Using graphic design services: A guide for engineers and other odd people
In my position at my company, I have to sell our services. We ain’t cheap, so it has to be a good pitch. You are not going to sell a pricey service if you do not look the part. Web site design, business cards, product brochures and even the lowly CD cover are all manifestations of looking the part. This is a particularly good time for technical and financial people to get a simple fact: as hot as you may be at engineering or finances or whatever, you are most likely to be a terrible designer. Get over it.
So you find yourself all revved up to go in a startup business that has just figured out what it is going to do. Now you need to punt your product or die of cash flow. Because you are gasping for cash, you roll your own. Or you have a cute cousin who used to work at a printer. Bad idea. Your image is really too important to blow in a vainglorious attempt to save a penny. OK, so if you are convinced you need designers, how do you go about finding them and dealing with them? Not so easy, but certainly no harder than finding a competent software development house or mechanical machining business. There are ways to work with creative people and get good results. Here is the quick guide:
- Make sure you know exactly what you want before you brief the agency.
- Assign a budget to the job and communicate this to the agency.
- Choose an appropriate agency. It is not necessarily the one staffed by the coolest looking people.
- Communicate an outcome or end goal not the design. They are supposed to create the design so listen to them.
- Extend the designers the same professional courtesy you would expect from non-experts using your skills.
- Show them some samples of designs that you like and dislike. Now they know that you hate floral patterns.
- Don’t interfere with the design unless it violates your brief, trademarks or legal requirements.
- Pay them promptly and accept that authors corrections (i.e. your mistakes and poor briefs) will cost you money.
This does take some guts and a good relationship with the agency, but trust them. After the third time you use them, they will know exactly how your business looks and they will enthusiastically deliver more. Simply because you will be one of the few companies that use their expertise fully and pays them on time. End of quick guide.
If you have the picture, bully for you as you are done. If you don’t, the rest of this rant may help.
In order to even get to thinking about designers, you have to think about your corporate image a bit. In my business, we pitch a carefully crafted service to engineering management types as well as corporates management types. They drive Audi’s and eat sushi. They are not art connoisseurs, but they do have some taste and an eye for smart looking corporate images. So, try to sketch the sort of person who will sign the orders for your product. This will give you an idea of the level of sophistication and expectation that they have about businesses such as yours. You also need to be able to describe your product clearly and have some idea of how to present it to your market. If you cannot do this then no amount of pretty marketing materials is going to save your hide from your creditors. You certainly won’t be able to brief a designer properly.
OK, so how do you choose a decent design studio or agency? Not so easy. There are more design agencies around than the market really needs, so they tend to struggle to generate business and there are many dodgy operators out there. Think about all those software or financial “experts” plying their trade out there. Good ones have been in the business for a few years and have accumulated a good portfolio (this is a collection of their work) and a reasonable list of customers. They also come in several flavours. The big “above the line” agencies deal in big ticket advertising, including television ads and the like. Apple uses an agency like this. They need have huge advertising budgets from you just to break even. When you are trying to muscle Microsoft out the way, these agencies are for you. The next level in the hierarchy is the “below the line” agency which aims more at print media. Some do retail advertising (the large center spread in the newspaper plugging 1000 products that are one cent cheaper than the competitor), some specialise in package design and others in corporate IDs. For a start up, a below the line studio or agency to is what you are looking for. A staff complement of 5 to 15 people is the right size as they will still be interested in the sort of business you can offer to them. On the smaller scale, you get freelance designers or two person shows who can give very good service, but are often professionally isolated. Cheaper, yes, but you must look carefully.
So look for the following:
- Have they been in business for a few years at least, or do the staff have at least five years of relevant experience? Their portfolio or individual portfolios will show the history. Like any other profession, experience is valuable to you.
- Are their clients of a similar size and type to your company? You don’t want to be the runt client sitting on the back burner or use an agency that caters to a very different set of clients. If their clients are cut price retail outfits and you are a boutique hotel, it is the wrong agency.
- Ask them what they do. Usually, they offer a range of services from design (the thrust of this rant) through marketing strategies, media placement, delivery and communication. Useful. Particularly as you grow.
- Do you like the portfolio? Compare their work to what you see in the business cards and web sites of your suppliers, partners and competitors. If you had a corporate image like something in their portfolio, would you stand out from the crowd? If the portfolio is not well organised and well populated, run like hell.
- Does the company appear professional? Small details make a difference, so if they pitch up on time and have good coffee, this is good. If their representative suffers from body odour and takes calls on his/her mobile while meeting with you, this is bad. If you are half way to professional yourself, you will smell professionalism. Don’t hesitate to reject on this basis.
- Agencies and studios have a tendency to work their people to death. An agency cannot be creative if it is staffed by de facto corpses. Fresh, enthusiastic staff are what you are after.
- Try to see how pragmatic they are in their solutions. Just like engineers, they can go completely over the top with a design. Too much focus on creativity just misses the point of communicating an image and information to your customers. Too little makes you look cheap and nasty.
- I like organisations that understand their capabilities. They tend not to take on projects they cannot handle. For example, a small design studio that outsources its web programming is a good sign. It says that we are designers, not programmers.
- A Porche in the parking lot is a bad sign in a small company.
Finding an agency that suits you is also not so easy. A good start is your own business network. If you see someone with a great looking image, ask who did id. Word of mouth is a great source as you can ask questions about service, creativity and costs from a client perspective. OK, so you have selected an agency. Now what? Well, be prepared to give then a decent brief. If you do not know what you want, you are wasting everybody’s time. A few good tips are:
- Make sure you can accurately describe your product and your market in terms understandable to the general public. If you cannot communicate it to your agency’s client service representative, you cannot communicate it to anybody. Not even your customers.
- Make sure you know what you want. Business cards, web site design, pamphlet, packaging, magazine advert etc. Have a prioritised list.
- Bring examples of what you like. Don’t be shy to show them business cards that you like, or a magazine ad you think will work. Examples of what you don’t like are also a good idea. Be prepared to convey what it is that you like about your examples.
- Put your budget and expectations on the table. If you get a frosty response to a smallish budget, find an agency that caters to clients of your size. Be realistic as to what your money can buy and bear in mind that they have to eat also.
- A good designer will ask questions. Answer them.
- Plan so that there is enough time for the agency to execute the work. Good design takes time. Pamphlets still get printed one at a time. Deadlines should be set in collaboration with the agency. If you agree to the deadlines, expect them to keep to them.
- Pay them on time. Just like you want to be paid on time. Question quotes (else you may get milked a bit), not invoices.
A relationship with a design agency should be viewed as long term (years), so expect them to learn quite a bit about your business. As the relationship grows, it will become easier to trust their judgement on how things look.
Then, you may reach the holy grail: Tell your agency that you will accept whatever design they come up with because they are tasked with making you look good. That takes guts. As much guts as it takes to let the pilot fly the jet you caught to visit your latest customer.