Choosing a designer is choosing someone to entrust with the visual identity of your business. You want them to translate the very essence of your business into a logo, a brochure, or a website. They are creating a material representation of the unique strengths and style of your business, designed to appeal to your target audience. How do you successfully navigate this?

Know Who You Are

Before you can communicate who you are to a designer, you need to be clear on it yourself. What is your business about? What is it's unique selling proposition? What is the essence of your brand?

Branding is often misunderstood. All it means is the "gut feeling" that somebody has about your business. What do you want people to perceive that your business stands for? When you are clear on this, you can align all your marketing materials with that brand.

The clearer you are on what your business is about, the easier it will be for your designer to understand your vision and translate it into compelling visuals. If it's fuzzy to you, it's going to be extra-fuzzy to them.

Know Who You Are Trying to Reach

You need to know who your perfect client is, and exactly what they are wanting. Your marketing materials should immediately intrigue your perfect client.

Strategies for Choosing a Designer

Once you understand who you are and can clearly communicate that, you can start looking for a designer. Here are some strategies to consider and potential pitfalls of each.

Choose by Niche You may want to choose a designer who is already familiar with your target audience. In this case you are likely going to be choosing based on the niche that the designer has already worked in. For instance you are a lawyer and you choose a designer who has done several lawyer sites. This seems logical, however, be sure to ask if they just happen to have stumbled into that niche, or whether they really have an inside perspective of some kind. Do they offer industry-specific tools or insight that is valuable? Will you get a site that is differentiated enough from your competition?

Choose by Expertise You may want to choose a designer based on their experience with the medium you are marketing in. That is, if you want a website, choose a web designer. This makes logical sense as well. However, you want to make sure that their expertise in the medium is accompanied by an expertise in design. For instance, many people can technically create a website, but do not have the understanding of design and/or marketing that you may need to make your project successful.

Choose by Gut Feeling (ie Brand) You may want to choose a designer whose brand meshes with your brand. Perhaps you are a small home-based business and that is part of your brand. You choose another small home-based business to build your website. This has definite appeal, just be careful to make sure their skills truly match your needs, rather than going on gut feeling alone.

Tips for a Successful Interaction

Do not hand over your brand Your brand is the essence of your business. You should be defining it, not your designer. Your designer can definitely help translate it, and make sure that it is being communicated effectively. But your designer cannot tell you who you are. You need to be able to provide that clear vision for them to be able to create it.

Do hand over the design work Nothing is more frustrating to a designer than a client who will not give them some leeway to be creative.

Communicate respectfully If you end up not liking what your designer has created, ask questions about it. Give them a chance to explain their thinking. They might have seen a potential somewhere that you didn't. Or, they might not have understood your vision completely enough and need more information as to what you are going for. Trust is essential on both sides for the creative process to work, and respectful and open communication builds trust.

Explain what, not how There is a distinction between having a clear vision of your business versus having a clear vision of the finished design product. The first is necessary; the second limits the freedom of your designer to be creative. Share with your designer what you are trying to communicate, not how you want it to be communicated. The "how" is their job, and you want them to be creative and have lots of freedom to run and come up with something new and interesting. If you find that you don't like what they have created, go back and re-explain the what. Don't try to correct their how, or you might end up with a surly designer who feels they are being micro-managed or told how to do their job.

Final thoughts

The best design results from a collaboration where both designer and client respect each others roles. Look for someone who resonates with you, the style you are going for, and how you like to communicate. Trust your intuition.