Quality is in the details…
A List Apart published a great article this week that details why aesthetics are important. I think most graphic designers have been misunderstood for so long that we’ve become, to some degree, insecure about what we do. Too many well-meaning friends, family, or clients have used phrases like “so, you make things pretty”. We’ve focused on the business aspect of our industry and begun to commonly use words and acronyms that are good in a corporate setting — if you focus on the UI for a better UX, you’ll see more ROI. I think in a lot of ways we’ve tried to minimize what makes us different. I’m not sure I’d go so far to call designers artists, but we definitely think differently — and we should revel in that.
The above article is certainly worth reading, but I’m going to assume that if you’re looking for a designer, at some level you believe in the power of aesthetics.
To use wine as a metaphor: wine has a vast range of quality — even if you don’t understand about color, swirl, smell, taste, and savour, you can tell the difference between a $60 bottle and something that should have been served with a paper bag around it. Design can be a lot like that. Your audience may not know why they like your design better, or your competitor’s design better, but they’ll gravitate toward one or the other. To be fair, there’s a lot more to a website or brochure than the design: content is a big part, and of course the product or service is a huge factor, but all things being equal: quality design has a crucial role to play.
In the print arena: if you’ve done a good design, for the most part, it will play out well with your audience. However, there are few other parts to it that are much harder to see at first blush. If you’ve got a beautiful, stunning brochure at a trade show, but it’s too big to carry around and people throw it away — that’s a problem. In print, good design is tied to knowing the limitations of printing, where you can bend (or break) the rules and the norm. It’s also about knowing the strange things to watch out for, and that comes from experience. For instance, if you’re doing a package for retail, how will that look when it’s on its side? How will it look when it’s on the second shelf and doesn’t get very much light? Will the package handle shipping alright? How will it look if it’s on the shelf for a month? But for the most part, print design is a lot easier to judge. It’s tangible and nothing is hidden or overly technical*.
*Actually, printing in itself is a science, and a good printer makes a world of difference.
The web arena is a much more complex beast. It may look pretty good on your machine, a little clunky in parts maybe, but generally it works; but the same site might be completely broken for users on another platform, or another browser. The code really does matter, more than you’d ever imagine. Sloppy code is that funky aftertaste that lets you know that something is wrong, but you’re not quite sure what. A good designer should be an expert in CSS and HTML, they should follow best practices, and they should have been around the block.
Some things worth asking or knowing.
Educate yourself.
If you’re a marketing director, this is probably a part of your job anyway. You don’t have to know HTML, but you should be able to hold an intelligent conversation with someone who does. A good place to get started would be with Google’s Webmaster Central Blog. There is a lot of SEO info there, but it also will help you to start to become familiar with upcoming information. A List Apart is an incredible site, and the people published there are some of the the most brilliant designers, developers, and writers in our industry. These aren’t the only place to look, but they will get you moving.
Ask questions.
It’s not rude (well, it can be, but you can be friendly and ask questions).
If you’re talking to a freelancer, make sure they’ve worked with at least a few decent agencies. If they are an agency, ask to meet the designer you’ll be working with and see only their work.*
*It makes a big difference. Most agencies will show you their best work, which makes perfect sense, but if the designer (and/or art director/creative director) on your project isn’t featured in that portfolio review, you aren’t getting an accurate idea of the work you’ll be getting.
Find out how long (roughly) projects took.
While it’s rude to ask prices of past work (and in a lot of cases that info is confidential), the time it took and number of people on the project will give you an idea of complexity. If you’re looking at a designer’s portfolio, and you’re viewing a site that took 3 months and 6 people to build, then that’s not an appropriate comparison if you’re looking for a 50 page site that you’re wanting for under $7500.
And what role will they play?
If you’ve got a person you’re meeting with that claims to know php, javascript, AJAX, MySQL, knows all the SEO “tricks”, and is still a great designer, then they might as well be claiming to have ridden a unicorn to the meeting. I’ve worked with people that have a genius IQ, and even the smartest among them find something to focus on and be good at. The skills for graphic design are quite different than the skills for developing.
Don’t judge by price
It’s very hard to compare apples to apples when reading a quote. Be very careful not to assume that a project bid (even one based on an RFP) at $20K is going to be the same quality as one that’s $3K. If the price sounds too good to be true — it probably is. Even in the current economic situation, you will usually get what you pay for. I mention this because I’ve seen projects that were underbid be paid for and then never finished. I’ve seen people sued for “designers” using photography that they didn’t pay for. I’ve seen logos that were blatant copies.
Most of all (and the catalyst of this essay), I’ve seen websites come from supposably reputable firms that were/are at a quality which is completely unprofessional. A client goes with the cheaper web production house and the site seems ok, until they wonder why they’re not being found by Google, or why it doesn’t work on the computer/browser down the hall, or why it doesn’t even show up on an iPhone, or they try and get it updated and the new design house says it would be cheaper to just rebuild it from scratch than it would be to fix one or two pages.
So, most of all, go with your gut.
Get over the funny hair, tattoos, and flip flops and concentrate on how you feel about the people you’ll be working with. Can they do something brilliant for you? Will they be fair with their prices and time spent? Will they honor the deadlines they set? Will you trust them when they tell you (nicely) that X design is a better option than Y? You may come to places where you disagree, and all designers will relent sooner or later (well, most), but a good designer will push for what’s best for your audience, which may or may not be you. And on that note, when you’re looking at a designer’s work, keep in mind that every designer has a style. Make sure you’re not asking them to deviate from what they are good at. Pick a designer that has a style you already like.
There are a lot of great designers in the front range area, freelancer and agencies alike; you’ll find one that’s perfect for you — we just encourage you to search for the best and don’t skimp on quality.
My goal is that your work is designed to meet your market where they’re at and encourage them to move upward. Everything that leaves the door is of the highest quality we can do. Every design is unique. I don’t like templates don’t just skin wordpress or drupal apps. And I believe that your design should pay for itself — that ensures you’ll be back.
There are times (although thankfully, not many) when clients have pushed toward a design I’m not in love with, but I’ll stand by the HTML and CSS (or press-ready files) and know that I made it the cleanest I possibly could. If I don’t know something I’ll be honest about that and get back to you (or just tell you I don’t know and recommend someone who might).