having a great life in spite of everything

You want to get the most for your money, right? Of course you do, and your designer very much wants you to be happy with the finished product, too (trust me, this is of prime importance to a designer!). These tips offer some guidance on how to deal with a graphic designer to ensure you get the best quality product possible.

1. Have an idea of what you want.
This is extremely important, and sometimes surprisingly difficult. Try asking yourself what your business’s voice is, what image do you want to portray to your customers? Think about what ads or pieces attract your interest. Research your competition and other similar businesses—NOT to steal their style, but to get ideas about what what will and won’t work for your business. Do you like certain colors, a vintage feel, or a clean, open look? Write down the general things you like; and then look back over your list to make sure you aren’t contradicting yourself (clean but info-packed, vintage but modern). You could also note if there’s anything you strongly dislike. The more guidance you can give your designer about the style you want, the faster and more efficiently they can achieve it, and the less frustration you will have as they try to guess what will make you happy.

2. Listen to the designer’s ideas.
You know your business, and an experienced designer will know general design principles, so be open to their ideas. A common issue is trying to fit too much text into the space—a designer knows that if people are confronted with large amounts of text they simply won’t read any of it. Try not to to take it personally if they suggest changes, they’re trying to help, and perhaps trying to get a better feel for what you want.

3. Use a contract.
This is to protect you as much as the designer. A contract should clearly spell out each side’s expectations and help avoid the “Hey, you didn’t tell me THAT!” unpleasantness. Such as, will you or the designer own the proprietary artwork after it’s done? It’s okay to to negotiate points in the contract, just make sure you both agree before you sign.

4. Meet deadlines promptly.
When your designer gives you some proofs, go over them and get back to your designer with feedback. The longer you take to do this, the less time your designer has to give good attention to your project. I’ll end up thinking about work projects while I’m doing things like walking my dogs; but, if I have to turn something around in a couple of days, I won’t get the time to do that. So here’s your chance to potentially get unbilled time spent on your project. Rushes happen, and good work can be done quickly. But if you can allow extra time, go for it, it works to your advantage.

5. When you don’t like something, say so!
A good, experienced designer knows that not everyone likes the same things. Don’t be afraid to speak up if you don’t like something, you won’t hurt your designer’s feelings. Of course, you won’t say, “Ugh, that’s HIDEOUS, what were you thinking?!” Something more diplomatic, like, “That’s not really the direction I wanted,” or “That image/font just doesn’t work for me,” will get the point across. You can take this too far by asking for more and more changes, which is going to raise the cost; so if your designer is seriously off-base with what you expected, revisit tip #1 above and make sure you’re clearly communicating your needs.

6. Leave a good review.
Designers are only human and they like being praised as much as anyone. If you were happy with the work, leave a good review for your designer wherever it is you found them (Yelp, Citysearch, etc.), or send them an e-mail telling them how pleased you are. If you leave them with a good impression, they’ll be that much more motivated to work hard for you the next time you need them.

If you were not happy with the final result, you should communicate that. Give your designer a chance to make it right, or explain what it is they need from you to do a better job. Perhaps this designer/client relationship just wasn’t meant to be, but if there were resolvable problems like miscommunication or lack of time, there’s still hope for resolution. But you’ll never know if you don’t speak up.

Your designer very much wants you to enjoy the fruits of this collaboration. Good communication and clear expectations are the key to ensuring a quality experience and product.

Posted via email from Jennifer’s posterous

One of the things I love about Twitter (among the many things to love about it) is the laid-back nature of the Twitter icons. Facebook has stern warnings on their site about not monkeying around with their logo and rules for displaying it; honestly, I get their point, I really do. But it's so cool that Twitter seems to have embraced the concept of people designing their own buttons and icons.

Here's a site with some really cool Twitter art (I received the URL via Twitter, of course!).

http://www.onextrapixel.com/2009/11/05/twitter-fever-55-extraordinary-twitter-button-icon-sets/

Posted via email from Jennifer’s posterous

The current highest bid for Drew Brees’ signed and game-worn jersey is $3,540! The next highest item right this minute is $1,500 behind that, Maurice Jones-Drew’s helmet (also signed and game-worn). I wonder why the bids are so high for the jersey, is it because of the pink captain’s patch? Or perhaps because the Saints are doing so well this year? It’s easy to like the Saints, even if you’re really the fan of another team, they’ve never been a serious threat and so don’t have any serious rivalries. Or maybe it’s because everyone likes Drew Brees? I can’t help but like Drew Brees myself. Even though he played for Westlake in high school—he was young and impetuous, and probably just didn’t know any better. Anyway, his sweaty jersey is raising some big bucks to fight cancer, so that’s a good thing.

I just posted another new free knitting pattern at KnitMonster, the Little Leaves Lace Wrap. It’s an easy 3×3 leaf lace stitch, the yarn – Araucania Ranco Multy – makes it particularly lovely. That’s a sock weight yarn, so most sock yarns would work as well. Which is cool because I love sock yarns.

I don’t know if I can keep up this one-a-week rate of patterns, though I think I should have another easy wrap out next week.

The top bid for Mario Williams’ game-worn gloves is currently $200 as I write this. And there’s five days left, so I expect the price will go up significantly. Which is good, more money raised, but aw, I can’t possibly afford to bid. Just as well, I really don’t know what I’d do with them, past putting them in a case in the game room and point them out to people when they come over – Look, Mario Williams sweated in these! Nah, it’s just as well.

Humph, the  Making Strides logo on that page is all fuzzy, *I* would have done a better job with that (ahem).