Posted by: Catherine Wentworth
Category: Designers Working With
Bookmark on: del.icio.us

This is sometimes hit and miss with clients and even with some designers in the position of hiring those needed. Do you contact those involved in the early stages of a design project to give professional advice? Or do you wait until their part of the project needs to be done? Inquiring minds need to know … so I asked the question “At what point should your profession be brought into a project?”

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Andy

The sooner you can get a professional consultancy involved the better. A good way to start is to commission an initial discovery phase. This gives the designer an opportunity to learn about your company and the problems you’re facing, and come up with some initial recommendations. It also gives the client an opportunity to work with the designer on a smaller project to see how they get on. If both parties are happy with the outcome, you can then move forward with the main project confident that it will be a success.

Andy Budd | Managing Director | Web Designer | Author
Andy Budd::Blogography | CSS Mastery

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Anna

This is fairly subjective. We like to be brought in early, but after the client has thought through the project enough to know what they are looking for. We definitely don’t like to be brought in a week before the project has to launch - giving your design professional ample time to work through the design is essential. A rushed job never looks as good as it could have.

Anna Corpron & Sean Auyeung | Interdisciplinary Design Practice
Sub-Studio | sub-studio design blog

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Brian

When the idea is first discussed, so that the designer’s input and expertise can influence the scope and objectives of the project.

Brian Sooy | Design Consultant
Brian Sooy & Co | Altered Ego Fonts

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Chris

I think contributing designers should be brought in when the scale/scope of the project demands their presence. In starting any project the person setting out goals and milestones should have a clear understanding when certain things will occur. For instance, let’s say a company is designing a very elaborate catalog/brochure that requires a lot of photos of products and those products are crucial in the layout. I think this would be a point where a PM would want to determine if the copywriter or their layout professional is needed more.

Chris Tomlinson | Communication Designer | Printer
Gonink | Gonink blog

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Dag

I hate to say “depends on the situation” all the time, but it seems to be the case. Not all projects are equal. Although I would hate to bat clean up there are times when someone didn’t provide the design services they were hired to do and someone fresh is brought in to fix/complete the job at nearly deadline. I dislike those situations because they tend to be tricky and stressful. And often you’ll find yourself building upon someone else’s existing framework and working with testy people. If the changes are to a mild degree that’s not a biggie, typesetters (retouchers, etc.) for example do it all the time, but extensive redesigns begs the question of who gets credit for the final output. If it’s a work for hire arrangement the question is relatively moot. If you’re taking over a project from a previously terminated arrangement on the other hand that’s where credit could potentially end up getting a bit iffy at some juncture.

I should also mention that normally typesetters and retouchers are brought in after the initial designs are made, to refine the work. Because of the massive myriad of dimensions in magazine ads for example, many firms outsource approved design layouts to press bureaus who have a design department themselves onhand to clean up and refine the piece. Although many are trained designers in their own right, they often do the majority of retouching and typesetting for all the ads it will end up in, a LOT of work. So in this instance, I would say that a typesetter/retoucher would ideally be introduced once the initial layout is done, to polish the layout (which can include changes to the elements), preflight it and often await for the final approval before sending it along to press. The initial designer of the layout has by this point moved on to other projects.

In the best possible situation, a designer would hope to be introduced/involved during the inception of the marketing and branding stages of the project. Sitting in, taking notes and being creatively inspired by the direction that the company wants to take with the project and product concepts. Branding and design go hand in hand, don’t ever let anyone tell you differently. To help effectively market the brand the design has to at the very least appeal to the target audience, after all. An effective design should have it’s beat on the pulse of the market whether it’s pandering off of existing styles or exploring a direction that the audience would find fresh and stimulating, based on their research.

Dagmar Jeffrey | Principal Arche-tech
NO!SPEC Brainstorming Team Member | Arche-BLogGER

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Daniel

Naturally as early as possible–sometimes even before they have decided “what” they are doing. They may think they’re going to launch a new product or service, but a designer can bring in a fresh POV, from outside their corporate and political structure, and help them refine their offering even before it goes to marketing.

I do a lot of what I call “Design Therapy,” where I help the clients be more focused on what they offer and who they are offering it too. It’s surprising how many companies aren’t really clear on what makes them different and unique.

Daniel Will-Harris | Communication Designer
Will-Harris House | Schmoozeletter

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Dan

As early as possible which will help manage expectations (on both sides).

Dan Sturdivant | Communication Designer | Editor
TexasDesign.com

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Leslie

Earlier is better than later. Creatives aren’t worker-bees who churn out product–they are most valuable as concept-creators and so can bring ideas to brainstorming sessions you never even would have vaguely considered.

Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua | Creative/Marketing Consultant & Coach
Burns Auto Parts–Consultants | Burns Auto Parts blog | Podcast | Book

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Metin

Whenever there’s need for a visual addition to any project, such as an illustration that will strengthen a message.

Metin Seven | Communication Designer
Seven’s Heaven - design and illustration

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Neil

As early as possible. Bringing a designer on early can avoid problems later and the designer can usually make suggesstions at the beginning that will help develop a successful project.

Neil (nt) Tortorella | Marketing Manager
Tortorella Design | The Marketing Mind | Creative Latitude | BoDo Team | Marketing Minute

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Roger

Designers should be brought into a project as soon as the project’s goals and objectives are defined. Waiting until too late results in “deadline madness” and expensive, wasted effort.

Designers who position themselves solely from an aesthetic point of view may be doing their careers a disservice. If a designer can only make something more attractive, or easier to read, their value proposition is not as strong as another designer who can help clients identify their strategic objectives and help them come up with a plan to achieve them.

Roger C Parker | Designer | Writer | Marketing Consultant
Design To Sell Online | Roger C. Parker Design to Sell Blog | Design to Sell

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Scott

A designer’s eye can be an invaluable resource at nearly any point of a project, but it depends on the nature of the project. For web sites or applications, having a designer and a usability expert on hand early on can help mediate decisions that are difficult to reverse later and can bring new ideas to the table earlier on in the process.

Design isn’t just something you slap onto a project, or at least it shouldn’t be. Design needs time to settle in and get the lay of the land. Design is about listening, understanding, and communicating. Rushing it is an easy way to lead to mistakes or a bad end result. For myself, being somewhat technically inclined as well, I like to get in on the ground floor of projects so I can provide input as early on as necessary to make sure that my job as a designer isn’t made any more complicated then it needs to be.

Scott Boms | Communication Designer
Wishingline DS

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Summary

It seems everyone is pretty much in agreement - bring in designers as soon as the scope of the project has been determined (if needed, sometime sooner).

Next up is the age old question, How do you charge?

until the next
Designers WW,
cat