How to maximise what your design partner can do for you.
We know the reputation design studios have. We’ve heard your complaints. “They’re too slow” or “They weren’t ‘getting’ us” are a few of the things we’ve heard when clients come to us after working with other studios. This piece doesn’t deny the allegations, but suggests ways to work that will hopefully lead to a stronger partnership. Help your design partners do the best that they can for you.
Let the design studio do what they do best.
After all, you hired them for their expertise. Now trust their expertise. Let them evaluate the best way to pitch your product or brand. Guide them, inform them about your business, your audience, your business ambition. Do not tell them what you want. A good design studio will care about what your business needs, not what you’ve been dreaming of. If you don’t that trust they can take the lead on this and find yourself sending them Pinterest references, then you’ve picked the wrong partner.
Let them in on your secrets.
Involve them deeply. Tell them your journey, about your offering, your business hurdles, your mistakes, all the gory details. They might find an insight there that could make a compelling case to your customer, or distinguish your brand starkly from all the noise in your category. If nothing else, they’ll come to respect what you’ve created more, and try harder to make it a success.
Be organised.
When design studios calculate their commitment of time for a project they’ve rarely taken into account the fact that they will have to organise information for you. If you make them cull information from an enormous data-dump that they are unfamiliar with to begin with, it takes away from the time they can actually spend on thinking for your brand. Give them the environment they need to flourish so they can do some stellar work for you. Err on the side of caution if need be when it comes to time-estimation. Send them accurate information. The more organised you are, the more they can focus on what they’re meant to do, and do it better. A win-win for everyone.
Communicate clearly.
It often helps to write your thoughts down. Most design studios have a brief format, take that seriously. Fill it out carefully, choosing the words you use. Design has some subjective areas, and the more specific you are, the better for everyone involved. While all of us have learnt to read between the lines, we aren’t expert mind readers. Explain your goals to the design team. Profitability is the obvious one for any business. But go much deeper than that.
Be respectful of the time they put in.
It takes half a minute to say ‘Try this and that, let’s see them both and then let’s take a call.’ This reflects poor clarity, a hazy vision or poor management when it’s a means to appease to differing opinions. Design studios don’t need you to give them design direction. That’s what they determine based on your goals and their judgement + experience. Be mindful of the numerous iterations you ask for - be amenable to compensating them for it. After all, it takes time, effort, labour and skill, and no, you are not entitled to disregard that. Don’t forget that their goals are aligned with yours. Your success, makes them a successful partner and thats how they build their reputations.
Understand that experience, speed and high quality of output,
all come with a higher price tag.
It’s fairly logical.
Vast experience leads to fewer mistakes made with your brand, quicker decision-making and significantly reduced risks.
High speed means the design studio has to assign more resources to your project in order to meet your business deadlines, which also means they lose the opportunity to work on other projects (potential revenue).
High quality of work guarantees the output will be distinct, make your brand/product more desirable and give you a longer-term competitive edge in many cases.