“Use your creativity.”
“Make it pop.”
“Can you make the logo bigger?”
“Make it look just like [insert industry leading website here]…”
If design feedback had a 10 commandments of things not to say to your designer, these four would very possibly be among them. Designers think in colors and styles and audience, and they pull inspiration both from current design trends and hopefully an overflowing pool of visual ideas. “Make it pop” means nothing, visually speaking. “Use your creativity” basically implies that we’re not already using it. We like your logo too, but we don’t agree it should be the biggest element on the page. And, honestly, we won’t and legally can’t make something look “just like” something that’s already out there. Getting vague and generic feedback is frustrating, especially when the ultimate goal by client and designer is to nail down a great design: a product that the client is excited to use and one that the designer will proudly display in his or her portfolio.
So, how do you give constructive feedback to your designer for hire, or in my case, to your designer employee?
As always, the best way to start off is to provide as much rich and detailed information as possible at the outset. A list of designs you, or the client in question, like and don’t like and the reasons why, competitors, color preferences, and how you want to be perceived by your target market. This should ideally give the designer some rich visual ideas to work with and results in some initial designs that are on-point, or at least a good starting point. Even having worked with some of my designers long-term, it’s sometimes not enough to rattle off a couple ideas and have them run with it. Typically, if I don’t give enough specific information about what I want to see, I’ll get something that is off the mark, and ultimately that’s my fault, not theirs. One of the great benefits of having a long standing relationship with the same designer or design team, however, is that the more designs you work on together, the more in sync you become with expectations, style and detail. This symbiosis and building off a history of successful design projects is one of the best things about being a creative director!
Specifics are not the only important element in giving good feedback. Giving honest, pointed and constructive feedback is crucial. If a designer tells you that they are 100% objective about their work, not at all affected by critical feedback, they are either lying or they don’t put any heart into their design work. I’ve had designers try to convince me they have no ego about their work, and those individuals ended up being the most hyper-sensitive ego-stroke-seeking designers I have ever met. There is a happy medium however, where constructive feedback is welcome and appreciated. While I wear the creative director hat at the office, I will still pick up a project myself on occasion and work directly with the client to nail down an initial design. In these cases, I have learned to appreciate a client’s intelligent feedback and allow it to challenge me to make the design the best it can be. Because at the end of the day, it’s actually a good thing to have a second or third set of eyes looking at a design after I’ve been staring at it for hours. A fresh point of view, and of course find out what resonates with the client who is tapped into the mindset of their target audience, is imperative for a truly quality product.
That said, destroying your designer’s artistic confidence by tearing down a design without acknowledging any positive points, is usually not good policy. I still remember a fairly simple technique from a creative writing course that I took my senior year at Smith, where upon hearing one of our classmates’ pieces, we each provided our positive feedback first (what we liked best about it), and secondly our critical feedback (what could have made it better). I have felt since then when it comes to nearly any creative endeavor, this is a good rule of thumb. If your designer gives you something that you have nothing positive to say about, you’ve either given them too little information about what you want, or you could simply not have the right designer. But hopefully there are at least a few things that hit the mark in your first draft design. It’s important to note these, to provide your designer with some reassurance but of course to also make sure that those elements don’t get lost in subsequent iterations of the design.
This is something, as a creative director, that I am working on improving myself. Unless a design really blows me away I usually just skip right to the “change this, change that” list, which I will admit is mostly due to lack of time for a thorough “creative review.” I hope too that my designers know that I appreciate their work generally speaking, otherwise they wouldn’t be gainfully employed by me! But as a designer, I know how much it means to be acknowledged for designing something that stands apart, so it’s important to give credit where credit is due.
One reality that I feel escapes many clients who hire graphic designers is that while this is a form of commercial art, the process is still art. The creative process is still emotional, inspirational and can be very personal, so it’s important to acknowledge that your designer is a professional, not just a Photoshop monkey doing your bidding. Appreciating the creative process and being a constructive and positive participant in it will do nothing but improve your results as well as the ongoing relationship you are building with your designer. Trust me!
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Here’s a comic from humor site, The Oatmeal, that pokes fun at this process when it does not go quite right: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell
