a graphic designer, in our experience, we can tell you that’s not always the case!
Get in touch with the PENNInk Productions team today, whether via phone or email, and we would be pleased to have a more in-depth conversation with you about your broader requirements when it comes to your brand’s digital marketing online.
Lisa Penn is a Visual Communications Specialist with a background in user experience and psychology. She has held a variety of roles encompassing user experience creative strategist, architect and manager, where she has successfully bridged the gap between design, technology and development.
