Deciding to work with a brand and website designer for your business is a BIG deal! It’s a huge step for your business and it’s one of those investments that will keep serving you for years to come. 

Your brand as a whole is the overarching entity that people recognize and identify you with – and it’s not a tangible product or service. 

Instead, it’s a mixture of visuals and feelings working together to create an experience with every touchpoint of your business to impact the perception that people have of you and your business.

This means that your brand is NOT just your logo, color palette and fonts – even though all of those things play an important role.

Your brand IS a an all-encompassing combination of:

• what you stand for and why
• the words, phrases and tone of voice you use
• how people feel when they interact with you, your team, your website and even your social presence 
• all design elements (and the strategy and deeper meaning behind them)

Sometimes people find that creating a brand and website that incorporates strategic design is hard to do on their own, so it’s very common to outsource this piece of your business. 

But just because you outsource, that doesn't mean that you aren’t a major part of the process!

Oftentimes as a business owner, you know what you want your brand and website to look and feel like, but you might have trouble bringing it to life. This is where a brand and website designer comes into play.

Together, you can work to bring to life the picture that’s in your head in a way that your audience immediately feels drawn and connected to.

As a client, there is a way to work with your brand and website designer to make this happen effectively and one of the best ways this happens is through the feedback that you deliver throughout the entire process.

In this blog post, you’ll learn effective ways to work with your brand and website designer to get the result that you’re really hoping for AND you’ll learn how to provide effective feedback so that the process goes smoothly from start to finish.

Effective Ways to Work With Your Brand and Website Designer

As mentioned, it’s very common for you as the business owner to have a solid idea of what you want your brand and website to look and feel like, so you call on a designer to bring your dreams to life!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sent over proofs to clients just for them to come back with phrases like, “this doesn't’ feel like me” or “can we jazz this up a bit?”

Again, I understand you may not know how to fully articulate what you want, but being as specific as possible will help your designer make changes more effectively. 

Instead of saying, “this isn’t my style,” call out what specifically doesn’t feel right to you and describe what would or instead of saying, “make it pop,” describe what you want a certain section to look or feel like and be as descriptive as possible.

Because of this, it can be very easy to expect the designer to do exactly what you want and while it’s important for a designer to listen to your wants, it’s also important to remember that they are the professional. 

Sometimes what you want for your brand and website may not be the most strategic option to generate results.

This is something you want to keep in mind, which is why my first tip is to TRUST that your designer has your best interest at heart and second, LISTEN to their explanation of work before giving feedback, asking questions or requesting changes.

As a brand and website designer, it’s my job to gather as much information before the project begins in order to fully understand your desires and hopefully avoid any unnecessary or drastic design changes after the initial proofs.

Without this communication from the very beginning, it's easy for both of us to be blindsided and that’s definitely something you want to avoid. With this mind, my third tip is to speak openly with your designer and be up front with your thoughts in a respectful way.

I personally believe that creativity is a collaboration and I always want the design process to feel that way! Both you and your designer can have great ideas and there can be a place for most of them in your project.

Just like you have expertise and experience in your field, your designer does too, so always go into a design relationship knowing it will be a collaborative effort.

Through collaboration, you can ensure that all of the thoughts and ideas shared are aligned throughout the entire project and it gives your designer the chance to gain more clarity and ask good questions if things are unclear.

All of these things bring me to the feedback piece of the process. At the end of the day, providing effective feedback throughout your brand and design project allows your designer to do their best work. 

Without effective feedback, it’s hard for them to know if they’re achieving what you are envisioning. There’s a right and a wrong way to provide feedback to your designer, so if you want to make the most of your design project, I encourage you to follow these guidelines!

How To Provide Effective Feedback To Your Brand and Website Designer

I’ll preface this section by saying: I understand that not everyone is a designer by trade, so knowing how to communicate what you really want can be difficult – even if you have the perfect image in your mind.

With that, there are a few ways to be more effective when providing feedback, so your designer can make changes in a timely manner and quickly achieve what you’re hoping for. 

Before we get into each of those specifically, I want you to remember: you can save yourself from having to give a ton of feedback when you collaborate with your designer before the project proof is sent. 

Being open and honest with your designer about what you’re looking for, providing examples of what you are hoping for and giving as many details as possible before your project begins can allow your designer to achieve what you want even faster! This puts the designer and the client on the same page and the outcome will be more positive for everyone.

With that in mind, when feedback is necessary, remember to apply these tips:

KEEP ALL FEEDBACK IN ONE PLACE

There’s a good chance your designer has systems and processes in place for you to submit feedback when asked and it’s important for you as a client to honor their processes to ensure that all feedback is kept in one place. 

Personally, I love to use Asana and its setup so that clients can provide the feedback needed when necessary. 

If you try to send feedback via email, text, Slack or even Instagram DM’s, it’s very easy for things to get complicated and confusing for your designer, so make sure that you stick to the systems they’ve worked hard to set up so that the project can run smoothly.

Start with the Positives

If a designer is doing their job, they have prepared well enough to have made several good design choices. Affirm your thankfulness in their efforts for the project work as a whole by verbalizing those things.

Some examples might be:

• Thank you so much for your time and the work you invested in this.
• I really appreciate how you made this {Insert design decision} based on what we discussed earlier.
• I believe we are going in the right direction. I'd like to chat more about {insert design decision}.

Give Visual or Audible Feedback

Since it can be difficult to explain what you want from a design perspective, it can be beneficial to provide feedback visually or audibly.

Expert brand designers often do initial proof reveals in-person or zoom call so they can get real time feedback. It's so helpful for your designer to read social cues and really listen to initial gut reactions to the concepts.

Additionally, feedback on remaining rounds of revisions can be done through proofing audible remarks via proofing or project management software. Tools like this can make it easier for you to explain what you do or don’t like about your design proofs and allows your designer to make more effective changes right away.

Keep Your Ideal Client in Mind

As a business owner, it's normal for your brand and website to feel really personal and close to your heart, making it easy to forget who you’re really doing this for.

While YOU of course want to love your brand and website design, the most important thing is that your ideal client connects to it.

Having a designer alongside you through this process can help you make sure that your CLIENT will connect, relate and align with the end product. When giving feedback, always keep your ideal client in mind and focus on THEIR experience!

Provide Examples and Offer Specific Solutions

Oftentimes, the best thing you can do when providing feedback to your designer is to provide examples or offer other solutions, instead of simply saying, “I don’t like this.”

Remember, this is a collaborative team effort and even though your designer is the professional, they value your support and will appreciate the extra direction.

If you've seen designs or elements that you like, share those examples with the designer so they can better understand your aesthetic preferences. Again, this would ideally be done before  your project kickoff to avoid any drastic changes!

Additionally, instead of just pointing out problems, try to suggest potential solutions so your designer has a new starting point and understands your vision.

RESPECTFULNESS GOES A LONG WAY

Lastly, and most importantly, be respectful! While it’s true that your designer is an expert in their field, that doesn’t mean that they’ll always get it right. 

Ask questions about a design, versus making judgements.  For example, let's say you don't love the color choices on a design.

You could ask a question first:

"Can you tell me more about the color palette choice you made on the design?"

Then pause for the designer to explain.

If you are still unsure about the design choice, tell them the mood it puts you in. Example: "The color choices feel a bit dark to me. Could I see a version of this lightened up a bit or maybe with some cheerier colors?"

There’s a lot of effort that goes into a brand and website design and providing feedback in a respectful and constructive manner will keep the working relationship positive and allow you to receive the outcome that you really desire!

And there ya have it – a client’s guide to providing effective feedback for brand and website design!

Looking for a Brand and Web Designer?



If you’re looking for a designer to link arms with for one of the most important projects for your business, I’d love to meet you.

As a brand and website designer, I help people like you convert lookers into customers through strategic design!

CLICK HERE to connect to see if working together would be a good fit. 

Your designer friend always,