Design for print service - Full Color Printing

Although it is possible to successfully create good design via the phone and through internet communications it really helps at the outset to be able to have face to face meetings, at least until you have an understanding of each other. Alsowhile a designer working from India may seem like a cost effective option, when it comes to understanding your verbal instructions, if English is not their first laungage you may encounter communication difficulties.

Have a look at their portfolio.
Don’t be scared to ask any prospective designers if you can have a look at what they have previously done, especially work which is in a similar vein to what you require. This is a great way to gauge whether your ideas on design are compatible. Most designers will be only too happy to show you their past work. If they cant show you work in a similar vein to what you require you could be taking a risk by commissioning them. Keep in mind that graphic design is an umbrella term for a fairly diverse collection of specific skills i.e. someone who has years of experience creating professional logos may have absolutely no experience at creating page layouts. While both are undoubtedly graphic design disciplines they require quite different skills sets and methodologies.

Talk to them
If you have identified someone who has the required design experience the next step would be to talk to them to see if you have a rapport. Verbal communication is going to make your job much easier, therefore it is important to ensure you pick someone who you can talk to and who is able to understand you. They should also be able to articulate themselves to you. E-mail is vital in communications, but being able to pick up the phone and chat should make the whole experience far less painful.

Explore their pricing structure
It would be a good idea to find out exactly how the designer costs themselves out. Many will quote you an hourly rate while others prefer to quote a finished price for a particular job. While there is no right or wrong in these, you will probably find that costing per job will allow you to have a better control over your spend. When paying by the hour you will likely find that things seem to take that bit longer, although a good designer with experience should be able to give you fairly tight estimates on time requirements for specific jobs. In this case you may find that you can save money by preparing copy or scanning images yourself to help speed things up. Whichever price structure your designer uses they should still be able to supply you with an estimate or quotation. It is important to know the difference between these terms and to know exactly which you have been given, an estimate is generally just that whereas a quotation should be a hard and fast price that will be honored. Again it is in your best interests to find out exactly which they have given you - In writing.

This has to be clearly communicated within your brief. A good way to let your designer know the kind of end result you are keen to achieve can be to show them some examples of layouts that you like and annotate these with notes identifying the things you like or dislike. This obviously requires some research on your part but that is a good exercise as it will force you to look at other examples of work this will inevitably make you aware of other peoples solutions to layout conundrums that you will have to tackle yourself.

Time is money
Supplying visual examples of your likes and dislikes will quickly allow your designer to get a handle on the kind of style that appeals to you and will ultimately result in quicker resolution of ideas. Remember if you are paying your designer an hourly rate it will be in your best interests to provide as much guidance as possible to avoid them meandering down style cu-de-sacs. Remember a poor brief will not affect the designers pocket, so if you have ideas then make them known.

What do I discuss?
If you are inexperienced in dealing with designers it should be helpful to remember a few important points. Design professionals do this for a living and their experience will be invaluable to you so you should take guidance from them when offered it. This is after all part of the service they will be charging you for. This is not to say that you have to follow every suggestion they make but good design generally comes from a collaborative process between the client, who probably has a better idea of the target audience and the designer who will usually better understand what actually works on paper.

Liaise regularly with your designer, this allows you to offer feedback on work in progress and can help avoid any misunderstandings(and additional costs).

Try to be constructive in your feedback, often designers can be frustrated by the responses of their clients to their efforts. "If we can make it look a bit cooler" or "give it a bit more pizzazz." Are the kind of comments that really don't help a designer understand what you have in mind. So considered comments and precise directions will go a long way to keeping your relationship with them on track.

Don’t be embarrassed to ask them to explain their thinking behind their design decisions, if they are worth their salt they should be able to articulate why they arrived at any particular logo idea or typographic choice. Likewise if you don't understand the language they are using it is far better to ask them to rephrase what they are saying so that you are clear on what they mean. Remember the business is communications!