Design guide, also known as design brief is one of the most crucial parts of a design process. Initiating a project without it would be like a ship without a rudder. So, if you want your designer to bring out the outcome your business requires, provide them with a design guide. It will act as a roadmap for them. Before we discuss the importance of a design guide for graphic designers, let’s first understand what exactly a design guide is!
A design guide is a short document (usually one or two pages) that elucidates the strategy for a project. It is a work of art in itself and has a practical application in every kind of design work. It exhibits what your project is and aspires to be. For instance, you want to create a logo design for your business. In the design brief, you can mention the nature of your business, budget, timeframe, target audience, color preference, feeling you want the design to provoke, etc.
For many clients, creating a design brief is a tedious task. They are unaware of the fact that designers don’t like to be micromanaged. In fact, no employee or worker likes to be micromanaged. If you want your employees to deliver quality work and that too on time, just brief them your expectations and let them create their own magic.
Importance of Design Guide for Graphic Designers
- They cannot design something they don’t understand:
What problem is this project solving? What is the objective? Is the vision you have in your mind realistic? Till the time you specify it to them, the designer doesn’t know the answers to all these questions; this is why they may not be able to create what you have in mind. Therefore, before the designer starts with their creative process, it’s important to brief them with everything that is required to create a design of your expectations. It will also help you and the designer to be on the same page.
- It will shorten the time to complete a project:
A design guide acts as a tool that promotes thorough and clear communication at the start of the design process. If a designer is clear about your expectations in advance, they can complete your project in a short span of time. Also, it will help you and the designer to save the time that you may invest in making amendments to already created designs.
- Helps in building trust:
Designers, especially freelancers, don’t like to work with clients who they consider as ‘time wasters.’ If a client does not have a clear vision and a particular idea of how to handle their requirements, their business ethics will be reflected negatively. Designers are more likely to trust and promote a long-term relationship with those clients who provide a detailed design guide during a single meeting.
- Helps in delivering high-quality work:
Let’s understand this with an example. For instance, you want to create a logo for your new business. By looking at the logos of well-known brands like Apple, IBM, Channel, Nike, etc. the first thing that probably comes to your mind is, “I too want a logo that’s not only unique but also connects with the target audience.” It’s good to have such thoughts, but do you know what makes these logos popular? It’s the story! If you search on the internet, you will get to learn that every popular logo has a unique story. Before coming up with such unique logo ideas, designers need to know every detail about a company in order to deliver only the highest-quality work. Therefore, if you also want your designer to create something unique, provide them with a detailed design guide that emphasizes on clarity.
Now you must be thinking, in order to get the desired results, what should one include in their design brief. Well, here is a quick overview..
- The name of your company
- Project name
- Summary of the project
- Description of your business
- Goals and objectives of your business
- Your target audience
- Where to look for inspiration and where not to look
- Specifications like the file format, color preference, etc.
- Design budget
- Deadline
Wrapping Up…
Designers are not mind readers. You cannot expect them to create something outstanding without you providing relevant enough information to them first. So, with every new project, provide a clear design guide to them. It will surely give you satisfactory results.
