The Benefits of Working with a Graphic Designer at the Start of a Project

To produce something truly impactful with your brand, it’s important for all the players to work together. Some might call it synchronicity, and others might simply attribute it to healthy professional collaboration. Regardless of what you’re trying to accomplish, the working relationships between members of your team are crucial.

If you’re a purpose-driven business, you might be looking closely at your internal and external resources and wondering how to accelerate or polish your brand. A skilled graphic designer has many benefits and can deliver impressive results, but it’s vital that this individual feels at home as part of the larger team.

If you’ve ever wondered how to hire and work alongside a graphic designer at the start of a new branding or marketing project, this post is for you.

Contributions and benefits of a quality graphic designer

Skilled graphic designers bring plenty of skills, talents, and resources to the table–some of which you may not even realize you need until you see them in action. 

You can rely on a graphic designer for insight related to:

• Colors and visual appeal
• Overall aesthetic of your brand or website
• Specific areas of expertise such as typography and color theory
• User experience optimization
• Customer engagement and response
  

The contributions of a graphic designer are important from the very beginning of your next project. Why? Because when you involve a designer too late in the process, you may have already invested too much time, energy, and resources going in one direction that wasn’t as suitable or well-designed as it could be.

Trust us—a talented graphic designer can spare you plenty of long and frustrating brainstorming sessions that lead to nowhere! 

Collaborating through creative thinking

A good graphic designer (or graphic design team) can bring a new level of collaborative, creative thinking to your organization’s work culture. As a result, it’s important that they’re given a proper place at the table.

Try to remove as many roadblocks as possible so that your graphic designer has creative freedom to work and thrive. While clients can (and should) provide guidelines to follow, it’s important to make room for your designer’s artistic background, training, and expertise.

By delegating these tasks, you can make sure that the other members of your team are able to focus on specific assignments that are critical to the success, dreams, and goals of your organization as a whole.

Why is working in silos a bad idea? 

Too often, we witness teams and companies that work in silos. This simply means that individual staff members or departments are cut off from each other, with no freedom or space to collaborate. This can be detrimental for several reasons.

• Less space to implement creative brainstorming
• Inability to access information that matters for the success of a project
• Animosity between teams and individuals
• Workplace bottlenecks that result in wasted time, resources, and budget

What happens when teams work in silos? 

When teams start to work in silos, it’s easy to spot the frustration and judgment that usually creep in. Without good communication, team members are never able to fully trust, support, and advocate for one another.

The result is confusion, frustration, and stress. Teams that only operate in silos rarely see the same success as those that have a shared, common vision of where they want to go.

If you’ve placed your graphic designer or design team in a silo, bring them back into the fold and remove any existing barriers as quickly as possible. To put it lightly—your brand’s entire image relies on it.

How do you overcome working in silos?

A siloed work environment is much more difficult to fix if the culture has been in place for a long time. Unfortunately, old habits die hard, even when the results aren’t what they should be.

At the same time, once your organization sees the benefits of removing those silos, the results typically speak for themselves. You can eliminate silos between your internal team members and others (such as hired independent graphic designers) by adhering to the following best practices.

• Include key individuals, such as graphic designers, from the very start of a new work project. This ensures that everyone is in the loop from the initial vision going forward. Every responsible party has the information they need to excel.
  
  
• Set a cultural standard. You don’t have to tolerate siloed departments unless you want to, and it’s better that every player understands this expectation from the start.
  
  
• Be willing to move in a new direction. Too often, businesses and organizations get stuck on old habits and processes. Innovation is a key ingredient to moving forward and developing better working relationships.

Create a culture of inclusivity for designers and employees

As a cause-driven enterprise, it’s important to practice what you preach. This means that your internal and contracted team members should be welcome to participate in the larger vision of your organization. 

A culture of inclusivity implies that everyone has room to grow, share, and produce worthwhile contributions to the team at large. Of course, this should take place without the threat of discrimination, judgment, or fear.

Remember—the right graphic designer can help you create something truly unique, inspirational, and future-forward. When you translate these values into the way that you connect and relate to those you work with, the results are often dramatic (for the better).

How to avoid major hurdles with a graphic designer

There are numerous graphic designer benefits and it’s no secret that we believe in the amazing abilities of strong graphic design, but we also recognize that not every designer is the perfect fit for each project. 

If you’re in charge of making a hiring decision, here’s how you can avoid major red flags with a new designer.

• Make sure that the designer’s speciality is in alignment with the project
• Be clear on expectations about things like deadlines, milestones, and payment
• Ask for testimonials, references, and previous work samples
• Encourage the designer to meet and interact with other members of the team to ensure the best fit (before the job starts)
• Be transparent and honest about any questions and qualifications required for the job (don’t surprise a new hire with unexpected tasks or responsibilities)
  

Each hiring opportunity also provides the incredible potential to learn, grow, and advance your organization’s mission. 

Let Acton Circle bridge the gap

At Acton Circle, we often work with businesses that are ready to achieve the next level of success but aren’t yet ready for their own in-house design team. We know that the need for strong design skills is real, and we’re here to (happily) help you accomplish the mission.

To learn more about our design agency for purpose-driven businesses, reach out today for a free chat.