You’ve got a company started. You’re well on your way towards securing your suppliers. You think it’s time to get your logo and packaging designed. Or maybe you have been in business for many years and are in need of a brand refresh. How do you find the right design firm? And when do you know you’re ready to hire them?
We receive awesome new business inquiries a lot, so we’ve learned a few things about how to engage a firm in a way that ensures a smooth and rewarding process. We’d like to share a few thoughts here and see what you think.
1. Double check that you have internal agreement on the scope of the work. Are you in need of just a logo? Or is the CEO also expecting a full package design system rolled out to the 100 SKUs? (We know that is an extreme example…) Write it down in a design brief.
2. Know your budget and what you can expect for that. If you have $2,000 for brand strategy, logo and packaging design, you don’t have enough to hire a firm. You’ll want to do some leg work to find an ambitious and talented freelancer or student. If you have $20-60k+, call us! (Again, we’re kidding…but not really.)
3. Make sure that you have all of your design files in order. Old key line files, ingredient decks, copy documents, SKU lists, photo libraries are all collected and ready to be handed over to the designers.
4. Set a design goal for your team internally. How will you know that your design is done or “good”? Because it hits this goal you’ve set. An example of an internal design goal might be: The logo design embodies the witty character of our brand, is executable across digital and print, and makes us proud to wear it on a t-shirt.
So you say you’ve got the work defined, a design brief written, a properly scaled budget, all files gathered and a design goal set, well we say “let’s get to work“.
