If you have never worked with a graphic designer before, you may be a bit intimidated. Don’t be. Professional designers will guide you through the process, which typically looks something like this:
1. Gather information about your project and communicate the goals to the designer. What do you want to accomplish? What do you need? What can you not have? What types of pieces do you want to produce? Printed brochures, a website? A marketing campaign? Download this project questionaire to help you get started. Good designers can provide some suggestions along the way if you need them.
You should also consider and agree upon production costs at this stage. Depending on your goals, your final costs of design and production will vary. How many pieces will be printed? Does the website need to be hosted? Will the designer be responsible for the production, or just supply ideas?
Expect to receive an estimate before work begins. It should outline how many initial concepts and how many rounds of revisions you get, as well as what the final deliverables are. It should also explain what is included and what is not so there is no confusion. Some estimates are more formal than others.
2. Initial Concepts. Once the designer has all the information and understands the scope of the project, it could take several weeks to create the initial design compositions. 
You will receive an initial round of rough concepts (usually 2-3 depending on the project) attached to an e-mail in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. Download a FREE version of Acrobat Reader if it is not already installed on our computer. Other ways designers may share ideas is with .jpgs or give you access to viewing tools on the internet.
3. Choose which initial concepts you like best, or write down what you like and dislike about each one. Being specific with your feedback is important because it will help guide the designer toward your end goal. Use the page number on the pdf or image name on your feedback. (IE: I like the design on page 3, but the colors on page 2. Can you change the of the antelope picture on page 3 to the boy you used on page 1?)
Be sure to check everything carefully at this stage and provide as much feedback as possible for the artist, because it will help them refine the ideas.
4. Revisions. After the designer reviews your feedback, they will make revisions to the designs. Again you will provide feedback on what they send to you.
Note: Proofread and check everything very carefully during these stages. Designers tend to focus on the visual aspects and generally do not read text carefully. You are ultimately responsible for making sure everything is prefect before you approve the final designs. You would not want 10,000 direct mail pieces to be printed before realizing your phone number is wrong on them!
You usually have 2 rounds of revisions to get the piece how you want it designed. There may be more revisions allowed, depending on your agreement. Revisions are usually capped at 3-4 total rounds before extra charges are incurred. This is to ensure a reasonable turnaround time. It also provides a timeframe and pressure to focus and finalize on choices in order to minimize costs.
5. Transfer of Finals. When everything is approved and ready, the last step is for the designer to transfer the final files to you, the printer, or upload them to the internet.
- If it is a print project, the designer usually provides the working files, all high resolution images they used, any fonts, and a high-resolution printable pdf.
- For logo designs, you will receive several versions of your logo including the working vector file and a few different resolutions for different applications. They will provide whatever formats that were agreed upon in the beginning of the project.
- If a website or other web items were created, the designer will either upload those to your hosting server, or transfer the files to someone who can upload them.
Rae Graphics provides affordable, effective and efficient design and marketing services. Call (818) 881-8288 if you have any questions.