How to Give Feedback to a Designer
For your enjoyment, an original painting entitled “blah, blah, blah,” by Nathan Crow. See some of his other amazing creations here.
We just finished a dialogue with a friend who has authored a book. He’s in the final stages of publishing, and they’re trying to decide on a cover design. Obviously, a very big step when releasing your first book. I know they say “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover,” but as a visual people we may find ourselves doing just that.
He was asking for Reddoor’s advice on how to give constructive feedback to the designers of his book cover. Our conversation generated some fruitful ideas and I think they’re worth passing on.
His question, simply stated was: “what is useful for me (as a client) to say to the designer?”
When you hire a designer consider how you respond to the work they show you. I told him what we’d like to hear from clients (remember this conversation is about a book cover, but just imagine your brand):
“Think about whether or not you feel like the cover is successful and effective. If it is, then great. Leave it. If not, figure out what you think is wrong with it. This feedback should be at the top level, don’t worry about fixing the details of the design. Leave that up to the designer. After all they’re the experts. Hopefully, with your constructive feedback they can make moves and changes that will resolve your issues. Make sure your comments speak to the purpose or goal. If you’re concerned with impact and the cover’s ability to grab attention on a shelf, say that. If you think it looks too similar or too different from what’s already on the shelves, say that.”
“The challenge, for us, in a situation like this is when clients start art directing. They make demands about type, logo size, placement, etc. with no rhyme or reason. They often don’t know the first thing about what a certain design decision communicates, but they sure feel good because it’s their own idea. But as we all know, not all ideas are good ideas. We try to get them to tell us what isn’t working so that we (as the experts) can solve the problem. This is easier said than done. On top of that, if your designers are focused on decoration and not communication then they may not even really hear or understand the feedback you offer. Good Luck!”
Consider this strategy, and perspective when looking at the design decisions you face every day.
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Good advice–sounds familiar. To any clients reading this, I’d echo Reddoor’s thoughts; as an amateur, sometimes you get what you want but find you don’t want it anymore. It’s good to give problems to design problem solvers and let them solve them!
“not all are ideas are good ideas” but as a teacher i would say “there are no dumb questions…” so, ask away!!!
Duly noted. Will try to keep this in mind when we get our mood board! Can’t wait.
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