How to Communicate With Designers

It on my practical experiencewith this is somewhat limited.I'm used to doing anything I do.I do my do myself.But recently I. Hiredout a style scape,and I liked whatshe brought back,but I could definitely see.That what I said she understood,but it meant something elseto her.so we both speakthe same language.There's no languagebarriers at all,but there's even speakingthe same language.The same words don't necessarilytranslate to the same thing.So even though I checked like Idid lots repeat back and checkand stuff like that andgave her visual examples,there was still that like.That different translation,ultimately in the end product.So I was justcurious when you'redealing with biggerand bigger projectsand you're also doing it.And then for the clientand trying to maintain whatthey want.Like, how do you maybekeep communicationfrom breaking down?OK Yeah.At first, I thought I hadthis answer figured out,but then when youread it, I was like,Oh OK, I'm sure theother answer is good too.Let's hope so.OK, so yeah, I guessinstinctually, you know,when I read thequestion, I was like,oh, OK, this is akind of classic,not miscommunication,but misunderstandingbetween, let's say, creativedirector and designer.So happens withevery single project,I believe, so let's sayyou're creative directorand you come in and you'relike, OK, I need a style escapeand it needs to.It needs to belighthearted and friendly.The photographyshould be bright,and let's use the client'scolors that are, you know,red, green and yellow.OK, great.And you know, yousay, OK, let's getlike a mild, medium and spicyversion of the style frame,you know, withdifferent typefacesand just sans serif is good.You know, you kind of givethem some guardrails, right?And then.You say, ok?Does that all make sense?Obviously, you would share alot more information with themthan that, but then you say,OK, does that make sense?Know what else doyou need for me?And they say, yep, I got it.And then you're like,OK, that was easy.This is going to work out great.All right.So then they go away.You come back andthey're like, hey, Igot something toshow you and you'relike, I can't wait to see it.Let's take a look.And you look at it togetherand you're like, in your mind,you're like, whatthe hell happened?This isn't anythinglike what we discussed,what is going on here?Everything is likeblue and pink,and you're usingsense of like, what?What happened?So that happensconstantly, you know?And I think it's weird, likeit's a weird phenomenon,and I think it's reallypart of being humanand how good of a communicatoryou are as creative director,let's say, and how good of alistener they are as a designerand as confident as we all are.It doesn't always,always work out that way.So what I like to do beforewhich, Rachel, it soundslike you did isgive them the brief,give them some parameters, givethem some kind of like guiderails to point them theright direction without beingtoo prescriptive and then say,you know, does that make sense?And then that's thepart where they go,yep, and they walkaway now before theydo that, what I'lldo is, you know,depending on howmuch information is,I'll break it down into chunks.Two little segments say,OK, does that make sense?Like, yeah, I'm like,OK, do me a favor?Just can you give me arecap of what you heard?This is a reallyimportant, and Iwant to make surethat we both got it.And they're like, yeah, soOK, you want a sans serifand you like red and green, butmaybe a bunch of other colorsare cool, too.And they kind oflike they repeat backsome things that soundsimilar to what you said,but there's some keyinformation that differs.And that might be a becausethey weren't listeningas intently or b, youdidn't communicate thatas clearly as you need it to.Or maybe there wasa gap in informationand they filled in thatgap with what they thought.And it turns out thatwas an important thing.You just forgot or left out.I do it all the time.That's OK.So that would be the firststep to kind of helpingestablish alignment, right?so kind of making themrecap and say, OK.And you can be like,well, you know what?I'm glad you.I'm glad you brought that up.Because when yousaid other colors,I really think it'snot other colors.It's we really need tostick with the brand colorsor whatever it is.So you can kind of correct them.You're like, oh,OK, OK, you know?So you might have todo that a few times.And then what I'lldo also is say,you know, here's a goodexample or give me 10 minutes.I want to find somereference or, you know,before we start anything.Why don't you take a half hour,put together some referenceand let's regroup and we'll lookat it then just to make surewe're heading theright direction.Before you kind of commit to afull day of work thinking that,OK, this is the got it.This is it.There's some stepsalong the way.And this can kind of soundlike micromanaging too.And I think there is afine line because youdon't want to do that.You want to make sure there'senough open space for peopleto explore and hopefullydevelop something much moreinteresting and better thanwhat you have in your mind.You want to give informationto kind of pursuethat because your job is toworry about something else.But at the same time, keepthem, keep them sort of,you know, walkingthe right path.So those are a couple ofinitial things you could try.References great.Yeah because if they come backin the references, all wacky,you can be like, OK, youknow, this is a little too.This is a little too out there.I don't know that ourclient will buy this,and then you mighthave to get really.And this is where you'rebecoming art directortwo really specificand say, you know,like, they don't like thisamount of contrast thatneeds to be softer.Or here, let me find abetter example of that.If you're trying to designlike a light bulb or something,it's like, oh, I should feela little more like this.So, you know, kind of anylittle bit of informationyou can give them a little kindof help guide along the way.Now if you do that, yougo through that process.And at the end of the firstreview, they, you know,they show you something,if it's like completely.I mean, just totally,utterly wrong,like nowhere nearwhat you discussed.I think that's a goodopportunity for youto come together againand help them ideally helpthem see what you're seeing.So what I'll do is I'llsay, oh, OK, you know what?And in my mind,I'm like thinking,like, no, this is so off.OK, what's happening?We have to figure this out.So what I'll do then,is I'll take their workand I'll put it up here.I'll say, OK, so here'swhat we designed.And then I'll pullup the reference workand I'll pull it upon the other side,like side by side,literally and say, OK,so we know this reference isheading in the right direction.I just want tocompare where we'regoing with our referenceto make sure we're notstraying too far.Ok?and if you can look at it andyou can ask them, you can see,you know, is this look related?But what do you seethe differences here?You know, and that'ssort of like a little bitof a test and alittle bit like to tryto get them to think about,OK, what is the objective here?What are we really aiming forand have we strayed too far?What's going on?You know, so hopefullyin that moment,it would be able to see thatand say, oh, OK, yeah, no, Isee we need to be using a sansserif and a thicker typeface,whatever it may be whenthey see it side by side,because sometimes you couldjust get tunnel vision.You start going down that holeand you're like, oh, it's nice,what am I doing here?You know, you might havestarted in the right place,but you got lost along the way.Mm-hmm So that's another kindof tactic you can use to try.And then I mean,at some point, too,it's like it mightjust not be a good fit.And that's OK.You know, someone'sjust not getting it.Or if it's beyond the realm ofwhat they're comfortable doing,that's OK to.You know, sometimes I'llask that up front, in fact.So if we have a job and there'ssomething really specific like,OK, we need to designicons for a websiteand they're like alittle more detailed.They're not justlike silhouettes.And I'll find someone.I'll see their work.And I'm like, oh, I see there'spotential there, but I'm not.I don't see exactlywhat I'm looking for.So I might call them orhave a video call and say,hey, you know, so Ihave this project.I need to design someicons or a little moredetail, something like this.I'll say, you know,I like your work,but is this somethingyou'd be comfortable doing?You know, we only havetwo days to do this.Do you think you could do that?Totally OK if you can.I just want to ask first.So you could also trysomething, something like thatif you want to vet peoplea little more upfront.Because I think it'seasy to overpromiseand get really, really eager.And some people might, youknow, put themselves in a placewhere they're like, oh, I don'tknow what I'm doing like this.This is, you know,I can't do this,but they'd be like,I'll try it again.Let me try it again.And you might mean,well, but like,it's not going to help them.It's not going to help you.It's not going to helpyour relationship.And they might be verygood at something,but it's not the thingthat you're lookingfor right here right now.So that's sort of, youknow, it could go there,but I think there's a lotof steps along the way whereyou can look at stuff together.References as great,though, and literally youholding up your work.Next to next to reference andstart to really kind of pointout like, OK, here'sthe differenceas I see you see howsoft the light is hereor this is too harsh or it's tooflat, or it doesn't look right.Or you see like the qualityand the texture, whatever itis, you know, stuff like that.So that those tactics that'shelpful to kind of break downmore points, thatclarification could happen.And then if it's all right, afollow up question, sure, be.Dealing with.Let's see how tobefore I wrote it down,so I was able to sort my thoughtout a little bit ahead of time.OK, so what I'mthinking of is justit can be quite common to comeacross designers who they'regood at designing andthey love designing,but they can't separatefrom their personal tasteor they don't like to separatefrom their personal taste.And sometimes that's notalways immediately apparentbecause they have doneother client work.They've they'vepushed themselvesto do stuff that isn't what.So it's not apparentin their profile,like everything kindof looks the same.But so you can kind offind it out later like,oh, you really pushback when somebodyis trying to push youout of your comfort zone?Sure how do you deal with that?Obviously, there's theultimate of like, OK,this isn't a good fit, but whenyou're in the middle of that,yeah, right, right?How do you encouragesomebody without makingit too much friction?That's a very good question.I think.So I'm trying to I'm tryingto think of an example.And let's say, OK, I'mlooking for someoneto do a colorfulillustration and let's sayI'm scrolling through Instagramand I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,I'm like, oh, OK, this isinteresting, this person.They clearly know how to draw.They can illustrate really well.I like, let's sayI need like a dog.I'm like, oh, theyknow how to draw.Like, this is cool.OK, interesting.But most of their worklooks like tattoo artwork.So in my mind, I'm like tryingto bridge the gap, Mike.Maybe they could do it.I don't know.Or you see something inthere that you're like, oh,they did one thing thatkind of looked like it,but the rest of their worklooks like something else.So there's that kind of likevoice in the back of your headwhere you're like, maybethey can't, but I'm not sure.I think it's importantto listen to that.And where I wouldstart is if youhave a gut feeling or a slightreservation or something.Bring it up early on.And I think that'sthe point at which Iwould say I'd reach out to themand say, hey, love your work.Have a project.And it's about a colorfuldog illustration.You know, I see youlike to draw dogs,but you know your work leansa little more like this.Is this something you'dbe interested in doing,or is this totallyunappealing to you?You know, like sort of.Let them say no, you know,make it easy for them to say,I'm not comfortable doing thator that's not really what I do.So that might be like onestep to help kind of like workout any friction up front.And I feel I feellike, you know,emails are kindof easy to ignore.So a phone call canreally help if it'slike, hey, you know, youhave time for a quick call itwhen I talk to youabout a project.So you could say that andyou could say, hey, look,I really looks like youlove to do tattoo work,and it's beautiful.And I know theproject I'm talkingabout doing isn'texactly that, but that'swhat I'm looking for.Do you be interested in that?You know, here's howmuch I can pay youbecause they might be like.All right, yeah, it's notlike creatively my thing,but I'm going to takethe job, you know?But I think working upfront will be really helpfulbecause, you know, people,people will kind of push backfor a variety of reasons.It might be because they justtotally disagree with you.And it's an ego thing.Or it might bebecause they don'tknow how to do whatyou're asking foror they're notcomfortable doing it.Or it might be a jerk to you.I don't know.There's a lot of reasonsthey might do that,but I think, you know,listening to your gut,if you have a reservation,just talk to them first.Feel them out.You know, I very rarelywill work with someone brandnew if I've never metthem, never talked to them,and no one I know knows them.You know, I'll at least havea quick phone call with them,you know, or a videocall or something.And just figure out,like, is this a good fit?Do I want to work with you?You know?Do I want to do I wantto be in the same roomor work on the sameproject with you?So that's kind oflike, you know, youcan figure out redflag number oneor are they going to bea good partner for me?And you can juststate the obvious,I know this doesn'tlook like what you do.That's why I wanted to ask.I'm looking for this.Would you would yoube interested in that?Is that cool somethingthat might, might help?And then when you're let'ssay you're too far in,you know, and they'repushing back and you're like,oh, I really need itto be more colorful.And they're like, oh, youknow, whatever they say.I think you can belike, you can sort ofhit like time outbutton and justI'm trying to think ofthe best way to phraseit's like you want toaddress the problem,but you don't want to.Piss them off further,so to speak, you know,so I think what I might doif it's really uncomfortable,you know, I mightsay something like.Is everything OK likethat is what's going on,you know, like make it, don'tmake it about the work anymore.Make it about themand their feelings.Because if you knowChris talks about thisall the time with clients, Ithink it's the raging bull,right?It's like someonecomes in, I'll po'd.You'd be like,OK, you know what?What's what's going on here?And just kind of likedefuse the situationand then they might catchthemselves and be like.OK, so I just really wishit would be like this,you know, and then youcan say, you know, me too,I think I lovewhat you did, but Ithink the clients just lookingfor this other thing, you know,maybe that's how to make thebest of that kind of situation.So you hear them outdiffuse and you can kind ofbecome an ally at that point.The worst thing youcan do is be like, no,it needs to be this, dothis, you know, because like,it's like, Oh my god,OK, no, it's not.Well, then you get intosubjective territory too,and they can start going.But you know, andyeah, just right.Yeah, I think using Yeah.Think of them likea client, too.So it's like startthrowing subjective terms.You can be like, well,you know, whimsical meansa lot of things.In this case.What I'm hearing the clientsay is this if that helps.