Guide for Marketers: How to Provide Creative Direction to Designers
As a marketer, it's important to have a clear vision and brand cohesion for the design of your marketing materials. When working with designers, whether on a website, brochure, presentation, or trade show booth design, it is critical to be able to communicate that vision and collaborate closely with your designers to bring that vision to fruition. Here are my top tips for providing creative direction to designers working with you on marketing projects:
Provide a compelling and inspiring creative brief. Outline the project goals, scope, deliverables, timeline, and links to relevant assets, examples, and brand guidelines.
Clearly communicate your vision and objectives: Before you start working with a designer, make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your marketing assets. Consider your target audience, the message you want to convey, and the overall look and feel you want to create. Communicate these details to your designer so they have a clear understanding of and background context of what you are looking for.
Provide examples and inspiration: It can be helpful to provide your designer with examples of designs that you like or that are similar to what you are envisioning. This could include other marketing materials, design elements from your website, or examples from other brands. Give contextual details about what you like and don’t like about the examples, and pull it all together in a visually digestible mood board.
Be open to their ideas: while you likely have a vision and requirements around brand guidelines, it’s worth listening to a designer’s professional suggestions and recommendations. They may unlock something unexpected that brings your project to the next level.
Provide constructive feedback: When giving feedback on design concepts, be specific and focus on the details rather than making general statements. For example, instead of saying “add more pizazz” or “i don’t like this” try “I think the colors here make this bit of text hard to read, can you try another combination?” or “I think this element would be more impactful if it was much larger.”
Set clear deadlines and expectations: Make sure you and your designer have a clear understanding of what is expected as the final “done” project and what the timeline is for final deadline and check-ins in between. This will help ensure that the design process stays on track and that you are both on the same page.
By following these basic best practices for collaborating with designers and providing creative direction, you position your marketing projects for success. These are my basic recommendations to get started. What are your favorite tips and recommendations when working with a designer?
