Things to avoid in communication with designers and SM managers

If you don’t want to annoy your designer or social media manager, try not to do any of the things we’re going to write about in this blog post. Our colleagues, engaged in one of these two professions in our agency, do not react well when someone sends them a logo or photos in low resolution, if they receive a vague brief or when they are told the post should be more entertaining.

And these are not the only challenges we face every day. We have already written about 4 sentences the client should avoid saying to marketers and we tried to explain why we do not like to hear them. If you are one of these 5 types of clients marketing agencies cooperate with, then you are surely making the cooperation more difficult and insufficiently efficient. It’s certainly not good for your brand, and we’re sure it’s not what you want for it.

And now, if you’re wondering how agencies and clients can find common ground, rest assured it’s not that complicated. Before you start cooperation, clearly define and set the goals you want to achieve and try to be open in communication with agency employees. Then, for sure, you will realize the benefits of cooperation with a full-service marketing agency, such as Titan design.

Now let’s see what could possibly be annoying to a graphic designer.

Ways to easily irritate the designer

If your company needs a designer to create logos, brochures, catalogs or any other kind of advertising material, it is important to establish a good cooperation with the designer. And the basis of any successful cooperation is knowing what our collaborator does not like. Let’s get to know the 5 things that annoy graphic designers the most:

1. Could that logo be bigger? – this is the most annoying sentence a client can say to a designer. The most important thing to understand is the following: the logo is only one small part of the overall visual and it should not be the dominant element in it.
2. Come on, please, finish it for me as soon as possible. Well, it’s only five minutes for you. – it’s very important to understand that what seems like a five-minute job to you, doesn’t have to be like that in reality. In addition, designers have their own deadlines and tasks to complete, and any extra task spoils their schedule. And one more thing, you cannot push or rush creativity, so be understanding and plan ahead.
3. Can it be played up a bit, it doesn’t have a WOW effect? – such instructions do not mean much to the designer, so it is very important to learn to give clear and precise feedback. When you tell someone that something doesn’t work without further explanation of what exactly and how it could be improved, that’s not feedback, but unfounded criticism.
4. No, no, let’s fix just one more thing… – only this and that and countless more revisions… The client cannot expect an unlimited number of repairs of one visual, first of all because that means a lot of work, which it can only count as creating a completely new visual or logo. Unnecessary waste of time, creative energy and resources of the agency cannot be acceptable. Put yourself in their position and think whether you would accept the same conditions.
5. I have sent you those pictures in a Word document but you can also download them from the site. – when you send us pictures in Word, plus treat that document as a photo album, it’s an extra annoying and stressful thng for us. Also, downloading photos from the site could cause problems, again due to the resolution, because it is impossible to work in programs for building visuals and logos, with poor quality photos.

What could possibly be annoying to SM managers?

When someone works as a Social Media Manager their job can be quite stressful. Sometimes it takes hours and hours of overtime work on projects. And sometimes it’s just too tiring to be the online face of a big brand with all the tasks that go with it. But in addition to all that, this job can be very fun, fulfilling for the one who does it and brings many beautiful moments. Regardless of whether the SM manager is having a good or bad day at work, some little things can be seriously annoying.

1. Hey, you’re our SM manager, right? Look, I have a great video, which will definitely be a hit, it will be viral in a second. – sentences like this could annoy SM managers quite a bit, because they work on strategies and plans for publishing content for months. What the client considers to be a viral video (5 minutes of the CEO’s speech at the opening of the factory) usually turns out not to be and does not fit into the existing strategy at all.
2. Don’t worry, if something seems important to us during the conference, we’ll tweet it ourselves. – again, a big NO. SMM has been thinking about that conference and tweeting plan for months and knows exactly what to write and what fits with the company’s annual strategy and goals. Anyone who thinks – oh, it’s just one tweet – should know that tweeting anything and tweeting effective messages that hit the vibe of the target audience is not the same. All this applies to Instagram as well.
3. Let’s respect that a little bit every day, everything organically, so we’ll see. – let’s emphasize right away this approach won’t work. When you have an SMM he/she will explain to you that success requires a certain budget. Therefore, decide on time the quantities that SMM proposes in accordance with the strategy and expect clear and measurable results.

Titan Design team is always there for you for top notch results and visuals

We hope you had fun reading our blog post about sentences that annoy our (and probably all) designers and SM managers in the world. If so, be sure to share this text with your colleagues and friends who have their own small or large business and are slowly entering into cooperation with marketing agencies.

It’s not that SM managers and designers complain all the time, they really enjoy their work and give 100% of their creative energy at work. As for our team, no matter what brief they get and how tight the deadlines are, they always do their best and manage to create the best websites, logos and responses to just about every social media comment. If you are interested in how the Titan design team works, be sure to take a look at our portfolio and contact us so we can start cooperation.

3. Mozganje

Nakon što smo prošli uvodne faze (brif i istraživanje) sada možemo preći na fazu osmišljavanja, razmišljanja i planiranja izgleda budućeg logoa. Prvo je važno popisati sve ključne reči do kojih smo došli u razgovoru sa klijentom i kroz proces istraživanja. Ove reči treba da predstavljaju firmu u punom svetlu i zato su nam važne.

Sledeći korak, u ovoj fazi, je pronalaženje načina da se te reči predstave kroz vizuelizaciju i da se napravi neka vrsta ‘mape inspiracije’, koja će služiti da se fokus održi na najvažnijim elementima i ključnim rečima.

Najvažnije pitanje, koje sebi postavljamo u ovoj fazi, je – da li logo klijenta zahteva prikazivanje kroz simbol, grafički element ili jednostavno tipografsko rešenje imena. Ako je ime firme kratko i pamtljivo, u najvećem broju slučajeva opredelićemo se za upečatljivo tipografsko rešenje, dok ukoliko je ime nešto manje pamtljivo – tada ćemo pre ići na zanimljiv grafički element, koji će podići izgled logoa na viši nivo.

4. Skiciranje

Konačno dolazimo do onog dela, gde će kreativnost doći do izražaja i gde će sve ideje biti prenete iz glave na papir ili direktno na računar. Dok se skicira logo, ključna stvar je naći vezu između ideje i forme u kojoj će logo biti predstavljen.

Neki dizajneri vole da prve skice nekog logoa naprave na papiru, dok se drugi odlučuju da to urade direktno u programima za kreiranje logoa. Naravno, u ovome svemu je najvažniji krajnji ishod a metode za dolazak do njega mogu biti različite ili jednostavno ‘šta kod koga radi’.

Ovo je konačno faza u kojoj umetnost sreće nauku i istraživanje. Sve ono što je dizajner godinama učio i istraživao, skupljao inspiraciju – sada može primeniti na izradu skice, čime logo poprima svoje prve obrise.

Ova faza može oduzeti dosta vremena, jer je kreativna, zahteva puno koncentracije i svaki dizajner će vam reći da se njoj najviše treba posvetiti zato što je u osnovi svega IDEJA. Od nje polazimo i kada dođemo do ideje, koju ćemo dalje razviti, sve je mnogo lakše i dalje faze idu mnogo lakše.

Stigli smo na pola puta i želimo da ovde zastanemo, a o sledećim fazama možete da čitate u narednom blog postu.

Ukoliko vam je ovaj tekst bio koristan, prosledite ga prijateljima i kolegama a ako vam je potreban dizajn logoa, pišite nam.