#delineateyourdestination

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Four tips to successfully buy design online

It’s the universal issue for a small business – lack of resources. We’d all love a designer on hand to put into images what we’re trying to say, and with the arrival of marketplaces like Fivver and DesignCrowd on the internet scene, it’s very tempting to skip the pain of paying for a graphic designer and start a logo design project with someone halfway around the world. In fact, as the owner of a company with my biggest overhead being their wage bill, would not a jaunt of a website such as these be far easier than paying for designers to sit in our office? One of the biggest obstacles that arise from working with designers online is important aspects of your business that you want to convey is lost in translation. I’m not referring to language barriers, but in that, it’s hard to communicate the important things you want to get across, and less important without having a face-to-face meeting. Designers pick up on the nuances, emphases, and enthusiasm of a business owner when they talk about their business that often even the business owner doesn’t even know they’re doing. But for those small businesses that don’t have a trusted designer that they can call on, then here are some tips for getting the most out of a designer online.

Look out for pricing pitfalls

As with many things on the internet (and in advertising in general), often the stated price is actually the ‘starting’ price. It might cost you five (United States) dollars to get your project started, but which designers are in the lineup at that price? The more qualified designers begin in the hundreds of dollars, so be sure you have a clear idea of budget versus your expectations. Many of these sites also offer a money-back guarantee. Ensure you read the fine print. You may not get your posting fee back (which is another cost to consider).

Have a (really) clear understanding of where you want the design to be used

When you look at something in isolation, for example a website design without your content and photos in it, or a logo that’s been supplied with a Photoshop effect (embossed on paper, and on a jaunty angle), it’s hard to really visualize how it will look on invoices or a website header. Print the logo out, on white, and shrink it down to the size of a business card. See if it works as a wide, skinny (horizontal) logo on the top of a website header. Print it in black and white and see if it is still legible, and has the same impact and feeling as in colour. Finally, put it on a coloured photo and see if it holds its own.

Know your market, know your business and stay true to your values

Have you ever gone to the supermarket to buy bread and milk and walked out with ten other things? There is a reason the milk is at the far end of the supermarket - to make you walk past all the other options on display. It’s easy to get so tied up in the design process that when a designer shows you a ‘really cool’ design, you buy on emotion, instead of weighing up if it actually suits your business, as opposed to just being a shiny, exciting new object. Give your new design the grill down. Does it really appeal to your target market? Does it reflect your values? If it’s a wishy-washy, pretty logo, does it suit you as a car yard? Does your tagline work with it? Will it work on a dark background? Is it an improvement of what you already have?

Know what to do once you have the files

You’ve got your design finalised and you’re ready for your files. You’ll most probably be sent them as an eps, Adobe Illustrator file as well as a jpeg. Just because you may not be able to open the eps or Illustrator file, don’t delete it! These files are what designers and printers work in, so keep them on hand when you’re ready to go to print.You’ll need to ensure you can resize your logo, ready to post on your Facebook page, Instagram feed and email footer. Make sure you know where you’ll be using the files so as to ask your designer for the appropriate type. Working with a graphic designer online is a great way to understand how the design process works. It’s also a true test as to how well you communicate what you do to someone who’s coming in cold to your business and whose job it is to create a design that represents you. We have many clients that have worked with these online design businesses that become great clients as they appreciate the value of having someone who specialises in ‘picking client's brains’ in order to develop a better design solution.

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Doing it right by getting it wrong

Nothing new, or bleeding edge is perfect right off. We know it takes time and determination (and a little luck) to build a great business. But those ‘lucky’ businesses got it right by building relationships not just with their suppliers, but with their customer as well. Are you making a transaction or building a relationship with your customer? There seems to be a distinction that businesses make between a ‘customer’ and a ‘client’. I’ve always assumed a customer is someone with whom you determine the value of a one-off transaction with, while a client is someone who’s long-term spend is calculated, and valued and therefore someone you build a relationship with. It’s far more economical to make multiple sales to one client than to spend money chasing new sales which make building a relationship a far more sustainable business model, even if you don’t see the profits straight away.

Finger pointing vs problem-solving

Another distinction in the ‘transaction versus relationship’ subject is reflected in your business model. For example, I had a client that had an issue with a sign-writer that they had chosen themselves. When something went wrong with the sign printing, instead of focussing on solving the problem the sign-writer was focussed on finger pointing. The issue was caused by an uneducated mistake on the client’s part, in that they sent the low-resolution file instead of final art work. But the finger pointing really started when we suggested that they might have noticed the file was low res and asked the client for a better file. The signwriter’s words were “I just hit print four times (for the four signs), it’s not my job to check the files”. This is an example of a company basing their business model on transactions, rather than relationships. The fear of not making a profit on this transaction through, as he saw it, no fault of his own, blinded him to the need to keep the customer in a relationship.

Be the professional

If the difference between successful brands and the lesser ones is about relationships. The accountant, lawyer, web developer, or graphic designer are paid by the client to be experts in their field. With regards to the sign-writer example, if the sign company based their business on relationships than their processes (of checking files, for example) would reflect that in having their client’s back. The ‘all care, and no responsibility’ that is given to clients by professionals in too many service-based industries in that they want to ‘help’ but not own the outcome in any way to me means they should be ditching the ‘client’ term in favour of a customer transaction.

Relationships are about the good times and the bad

Software companies set an expectation of failure on their part, but we still buy their products. Their software is sold with the knowledge that you will need incremental updates to the software you’ve just paid for. You can see this in names like IOS10.3 with the ‘.3’ showing that small update for that release.With a transaction, we only get one chance to get it right and to not get it right, especially in the product sales and the frustration that a faulty product causes to the customer. But even with the faulty product scenario, a good retailer has the opportunity to build a customer relationship through putting it right. The difference between the short term loss of just swapping a faulty item for a customer versus, say, sending something off for repair (or denying the issue in the first place) provides the opportunity for a future sale. Whether you’re providing a service or selling a product or, in the case of a restaurant, providing an experience should be irrelevant as to your perception of having a relationship with a client or a transaction with a customer. And this differentiation should always be considered when building a business’s brand. It is the difference between a successful brand or a failed one.

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Is imitation a sincere form of flattery, or just plain lazy?

We have a very strategic process when we help our clients' to develop a look for their business. It's quite intimate, in that we delve into what the business stands for, and who will love it, and who won't. It's reliant on an open communication between the business owner (client), the brand strategist (the boundary pusher), and the graphic designer.

The designer wants to create something unique and different, the strategist wants something that sincerely tells the businesses story, while the client wants something that feels familiar.

You see, the client is not a plagiarist, a copy-cat, or a wanna-be, they simply gravitate to something that is familiar, and safe. It takes a lot of backbone be the different person on the block, and in fact, we spend most of our impressionable years, our teens, trying to fit in – or stand out just enough to fit in with the other people who stand out just enough. So it's not surprising that we all feel the need to fly under the radar, in the land of tall poppies, it takes a lot to stick out.

Our job is to hold our client's hand and help them to discover what makes them different, but then to help them communicate it to a bunch of people who are on the same page, who feel that they can trust this business because they feel the same way. Someone to forge ahead and zag, when all others are zigging. This is what makes a good brand. And once our client can confidently know why they have their particular different logo, then they can go forth, with gusto, and lead the way for others to embrace their difference.

It's all very easy, and human nature to look like the others, but if you've got a good cause, and a great business, break with that human nature and do what's right (and different) for you.