How to work with a Graphic Designer
When the project begins
Starting to work with a graphic designer can be an intimidating process if you've never worked with one before. When selecting a graphic designer, I highly suggest you look at their profile. Not only are there people out there who have no experience or education that claim to be designers, the range of style and skill from designer to designer can varry greatly.
Look at their portfolio.
You wanted to see a graphic designer's portfolio to make sure their style matches up with what you're expecting. Many designers have very distinct styles, and this allows for an endless variety of creators to choose from. If you're hoping to have a specific look for your project or to avoid a specific look, make sure the work of your designer meshes with what you're looking for. Also, make sure you get examples of similar projects to the one you're working on. A large print design project has very different requirements for the designer than a website. So if the designer you're working with only has online experience you might want to look for someone with print experience if you need help preparing files for a large format print job.
A full grasp of their process
Due to the range of style and training of graphic designers, their processes are often very different. Make sure you speak to your designer before the project begins about checking in. Are they the kind of designer that just puts their dead down, creates, and doesn't consult you? Is this something you are okay with? If you know you're going to be the type of client who is very hands-on, make your designer aware of this. You should both have a clear understanding of how often you will be checking in with each other during a project before the work begins. This will help both parties because if you agreed to talk weekly about the project and yet you're contacting your designer every second day you're wasting precious time and slowing down your project.
A signed agreement or contract
This document is to protect both of you. Designers of been in situations where they have clients who have not paid them and clients have been in situations where they've had designers not complete the work. A trustworthy, professional graphic designer does not want this situation to happen, and neither do you. Make sure you have a contract that states the agreed-upon price of the project, the project timeline, and what final products you will be receiving (logo, website business card).
Expect for prices to change if deadlines are not met or if the amount of work requested changes.
If you have a contract with the designer for three final products and then and up asking for more work to be done, expect to pay for that work. Just because the designer already did a logo and poster for you doesn't mean that they can just quickly whip up a business card for you. If you want more work done, be prepared to pay for it.
No graphic designer enjoys being behind on projects. Sometimes large amounts of work roll in, and we have to spend crazy amounts of hours working to ensure everything gets completed. I'm not saying that just because we're busy, we should be allowed to miss your deadline, but if we have agreed on a time for you to get everything for your project in on and you do not meet the timelines, it will be very hard for me to meet the timeline as well. Many designers are juggling multiple projects at once and if we do not receive everything to start the project on time chances are it will not be finished on time.
The final product
Logo design
If you've invested in having a graphic designer design your logo there're certain types of files you should be receiving from them. A vector file (.ai and .eps) is a file that you can make as big as you want without losing quality. Even if your business is only online right now in the future, you may wish to have a large poster designed. Having that vector version of your logo is important so you can display your logo at different sizes without losing visual quality. Even if you will never open these vector files yourself, it's essential to have them. If you only get a .jpg or similar version of your logo you will probably end up spending more money to hire someone to remake your logo later when you need to use it for other uses. Also, speak to your designer about what you'll be using the logo for. If you just need it for social media on your website, they can give you final versions at that correct size.
Typically I make sure my clients have access to vector versions of their logo as well as a .jpeg version (for web) and a .png (with a transparent background).
You designer should also provide you with a "reverse" version of your logo. This version is a white or light version of the logo that can be used on dark backgrounds. You should receive the vector version of this logo as well as the .png version. There is no need to get a .jpg of the reverse logo because the .jpg saves with a white background so it would make that version of the logo unusable.
Example > regular version of logo, regular .png, reverse .png.
.jpg of logo
.png on background colour
Reverse .png of logo on background colour
Website design
You are working with a designer to create your website; it is not unreasonable for you to expect them to give you some sort of training on the platform. Whether in-person training if you're working with someone local or an online training document or video for someone who you're working with online. This is one of the things to ask before you start working with a designer, Will they provide any training or training documents? How long after the project is over, can you contact them if you have questions?
When working with Squarespace, both you and your designer can have logins for the back end of your website. Unless there is a reason, a client does not wish to allow me to keep my login to their website, I will keep it. That way if they need help with their website in the future, I can help them easily. At this point, I've never had a client remove me from accessing their site.
Business cards/Print design
Will the graphic designer be in charge of getting the cards printed or will you? Some designers have relationships with print shops that allow them to get discounts. If you're in charge of getting cards printed yourself is there anywhere they would suggest you get everything printed? This is another situation where I would suggest asking for the working copy of the document. Typically an Adobe Indesign File (.Indd). When you have the working version of the document, any designer can very easily update the working document in the future. However, if you only have a copy of the completed document it may not be possible for another designer to edit the document. That means if you have changes in the future you may end up spending money to have the document redesigned or created.
At the end of the day I'd say your best bet for any design project is to get the working files if possible. Create a dropbox folder or Google Drive folder and keep them there. Then in the future if you ever need changes or edits, whether your working with someone new or the same designer it is very easy for everyone involved. Many designers will do their best to keep a copy of past work for a while, but after a few years, they may get rid of things or even change careers. It is a much safer bet to keep copies of everything for yourself, just in case.