Tips for Commissioning a Designer
What to know before you commission a designer
Commissioning a designer is a big step for any startup or existing business owner. You are looking to invest your hard earned savings or profit, and you need to know it’s going to deliver the outcomes you need it to. Whether that is professionalising and reaching new customers online or establishing the print packaging for your new product line, you need to know they can deliver.
If you haven’t worked with a designer or creative in the past, this blog will help you understand the process a little more clearly. If you have commissioned design work before, then use this a primer to help you get the most out of the experience.
We will explore a little of how we work at Fulcra Creative, but this blog stands as an ideal guide to your next project, whoever the design lead might be.
Not all designers will do all types of design work.
While many will do far more than you might expect, it’s also true to say that most will have a specialism, or things they avoid. Checking this first can help you to make sure that you get the best type of designer for your project’s needs.
For example, an illustrator might do a great job of helping you with brand assets for your business, but they might not want to create a logo. Equally, not all designers will work with print and while they might be happy and able to figure this out, if you have specific needs, like getting the right die cut for your packaging, then you need someone who understands the possibilities and the limitations.
While print can be a dividing line, most designers and many illustrators will have a go at branding and in particular logo design. An illustrator may bring a new perspective to a logo compared to a designer but be sure it scales up and down to all the places you need it, and without damaging brand recognition as well as providing suitable files for web and print applications. (See our blog on the best logos for startups and rebrands).
Designing the logo is, however, just one element; branding is a specialist area, and you need an interest and understanding in people, business and psychology, so make sure you hire someone who can help you think strategically, not just make a technical replica of your idea, or sketch. Remember, brands that can’t tell a story, connect and sell in some way will go out of business.
Fulcra Creative specialises in branding as our central service, whether that is logo design, a full visual identity, or custom product packaging. We like to work with people who are just starting out or looking for their first strategic rebrand. This is where we generally feel we add the most value to our clients. Within that scope, we love to bring in custom lettering, typography and graphic illustration. Grounded in print and digital design, our skillset extends to logo animation, presentation, brochure and book design. We try to offer the services of larger agencies, but with a more personal, creative partner feel. That’s why we can help you with your logo, right through to building your first website. Where needed, we have partners who support larger technical builds, different illustrative styles that sit outside our own and a specialist in 3D animation.
Takeaways:
Most designers will work across multiple disciplines, often to very high standards. However, be sure they have the skills needed to deliver all of your specific project deliverables and are well placed to offer the strategic advice to maximise your results. Creatives are naturally collaborative, so if you have someone who can deliver part of your project, don’t be afraid to hire more than one specialist to work on a project, such as a branding designer working with an animation designer, for example. This is very commonplace.
Communicating your vision and building a brief that delivers.
Every designer understands the gap that exists between having an idea and getting it down on paper in a way that expresses it well. Any good designer should have a clear process for guiding you through the creation of a brief for your project, even when you already have one. This enables you both to explore opportunities, understand contexts and audiences, but also to refine and define the deliverables and creative directions that will be followed. Skipping this stage will almost certainly lead to a project breakdown in some form, or a notable under delivery on investment potential.
When working with a designer, there are two common scenarios that can cause friction or limit possible outcomes, followed by a third that skips untapped opportunity.
The first comes when a client doesn’t know what they want and decides it's best to hand control over to the designer. This approach can seem like a smart move, especially if you aren’t particularly creative, or if feel that you would rather let the designer have free rein. The problem here isn’t that you should be hand holding your designer, but that they have too much scope and little to frame the project around. Good designers will ask “what’s the problem we are trying to solve” as a way of framing the context for the deliverables function. Designers will research your market and build a solution, but the thing to remember is that when you don’t help them frame your vision, then they will be more likely to apply their own filter or find one that feels right to them. This might be fine, but the chances of friction are high. Remember, if you don’t know where you're heading, any road could take you there. If your designer doesn’t have a process for building a brief with you, then this raises an early red flag you should be digging into.
The second scenario comes when a client already has a fixed brief and wants to pin down every element and creative path from the very beginning. This is one extreme to the other, and while in many ways this brings lots of context and clarity, it can place your designer into a creative straitjacket and can close off the partnership approach where new ideas are explored, and stronger outcomes can be delivered.
Designers are creative and enjoy the challenge of solving problems, often leading to their best work. If presented with a fixed brief, then it's possible for them to see this as a technical hire for execution, not for their skills in visual communication, strategy and how to leverage brand positioning through design. Some will turn you away for this reason, while others may choose to simply execute, thinking this is what was being asked for, leaving you with a significant missed opportunity for adding meaningful value to your brand and project outcomes. It’s good to know what you want and what you feel you need, but closing off too many elements within a brief, before you have engaged with a designer, is like trying to drive your car using one gear.
This situation is less common than scenario one, but with AI featuring more in businesses' daily workflow, more people are using it not to form ideas or develop early concepting, which can be both smart and helpful. However, the specific challenge here is that AI will position your project and brand based on the average of the results it can find, which, by the nature of the internet, means they are likely already older or dated. This means its highly detailed response, rationale and list of deliverables might be ideal if you want to be a middle of the road for a brand that launched 12-18 months ago or longer. AI is good at creating a broad average that sounds logical, but it struggles to go deep and tackle the human nature and psychology of brands and our more irrational tendencies. Humans get humans, and only you really understand your brand.
At Fulcra Creative, we support clients to build a brief utilising resources they already have in their business, like client avatars, or we will work from scratch. We help them to build a mood board and to answer a series of key questions to help them frame the project in their mind and ours. Clients are welcome to use AI for this part of the process, but we review all the results together and agree on the direction and the deliverables that make sense based on the agreed project goals. Clients seeking a digital bridging service to take their Ai outputs and convert them into functioning brands are invited to come back for a complimentary brand audit when they are ready for a strategic rebrand in the future.
The final and often untapped opportunity when building a brief that delivers is to let your business do the talking. It’s a smart idea, if you can, invite your designer to your business and let them see and experience it for themselves. Designers are curious by nature and have excellent observational skills, often drawing connections that would go untapped in a questionnaire alone. A walk around your office, seeing where you make your products, or seeing the stand that you sell from at markets, can all be useful in helping them build a mental picture of your business and story. If this isn’t possible, try to think outside the box, maybe you have testimonials you can share, or clients and key people that your designer might speak with. If this is a brand new venture, then dig into your brand heroes and think about who is doing what you want to do, but is a year ahead of where you are today. Repeat this for five years ahead of you and ten years ahead of you. This can be a powerful exercise in bringing clarity and seeing opportunities, points of difference and where you think your brand story will bring something new, or uniquely you.
Takeaways: Building a brief is a balance between giving your designer structure and direction, but without pinning down their ability to deliver something outstanding or unexpected for you. Don’t be afraid of the process; it is uncomfortable, but designers live in that space, so let them guide you.
Once you have a brief and clarity, the design process is smoother, and the project revisions are more constructive as they are based on the shared direction, not the surprise visual representation of what you might, or might not have wanted.
Navigating the jargon and the importance of two way deadlines.
Design is full of industry specific jargon and while you will likely know the deliverables you are looking to commission for, such as a logo or product packaging, for example. Each deliverable will come with a set of more technical information attached, such as file type and sizes, or budget implications for different print options. The best advice here is to lean on your designer to help you understand what they need from you. As we discussed in the first part of this blog, designers often work across multiple disciplines and have working understandings of many others; therefore, don’t be afraid to be clear when you need more information or clarification about what you are being told or asked for.
While at Fulcra Creative, we have a series of guides and primers for our clients, depending on the work they are commissioning, with understanding file types and print solutions being just two of them. We champion the importance of creative partnerships, we enjoy working with people and helping them build their vision, but if we have not explained something, or if you would like clarification, then we always want you to feel able to raise it with us.
Navigating the jargon is also Important for sticking to deadlines for your project. At Fulcra Creative, we will agree on a project timeline with clients, but this also includes client deadlines where certain information is required for us to hit the main project deadline. This might be imagery, specific files, or written copy, for example. This is where jargon might block progress, and it’s always better to ask if you are not sure. This is true of any creative project, with any design team.
Whoever you commission, make sure you ask them what your project timelines are to make sure that everything is wrapped up on time, that way you are able to plan ahead, ask questions where needed and ensure that what you are providing is what you really want to be using in the project, not what you rushed to scrape together to avoid holding up the designer.
Takeaways:
Don’t let jargon get in the way of a successful project, and don’t let it make you think that you need to understand it all, you don’t. You just need a designer who will work with you and help you learn the ropes of your commission. To avoid delays, always ask what your client's deadlines are and what is required from you to make sure the designer can hit their own deadline and get the project wrapped up. This is especially important where deliverables are tied into date sensitive campaigns, launches, or where print lead times or developer builds might impact final delivery.
There we have it, three ways to help you prepare for your first, or next design commission. While we always hope that you will choose Fulcra Creative, this advice will help you navigate a stronger working relationship with whoever you feel is the right fit for your project.
If you would like to hear more about how we work with our clients and share the ambitions you have for your next project, why not book in a discovery call, no hard sales, just a chance to say hi and to see if we can help.