Bryan D. Hughes

This article is in response to a cartoon published by TheOatmeal called “How a Design Goes Straight To Hell” that’s floating around right now, to which any designer can relate to.

It can be avoided, absolutely, without any extra work whatsoever.

Anyone who’s ever hired a professional graphic designer knows results can be a mixed bag. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, and it can be very difficult to know how to get exactly what you’re looking for without knowing the industry inside and out. The thing you may not be aware of is what role you ultimately play in whether the design you end up with is ultimately the best it can be for the time and money you’ll be investing.

As a former art director in the corporate world, I have extensive experience in effective creative process. Here are a few key points I’ve noticed time and time again that may actually be hindering your designer from creating the perfect result.

1. Hire the right designer.

Do you truly know what identifies a good designer? There are multiple points to consider when choosing who you will be trusting with your visuals, and these can also be a good flag system to avoid bad results from the get-go. If your designer says they can get a logo done in a day and a half for under $500, avoid them. A huge part of the designer’s job is to walk you through the creative process and design something that works for you. Designers who skip crucial steps may not have the skills to move the project along from point to point with any reliability.

2. Realize why you hired a designer in the first place.

We’re all taught in kindergarden that we’re all wonderfully creative individuals and our ideas know no bounds. That concept abruptly ends when these ideas need to perform. The fact is that there are good ideas and bad ideas, and not one of these outcomes is based on an opinion. Your design is a business tool, not a vision, and your designer knows the difference. The fonts, colors, and other elements a designer uses are not purely preference or personal style, but the accumulation of years of research and daily study on current trends. Every element on the page has a reason for being there. Your designer is not just a technical operator, so get the most out of your money by letting them use their knowledge, even if it conflicts with your opinion. It is good to ask questions, of course, but be prepared to listen to reason when there is some.

3. Get your communications under tight control.

I’ve seen many designs come to terrible ends simple because there is too little effort to organize feedback in a useful way. Simply put, if there are 5 people involved in the decision making process, there should not be 5 individuals communicating with the designer individually. Assign a point person responsible for being in contact with your designer, and make sure any internal debate happens on your side of the table. Personalities will conflict in any group, and the last thing you want is for them to end up in your design. If this happens, you will end up with a Frankenstein design created to satisfy individual opinion rather than the effective piece you actually need.

4. Eliminate opinions from the discussion wherever possible.

Do you not like red? Your clients couldn’t care less. If research shows that you should be doing something a certain way, follow the numbers and leave your personal taste behind. Another way to quickly create a useless Frankenstein design is to allow personal likes and dislikes to override best practice. This can be difficult, of course, since there are very few hard line ways to tell, but that is why you’re paying your designer. The more you can keep your creative talks focused on research-driven decisions, the more effective the end result will be. If your customers love red, then must you.

5. Be verbose.

Graphic design is communication. Information is being passed to your customers about who you are and why they should care, and in return they give you information about themselves … hopefully with dollar symbol attached. Just like any form of communication, design can be effective or vague. Your designer will ask you a lot of questions, and you should answer them as exactly as possible. If you’re unsure how much or how little to divulge, always err on the side of too much. The more your designer knows about what you’re trying to do, the better they’ll be able to convert the idea into an effective design.

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