This might sound counter-intuitive, but freedom is one of the greatest restraints that you can impose on a graphic designer. Guidelines are a must for any big design project. Consistency is crucial to any brand.
Yes, we as designers are here to help you build your brand, but it’s still your brand. You know it better than we do, so you need to help tell its story.
When a designer has too much creative freedom, it becomes that much harder to make simple decisions.
Choices on colors, fonts, and imagery become much more daunting when there’s an entire universe of options. Big brands have style guides that keep their communication efforts connected. What colors are allowed? How should the logo be positioned?
The less time a designer has to spend figuring out which elements need to be used, the more efficiently they can focus on putting out a good product. If the designer knows they have to use the font Proxima Nova to keep brand consistency, then they can spend less time thumbing through the other 1,257 fonts on their hard drive and more time on using Proxima Nova well.
But some designers have been bred to believe that their way is the only way, and that they need complete and utter freedom in order to make a good product. So how do you get out of the mindset that you can’t work without that freedom?
By not being afraid of the “box.”
Not everything has to be “outside of the box.” Guidelines shouldn’t limit you. Don’t think of them as restrictions, but rather as criteria; criteria that help control the brand. And when you have control of the brand, you have control of the message. You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint or a foundation; you need good groundwork for a design to flourish as well.
As for the client, don’t be coy about standing up for your brand. However, understand that the designer is a professional, too. There’s a fine line between advising and overbearing. Making sure that your designer has access to and uses your brands logo, fonts and style guide is great. Micromanaging them isn’t. No one likes having someone over their shoulder while they work, and great designs don’t often happen in one sitting. Once you’ve given them the guidelines and expectations, you need to give them the room to run.
