The Ultimate Client Checklist: How to be Ready for Your Graphic Design Consultation

Meeting with a graphic designer as a business owner is a vital step in developing your brand’s visual identity. Knowing how to communicate your vision to a graphic designer is essential. Here’s a checklist to ensure that you’re well-prepared:

Part 1 of 3

01 Have Set Goals to Give to your Graphic Designer.

Having set goals will make your meeting with your graphic designer go faster and help you stay on track. It is ok if you end up going on a tangent but this helps you have an idea of what you want. It will make it so that neither of you are wasting each others’ time. For that reason these are great items to have ready to go.

Here are some great ideas to have as goals:

• Clearly outline what you want to attain (e.g., logo design, branding materials, website, banners, flyers or other items).
• Know your audience- describe who you’re looking to reach with your visuals.

02 Giving Information on your Company to your Graphic Designer is Key.

Having information about your company will help your graphic designer immensely. This can also help them see what your goals are from the first part. It will also help them to see what style you may like.

Here are the items that will help your graphic designer to know about your company better:

• Company details: share details about your business, including its mission, values, and unique selling points.
• Current designs: If applicable, show your existing design materials to give context on what’s already in done and what needs to change.

03 Research & Ideation

Doing your research into the current market will help you know your competition and as a result gain an advantage above them. All things considered this is a step that you definitely do not want to skip. However if you are overwhelmed by just the thought of this you can hire a virtual assistant that specializes in part of this. It would be more likely that they would gather intel on your competitors to show you their designs.

Here are some things your graphic designer will ask you for:

• Competitor research: bring examples of your competitors’ branding and design.
• Design ideas: gather examples of designs you like and dislike, specifying what elements you admire or want to stay away from.

My next blog will touch on THREE more checklist items to bring to your graphic design consultation meet. At this point you should have a great start on gathering information for your graphic design consultation meeting. At the end of this three part series I will have a pdf that you can get for free.

If you are ready to get started with your company’s goals I can help visit my contact page. If you want to know more about me click here.