If you are looking to perfect your graphic design process, then there are 5 steps that you will need to help you create a smooth environment and to encourage your design team to give you better designs.

Creative Brief

The most important thing that you can do is to present an extensive Creative Brief to your design team before they start on your project. The brief will set the tone for your project and will also contain all the important basic information that needs to be included. This information includes the company details, Brand guidelines, target audience, timeline expectations and milestones, budget, Viewers’ intended reaction, and inspiration photos of similar work. This will help give the design team guidance and it will help set up the correct expectations.

Graphic Design Research

Depending on the project the design team you are working with will have varying levels of knowledge on the market competition, the target audience, and the way that your target audience engages with the product. The design team must take some time to research all of these and to apply their findings to the designs. This will help them create a more effective design product.

Brainstorm

Based on the brief and the market research that you have conducted the design team will need to brainstorm ideas for the project. Based on their brainstorming session they can come back with 3-5 ideas. Together you can decide which of these ideas best suit the project so that they can begin working on the project in full force.

Review At The 10/50/99 Stage

During your brief, you will need to create milestones for the design team to follow. These milestones will also act as away for you to give feedback on the process made so far. Most commonly, a 10/50/99feedback process is used for design work, this method is great as it defines what type of feedback you should provide at each stage of the design process.

• 10% done — At this stage the design team can provide you with an outline that you can give feedback on.
• 50% done — Core components will be completed. This is the moment to provide feedback on whether you think the vision you originally discussed is coming through in the design.
• 99% done — Final feedback and alterations on colors, fonts, or any other design elements that need tweaking.

Present The Final Product

The final part is the moment that all of this work has been leading up to. Once the design is complete you will receive all of the final files from the design team. During this stage, you may also need to handle any remaining invoicing and you can ask for feedback on the design process from the design team you collaborated with. Over time this will allow you to perfect your design process and streamline it as much as possible. If you need help managing a design team or don’t know how to structure a deign process, get in touch with the experts at Mad Creative Beanstalk to get your graphic design needs sorted out here.