Before I begin, I want to thank Mari Adkins and Janice Thomason for taking the time to comment on the last entry. I lacked on replying to your comments, but know that I agree with both of you and will be better responding in the future. Now on with the latest entry.
I’ve been doing this for a long time. Long enough where early on, to make a client happy, I neglected to mention that a graphic/web designer is not hired to be a professional writer/editor. Granted we work with your company’s content, but what we work with, mainly, is the space that the content needs to fit into.
Often enough, people seeking out a designer, regardless of the field, are looking for someone they can pass the buck of their project to. What they fail to realize is someone taking on the full project management, content created, design and implementation will be… wait for it…a firm or agency. What you really need, and I can hear the cries of your budget now, is team of people working on the whole of the project. You do not want the kid you just hired who learned HTML and some flash. You do not want the guy who has a start up doing design, print or web. These people are not, and I will repeat this often, not the people who should be carrying the full weight of the fact that you either can’t spell OR can’t clearly define in text what it is you want them to define visually.
A designer is just that…a designer. You wouldn’t ask your plumber to check your electrical wiring. You wouldn’t ask your electrician to align your spine. The cashier at your local fast food joint doesn’t make your burger.
The responsibility of making sure that the content of your web/print piece is yours. That way, even though it may delay your deadline, helps you know that if the piece launches incorrectly…it’s their responsibility to fix it. If you’re whatever is launched with wrong content that is the result of a sign off that bares your signature…the responsibility for it being wrong ends up falling squarely in your lap. Sure you’re going to be pissed at the designer, but they will pull out your sign off, point out where you failed to review it fully and remind you that you signed off on it. You may never work with them again, but they aren’t out the money of paying for a mistake you allowed them to make. You will be out the money to get it redone by them or someone else, the new printing costs and the time for all of this, because you gave the responsibility of making sure your information is correct…to someone else.
So let’s review, a copy writer writes content, a project manager makes sure the project meets its projected milestones, a print graphic designer creates work on paper, a web designer creates work in digital and a business owner is responsible for hiring the people for the job. Can each of these people be capable of doing the other persons job? Yes, but will it be done effectively across the board? No one can know for sure.
There’s an old saying, “it takes a village to raise a child”. In that regard, it takes a team to fully realize a project you don’t have the time to work on yourself. Whether it’s an agency, a firm, a studio or a team of people your designer suggests; no project should every fully fall on the shoulders of just one industry worker.
Since I’ve gone, briefly, into what a designer doesn’t do; I’d love to hear what your expectations of a designer, print or web, has been in the past. Do you view them as the guru of all things because their end result is something that, hopefully, brings you a ROI? Have you expected them to know the difference between a conjunction and participle? Or did you supply them the things they needed and get out of the way and let them design something?
Stumble it!
About the Author: Anything but conventional, the owner of Wicked Java Design Studio, Mike Dougherty shares his thoughts on marketing and design in his blog series with his usual direct, candid and irreverent style. Mike pulls no punches in explaining the marketing and design world. In between pots of coffee, Mike manages to work on a wide range of projects, talk all things geek and find something out of every day to laugh at. Thrown in are his views on the impact of viral marketing, the drawbacks of hiring cheaply, the unwritten rules of design and much more.
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