How to create long-lasting relationships with your designers
To successfully work with designers, you need to build a strong relationship built on trust and creative freedom. Mat Johnson, lead designer at Rawnet, suggests some of the key principles to making working with designers as easy as possible.
Rawnet on the four principles required for successfully working with designers / Tim Mossholder via Unsplash
Like any relationship, working with designers is all about trust. And that trust has to work both ways.
I work as a designer and I need to know that the information or direction that I get from the client is correct and fully outlines the demands of the project from the get-go. I also need to build a solid relationship with key decision-makers and any others that may be fully implemented into the project.
I’d suggest the client needs to be able to trust me on these four points:
Be open and honest
Designers need to be able to challenge the brief, ask questions and say what we think is good or bad and why. Anybody who wants a ‘yes man’ should go elsewhere. We are here to create the best solution possible to a particular problem, not blindly fill in the blanks.
Be polite
I shouldn’t even need to list this one out, but manners cost nothing. Be on time for meetings, remember people’s names and heaven forbid if a client has a better idea than yours, let them know it – it will make them feel great. Trust me, it will make the end result better.
Involve them
Good results come from collaboration. We bring the user experience (UX) and design knowledge, and the client knows more about their business than we ever will. Involve the client, extract as much knowledge as possible from them and truly make them feel like they are part of the team creating this product or service.
Deliver on promises
Selling the dream is great, but we need to make that dream a reality – now. We know what we have promised and that should be achievable. So, we must stay focused on the task ahead, produce the goods and flag any issues as soon as they arise. There’s no use waiting until the day before delivery to speak out about a problem – that’s a sure-fire way to lose the trust instantly.
Having a strong, solid relationship with your designers ultimately results in killer projects and delivers a lasting positive impact on clients. Whether you need a complete website transformation or a revamp of your digital platform interface, building trust between your designers and brand is essential for your project’s success.
From the kick-off of any project, it’s super important for brands to partner with agencies and therefore designers that match the business ethos. It also comes down to personality and overall compatibility. Finding the right designers and agency without any rush or hurry will be key to starting a long-term collaboration, but make sure to initiate the working relationship with open and transparent communication.
Budgets, workload and deadlines are viewed as awkward conversation topics, but with designers, we’d rather know these details in advance so that we can promise to deliver the best result and know what we’ve got to work with. Give us plenty of time, information and the opportunity to be flexible with creativity – and we can guarantee it will lead to great things.
Content by The Drum Network member:
Rawnet
Rawnet is a digital agency that defines, designs, delivers and drives strategic products and services that create a long-term positive impact.
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