My daughter recently texted me from school. “Do you know your school password?” I didn’t, as it’s usually stored in my computer. So I told her no.

A few days later she texted her mother and asked the same thing. This time she also mentioned something about finals, so I got a hold of the school and they told me a form that needed to be filled out. So I took care of it.

The issue is that if she would have told me the goal (have all the forms necessary for her to take finals filled out) instead of some detail of what she thought needed done (remembering the password) this would have been taken care of a few days ago instead of on the day of finals.

I can hear the confusion- “So what does this have to do with graphic design?”. Well, it’s a good metaphor of a client talking to their designer.

The questions that are asked are important.

These are some rules of thumb that can make your experience go a lot smoother. And if this isn’t the way you want to have your relationship with your designer, I suggest you read the article “Do you need a designer?”

If you have an issue with whatever is being designed, talk about the goal, not what you think will fix it. Imagine you have an issue with your car. It’s giving a rough ride, so you go to your mechanic and tell him the valves need to be adjusted (I like older cars). He adjusts them and it still runs pretty rough. So you tell him to adjust the timing. There’s still an issue! So you pay him to change the spark plugs, empty the gas tank and refill it with premium, and finally you get it fixed by re-balancing a tire. You’ve just spent a ton of money and time when you could have just told your mechanic that the car was running roughly. The mechanic would look it over and find the issue with the tire. The car’s fixed and you have a lot more money in your pocket.

One of the examples the customer told the mechanic what to do. In the other one he asked the mechanic to use his expertise. Design is the same way.

Here’s an example. A message isn’t quite apparent, and you decide it’s because a title feels cramped- there’s something about it that’s bugging you. You have two options on your choice of how to communicate.

1. Can you move that title up three clicks? Now down one? Maybe move it over a little- no, now back- Maybe the fonts too big…

2. I don’t think the message is getting through.

In case you’re wondering, the correct answer is two. Your designer has been trained in these things, and knows how to fix them. It may be the exact same solution you came up with , but often it’s something totally different. Maybe a picture needs to be moved to a different area of the piece. Communication is vitally important, and micromanaging can often lead to a big mess as all the separate pieces are moved around without looking at the bigger picture. You will spend more money and the designer will just want to get done with the job.