Branding, as mentioned in previous blogs, has many stages and aspects within it. One of the most crucial parts of building your brand is its visual identity. This process, of course, involves the designers of the brand. Colours, typography, style and more will be determined and used to build the entirety of a brand’s visual identity.
The design process usually starts with the proposal of a few concepts that fit the brand, narrowed down before one is chosen for the creation of a brand guideline. But before the brand guideline is created, the final design style should be confirmed. Thus, this is where designers and brand owners usually go back and forth with designs and amendments. Despite determining the brand’s style and so on, there is always the possibility of the brand owner requesting more than one amendment in order to achieve the perfect design or to meet one’s standard.
Source: Freepik
Don’t get us wrong, it’s important to want to achieve a design that’s up to the owner’s standards. However, more often than not, requesting too many design changes can cause more repercussions than one might’ve hoped. Thus, in this article, we’ll be discussing the negative effects of it as well as how you, as a brand owner, can maintain healthy and effective communication with your designer.
Negative Effects of Requesting Too Many Design Changes
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Delayed or Prolonged Timeline
One of the most negative effects is causing a delay to a set timeline. Timelines are set so that there is time for other work. Thus, when the timeline is moved, delayed or prolonged, then every other work in progress does the same. A designer takes time to make amendments once feedback is given. Surely there are deadlines to be met and prolonging the timeline will affect the deadline and other works queued up.
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Diminish Creativity and Quality of Work
When too many changes are requested, the quality of the work, as well as the creativity of the designer, slowly diminishes. It’s like shaping pottery, the more you try to shape it to your liking, the bigger the possibility of it collapsing. Usually, the first design uses the designer’s maximum creativity, as changes are made too often, the creativity grows weaker and weaker, thus, the same happens to the quality of the work.
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Frustration and Burnout
Similar to the previous point, as the designer’s creativity diminishes, there’s a high possibility of burnout as the designer gets stressed by the unsettled work. Not only that, even the client will get more and more frustrated as time goes on and designs aren’t ready. Both sides will be stressed, and unhappy. On top of that, motivation will wither as the light at the end of the tunnel gets further and further.
Source: Freepik
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Increased Costs
Requesting more than a few design changes, as mentioned before, can take up more effort and time on the designer’s end. So, especially when you’re hiring an external designer, costs might increase and that will affect the budget of your branding project, if any. Most branding projects have a set budget allocated to the different aspects of branding. Therefore, you should keep this in mind or be sure you’re willing to pay extra when requesting more than a few design changes.
Healthier and More Effective Ways to Communicate With Designers
We aren’t saying that you shouldn’t give feedback at all. Feedback is good, but the problem is when communication isn’t clear enough to minimize amendments and dissatisfaction. Therefore, we’ve prepared a few tips for you to follow when you’re communicating with your designer.
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Be Clear and Concise
To be clear and concise, one has to avoid using technical terms or other terms that are not easily understood by both parties. For instance, you can say “I want the colours to be a few shades lighter” instead of “I want it to look like a strawberry cream pie”. Although that’s not an accurate example, it’s apparent that one is clearer than the latter.
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Constructive Criticism
Giving feedback such as “I don’t like it” or “It doesn’t look good” does not give the designer much to work on. Feedback has to be clear and constructive so the designer is able to make amendments accordingly. Instead, you could explain specifically what is not to your liking. This does not mean your designer is incapable of coming up with solutions themselves, this simply helps them better understand what you want or what you envision.
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Determine a Clear Decision-Making Process
When dealing with an external designer or establishment for your design needs, determine exactly who will be making important and final decisions. This will avoid any confusion as to what the design should look like while saving time in deciding what your brand wants as its visual identity. Alongside this, set a reasonable timeline with deadlines for the first draft, amendments and final outcome so that both parties can stick to it and work moves smoothly.
To better understand the branding process, click here!
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Mutual Understanding
Source: Freepik
To ensure that both parties understand what you’re working towards, set clear goals or end results. Express what you want the outcome to be and make sure both parties are aware. This will further ensure that everyone’s on the same page about the design direction and expected outcome.
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Be Open and Respectful
Everyone has different styles, tastes, and mindsets. Therefore, in order to truly work towards the same goal, both parties must remain respectful towards each other. Good communication doesn’t just mean telling them what you want. It also means to be respectful and open-minded towards each other while doing so. Being open-minded can ensure that all ideas and feedback are heard, maximizing communication. This is so that everyone can maintain a positive mindset throughout the project.
Conclusion
The conclusion to this issue is not to stop requesting changes, it’s to limit the amendments and make sure you’re clear and concise about what you want and communicate it well to your designer. This will then result in something both you and the designer are satisfied with. Our team at CR8 Consultancy appreciate constructive criticism or feedback when it is given. We’re happy when we see our clients happy with the outcome too. Communicate with us on what you need and we’re confident that we can help elevate your brand to how you see fit.
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