Creative Collaborations Made Easy

I’m proud to say that feedback I receive frequently describes my process as easy, efficient, and with a clear return on investment.

Renowned designer Bonnie Siegler outlines collaborative best practices her thoughts in her book Dear Client and at Adobe MAX.

This abridged version provided here contains the principles I feel are most important - please do give it a watch. They give context to the five recommendations below.

TONS of useful, concise insights here - and hilarious stock photos. [Link to longer version]

The Big Five Guidelines

While the guidelines below aren’t written in stone, they’re industry best practices and common factors in my long history of successful project collaborations across various industries, project types, budgets, and timelines.

1- Communication

While video calls are great for introductions, I conduct project collaboration via email or other written tools for clarity, accuracy, and inclusivity, allowing for partnerships unhindered by time zones, scheduling conflicts, or connectivity glitches.

2- Feedback

Feedback aligned with project goals ('make it feel friendlier to the audience') rather than proposing specific solutions ('make it yellow') empowers clients to steer the project in the right direction and allows designers to implement solutions the client might not be aware of.

3- Timing

While I typically respond to emails within 24 hours, design changes needed within 24 hours aren’t always feasible and may incur rush charges.   

4- Decisions

Designers prefer working with a single point of contact entrusted by others to lead the project and call the shots. Input from a well-intentioned group inadvertently causes uncertainty and delays, often leading to cobbled-together, unsatisfying results.  Here’s what that looks like. (Brace yourself) :)

5- Transparency

Graphic design involves tailoring visuals to meet a need, and to do that most effectively, I’m always open to chatting about:

  • Budget or time constraints, such as billing per hour or project, payment plans, and/or deliverables that can be completed quickly with more than one end goal in mind. With rare exceptions, budgets and timeframes that people assume are too low are often very manageable - I just need to know the parameters to maximize the time and resources.

  • Additional services like proofreading, content writing, social media strategy, SEO, and video production. I don’t pretend to do it all myself and work with fantastic freelancers in these areas!

  • Editability, such as deliverables in PowerPoint or InDesign templates. While clients frequently end up fully delegating projects to me they’d intended to update themselves, I understand the desire to keep the options open and will be transparent with the pros and cons!