If you’ve experienced the gut-wrenching disappointment of being completely underwhelmed by the graphics your designer created for you, you know how unproductive outsourcing design projects can be.

“WTF?! That’s not at all what I had envisioned in my head!”

That’s why it is crucial for you as a business owner to understand how the creative process works. You (yes you) need to be the creative director for your business. 

A savvy creative director not only knows how to manage design projects like a boss, they know how to choose the right designer, what to ask for, and how to communicate their design vision.

You might think that finding an amazing designer who “gets you” and produces amazing graphics for you on the go (and with ZERO direction) is just a pipe dream.

And let’s be real, it is.

That said, here are 5 things you can do to minimize the suck and maximize the squeeze to get amazing deliverables from your design partner.

1. Paint the Big Picture with Enough Context

Just because the designer is working on one little piece of your business puzzle doesn’t mean they shouldn’t see the big picture. 

Take the time to brief your designer on your overarching goal and how the project they are working on fits into your vision and strategy. 

This not only helps them do their job better (it really does), it makes them feel more invested in the project because they now see how their piece fits into the puzzle. 

(Recommended Reading: Design or Copy: Which Comes First?)

2. Organize & Format Your Content 

Your designer isn’t your housekeeper. Make sure your copy is clean & finalized (seriously!!!) before you send it to your designer. Provide the copy in a format that is easy to illustrate.

For example, if you’re having your designer create a flier for you, wireframe your content before sending it to them. The wireframe helps them understand the flow of content and the elements of your copy you want to emphasize. 

Tip: Wireframing means going through your copy and using varying text sizes, bolding, underlining, and highlighting to create a visible hierarchy for your designer to follow. You can do this in a Google doc or you can take the copy and mock it up in a design tool. Then let them make it look pretty. 

Designers aren’t paid (or trained) to read your mind, they’re paid to execute your vision. Give them your vision so they can do their best work.

3. Give Them Video Instructions with Feedback

If you take one thing away from this entire email, it’s this:

Make videos for your designer! 

If you’re like most non-designers, you likely find it hard to express design feedback using the correct terminology, right? If you know you don’t speak “design-ese,” don’t fake it. 

Using the wrong words to describe your feedback will drive your designer nuts. Worse, it will keep you in an endless loop of back-and-forth emails where your designer is literally just trying to understand what you are asking for.

Making a video for your designer using plain English to describe your feedback helps them work independently. Which means fewer “just to clarify” emails for you.

(Don’t forget: You outsourced design to free up your time, not create more busy work.)

4. Provide Size & File Type Requirements

This is so obvious but most people forget to do it, which means your designer has to ping you once again to ask, “What size do you need this in?” or “Do you need this as a PDF or a PNG?” 

Skip the back and forth and just provide those specs in your project requests.

5. Provide Visual Examples

The #1 way to help your designer do great work for you is to create an inspiration board or swipe file for them. You can use Pinterest, Evernote, or good ol’ screenshots to collect examples of designs that you like. 

As a designer, I can tell you this is one of the most helpful things a client can do for me and it will 10x my chances of creating something they will love. 

Just make sure to keep your inspiration boards focused and err on the side of “less is more.” 

The worst thing you can do is give your designer a ton of examples that look nothing like each other and ask them to synthesize a coherent design from your eclectic Pinterest board. 

That wraps up the 5 tips! I’m confident that implementing just half of these suggestions will make a massive difference for your next design project.